Love Star Trek Voyager? Here’s why The Expanse should be your next sci-fi binge 

Amidst the long list of Star Trek titles, The Expanse is often overlooked. While a show such as Star Trek Voyager is remarkable owing to its storyline that focused on the Voyager's journey in particular and in opposition to the previous iterations of Star Trek, The Expanse offered a veritable science-fiction world that was every bit as engaging as authentic.

The first episode of Star Trek Voyager aired back in 1995 and followed Kate Mulgrew's Captain Kathryn Janeway leading the Voyager back to Earth after it was taken away to a separate quadrant in the galaxy. The Expanse, on the other hand, made its debut on Syfy back in 2015 and is based on the hugely popular book series by James S. A. Corey.

For anyone who loves Star Trek Voyager, The Expanse is a perfect follow-up watch. The latter show eventually moved on from Syfy to Amazon Prime Video and, in many ways, was more authentic and grounded as compared to Star Trek Voyager. The Expanse has been lauded for its portrayal of science fiction that is rooted in scientific realism, as well as its far better production design. Here's everything that you need to know about the Prime Video show.

The Expanse is a far better show than Star Trek Voyager

For the uninitiated, The Expanse has often been appreciated over and above Star Trek Voyager, owing to the authentic portrayal of the science on the show. While it is natural for science-fiction-based shows to have an element of suspension of disbelief, it does help if the science portrayed on the show follows a coherent system. This has often been an issue with the Star Wars franchise, which, being set in a faraway galaxy and devoid of any anchor in time and space, was often criticized for the lack of veracity.

Star Trek, on the other hand, is set just south of the twenty-first century and offers a comparatively better scientific portrayal. Despite this, Star Trek has been notoriously responsible for presenting sets and backdrops that appear brand new and are not at all weathered to suit the exigencies of the narrative.

The Expanse excels in all of the above-mentioned categories. To begin with, the Prime Video show is set about two centuries into the future against the backdrop of a solar system that has been mostly colonized by humans. There are roughly three divisions of power, with the first being the Earth, which has succumbed to overpopulation and climate change. The second layer in the grand scheme of things on The Expanse is Mars, which was once a colony of Earth and eventually became an independent militaristic republic with supremely advanced technology. The third and most oppressed layer is known as the Belt, i.e., a collective term used to describe the asteroids and the moons orbiting the big planets.

The Belters, as they are referred to on The Expanse, are a subaltern class that is oppressed by both the inhabitants of Earth and Mars. The Belters have been subsisting on ships in low-gravity environments, and as a result, their bodies have evolved accordingly. Earth and Mars, on the one hand, are forever locked in a state of cold war that often escalates into active war. On the other hand, the Belters are consistently on the verge of a bloody rebellion.

The Expanse is one of those rare shows that didn't sacrifice scientific realism in a bid to be more accessible to the audience. This is proved by the realistic portrayal of events in keeping with scientific laws on the show. This isn't to say that the show is a pedagogical nightmare for anyone not interested in learning the laws of physics, but that the minimum science that is referred to on the show does follow a well-defined rationale.

For instance, whiskey poured from a bottle spins out inside a rotating space station owing to the Coriolis effect. Gravity was portrayed on The Expanse not as a homogenous entity, but with variations such as spin gravity and thrust gravity, as is the case in a real space station. The sets, ranging from a besieged New York-like settlement to a Martian cliff, all appeared to be weathered in keeping with the narrative and looked like they had been lived in by the characters.

Steven Strait and Dominique Tipper open up about The Expanse

Other than the science, the second plus point that made The Expanse such a memorable show was the powerful performances by the leading actors, including Dominique Tipper and Steven Strait. Speaking in an interview with Horrowgeeklife.com prior to the release of the sixth and final season of the Prime Video show, both Tipper and Strait opened up extensively about their insights on the show. When asked about the elements from the show that drove their passion, Tipper remarked:

"I think there is culture in terms of the way we go about making the show. It’s so enjoyable and very rare to just come across a bunch of creators who are all on the same page and have put their egos aside to center the show. That makes the creative process very fulfilling but also, the writing is exceptional, it’s just a beautiful depiction of humanity and humans interacting, trying to do their best, messing it up, seeing the flaws; there is no real black and white version of the show we offer up, there is always these kinds of moral, belief, and ethical challenges. I just think that is good fricking TV. It’s good art, what art should be, it’s political, it’s emotional, and all of the things that for me, is why we do this."

Strait similarly explained:

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"I think from the very beginning, there was this overarching sense, and this has always stayed true, that the story itself has always felt important. The topics that this show touches on allegorically are deeply important issues that are told in deeply intimate ways, and the fact that we had the people on this show that we’ve had from the very beginning, from the cast to the crew to the writers, everybody has collectively felt the importance of telling the story with honor and respect and the right way."

The Expanse is available on Prime Video.

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