Transfer Orbit
Waking the Leviathan
The story of how James S.A. Corey’s The Expanse went from game concept to blockbuster TV series
, before Syfy debuted its adaptation of the series in December. I’m reprinting it now with some minor edits.
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Image: Alcon
It’s March 2015, and I am standing on the bridge of a starship. The crew work stations look worn, the walls are covered with warning signs, and the grated floor looks like something designed to be functional. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that I was standing on a real ship, hurtling through space. Instead, I am on the set of a new television series, a location that, until now, only existed in words on a page.
What The Expanse Learned from Game of Thrones
The Expanse launched in 2015, it was heavily sold as “
That comparison makes sense, particularly in the world of “peak TV” where it’s easier to sell a new concept as some “[x] meets [y]” combination of recognizable and marketable brand elements. Given that so much of modern television production has been defined by the search for “the next
Game of Thrones,” that comparison is an appealing one. However, it also provides an interesting lens through which to examine
The Expanse. What makes it similar to
Game of Thrones? What makes it different?
Warning: spoilers ahead for episode nine of season five of “The Expanse.”
As season five of “The Expanse” draws to a close, episode nine, “Winnipesaukee,” gives us a thrilling escape from a mansion in frozen New Hampshire, sets up Drummer’s revenge, and delivers the return of Earth’s once and future queen.
On the decks of the
Razorback, the
Rocinante, and the
Pella, opinions diverge on what Naomi’s altered distress call means. Alex suspects something’s amiss but he and Bobbie decide they should still investigate. Likewise, while Bull and Monica have reservations, James is understandably blinded by his love for Naomi and orders they press onward full-steam ahead. As the
Screenshot: Amazon Studios
I’m never going to stop talking about how good Dominique Tipper is in this show, and especially this season. Everyone in “Hard Vacuum” is facing something that seems impossible, but Naomi is struggling with the hardest, most physical manifestation of an impossible task. It’s an aching, exhausting, solo performance, and it anchors another solidly engrossing episode.
Spoilers follow!
Tipper never lets you forget that Naomi, stuck alone on the
Chetzemoka, is in incredible pain. (If you happened to Google “what would really happen to a body that spent a minute in space,” hey, we did the same thing this week.) Her situation is tenuous at best, but the strain is upped by her puffy hands and the fact that it clearly hurts her to do anything. And she’s got to figure out how to survive the stripped, rigged-to-explode ship and keep her crewmates out of danger. All while a fake taped recording cycles endlessly, asking to be passed on to James Holden
Warning: spoilers ahead for episode eight of season five of “The Expanse.”
After last week’s episode featured only a few characters and primarily focused on two storylines, “Hard Vacuum,” the eighth episode of season five of “The Expanse,” takes the other extreme. There’s a lot packed in. No location is forgotten and every major character gets screentime. With two episodes remaining in the penultimate season of this critically acclaimed sci-fi space opera, everything is
finally coming to a head.
The episode opens with a tribute to Cyn, giving us firm confirmation that Naomi’s one-time friend and mentor lost his life in a desperate attempt to stop her from exiting the airlock of the