The Expanse Season 2 Wrapup

KingKobra

Just wanted to say I enjoyed the podcast for the season 2 wrapup of The Expanse. Good SciFi is hard to find these days, but this show is standing above the rest.

One bone of contention regarding the discussion of sending our DNA to other planets. We can do that today, but we choose not to. Most all if not all vehicles that land/go close to other planets are kept in extreme clean rooms to avoid contamination (as far as I know). This is so that we don't deposit "life" and contaminate other planets. If we wanted to, "planting" life elsewhere or anywhere would just be a matter of getting the device there was was "infected/seeded". We'd still have to understand evolution to get to humans so that this could happen however.

Doctor_Nick

There may be more that one group working on the protomolecule. Eros station may have been a test of the non weaponized protomolecule, whereas Ganymede is the active weaponization program.

A_Ron_Hubbard

KingKobra said:

Just wanted to say I enjoyed the podcast for the season 2 wrapup of The Expanse. Good SciFi is hard to find these days, but this show is standing above the rest.

One bone of contention regarding the discussion of sending our DNA to other planets. We can do that today, but we choose not to. Most all if not all vehicles that land/go close to other planets are kept in extreme clean rooms to avoid contamination (as far as I know). This is so that we don't deposit "life" and contaminate other planets. If we wanted to, "planting" life elsewhere or anywhere would just be a matter of getting the device there was was "infected/seeded". We'd still have to understand evolution to get to humans so that this could happen however.

I don't think we can just send human DNA to another planet right now.  We sterilize probes so we don't contaminate it with life, because it's kind of a big deal if we find evidence of life or past life on Mars or Europa or whatever, and we don't want to fuck up the science.

Like, we could send tardigrades out through the cosmos and those fuckers would likely survive the trip, and, assuming they found a source of water that wasn't insanely hot of frozen solid, they'd probably thrive.  Sending human DNA is a lot trickier.  We don't have an Alien Engineer tech where we can just seed a world with black goo and come back a billion years later and viola!  Intelligent life! We could probably send various algae and bacteria though.

KingKobra

@A_Ron_Hubbard yeah, we don't know the complexities of evolution yet, so the "seeding" ala Prometheus is the biggest issue. Bacteria and algae for sure as they probably could live "as is". It would come down to what is the process from getting from our DNA to a living being without human involvement. I'm not sure we'll ever do that so to the implications it could cause via cloning, etc.

JaimieT

I'm really looking forward to listening to this, and avoiding spoilers (binged S1 yesterday), but can I just say... Holy shit, I want to rage-quit the show based on who Miller killed at the end of S2E02. This is what people must have felt when they temporarily put down A Song of Ice and Fire after the red wedding. Tycho Station Manager (Anderson?) told him to take a ship off the station... um, can he also just leave the show too? I'm mourning the shades of grey that could have been if that scientist had stuck around a few episode. The writers put a bullet in this fucking fascinating thing. I can't remember when television has made me this pissed, but good on it, I guess.

Doctor_Nick

Miller wasn't willing to have a Werner Von Braun happen with the head scientist working on the protomolecule.

JaimieT

I understand what his thought process was, I just thought his "I do what I want, societal input be damned" attitude was the very problem in question. Turn that gun on your own head afterward, Miller. (I don't think any of these people should be killed, but "he who is without sin...") I'm on episode 7 now and I really hope he's dead, but of course he's not, because LOVE-LOVE. Hadn't even met her, but loved her. That's not love, that's disturbing. I hate-watch that character; I hope he dies, and I hope she's the one to kill him.

Good show though.

Cory

@JaimieT He's my least favourite character too.

JaimieT

This Draper subplot is the most delightful thing I've seen on TV since Tyrion in Game of Thrones. Miller is forgotten. 2 episodes left and then this won't be the "Jaimie watches The Expanse" live-thread.

JaimieT

Finished it. Really enjoyed the earlier Expanse cast as well as this one.

1. I'm not worried about the protomolecule hijacking the show. I think the point of it is to show us humans the "better way" of living. Maybe that's an annoying thing in and of itself, but I doubt they're going to get too concerned with protomolecule society on the level of the belters and Mars and Earth. And that's probably a lot further down the road, after they use it as a weapon? I don't know -- just not as concerned.

2. On A.Ron's thought of "Where's the fulfillment of sending your DNA around, because you're no longer connected to it?" Well, for one, they might be connected to it. For two, maybe their method of procreation is nothing like ours; they don't have the connection thing to begin with. 

3. I was so bummed to only get a little bit of Crisjen / Draper / Personal Assistant Guy. We always joke about the 2 person roadshows (Jaime and Brienne, Bronn and Tyrion, Hound and Arya), but we got a 3 person roadshow now bitches! Alas...

4. I thought those guys who were exploring Venus at the end were alive. They were just frozen... Horrific either way. But, I thought, the protomolecule would be very familiar with what humans need to survive, since it munched down on all of that human biomass. Remember that super smart spy that Miller left on Eros? I wonder how much knowledge he gave the protomolecule, assuming it works something like the Borg...

5. Nice misdirection with the government guy writing/signing what seemed to be a suicide note and holding up the poison. But, what was the note if not a suicide note? Maybe he thought his plan might not work and it was a standard goodbye letter in case. Bothers me though.

6. I didn't mind Bobbie Draper running towards the Earth line because I found it plausible all the Martian claims about ill-adaptation to Earth were great.y exaggerated. Placebo effect via suggestion. And she'd had enough walking around, so she wasn't totally new at it. Maybe a stumble would have been nice, but then I might have had a heart attack. Seriously, I can't remember when I rooted for a TV character so hard. It's been years. Tyrion, I guess.

7. Nice Silent Running reference with the Rocinante when in stealth. "Silent Running Mode" it said on the screen. 

8. I loved "Wherever I goddamn like" and I rewound it 3 times. 

Thanks to @A_Ron_Hubbard for recommending the show, indirectly and directly, and now I will go and make many more disciples. I've got 1 already. I hope season 3 isn't the end...

Elisa

The aborghast or spaceship on Venus was dismantled piece by piece. I presumed once the scientists hit space they died. The same probably happened to the Martian ship. The protomolecule is like a little kid dismantling a toy or a toaster.

A_Ron_Hubbard

They hit worse than space.  The Venusian atmosphere at any real depth is going to be highly poisonous and the pressure would be absolutely crushing.  Yet I too thought I saw some signs of life from the captain and, science officer guy? of the Aborghast when we were panning over their bodies.  

At any rate, they could be dead, or alive, or Locutused, or protomoleculed, and if the latter they could be non-sentient or sentient or retain awareness of their past selves or even be their past selves enhanced. So, you know, anything, really, haha.