Sunday, February 07, 2016

Sci-Fi TV Show: The Expanse

The Syfy channel has been airing a new TV series called "The Expanse" which is about a future where mankind has colonized the solar system. The solar system is split into 3 domains: Earth-&-Luna, Mars, and the Asteroid Belt. The Earth and Mars are locked in a Cold War type of struggle, and each is continually wooing/exploiting the 3rd group, the Asteroid Belt. The show is full of suspense and political intrigue, and has a gritty, hard sci-fi feel to it. Mars has been colonized by intellectuals with a passionate dream of terraforming the planet to reproduce the beauty of Earth. Meanwhile, the Earth itself has become overpopulated and faces environmental collapse. The descendants of those who migrated to the asteroid belt to work there extracting precious minerals have grown up in space and their bodies are too fragile to return to Earth and live in its gravity. Like the Replicants of Blade Runner, they feel treated like slaves and so they too have formed their own factional group to fight for their interests. The show is based on a series of novels by the same name.









Rajeev might like this one - it's got some of the noir brooding feel of Blade Runner, combined with Arthur C Clarke's style of technical realism, set against a backdrop of political intrigue and conflict.

No comments: