The Expanse: will this SF series get another part 7?
A long-standing Amazon science fiction series is The Expanse. This series won several awards, such as the prestigious Hugo and Nebula awards, but unfortunately was not pursued. What are the chances of a sequel season 7?
The universe of The Expanse
It is several centuries from now. Humanity has spread over the moon, Mars and the asteroid belt. But it is far from cake and egg, because every world inhabited by humans has its own problems.
For example, the earth, now united under the United Nations, is heavily overpopulated and most people no longer have a job, but live on a basic income. They only get work if they win the lottery.
The militant rabbi of the planet Mars, which has declared itself independent as the Martian Congressional Republic, look down on the wimpy earthlings, who have just been thrown into their laps with a beautiful fertile planet. And they continue to destroy them, while on the inhospitable desert planet Mars they have to fight hard for every spot of greenery, even for water and oxygen.
The Belters, the inhabitants of the asteroid belt, also feel exploited. This with reason. The Earth and Mars are dragging raw materials away from it with cartloads at the same time, so that even the former ice asteroid Ceres is struggling with a lack of water. The OPA resistance fighters are preparing an uprising to make the Belt independent.
It doesn’t take much for a war to break out. Then, to make matters worse, a life-threatening alien organism, the nanomolecule, appears to have entered the solar system. And then the turnips are really done…
The strengths and weaknesses of The Expanse
For a science fiction series, the science part is pretty solid. Of course there are technologies that require new physics, such as Stargate-like portals to another part of the universe, but there aren’t really many logical errors.
Although artificial intelligence is the big absentee, and you wonder what on earth they have done with all that water on Ceres, which probably contains more water than all of the Earth’s oceans combined.
To watch or not to watch?
Personally, I think this is the best sci-fi series I’ve ever seen. The universe of The Expanse is believable, full of drama and well-developed characters. Credible villains to heroes and, most importantly, people in between. Unlike many Netflix series, the sparse, discreetly depicted sex scenes serve the storyline, and not the other way around. That’s kind of a relief after all.
If you don’t want to be annoyed every time by stupid mistakes by directors, and want to immerse yourself in a future world full of drama and adventure, then this series is definitely recommended. And will you, with this writer, hope for a seventh season. Although the sixth season is fairly convincing in terms of plot.
Small consolation is that the franchise has now also become one game richer and that the book series by James H. Corey, on which the series is based, is still growing. And that a Kickstarter of fanatical fans for a new season breaks all records with pieces…
