It’s been a month since the finale of the first season of The Expanse aired and now we’re left with a whole year to miss the show until it returns for a second season in January 2017.
So here’s a list of the things we’ll miss most from The Expanse. In case you haven’t watched the show, you should probably start, as soon as you can!
We’ll miss the opening sequence.
Not the five seconds title card, but the one that was only shown twice, in the first and ninth episode. The sequence is actually a fast forward in time showing different changes on Earth and the colonizing of the solar system. Great music with haunting voices and the colonized solar system in one minute. Beautiful!
Mars
Now, we don’t really see Mars, except three seconds in the twice shown opening credits sequence, the closest we get to Mars is a Martian military ship, instead, we learn of Mars.
Chrisjen and Frank talk about Mars, well Frank does:
You know what I like about Mars? They dream, we gave up. They all work for a common goal to turn a lifeless rock into a garden. We paved ours.
That’s Mars, a highly ambitious community that is giving it’s best to terraform a planet and make it their home.
And even better line about Mars is said by lieutenant Lopez, who with his last breath says:
It would’ve been nice to see an ocean on Mars.
That is dedication.
Miller’s cracked holographic phone
Transparent, with voice command, durable and with good signal throughout the solar system.
They all look alike, because they are all the same, but that cracked screen, showed personality, just like the scar on Julie Mao’s face.
She didn’t want it fixed. It’s a badge of defiance, against everything she was suppose to be.
Although Miller just probably didn’t care to get a new one.
We’ll miss Shohreh Aghdashloo’s voice and Chrisjen Avasarala’s dialogues
Whether Chrisjen Avasarala is manipulating someone or being straightforward and honest, it always sounds like she has the best intentions for you in heart. Always calm and almost hypnotic Chrisjen’s voice could land you on the sun, if needed to keep the peace in the solar system.
Chrisjen Avasarala is the political genius from the United Nations who will torture, blackmail or just tell the truth and be kind to achieve her goal.
Heaven help us all if Mars and the Belt decide to share a toothbrush. Bold move, I’d give them that. The cold war is over, this is something else.
The Belter’s language
The Belters, or the people that live in the outer planets and moons, have their own language. A mixture of distorted, evolved words of Earther languages in combination with sign language, because in space “no one can hear you scream” :).
For example, the word ereluf is an obvious coin of the English word air, which means, well, air and the German word luft which also means air. This seems a bit redundant since the there’s repeating, however if you think about it, when you find yourself in a diverse ethnic community it is understandable that you will have to repeat words in different languages so everyone can understand you. This probably happened in the early stages of the colonization, when the Belter language wasn’t developed yet.
Every time we demand to be heard, they hold back our water, owkwa beltalowda, ration our air, ereluf beltalowda, until we crawl back into our holes, imbobo beltalowda, and do as we are told.
We’ll miss the Rocinante and its (not so) stellar crew
We’ll miss the friendship and mutual trust between Naomi Nagata and James Holden. We’ll miss Amos and Holden growling at each other. There’s trust and distrust and suspicion, but at the end of the day, no one got left behind. We’ll miss Alex, everybody likes him.
When Holden and Miller are brought back to the Rocinante, Alex asks “what if he is infected with that cr**?”
Holden wouldn’t do that to us!
He might not know!
He wouldn’t do THAT TO US!
We’ll miss the future, the 23rd century tech
No matter how bad the situation might seem in the series, still, look at humanity. Earth is not utterly destroyed, and humans have spread through out the planets and moons in the solar system. Average human life is 125 years and slightly better on those living on Mars. The advance in science and medicine has achieved regrowing entire limbs (not the head though) or using pretty good prosthetics at least.
The Belters have it rough though, with average life of about 70 years, scarce on food and water and even good medicine. Practically slaves in space who supply Earth and Mars with resources.
No matter who controls Ceres, our home, to them, we will always be slaves. That’s all we are to the Earthers and Dusters. They built their solar system on our backs, spilled the blood of a million of our brothers.
Amos and his bad-ass, get-things-done attitude.
Amos doesn’t wait for a needle to be stuck in him, he does it himself, he doesn’t wait for the other guy to shoot first too. He is the go-to guy in space, and you really, really need him by your side if things get rough. Amos is the opposite of Chrisjen Avasarala, he will not get into political mind games and talk, he takes action.
You say wait, so we wait, boss.
We’ll miss space (and how real it looked)
It’s been a while since we’ve had a good sci-fi space adventure on TV. In the Expanse you will find huge battle ships (MCRN Donnager) ice freighters and smaller battling ships like the Rocinante. Space stations, habitats under artificial sky domes and space stations, and, people stranded in the black vastness of space.
The most important about all of this is that it doesn’t look cheap, SyFy has opened their pockets and made sure The Expanse looks just right.
One thing we won’t miss is gravity. Growing up in low-G, does things to your body and you can never get back to the planet of your ancestors, so the Earth holding your feet close to the ground is good for you.
After watching The Expanse you’ll have a whole new appreciation for our lovely little planet. Miller, born and raised on Ceres, puts this appreciation in one question:
What does rain taste like? – Miller
I’ve never thought about it. – Holden.
Remember to share and don’t forget the Cant!