Agree with Tin above on this episode.
I think this is the best hard(ish) s-f thing we’ve seen on tv yet. Well done SyFy.
This week’s episode (the sixth) didn’t do much for me. Seemed SUPER slow and injected a bunch of drama that doesn’t exist in the books. Not sure why you’d spend so long when there’s a TON of stuff that will have to be squashed into the remaining hours. Seems like questionable pacing to me,
Diego
I don’t disagree, but I’ll defend it a little bit - I thought Ep05 was more sprightly than the exposition-filled Ep06, and it seemed to provide a little better justification as to why the crew of the Rocinante stayed together than the books did. I also liked the start of the Naomi/Holden romance that we saw here – in the book she basically just decided she wanted to be his girlfriend and talked him into it; I like the dislike->admiration->romance progression we’re seeing here better.
I’m also interested to see where the miner-kid thing goes.
There’s still so much ground to cover I worry that key elements are going to get cut or smashed into short segments. We’re 6 episodes in and we still haven’t seen the thing that’s driving all this.
I agree with you guys on the pacing; I had never heard of the series until I started watching, but after seeing the first few episodes I blew through the first book.
The pacing is definitely a little surprising. In the first four episodes they go pretty quickly through the story, but then slowed down a ton in episodes five and six.
Random thoughts and light spoilers for the book.
I thought they would cover a lot more ground in episode 6. A lot of the changes they’ve made work alright, but I’m worried they’re about to make some big changes. For example, there has been no mention of Eros yet. When they were talking about meeting up with Lionel Polaski “coordinates” were mentioned. Don’t you think they would say station if they were going there?
So, my guess is the coordinates will lead straight to the Anubis? And then maybe they’ll have an incident occur on Ceres instead of Eros to avoid needing to setup a new location and to keep some of the characters involved (Dawes, Muss etc.). Because I don’t see any other way for Miller and Holden to meet up. Possibly just combine Star Helix and Protogen to save from having to develop another organization?
Another possibility is that the first season ends with the research station assault. Because I don’t see how they can get through everything else in only 4 episodes.
Not sure where Avasarla fits in with everything either. Or the thing with the miner and his nephew.
Now, some of the changes I like a lot. There has been more mention of Phoebe, the Dawes backstory was really good, and the treatment of Holden seems better than the book. It helps to set him up as more of an idealist. However, really hoping they don’t throw in a love triangle with Holden, Naomi, and Amos.
One change I don’t like is that things occur much quicker in the show. In the books they talk about travel from places taking months. In the show it seems like everything just happens to be a day or two from everywhere else.
The miner kid thing? Unless some spacecraft comes along in the next couple of hours, that dude’s prospects don’t look good.
So the drunken miner uncle essentially destroyed the Martian gunship by slingshotting it with his asteroid fragments? You could hear the Martians on the comms saying he was on an intercept course for them, but you would think a gunship would have enough maneuverability to get out of the way once they realized what was happening. Though I suppose the fragments probably covered a pretty wide area by the time they arrived at the gunship’s location. Poor kid though, I wonder if the Rocinante will cross his path?
I actually like that we STILL don’t know what the hell is going on. It’s obvious at this point that neither do Earth, the Martians or even the OPA really, though the latter would seem to be implicated through the girl and the disappearance of the ship they sent out originally. The little tidbit of video recording the detective found in the episode doesn’t really answer anything. Was Phoebe the mining colony that the Martians said all their people disappeared from without a trace?
I am fine with the pace, and I like how they are just dribbling out hints, with little to clue you in on what’s really going to happen.
The only thing that irritated me was the crash couches and the Donnager commander standing upright in the middle of a space battle. So close, yet so far.
In the book he tells her he loves her at some point, and she tells him he has loved every woman he has ever met and that she isn’t going to be next. But later on, after some drinks and more adventure, she ends up telling him she has always had a thing for him.
I have only read the first book but I am starting to wonder if they aren’t adding elements from other books into this story.
Sorry, I mixed up my labels on the above: I meant to say I thought the newest episode was faster-paced than Episode 05.
It’s been a few years since I read the first book (and I have a terrible memory for small details), but as I recall it, Naomi basically drags Holden to bed, chiding him for only going after “Earther” women and not hitting on her before. Later, they have the conversation about love.
And I don’t ever recall the hostility that the TV-show Naomi shows towards Holden prior to his return on the Donnager.
Oh they absolutely are. Characters such as Avasarala aren’t introduced until the second book, and I think they did a LOT of character work on Havelock that wasn’t in the first book to set up later events. I’ve also spotted a lot of foreshadowing to later-book events that I’m fairly sure wasn’t in Leviathan Wakes to start with.
Such as this relatively big spoiler for the Fifth Book
Avasarala has that chat with her grandson about falling stars and “people throwing rocks”, foreshadowing the apocalypse to come to Earth in Nemesis Games.
So when Naomi tells Fred that she is going to ask him to find somebody for her, I assumed…
That was her son she was referring to? Was that ever hinted at that early in the books, or is this just something else?
No. Holden tells Naomi he loves her way prior to her finally inviting him to her bed. She explains then she has always loved him but that he was to much of a guy on the make for her.
And yea, the entire crew dynamic is changed at the start of the show. In the book Holden is already first officer, is already respected as first officer and there is no story line about him replying to the SOS. The way the Donnager stuff was handled worked out okay but much of that dialogue never happens in the book.
Nope. In the books Naomi is just “another member of the crew”, albeit the only female member so she occasionally is talked about because of that. In the book I think it is obvious she is well thought of by another crew member but there is nothing beyond that and no bad blood when she ends up with Holden.
That whole sequence is pointless unless he’s rescued.
Hmm, maybe because I’m unfamiliar with the books, I didn’t find episode 6 to be a dip in any way, still enjoying it hugely.
I figured it mostly served as an example of rising tensions in the belt that would drag Mars into direct conflict with the OPA.
But, maybe the kid is going to turn out to be important.
True, but unless space suits are way more advanced a couple of centuries from now (which I suppose they would be*) I would find such a rescue out in deep space incredibly improbable.
*I suppose it would put out some kind of omnidirectional distress beacon?
They’re not going to spend all that time introducing characters for nothing. They’re also not going to return to him in the next episode to show him not getting picked up. :)
The uncle even said he shouldn’t have a problem getting picked up, then he dumped him outside to save him, not to condemn him.
This, I think. Remember, this is the second time we’ve seen this kid - he was the “gutter rat” that Miller let go after he broke up their water-stealing scheme.
Very good observation. I’m so awful with faces I didn’t even put that together.