Whenever I try to merge the ideas of space travel and future societies from science fiction with the political realities humans have wrestled with for most of our existence, I’m always left with the uneasy feeling a united Earth government, working together under a common framework in peace to explore the universe, might be more implausible than some of the technobabble.
There’s also the question of who will “own” space. Will we share it? Or will something like Weyland-Yutani and Buy n Large control it? Under the current Outer Space Treaty, celestial bodies have a similar designation to Antarctica. Even though the United States planted American flags on the surface of the moon, neither us or any other Earth government can claim it as territory, which has led to some concern about whether planned space mining ventures are legal under the treaty. We also can’t position military forces on the moon or any other asteroid or planet, or place nuclear weapons in Earth orbit or in space.
The treaty also states space should be used for the benefit of all of humanity. But money and power have a way of getting in the way of such noble notions.
Syfy’s The Expanse, an adaptation of the novels by James S. A. Corey (the pen name of writing collaborators Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck), returns for its second season tonight. The series imagines a future where humanity has expanded out to settle most of the solar system. However, the dynamics of the situation have led to new divisions, new ways to exploit, and a conspiracy whose consequences might have far-reaching implications for humanity’s destiny. Hyped as the next Battlestar Galactica and likened to Game of Thrones and Westworld, the series is multiple intersecting plot lines full of characters who are multiple shades of grey.
As envisioned in The Expanse, in about another 200 years humanity will have colonized the moon (now referred to as “Luna”), Mars, the asteroid belt, and various outposts near and around the outer planets. Earth has a united government under the United Nations, with the UN controlling the Moon and colonies in the asteroid belt. Unlike the strongly-worded letter strategy the present-day UN uses to deal with everything from human trafficking to genocide, the 23rd-century version sometimes takes much more violent actions to maintain control over its territorial possessions.
The reason for that grip is in part due to the conditions on Earth. By this time, Earth has a population of more than 30 billion, and the effects of climate change have reduced the amount of habitable land to the point a person owning a 14-acre farm is seen as a wasteful luxury.
Overall, the planet is seen as being in decline, and almost every citizen on Earth is receiving some form of assistance from the United Nations government. Keeping an overpopulated world fed and clothed has led politicians into a by any means necessary philosophy, which means keeping control of the resources being mined in the asteroid belt and the outer worlds.
However, another power is vying for dominance. Mars is an independent faction ruled by the Martian Congressional Republic. With the problems on Earth, many of humanity’s best and brightest have immigrated to Mars, which has led to rapid technological development surpassing Earth, while developing a thriving, aggressive society. Mars and Earth are locked in a tense stand-off, with the looming threat of Mars possibly taking control of the asteroid belt and outer colonies from Earth by force and going to all-out war.
Caught in the middle are the “Belters,” or the colonists and miners who live in substandard conditions getting the resources Earth and Mars are dependent on. They represent both the frontier and the new “Third World” in the 23rd century, since they’re seen as an exploitable resource more than people by both governments and corporations, who cut corners in their treatment of the Belters. Children born in these environments suffer from horrible deformities, as well as being fodder for treatments and therapies to compensate for microgravity, which may still not allow for proper bone growth.
The Belters have created their own way of life, their own “Belter Creole” (an actual language invented by linguist Nick Farmer, which is a mix of English, Russian, Turkish, German, Mandarin, etc.), as well as a movement among the Belters to rise up and control their own destiny. The Outer Planets Alliance (OPA) wants to set up the Belters as a third independent power alongside Earth and Mars. However, officials from Earth see the OPA as a terrorist group, and at least one member of government refers to it as “Hezbollah in space.”
Among the Belters are the former crew of the Canterbury, a freighter ship that was hauling ice when it was attacked by an unknown force. Jim Holden (Steven Strait), Naomi Nagata (Dominique Tipper), Amos Burton (Wes Chatham), and Alex Kamal (Cas Anvar) are the only four survivors. After the attack, Holden broadcasts a message to the whole system (falsely) accusing the Martians of being responsible, with the message becoming a rallying point for resistance to Belter oppression by Mars and Earth, touching off rebellions across several colonies.
The true culprits behind the attack, what they’re trying to achieve, and the purpose of a protomolecule they’re wielding have wide-reaching implications for the not only the tensions between these three factions, but also the future of humanity. The release of the protomolecule at Eros Station kills almost 2 million people by turning them into crystal-blob zombies.
Holden and his crew, in a salvaged/stolen Martian ship rechristened the Rocinante (translated it would mean “work horse” and is the name of Don Quixote’s steed in the Cervantes’s tale), begin piecing together some of what’s going on while branching out as independent contractors. While this is going on, the disappearance of Julie Mao, the daughter of Mao-Kwikowski Mercantile’s CEO Jules-Pierre Mao (François Chau), has led to an investigation by a company detective, Josephus Miller (Thomas Jane), which reveals more and more about the intentions of all involved.
If any of this feels familiar, it should. The exploitation of the people in the belt is no different than the dynamics of today, where somewhere someone in crappy living conditions works in a factory that verges on slave labor to make the iPhones and designer clothes of the First World possible. And it can apply to any society where the many work for the luxury of the few.
The actions of Earth are those of a fading superpower trying desperately to hold on, and doing despicable things to retain its grip. Politicians and businessmen scheme to “make Earth great again” and the result is sometimes the path of worst possible choices.
As season two begins, the audience is introduced to Frankie Adams, who plays the Martian marine Bobbie Draper, who almost fanatically believes in Martian manifest destiny. The crew of Rocinante tries to make sense of the protomoleucle and the Eros Incident, while being joined by Miller who is no longer playing detective after being booted out. So the Rocinante is trying to figure out what to do next, an asteroid called Eros is full of glowing zombies, and Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) is on Earth trying to untangle the conspiracy behind the events at Eros and stop a war from engulfing Earth, Mars, and the Belters.