The Expanse Season 2

[MadAmosMalone]

I haven't read any of the books but I just got a hunch we haven't seen the last of him. Maybe someone who has read them can lemme know how wrong I am without spoiling the rest of the show.

I wondered if I was the only one who actually liked her voice. I had read elsewhere that people complained she sounded like a three pack a day smoker. As a three pack a day smoker for 32 years, I sorta take exception to that. I agree, I loved her speech in that episode. Nicely done.

Speaking of voices, am I the only one who has a problem understanding Belter "Creole?" I put that in quotes because I've lived among actual Creoles and they don't sound anything like that. Seems like I read somewhere that most Belters are descended from South Africans is the reason their accent sounds like it does.

[MissKittyFantastico]

I honestly don't have a clue what the Belters are saying most of the time; one of the people I watch Expanse with has read the books, so she fills in the blanks whenever I don't pick up the gist of it from context.

While we're on accents, funny thing happened - I forget which character, but sometime in the episodes we got through last weekend there was an Australian accent (or possibly New Zealand, they seem to get weirdly mingled on imported shows - somehow even when it's native speakers), and being in a sci-fi setting it was jarring to me when he said 'minute' instead of 'microt'.

[ORCACommander]

creole may just be an adopted term for it, bit better than saying polyglot.
even as someone who has read the first 3 books my eyes just glaze over at belter. in books at least using intelligible dialogue outside the introduction of a character is a cardinal sin.

Also ars did an interview with the linguist largely responsible for belter language
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/03/ ... -it-to-be/
the one thing did not touch upon was that belter hand gestures are largely the product of working in vac suits

[MadAmosMalone]

New episode tonight. I don't watch just a whole lot of television so if this show is at all widely promoted I haven't seen it. Last preview I recall seeing had the Martian marine (sorry I don't remember her name) testifying before a group of Earther officials.

[lsgreg]

Yeah, I actually only learned about the show from this forum. I started a thread in the old forum if any show on syfy was worth watching after they canceled Warehouse 13. The Expanse was an overwhelming response. The season 2 premiere got a lot of push, but most of this show's publicity is word of mouth.

[MadAmosMalone]

Sounds a lot like B5.

I did find this little promo on YouTube. Tonight's ep looks really good.

https://youtu.be/Q_fhxDZyTgk

"Whoever the phuck you are, stand down and let her speak." Love this chick!

[MadAmosMalone]

There was no encore of last night's ep. There was, last week, so I dunno what SyFy's policy is on this other than "inconsistent."

Good episode last night. I like how they're at least trying to address the physiological differences between Earthers and colonists.

One thing that I wanted to comment on was the Venus observation mission. After the protomolecule crashed Eros into Venus, Earth sent a manned ship to look into it. My first thought was wouldn't an unmanned probe be safer and cheaper?

[lsgreg]

Yeah, I did like this episode. It gave a little more depth to the characters and I do like the gunny sergeant, but I don't think she will be with the Martian Marines much longer.

I notice that about this future. Nobody has probes in this SyFy series. You would think it would have been safer to have probes drop the charges on Eros than send a bunch of mercenaries to do it. Most shows seem to not have probes or robots do any type of work. The only time I see them used is where they are the problem in the show or movie for that matter.

[MadAmosMalone]

I had thought, at first, we didn't see a lot of robotics because there weren't many opportunities to showcase them in the context of this series. But then, as you pointed out above, there actually are a lot of cases in the show where robots would be useful (such as planting nukes on Eros.) I know it's more exciting to show people in jeopardy doing hazardous things but isn't this show set in the 23rd Century? We should be seeing robots, cyborgs, transhumans and all kinda weirdness.

[ORCACommander]

it is a really well grounded sci fi.

no robots for eros because they take time to design and fabricate.

manned mission to observe venus because it manned with scientists where a signal delay would be unacceptable.