The Expanse #3: Abaddon's Post - [spoilers for book only up to latest tv show episode]

[Kalbear]

2 hours ago, Pony Empress Jace said:

Oh damn, you're almost certainly right.

Nice deduction work, I was WAAAAAY too high to put those clues together. I actually forgot all about the goo on the ship, did they show it last week?

They did. 

[Holy Sith!]

2 hours ago, Pony Empress Jace said:

Oh damn, you're almost certainly right.

Nice deduction work, I was WAAAAAY too high to put those clues together. I actually forgot all about the goo on the ship, did they show it last week?

They panned down to it just as they were patching up the hole put in the deck by the Promoleculinator.

[Steinman]

Podcasts:

SyFy Wire: The Churn. Official, with both Ty and Daniel (the authors) commenting on the latest episode, and frequently actors as guests too. Not overtly spoilerific, but if you're very familiar with the books you can probably glean some stuff from what they're hinting at.

Tales from the Rocinante. A single guy recapping the show and providing news. Besides his recap the episodes are mostly filled with listener feedback on each episode. Pleasant, but usually not groundbreaking stuff. At the end of some episodes he has a couple of minutes dedicated to book spoilers.

The Expansecast is usually my favourite along with The Churn, but they haven't released anything for season 3. Have been a mix of book readers and non-readers, with some very good discussion. During the latest off-season they read book 1, so maybe the non-readers are now caught up with book 2 as well. They have been good regarding spoilers before though.

Afterbuzz: The Expanse is kind of flashy, and they occasionally have actor guests, but the hosts aren't especially good. Now I mostly only listen when they have a guest.

[Alcibiades]

Thanks! I might check out The Churn. I was mostly looking for something done by fans, but I'm actually reminded of the commentaries Ronald D. Moore put out in the early battlestar galactica days. Those were actually meant to be listened to while watching the show, so you had to time the podcast with the episode to make sure they were in sync. I really enjoyed listening to those, and I think they influenced how I watch TV now.

Before I saw your post, I downloaded something called Beltalowda. I'll post whether I like it.

[mcbigski]

"It's good that you're here.  He's going to need you now more than ever..." at which point my DVR started recording Archer and The Americans and I got no more expanse tonight. (Only can do so many tasks at once)  Is there anything after that?  Seemed like a reasonable ending note.

[HokieStone]

1 hour ago, mcbigski said:

"It's good that you're here.  He's going to need you now more than ever..." at which point my DVR started recording Archer and The Americans and I got no more expanse tonight. (Only can do so many tasks at once)  Is there anything after that?  Seemed like a reasonable ending note.

You missed about 5 seconds, and there was no further dialogue.  After Errinwright said that, he turned and walked out of the room...episode over.

While the show hasn't been perfect about adhering to "real" physics, they have at least tried to be somewhat realistic...and this episode bugged me that they really messed that up.  They seem to randomly put in the "click click" to show people are wearing mag-boots, it just comes and goes.  And they made a big deal of emphasizing that with Avasarala tonight...and yet then have them just setting silverware and bowls on tables...and drinking out of regular cups.  Bah.

[mcbigski]

Thanks.  On the physics note, was Mars supposed to have 5 stealth platforms within about a half light second from earth?  Or did i misinterpet something there?  

[karaddin]

The travel times are always compressed for the sake of the viewing experience, but i imagine they were meant to be relatively close and it didn't make any difference in the grand scheme of things - the 10-15 sec delay between the first shot hitting and the last shot hitting was enough for launch. They weren't getting any warning from the rail guns firing, the clock started when it impacted.

[Corvinus85]

I think the stealth platforms were communicating with each other, and were close enough that the communication line didn't experience much delay. All the rail guns were supposed to hit their target at roughly the same time (you could hear the speaker marking hits at about 2 seconds max between them). When the 5th rail gun failed to shoot in time, the last platform had probably received a warning that the others had been attacked, and there was enough time to launch one missile. I don't recall any of this happening in the book, but it's been awhile.

Btw, loved the rail gun graphic, can't wait to see ships firing at each other with that stuff.

Also, I like that the show has given more time to Jules-Pierre, gave him another dimension to his character. 

On the mag boots, are they on all the time? When they're under thrust they technically don't need them, though it's probably good practice to have them activated in case they suddenly lose thrust. And the mugs they drink out of have caps on, but the camera seldom shows this, and it makes it look like they are drinking out of normal mugs.

[Hello World]

Doesn't the idea of destroying Mars with the Hybrid monster seem a bit far fetched? I'm no expert but if I had to guess I'd say a war between Earth and Mars would come down to nukes or lasers or some other WMD, not what seems like a really hard to kill gorilla. And if they're going to use the Ganymede children how many Hybrids can they produce?

[Martini Sigil]

the exchange between Chrisjen and Naomi ..... sooooo good.

I think that Chrisjen's flippant --if not bigoted-- opinions of belters has strengthened Naomi's resolve

[karaddin]

3 hours ago, Hello World said:

Doesn't the idea of destroying Mars with the Hybrid monster seem a bit far fetched? I'm no expert but if I had to guess I'd say a war between Earth and Mars would come down to nukes or lasers or some other WMD, not what seems like a really hard to kill gorilla. And if they're going to use the Ganymede children how many Hybrids can they produce?

I think with the way they've done it in the show the existing hybrids don't require the kids - the idea behind them is that they're allowing greater control of the protomolecule but there are only a handful of kids with this mutation, but for mindless destruction the lesser hybrids would still do the job.

[Holy Sith!]

I find the delay in firing rail gun 5 to be highly suspicious.
All of the guns were recycled after Sec. Gen. Gillis balked, so why would only one have a problem? I'm thinking that Errinwright set things up.
The Martian platform would get off a shot, millions on Earth would die, Gillis would get the blame, and Errinwright could make a power grab.

[mcbigski]

I thought it was the same gun firing 5 times?  But that whole sequence was confusing.

[karaddin]

It was a bit unclear on that point, it was 5 separate guns though - I would have expected them to fire simultaneously, but it was done sequentially for I assume TV watchability reasons and this leads to the possibility of it having been 1. I don't think a single gun could even have fired at all 5 targets from earth orbit however, 2 of them would have been in Earths shadow.

[Corvinus85]

7 hours ago, Holy Sith! said:

I find the delay in firing rail gun 5 to be highly suspicious.
All of the guns were recycled after Sec. Gen. Gillis balked, so why would only one have a problem? I'm thinking that Errinwright set things up.
The Martian platform would get off a shot, millions on Earth would die, Gillis would get the blame, and Errinwright could make a power grab.

Not all machines break down at the same time even if the use is similar. But you're probably right that Errinwright will make a play.

4 hours ago, karaddin said:

It was a bit unclear on that point, it was 5 separate guns though - I would have expected them to fire simultaneously, but it was done sequentially for I assume TV watchability reasons and this leads to the possibility of it having been 1. I don't think a single gun could even have fired at all 5 targets from earth orbit however, 2 of them would have been in Earths shadow.

I assumed they didn't fire at the same time because the distances to the platforms weren't necessarily the same (even though the graphic display kinda implied that they were). The goal was to hit the targets at the same time.

[Corvinus85]

On 4/26/2018 at 8:12 AM, Corvinus said:

Btw, loved the rail gun graphic, can't wait to see ships firing at each other with that stuff.

I mentioned this above, but as I think about it, from a realistic perspective, I am fairly certain this is wrong. Based on what we know of rail gun tech, the gun fires a non-explosive projectile at incredible speeds; the destructiveness of this projectile is from its high kinetic energy - like a meteorite hit. So when you fire a projectile in space, no matter the speed, that has no propulsion of its own, then there should not be any light streaks with it, since there is no friction. It would have a streak if you fired into the atmosphere. So a visually dazzling scene, but unrealistic. They probably compromised on this, just like they did with having sound in space. 

[boojam]

On 4/26/2018 at 5:50 AM, karaddin said:

The travel times are always compressed for the sake of the viewing experience, but i imagine they were meant to be relatively close and it didn't make any difference in the grand scheme of things - the 10-15 sec delay between the first shot hitting and the last shot hitting was enough for launch. They weren't getting any warning from the rail guns firing, the clock started when it impacted.

GoT still gets dinged about teleporting ravens! You know if Christopher Nolan did TV where time compression or disjointedness was part of the narrative no one would bat an eyelash....  

[boojam]

38 minutes ago, Corvinus said:

I mentioned this above, but as I think about it, from a realistic perspective, I am fairly certain this is wrong. Based on what we know of rail gun tech, the gun fires a non-explosive projectile at incredible speeds; the destructiveness of this projectile is from its high kinetic energy - like a meteorite hit. So when you fire a projectile in space, no matter the speed, that has no propulsion of its own, then there should not be any light streaks with it, since there is no friction. It would have a streak if you fired into the atmosphere. So a visually dazzling scene, but unrealistic. They probably compromised on this, just like they did with having sound in space. 

In 200 years one would think the technology of rail runs would be effectively  cannons that could deliver relativistic projectiles with high Lorentz factors.

[boojam]

Welp a good episode , I sort of expected Bobbie to have more words for fellow Martian Alex, I guess that comes later?

 

Say, over on Rotten Tomatoes The Expanse is listed number 6 in "MOST POPULAR TV ON RT" , not sure what that means.