Welcome back, friends, to another recap of The Weapons of The Expanse. It has been a while since last time I posted – new job, and the end of COVID meant my priorities changed, but with winter setting in once again, and with the page continuing to drive traffic, I will try to get back into it all again.
When we last left The Expanse, we were entering into another set of interim episodes with little weapons use, so I will instead focus a bit on weapons related events and activities in the show.
Episode 3 – Static – sees very little weapons use. In fact, the only time there is any weapons fire is in the opening shot, where we see the attack on Deimos by The Expanse equivalent of cruise missiles, in retaliation for the Mars strike on Phoebe at the end of episode 1.
I must admit I have some major issues with this scene, as it is difficult to see how it could be accomplished without challenging some of the basic premises of the show (which is perhaps why this particular attack never happened in the books!)
Just to mention a few of my quibbles with the scene: to remain undetected, the missiles would first have to coast through millions of kilometers of space without emitting any form of radiation, heat or otherwise, not hitting any spacecraft or other objects on the way, and only using their own engines at the last possible minute.
This also means that launching them, getting them up to speed and giving them direction all would have to happen without the supposedly uber-advanced Martians noticing. This in turn means it would probably have to happen far away, ideally hidden behind another planet or moon (as an engine plume can be seen from far away, as we saw in season one, episode 4), before they could begin their long journey to Mars. All of this would take a LOT of time – presumably many months. How on Earth (!) could that possibly happen fast enough to constitute any sort of effective response to Phoebe?
And if the UN could launch this kind of strike, this close to Mars, what would be stopping them from doing the same to Mars itself? Deimos orbits less than 23 500 km from the surface of Mars, which is just two thirds of the distance from Earth to one of the many geostationary communications satellites orbiting our planet today. This is practically spitting distance in the world of The Expanse. How could Deimos possibly be outside the reach of the Martian planetary defense grid sensors and weapons?
And to achieve this, were these missiles using stealth technology? I thought Mars was supposed to be the leader in that?
In short – this scene makes no sense to me, and is disappointing from a show that otherwise makes such an effort to ensure consistency in their writing.
At least there is some realism in the fact that the destruction of Deimos would cause major flight restrictions in Mars orbit. We also get a nice mention of defense minister Korshunov.
This all leads to a montage, showing three different ways of reacting to the attack on Deimos. The Martians, led by Bobby, find motivation. Errinwright responds with arrogance – and a troubling eagerness to follow up with more (“This might be our last chance to win”).
Avasarala however is the most prescient, worrying about the consequences. The episode header on Amazon Prime calls it the “Cuban Missile Crisis” of The Expanse – I kinda see what they are going for!
During the training montage, we get another look at the armored suits, and confirmation of a fact that I believe was referenced in season 1 as well, that Martian naval personnel, particularly Marines, train at the equivalent of full Earth gravity.
Meanwhile, our heroes have returned to Tycho from Thoth station in a scarred and battered Rocinante. The hull is clearly still depressurized from all the holes that the stealth poked in its holes, and the crew must have had a long and uncomfortable trip back in vac suits.
We also see our first hand guns of the episode – Martian Service Pistols and Martian Assault Rifles safely tucked away in their racks.
As they board Tycho we see more weapons being carried around. Same eclectic mix as we saw during the boarding – UN pattern hand gun, UN Assault Rifles and Martian Assault Rifles.
Holden and Amos board next, both clearly having taken the time to strap on hip holsters with Martian Service Pistols. Getting a real Wild West-vibe from the Belt.
And it seems like Miller got a bit attached to the revolver he picked up on Eros.
“Can I have my gun back?” Not so much…
Miller is also off the ship, and drinking away his sorrows. Amos brings his stuff, and Miller soon regrets offering him a snort…!
We also get another insight into Amos’ mind, as he says that the Captain “sure as hell has a better chance of being right than I do” and when he tells Miller “you keep picking fights with the wrong people” just before walking off.
Next, following some more Holden brooding and some ridiculously exaggerated Diogo swagger, we get some more in-depth evaluation of the Roci’s battle damage.
Drummer marvels at how one round just missed puncturing the reactor. “Most ships would have been blown to scrap after that kind of beating,” she says. Given the obvious strength of the Martian corvette design, I still find it strange that she could not handle one thruster failure, as I noted in my recap of the previous episode? Perhaps it was made critical by the need to deal with the stealth ship in a close-in fight?
The post-battle review also again shows how space battles are mostly fought with kinetic weapons – basically bullets of different sizes – and not explosive weapons. The exception is missiles (or torpedoes, as they are often referred to), but even they seem to be mostly two-stage weapons, which first punch through the outer hull, and then explode on the inside. This makes sense, as explosive weapons transfer energy to their targets through heat and shock, which is not very effective in a vacuum. Without any mass or atmosphere for the heat and the shock wave to transfer to, the effect would be very localized. Not so inside a ship…!
Next we see more guards with guns around what we now learn are Protogen employees captured during the raid on Thoth station. More Martian and UN Assault Rifles.
And we are introduced to Cortozar – a very important character later in the show, not to mention in the books!
We get some more Martian infighting during their approach to Jupiter and the Jovian system, with our Earther-born Marine decorating a medicine ball with an outline of Earth. Note the Martian Assault Rifles on their racks in the background, along with the larger, longer rifles which could be training weapons.
Back at Tycho the repair of the Roci gets underway, with multiple construction skiffs hovering around the ship, presumably getting ready to remove damaged outer hull panels.
We then get another view of future advanced battle simulations, with Alex replaying the battle. Note how he is able to use the Roci’s own system for the simulation, something we are already seeing some early examples of today. The F-35 combat aircraft being prepared for so-called “live-virtual-constructs”, where actual in-air fighters can train against pilots seated in simulators on the ground, who can either act as other friendly or enemy pilots, all of them training against the same simulated threats.
We then don’t get much more weapon’s action for this episode, rather more transition and setup for the next episode. What did stand out to me a bit was Bobby’s interaction with her commanding officer – Lt. Sutton – who refers to Bobby as one of his “sergeants” despite wearing three chevrons on his shoulder boards, which is almost universally used as sergeant markings among Western nations on Earth today.
A final point of technical interest – the first full view of the interior of the Navoo’s drum, reminiscent of the views of Mars in Season 2, episode 1.
And that was is for Season 2 – Episode 3 – static indeed, at least in some sense, yet setting up for much more dynamic episodes ahead!
The Weapons of The Expanse 