Inside The Expanse s02e02 Episode Script
Season 2, Episode 2
Sensors are up.
Where's that stealth ship? It's supposed to be here.
Daniel Abraham and I were lucky enough to write episode two.
And include some scenes from the book that are some of our favorites.
Including a massive space battle around a mystery station.
The thing that we love about that battle is that it doesn't follow the normal Sci-Fi movie physics.
One of the things that's really hard about doing space battles is having to be interesting.
'Cause we've seen a lot of space battles and they all have kind of the same grammar, and they all have the same geography, because it's space and there's nothing there.
We all love Star Wars and Star Trek, but Star Wars feels like World War 2 fighter planes zooming around and dog fighting, and Star Trek feels like submarines, where ships just sort of park and exchange fire with each other, until one of them blows up.
And we didn't want to do either of those.
So our battle is much more about changing velocity, finding places to hide from enemy weapon fire.
It's much more strategic, and actually getting to put that on camera and on film, and of course largely in CGI effects.
There's at least one shot in there when the Rocinante is inside the Spin Station, and taking cover behind the walls of Thoth Station itself.
This [is.]
genuinely not something I've seen before.
It's not an idea I've seen explored with space battles or with anything like this.
We're down a thruster.
If we don't get that thruster back, then we're all done.
I'm going.
The battle of Thoth sequence is a great example of how you integrate live actor action with the incredible visual effects situations that we have.
Because it involves zero-g on-board the ship, because the battle takes place not under thrust.
We decided very early on in the show's run that weren't gonna try to hide the from flying people on wires and zero gravity and space suits and helmets.
We were gonna embrace the idea of space as a character in the show.
And in a way that is rarely, rarely done because it's difficult.
When Amos goes down in between the halls, he's floating around in zero gravity.
He gets smacked around, and the only thing that's keeping him on the halls is, he's got his mag-boots.
There are scenes when he's like, getting banged around, up and down and thrown inside as the ship's moving around him and slamming him into the walls.
What the hell was that? Wes kinda loves getting banged around.
I mean, he was he was in the navy, and he really loves the physical side of things.
We had him up in that stage, and he was on wires and he's getting slammed around.
There is a stuntman in there for some of the more extreme stuff, but you can see it's Wes in there.
We didn't do any face replacement or any fancy stuff like that.
It's like, when you see his face, that is him.
Surprise, assholes! Nice work, Alex! Well done! Whoo-hoo! At the beginning of season two, Holden, having just come off of Eros with Miller, they're the only two people in the solar system who'd experienced what the protomolecule does, and had experienced essentially genocide, and they're looking to find answers anyway they can.
In this season I think you start to see how Holden becomes less of an idealist.
And what's amazing about it is that the kind of lyrical arc between Holden and Miller.
Miller finds something to believe in, in Julie, and starts to become more idealistic himself.
While Holden starts as an idealist, and as he moves more into the real world, becomes more gray, and more of a realist.
So, at a certain point, they kind of cross over, and I think that really culminates with the execution of Dresden.
Because Miller feels it's the right thing to do, and Holden has calculated that he needs him.
We have a really interesting history in science fiction and genre fiction in general, about the idea of redemptive violence.
The idea that problems are solved and justice is served by shooting the right guy in the head.
And this is kind of the acid test to that.
Holden just sees a man out for revenge.
And that they have sacrificed a lot of people, and put themselves in harms way for nothing, essentially.
They're back to square one.
Hey YouTube, thanks for watching.
Make sure you visit our YouTube channel here.
And for everything Expanse-related visit Syfy.
com, here.
Where's that stealth ship? It's supposed to be here.
Daniel Abraham and I were lucky enough to write episode two.
And include some scenes from the book that are some of our favorites.
Including a massive space battle around a mystery station.
The thing that we love about that battle is that it doesn't follow the normal Sci-Fi movie physics.
One of the things that's really hard about doing space battles is having to be interesting.
'Cause we've seen a lot of space battles and they all have kind of the same grammar, and they all have the same geography, because it's space and there's nothing there.
We all love Star Wars and Star Trek, but Star Wars feels like World War 2 fighter planes zooming around and dog fighting, and Star Trek feels like submarines, where ships just sort of park and exchange fire with each other, until one of them blows up.
And we didn't want to do either of those.
So our battle is much more about changing velocity, finding places to hide from enemy weapon fire.
It's much more strategic, and actually getting to put that on camera and on film, and of course largely in CGI effects.
There's at least one shot in there when the Rocinante is inside the Spin Station, and taking cover behind the walls of Thoth Station itself.
This [is.]
genuinely not something I've seen before.
It's not an idea I've seen explored with space battles or with anything like this.
We're down a thruster.
If we don't get that thruster back, then we're all done.
I'm going.
The battle of Thoth sequence is a great example of how you integrate live actor action with the incredible visual effects situations that we have.
Because it involves zero-g on-board the ship, because the battle takes place not under thrust.
We decided very early on in the show's run that weren't gonna try to hide the from flying people on wires and zero gravity and space suits and helmets.
We were gonna embrace the idea of space as a character in the show.
And in a way that is rarely, rarely done because it's difficult.
When Amos goes down in between the halls, he's floating around in zero gravity.
He gets smacked around, and the only thing that's keeping him on the halls is, he's got his mag-boots.
There are scenes when he's like, getting banged around, up and down and thrown inside as the ship's moving around him and slamming him into the walls.
What the hell was that? Wes kinda loves getting banged around.
I mean, he was he was in the navy, and he really loves the physical side of things.
We had him up in that stage, and he was on wires and he's getting slammed around.
There is a stuntman in there for some of the more extreme stuff, but you can see it's Wes in there.
We didn't do any face replacement or any fancy stuff like that.
It's like, when you see his face, that is him.
Surprise, assholes! Nice work, Alex! Well done! Whoo-hoo! At the beginning of season two, Holden, having just come off of Eros with Miller, they're the only two people in the solar system who'd experienced what the protomolecule does, and had experienced essentially genocide, and they're looking to find answers anyway they can.
In this season I think you start to see how Holden becomes less of an idealist.
And what's amazing about it is that the kind of lyrical arc between Holden and Miller.
Miller finds something to believe in, in Julie, and starts to become more idealistic himself.
While Holden starts as an idealist, and as he moves more into the real world, becomes more gray, and more of a realist.
So, at a certain point, they kind of cross over, and I think that really culminates with the execution of Dresden.
Because Miller feels it's the right thing to do, and Holden has calculated that he needs him.
We have a really interesting history in science fiction and genre fiction in general, about the idea of redemptive violence.
The idea that problems are solved and justice is served by shooting the right guy in the head.
And this is kind of the acid test to that.
Holden just sees a man out for revenge.
And that they have sacrificed a lot of people, and put themselves in harms way for nothing, essentially.
They're back to square one.
Hey YouTube, thanks for watching.
Make sure you visit our YouTube channel here.
And for everything Expanse-related visit Syfy.
com, here.