So back to the review portion…

5 years ago ‘The Expanse’ premiered with ‘Dulcinea’ on Syfy, following an online release on November 23rd 2015. The second episode followed on the 15th with the online episode preview continuing with the third and fourth episode, over the next week we’ll look at these four episodes and what the beginning of ‘The Expanse’ showed us.

 

There’s only one place to start and that is with the ‘Canterbury’, the ice hauler that provided the essential lifeblood of water to Ceres, taking ice from Saturn’s rings. The ship itself is basically a hull around a large cargo bay, which is open at the front, with Epstein Drive boosters at the rear. At 1000m in length, 250m wide, basically box shaped with 50 crew.

 

The ship started life as a colony ship and so by the time we see it, it had seen better days and being held together by the will power of the crew. The ship was built as a tower, so that down was in a plane with the thrusters, so when the ship was under acceleration, artificial gravity was created. Emergency manoeuvres could allow the ship to accelerate at 30g, but that ship can barely live up to it and the crew required medical support. There is at least one shuttle, Knight which we will cover soon.

 

The ship had no defences or armaments meaning that a series of missiles aimed at the drive could easily destroy it.