The Expanse (TV series)

The Expanse
Genre	Science fiction Drama
Based on	The Expanse series of novels by James S. A. Corey
Developed by	Mark Fergus Hawk Ostby
Starring	Thomas Jane Steven Strait Cas Anvar Dominique Tipper Wes Chatham Paulo Costanzo Florence Faivre Shawn Doyle Shohreh Aghdashloo Frankie Adams
Composer	Clinton Shorter
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	20 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Broderick Johnson Andrew Kosove Sharon Hall Sean Daniel Jason F. Brown Mark Fergus Hawk Ostby Naren Shankar
Producers	Daniel Abraham Ty Franck Lynn Raynor Ben Cook Dan Nowak
Production location	Toronto, Canada
Running time	42–44 minutes
Production companies	Penguin in a Parka SeanDanielCo Alcon Entertainment
Original release
Network	Syfy
Release	November 23, 2015 (2015-11-23) – present

The Expanse is an American science fiction television series on Syfy, developed by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, based on the series of novels by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck (writing under the pseudonym James S. A. Corey). Set in a future where humanity has colonized the Solar System, it follows United Nations executive Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo), police detective Josephus Miller (Thomas Jane), and ship's officer Jim Holden (Steven Strait) and his crew as they unravel a conspiracy that threatens peace in the system and the survival of humanity.

The series premiered on demand on November 23, 2015, and on Syfy on December 14, 2015. A 13-episode second season premiered on February 1, 2017. In March 2017, Syfy renewed The Expanse for a 13-episode third season to air in 2018. The series received positive reviews from critics, who highlighted its beautiful visuals, well-developed characters, and thrilling political narrative.

In April 2017, the episode Leviathan Wakes from season one was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.

Plot

Two hundred years in the future, in a fully colonized Solar System, police detective Josephus Miller (Thomas Jane), born on Ceres in the asteroid belt, is given the assignment to find a missing young woman, Juliette "Julie" Andromeda Mao (Florence Faivre). Meanwhile, James Holden (Steven Strait), the Executive Officer of the ice hauler Canterbury, is involved in a tragic incident that threatens to destabilize the uneasy peace between Earth, Mars and the Belt. On Earth, Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo), a United Nations executive, works to prevent war between Earth and Mars by any means necessary. Soon, the three find out that the missing woman and the ice hauler's fate are part of a vast conspiracy that threatens all humanity.

Cast and characters

Main

• Thomas Jane as Josephus "Joe" Aloisus Miller, a Belter detective on Ceres assigned to find Julie Mao
• Steven Strait as James "Jim" Holden, the Earther captain of the Rocinante, formerly the executive officer of the Canterbury
• Cas Anvar as Alex Kamal, the Martian pilot of the Rocinante, formerly the pilot of the Canterbury
• Dominique Tipper as Naomi Nagata, the Belter engineer of the Rocinante, formerly an engineer of the Canterbury
• Wes Chatham as Amos Burton, the Earther mechanic of the Rocinante, formerly a mechanic of the Canterbury
• Paulo Costanzo as Shed Garvey, the Canterbury's medical technician (season 1)
• Florence Faivre as Juliette "Julie" Andromeda Mao, the missing daughter of business tycoon Jules-Pierre Mao
• Shawn Doyle as Sadavir Errinwright, UN Undersecretary of Executive Administration
• Shohreh Aghdashloo as Chrisjen Avasarala, UN Assistant Undersecretary of Executive Administration
• Frankie Adams as Roberta "Bobbie" W. Draper, Martian Marine gunnery sergeant (season 2)

Recurring

• Jay Hernandez as Dmitri Havelock, Miller's partner with Star Helix Security (season 1)
• Lola Glaudini as Shaddid, captain of Star Helix Security's Ceres detachment (season 1)
• Athena Karkanis as Octavia Muss, Miller's former partner (season 1)
• Brian George as Arjun Avasarala, Chrisjen's husband
• Jared Harris as Anderson Dawes, an OPA operative on Ceres
• François Chau as Jules-Pierre Mao, father of Julie Mao
• Greg Bryk as Lopez, a Martian Navy (MCRN) lieutenant (season 1)
• Chad L. Coleman as Frederick "Fred" Johnson, former UN Marine colonel-turned-leader of the OPA who runs Tycho Station
• Elias Toufexis as Kenzo Gabriel, a corporate spy on Tycho Station (season 1)
• Kevin Hanchard as Sematimba, a detective on Eros and an old friend of Miller's (season 1)
• Nick E. Tarabay as Cotyar, a security professional working for Avasarala (season 2)
• Cara Gee as Drummer, Johnson's second in command (season 2)
• Terry Chen as Praxidike "Prax" Meng, a botanist from Ganymede (season 2)
• Conrad Pla as Colonel Janus, UN science officer (season 2)
• Peter Outerbridge as Captain Martens, MCRN chaplain (season 2)
• Hugh Dillon as Sutton, MCRN lieutenant and Draper's superior officer (season 2)
• Sarah Allen as a Martian Marine in Draper's squad (season 2)
• Mpho Koaho as Travis, a Martian Marine in Draper's squad (season 2)
• Dewshane Williams as Sa'id (season 2)

Thomas Jane	Steven Strait	Dominique Tipper	Cas Anvar	Shohreh Aghdashloo	Chad Coleman	Florence Faivre

Episodes

Season 1 (2015–16)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	U.S. viewers (millions)
1	1	"Dulcinea"	Terry McDonough	Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby	December 14, 2015 (2015-12-14)	1.19
The series opens with Julie Mao alone aboard a spaceship in a Scopuli suit. On the dwarf planet Ceres, Detective Miller is assigned to find Mao and return her to her rich parents on Luna. In New York, UN executive Chrisjen Avasarala interrogates a captured operative of the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA), a militant Belter group, about contraband stealth technology. On way to Ceres, the ice trawler Canterbury receives a distress signal from the freighter Scopuli, and Executive Officer Jim Holden is ordered to lead a rescue mission with the ship's engineer Naomi Nagata, the mechanic Amos Burton, the pilot Alex Kamal, and the medic Shed Garvey. They find the ship empty but for a distress transmitter, but as their shuttle heads back to the Canterbury, a stealth ship destroys the ice carrier with nuclear torpedoes.
2	2	"The Big Empty"	Terry McDonough	Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby	December 15, 2015 (2015-12-15)	0.854
On Ceres, Miller investigates the theft of water, now severely rationed due to the Canterbury's failure to arrive. In Julie Mao's apartment, he finds clues placing her aboard the Scopuli. On Earth, Avasarala sends the suspected OPA captive to Luna after her superior, Undersecretary Sadavir Errinwright, disapproves of "gravity torture", but the captive commits suicide. In the asteroid belt, the Canterbury's shuttle is damaged by debris from the ice hauler's destruction. Using the last of their air, the survivors build an improvised antenna to place a distress call, which is responded to by the Martian navy flagship, the MCRN Donnager. After Nagata identifies the distress transponder aboard the Scopuli as using Martian military technology, Holden broadcasts a message to that effect to the Solar System, as insurance against being killed as inconvenient witnesses.
3	3	"Remember the Cant"	Jeff Woolnough	Robin Veith	December 22, 2015 (2015-12-22)	0.676
Holden's broadcast triggers protests on Ceres, with the OPA blaming Mars for the destruction of the Canterbury. In the course of violent riots, Miller's partner Havelock is attacked, almost fatally, and a man with the handle "Nightbandit31", with whom Mao was in contact, is killed. On Earth, Avasarala tests her theory that Mars was behind the attack by leaking to Mars information about the transfer of Martian stealth technology to the OPA. She deduces from the panicked Martian reaction that Mars was not responsible – but that somebody else wants to start a war. Aboard the Martian warship Donnager, the Canterbury's survivors are detained and questioned, with Nagata in particular being suspected of being part of an OPA sleeper cell. Complicating matters further, an unidentified ship flies towards the Donnager, ignoring all requests to divert or identify themselves.
4	4	"CQB"	Jeff Woolnough	Naren Shankar	December 29, 2015 (2015-12-29)	0.633
On Ceres, Miller identifies the dead "Nightbandit31" as Bizi Betiko, a data broker with an implanted, encrypted memory storage device, only to discover the real Betiko is still alive. In the asteroid belt, the Donnager's pursuers reveal themselves as six ships of the type that had attacked the Canterbury, and begin firing torpedoes. Unexpectedly at a technological disadvantage, the Martian ship takes heavy damage, and Shed Garvey is killed by a railgun shot. As the Donnager is being boarded, the surviving Canterbury crew are evacuated on the Martian captain's orders, narrowly escaping aboard a corvette from Donnager's bay immediately before the Donnager self-destructs to avoid capture. Far from the battle, at Tycho Station, where a massive generation ship, the Nauvoo, is being built at the behest of the Mormon Church, station manager, and leader of the OPA, Fred Johnson turns the Nauvoo's sensors towards the battle.
5	5	"Back to the Butcher"	Rob Lieberman	Dan Nowak	January 5, 2016 (2016-01-05)	0.631
For lack of options, the Canterbury's survivors accept a proposal by OPA leader Fred Johnson to join him at Tycho Station, and with his help they modify the ship's transponder, renaming their salvaged ship the Rocinante, to hide the fact it's a Martian warship. A flashback shows how Johnson became "The Butcher of Anderson Station" eleven years ago: as a UN Marine colonel, he led an assault on a station occupied by protesting miners, killing all despite their attempts at surrender. On Ceres, Miller finds evidence linking Julie Mao to the OPA, who try to recruit him through their local agent Anderson Dawes. While leaving Julie's apartment with the data chip, Miller is abducted by unknown people.
6	6	"Rock Bottom"	Rob Lieberman	Jason Ning	January 12, 2016 (2016-01-12)	0.713
On Ceres, Miller is interrogated and tortured by Dawes, demanding to know what he has learned about Julie. Miller escapes, with fellow officer Octavia Muss, and discovers revealing information on a hidden data cube, a major secret. Upon revealing his discovery to his boss, she fires Miller and takes all information regarding the case. Avasarala wants a spy on Tycho Station, and makes things personal to get her way. Holden and crew arrive at Tycho Station, with Fred Johnson planning to leverage Holden's testimony for legitimacy with the UN. Holden makes an uneasy alliance, sharing everything he knows about the destruction of the Canterbury and the MCRN Donnager. Johnson seems fairly convinced neither Earth nor Mars was behind the attacks. After disguising the Rocinante as a simple gas hauler, they set out for Eros to pick up a potential survivor of the Scopuli.
7	7	"Windmills"	Bill Johnson	Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck	January 19, 2016 (2016-01-19)	0.502
During a visit to Holden's co-op parents' house in Montana, Avasarala learns of Holden's troubled childhood and gains some insight into his recent decisions. On their way to Eros, the crew of the Rocinante realize too late that Kenzo, a spy from Tycho station is on board and has inadvertently gotten the attention of a Martian patrol. Kenzo helps obtain the MCRN codebook from the ship's safe, and with a few code words the patrol backs off, believing the Rocinante to be a Martian black ops ship. Miller departs Ceres for Eros, with a new piece to the mysterious puzzle surrounding Julie Mao.
8	8	"Salvage"	Bill Johnson	Robin Veith	January 26, 2016 (2016-01-26)	0.721
The Rocinante arrives at their true destination, an asteroid at coordinates given by Fred Johnson and discovers the Anubis, the stealth ship that had destroyed the Canterbury. It is empty except for a mysterious, spreading, organic substance that covers the ship's reactor. They scuttle the stealth ship, then head to Eros to find a survivor of the Scopuli code-named Lionel Polanski, who escaped the Anubis on its shuttle. Miller is also tracking down Polanski, identifying her as Julie Mao. Arriving at Eros, Holden and his team are ambushed at the hotel where Polanski is staying by a UN black ops team (signaled by Kenzo, and authorized by Errinwright), but are saved by Miller. After joining up, Holden's team and Miller go to meet Julie Mao only to find her already dead, infected by the same substance from the Anubis.
9	9	"Critical Mass"	Terry McDonough	Robin Veith & Dan Nowak and Naren Shankar	February 2, 2016 (2016-02-02)	0.555
The events leading up to Julie Mao's infection by the unknown bio-hazard on the Anubis and gruesome death in her hotel room on Eros are revealed in a flashback. Fred Johnson broadcasts evidence that the stealth ships were built on Earth. After Miller and the Rocinante crew flee the hotel, Julie's body is found and studied by Dresden, a scientist working for Julie's father Jules-Pierre Mao, who harvests her infected blood. Under the guise of a ship explosion and radiation leak, mercenaries loyal to Julie's father and Dresden place Eros into lockdown and seal the poverty-stricken citizens into radiation shelters after infecting them with Julie's blood. Most of the Rocinante crew head back to the ship, while Miller and Holden go to investigate the shelters. Discovering their true purpose as incubators for the infection, with everyone inside dead or dying, they also receive a lethal dose of radiation.
10	10	"Leviathan Wakes"	Terry McDonough	Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby	February 2, 2016 (2016-02-02)	0.555
The Rocinante crew, Miller and Holden (suffering from radiation sickness), make their separate ways through the increasingly horrific situation on Eros towards the ship. They theorize that the conspirators behind the stealth ships are using the population as food for the "protomolecule" infection. Miller begins to see hallucinations of Julie Mao. Amos kills Miller's friend, Inspector Sematimba, after he holds Nagata at gunpoint when she refuses to launch the Rocinante without Holden. Miller and Holden make it to the ship, which escapes, and are treated for radiation sickness. On Earth, Avasarala's investigation is stopped by Errinwright, who is part of the Mao conspiracy. On Eros, the UN spy Kenzo is left to be consumed by the rapidly advancing Protomolecule infesting the colony.

Season 2 (2017)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	U.S. viewers (millions)
11	1	"Safe"	Breck Eisner	Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby	February 1, 2017 (2017-02-01)	0.700
The season opens with Bobbie Draper and other Martian marines undergoing combat training on Mars. They are deployed to Phoebe Research Station, which had been reported as being attacked. The United Nations debates blockading Martian fleet deployments; Avasarala backs the measure but privately believes that she is being prepared by Errinwright as a scapegoat, and hires private security. A Martian naval vessel fires on a UN vessel; the UN elects not to fire back, figuring that the Martian missiles were saber-rattling. The missiles pass the UN vessel and destroy Phoebe Station. Draper believes that war with Earth is good; her commanding officer, Sutton, believes war must be avoided. Holden and Miller recover from radiation sickness; Miller and Amos have a violent disagreement that is broken up by Naomi. The Rocinante crew finds a protomolecule sample among the supplies recovered from the Anubis and decide to hide it in a debris field. Naomi and Holden perform repairs to the Rocinante and their personal relationship deepens. Alex cooks lasagna for the crew of the Rocinante, and over dinner tensions are eased.
12	2	"Doors & Corners"	Breck Eisner	Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck	February 1, 2017 (2017-02-01)	0.700
Arrival at Tycho Station is tense, but the Rocinante crew defuses the situation by explaining what is going on at Eros and where the data is going. Fred Johnson pulls together a strike team from rival Outer Planets Alliance factions, killing one of their leaders in the process. Rocinante is assigned as the mission's muscle, engaging the station's defenses and clearing a path for the boarding party. The station is not prepared to defend itself, and falls easily to the team. Capturing the lead scientist on the project, Antony Dresden, the man is uninterested in who he answers to as long as he can continue his work. While explaining the source, dangers, and possibilities of the protomolecule, he is shot in the head by Miller.
13	3	"Static"	Jeff Woolnough	Robin Veith	February 8, 2017 (2017-02-08)	0.587
Earth destroys Mars's moon Deimos in response to the MCRN's nuking of Phoebe. This creates tensions in Bobbie Draper's squad. Holden and his crew return to Tycho Station, angry at Miller for killing the lead scientist on the protomolecule project. Fred Johnson offers Miller safe passage off Tycho, but Miller's investigations show that action must be taken against Eros. Johnson and Holden reach the same conclusion when Amos figures out how to get one of their prisoners to talk. Miller realizes that Eros must be destroyed, and that Fred Johnson has the equipment necessary to do so.
14	4	"Godspeed"	Jeff Woolnough	Dan Nowak	February 15, 2017 (2017-02-15)	0.534
Avasarala gathers information linking the protomolecule to Julie Mao's father. Miller's plan is put into action. After assembling a demolition team and procuring the Rocinante's services for cover, the Nauvoo is evacuated of its people, commandeered, and set on a collision course to knock Eros into the Sun. After flying to Eros, Rocinante drops its cargo of bombs and the demolition team spacewalks to them for precise placement in order to seal the surface of the asteroid. A complication arises when a group of doctors is found who will not follow Holden's orders, so he destroys their ship. The debris damages one of Miller's bombs, and he chooses to stay with it on Eros, watching the Nauvoo approach and no collision takes place. Holden and crew confirm that the Nauvoo did not miss – Eros maneuvered to avoid the impact.
15	5	"Home"	David Grossman	Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby	February 22, 2017 (2017-02-22)	0.600
Eros is on course for Earth. Miller and the crew decide that Miller will bring the bomb into the heart of Eros to destroy it and then escape back to the Rocinante. On Earth, the United Nations decides to fire its planetary defense nuclear missiles at the incoming Eros, but the asteroid evades them by ceasing to reflect radar. The Rocinante crew use their proximity to the asteroid to provide a target lock to Fred Johnson, who will guide the missiles to Eros. Eros reacts to this by accelerating still faster; to maintain visual contact, the Rocinante accelerates at the limits of human endurance and finally gives up the chase. Miller arrives with the bomb at the heart of Eros and discovers a transformed Julie Mao. While the protomolecule has infected her and Eros, she has in some way infected it back, and can influence Eros' flight. With a combination of words and affection, and after removing his protective spacesuit, Miller convinces her to redirect Eros away from Earth toward Venus, where it crashes in a planetary-scale event.
16	6	"Paradigm Shift"	David Grossman	Naren Shankar	March 1, 2017 (2017-03-01)	0.625
Flashbacks 137 years prior show Solomon Epstein, a Martian, envisaging a future where Mars has broken free from Earth's control based on his invention. In the present, Avasarala demands Errinwright bring Mao out of hiding by threatening Mao's family and business empire. On Tycho, Fred Johnson's idea to use the thirty missing nukes as a bargaining chip against Earth and Mars angers Holden. The crew on the Rocinante commiserate over Miller's death and agree to launch the protomolecule sample into the sun, as it is too dangerous to keep. But Naomi fakes the launch leading everyone, but her, to believe there is now no sample left. On Ganymede, Bobbie Draper and her crew are sent to patrol the agricultural farms and they see UN marines running towards them, firing. Meanwhile the Scirocco is engaged in battle and Sutton is killed. After the battle, Bobbie awakes to find an inhuman figure standing over her.
17	7	"The Seventh Man"	Kenneth Fink	Georgia Lee	March 8, 2017 (2017-03-08)	0.451
After the battle on Ganymede, Bobbie is rescued by the MCRN and asked to report the events, which her superiors don't believe. On Earth, Avasarala demands a peace summit between Earth and Mars to prevent further escalation of the tension, in which both planets believed the other fired first on Ganymede. On Tycho Station, Anderson Dawes is asked to represent the Belt in negotiations for peace with Earth and Mars but Dawes convinces the Belters that Earth and Mars will never respect the Belt. Bobbie is told to go to Earth to the peace summit and to tell Earth that Mars fired first accidentally, despite Bobbie remembering the presence of an inhuman figure the UN marines were fleeing from. On Tycho, Dawes becomes aware of Cortazar's presence and knowledge and Cortazar is later found missing from his cell, leading Alex and Naomi to chase after an escaping ship, only to find Diogo aboard and Dawes and Cortazar gone.
18	8	"Pyre"	Kenneth Fink	Robin Veith	March 15, 2017 (2017-03-15)	0.460
Aboard a Ganymede refugee ship, Praxidike Meng and others are headed for safety as he privately mourns the loss of his daughter, who was supposedly killed when the mirrors fell down. The ship throws members of the inner planets out the airlock, reflective of the rising tension between the Belters and the Inners. On Tycho, Fred Johnson receives a message from Dawes, who tells him that he's giving back the weapon (Cortazar's protomolecule information) to the Belt. This earns support amongst the Belters on Tycho, who storm the hangar and take Fred and Drummer hostage, wanting to launch the missiles back to Earth in order to provoke a fight from Earth, but are unsuccessful when the crew intervenes. The crew discovers that a protomolecule signal came from Ganymede at the time of the battle and discover a doctor, who used to work for Protogen, was also on Ganymede. Prax reveals his daughter was a patient of his and footage shows the doctor and Prax's daughter leaving an hour before the battle. Prax, with the crew, set off for Ganymede with renewed hope his daughter is still alive.
19	9	"The Weeping Somnambulist"	Mikael Salomon	Hallie Lambert	March 22, 2017 (2017-03-22)	0.471
Approaching Jupiter, the crew of the Rocinante realize that their ship is too obvious, so they commandeer the Weeping Somnambulist, unable to convince that crew they mean no harm. The Mars delegation arrives on Earth for peace negotiations, and Bobbie Draper gives testimony that makes it look like Mars started the battle of Ganymede by accident. Alex splits the Rocinante away from the rest of the crew, awaiting their potential need for rescue, and Prax is unimpressed with the crew's planning abilities. Upon arrival, Holden and Amos realize something is wrong on the Somnambulist and, while attempting to intervene, one of the Somnambulist's crew is killed. A research vessel in orbit around Venus discovers that the Eros impact zone is teeming with life, information that Avasarala matches with Bobbie Draper's additional testimony to realize that the solar system is still in danger.
20	10	"Cascade"	Mikael Salomon	Dan Nowak	March 29, 2017 (2017-03-29)	0.573
Despite chastisement from her commanding officers, Bobbie sneaks out to see the ocean, shocked by the poor living conditions of the average Earthers along the way. Errinwright confesses to Avasarala his role in helping Jules-Pierre Mao with the Eros incident. Avasarala approaches Bobbie with images of the inhuman figure from Ganymede, now believing Mao created it as a weapon for Mars. On Ganymede, Amos beats an information dealer for footage of the doctor taking Prax's daughter to the oldest part of Ganymede station. Prax realizes too much damage has been done to Ganymede's ecosystem to ever repair it. Alone on the Rocinante, Alex hears the Martian Navy declare Ganymede a no-fly zone.
21	11	"Here There Be Dragons"	Unknown	Unknown	April 5, 2017 (2017-04-05)	N/A
22	12	"The Monster and the Rocket"	Unknown	Unknown	April 12, 2017 (2017-04-12)	N/A
23	13	"Caliban's War"	Unknown	Unknown	April 19, 2017 (2017-04-19)	N/A

Production

Development

The Expanse is based on the novel series of the same name by James S. A. Corey, a pen name of the authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, who also serve as writers and producers for the show. The first novel, Leviathan Wakes (2011), was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel and Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. On April 11, 2014, Syfy announced a straight-to-series commitment to a television adaptation of the book series, and ordered the production of 10 one-hour-long episodes for the first season. On that date Syfy President Dave Howe commented: "The Expanse is epic in scale and scope and promises to be Syfy's most ambitious series to date".

Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby wrote the pilot, directed by Terry McDonough, and serve as writers and showrunners alongside Naren Shankar. Produced by Alcon Television and The Sean Daniel Company, principal photography started on October 29, 2014, in Toronto. The pilot episode was screened at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2015.

In May 2015, before the first season aired, writing commenced for a second season, which was ordered in December 2015. The second season of The Expanse premiered on February 1, 2017.

Four digital comics based on the books and tying into the television series are to be published by ComiXology and the first comic based on James Holden was released February 1, 2017.

On March 16, 2017, The Expanse was renewed by Syfy for a 13-episode third season set to air in 2018.

The show's title sequence was animated and directed by Australian studio Breeder and its VFX team.

Music

The show's soundtrack was composed by Clinton Shorter. The complete soundtrack dubbed The Expanse Season 1 - The Original Television Soundtrack, consisting of nineteen tracks, was released by Lakeshore Records, on May 20, 2016 via iTunes, and on May 26, 2016 via Amazon.

All tracks are written by Clinton Shorter

No.	Title	Length
1.	"The Expanse"	1:04
2.	"Hostage"	3:13
3.	"Signal"	2:09
4.	"Welwala"	2:16
5.	"Gone"	3:04
6.	"Boarded"	1:30
7.	"Ready to Talk"	1:48
8.	"Remember the Cant"	3:30
9.	"Tachi Station"	2:11
10.	"Running"	3:12
11.	"An Impossible Burden"	2:46
12.	"Respite"	1:35
13.	"Truth"	3:08
14.	"A Lifetime of Losing"	1:35
15.	"Anubis"	4:29
16.	"Lionel Polanski"	2:29
17.	"Lies and Love for Power"	2:00
18.	"Father"	2:50
19.	"Life"	1:14
Total length:		46:03

Reception

Season 1

The first season received a rating of 65 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has a score of 77% with an average rating of 7.12 out of 10 based on 39 reviews which summarized critics' consensus as follows: "The Expanse blends sci-fi elements and detective noir into a visually compelling whole, though it takes a few episodes for the story to capture viewers' intrigue."

Reporting on the pilot screening, io9's Lauren Davis declared herself "blown away" by The Expanse, appreciating its "incredible sense of scale" and its "deeply thought out future world that reflects on our present one, with high production values and characters who speak and act like real people". Max Nicholson of IGN characterized the pilot as "grim and dramatic", and a "very dense hour of television", with the terminology and large cast sometimes difficult to follow for viewers unfamiliar with the novels, but highlighted the pilot's "gorgeous" visuals and effects reminiscent of Battlestar Galactica, Dune and Firefly.

Writing for Variety, Maureen Ryan was unimpressed by the first four episodes "awkwardly linking a series of somewhat muddled stories" and the series' stereotypical characters, but credited it with tackling "issues of class, representation and exploitation", and a convincing design. At Tor.com, Justin Landon highlighted The Expanse's "bold and unique cinematography" and its claustrophobic, discomforting set designs, as well as the "extremely faithful" characterization, but remarked that the patois spoken by the Belters, the natives of the asteroid belt, made the series difficult to follow.

Season 2

The second season was also received favorably. On Metacritic, it has a score of 77 out of 100 based on 5 reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has a score of 94% with an average rating of 8.79 out of 10 based on 16 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Expanse's second season offers more of the show's excellent signature production values while increasing character development and politically thrilling narratives." Writing for io9, Katherine Trendacosta noted how the show had become "shockingly prescient", insofar as many of the issues and ideas explored by The Expanse mirrored contemporary trends in global politics.

In an article titled "Why The Expanse Is the Best Sci-FI TV Show You're Not Watching", published by Rolling Stone magazine, writer Brian Tallerico, praised the show's ability to remain politically relevant to the current moment, and called its willingness to mix up tones, and even its protagonists, laudable. He summarized that at its core, The Expanse was all about people responding to fear – fear of the other, fear of the new, fear of inequality, fear of death.

Writing for NPR, astrophysicist Adam Frank praised the show and its writers for the scientific realism. He wrote that "more than any other TV space-themed show, it gets the science right," which he found interesting. Interviewing the writers of the show, Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, Frank asked why they chose to impose those constraints on the show and themselves, to which the writers said that they did not want to throw away the constraints science imposed by making technology solve everything, which is what most other works tend to do, because they wanted to make the physical world (the laws of physics) matter again in science fiction.

Accolades

Year	Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result	Refs
2016	Visual Effects Society Awards	Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode	Robert Munroe, Clint Green, Kyle Menzies, Tom Turnbull for "Salvage"	Nominated
2017	Saturn Awards	Best Science Fiction Television Series	The Expanse	Pending
2017	Hugo Awards	Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form	Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby and Terry McDonough for "Leviathan Wakes"	Pending

Distribution

In the United States, The Expanse is broadcast by Syfy and streams on Amazon Prime. In Canada, the series airs on Space and streams on CraveTV. In New Zealand, the series airs on Sky. In all other countries where Netflix is available, it is distributed on Netflix.

External links

• Official website
• The Expanse at IMDb