No, because whatever these magical powers are, humanity doesn’t have access to them, and therefore must obey the laws of physics.
What Alessan said. The protomolecule is exotic alien technology. It’s allowed to have a few tricks up its sleeves, like manipulation of inertia. The only semi-magic tech the humans have is their ship drive units, and even then they pretty much work as we’d expect an advanced rocket to (no warp drives or anything).
Now, I hope that they put some limits on the alien tech, like the speed of light. And what powers they do display should be used as much as possible and not forgotten in the next episode. But even hard SF allows for some degree of exotic physics. Forgetting simple momentum laws… not so much.
Another great episode in my opinion. This show just keeps getting better and better.
Question for those who did read the books - does it seem the show is accelerating the main events in the story line to you? I’m kinda shocked that after the 3rd episode of season two we are already onto the Nauvoo mission to destroy Eros. It’s been awhile since I read the books but I seem to recall a bit more build-up/lead-in to that.
MeanJoe
Not really, I don’t think. Season 1 only covered about half of the first book, so with this episode we’re about 2/3 of the way through book 1. I suspect the reason it feels faster is they’re introducing characters like Avasarala and Bobbie who we didn’t meet until Book 2.
Book readers, is it following the book series pretty well?
So far, pretty well. There are some minor changes but the general plot is the same.
As noted, Avasarala and Bobbie didn’t appear until book 2. Other little things like the spy and the kid who Miller befriended are added or changed a bit.
[Spoiler]
The plot is mostly the same, but there have been a lot of small changes to increase drama and tie characters together. For example, at the very start of the story the Canterbury intercepts a distress call from the wrecked OPA ship. In the book, the captain orders them to change course to investigate, because that’s what you do when you get a distress call. In the TV show, the captain ignores the distress call, and then Holden secretly logs it to force them to investigate, the result being that now Holden has the extra guilt of having made the decision that led to the Cant being destroyed. Or another example - in the TV show it’s a huge reveal when they’re captured by the Martian patrol and it’s revealed that Alex is a former Martian military member, and everyone wonders if he was a plant to set them up. In the book, everyone knew that ahead of time, because of course you’d talk with your shipmates about your background when on a long boring mission, and there’s no shocking reveal at all. Lots of minor changes like that.
The ship full of doctors who Holden had to kill as they tried to escape Eros was another TV show change. In the book, he had a faceoff against a UN science ship and its escort, but was able to prevent them from landing in the first place without firing a shot.
The first book was also told exclusively from the point of view of Holden and Miller, we don’t see anything of what’s happening on Earth or Mars till the second book. And a lot of minor characters like Havelock or Diogo have had their stories greatly expanded in the TV show.[/spoiler]
Yep. I imagine that they’ll finish with Book 1 by the end Ep 6 or 7. I’m curious as to where they are going to break in early Book 2 for the Season Finale.
Latest episode was solid. Miller enters Eros, finds the Julie Mao analogue and convinces it to head for Venus rather than earth.Maybe Miller’s wandering on Eros was a bit drawn out, but in their defense Eros is big and they did make it look interesting.
Not sure why they made a big deal out of the protomolecule not doing anything to people who are already dead?
Only part I think the episode faltered was right at the end. I’ve read the books so knew Eros was going for Venus, but watching the episode it was not really clear at all. Last we see from Eros is Miller telling Mao to go to Venus and Mao says the protomolecule is too strong, she can’t do it. Then there’s a shot from Tycho and barely visible is a news headline that says “Eros heading for Venus”, but it’s short, in the background, and slightly blurry. Easy to miss. Finally we see Eros hitting the surface of a planet.
I’d think this would have been pretty confusing for viewers who had not read the books…
Miller is telling Julie to stop Eros and she says she can’t do it. THEN he tells her to head for Venus. And after we see the news report and Eros crashing into an browish-orange looking planet. It was slightly hidden, but I don’t think it was difficult to follow.
I suspect they’ll end with the opening scene of Book 2.
Bobbie fighting the protomolecule supersoldier thing would be quite a climax, and it’d make a pretty natural cliffhanger for the next season. Why would they bother introducing Bobbie this season if they’re not going to show this scene? And I can’t think of any other satisfying climaxes before the end of Book 2.
Just watched the latest episode.
Wow…I did not see that coming. Wow. This is a great show, but if Miller is truly out of the show now, I will really miss him. He’s my favorite character on the show. Super disappointed.
Great episode and a very, very powerful climax.
Very nicely done episode.
Amazing show- finally something from Syfy (that’s worth watching, IMHO) after BSG…
Thanks everyone for keeping spoilers hidden in this thread, I enjoy not knowing what’s got to happen next.
Seconded. I had no idea.
Minor, vague, spoiler…
You’ll be seeing more of Miller, but not as you’ve seen him before
I wouldn’t call that minor. Don’t read it if you haven’t read the books.
Are we in book 2 now?
It looks like next week’s episode will be the start of Book 2, possibly with a bit of the Book 1 epilogue as well. However, they have been blending the books together, with characters not introduced until Book 2 already in the series.
Will you give me ‘vague’ at least?