Space, mysterious and fascinating.
Conquering the sea of stars has always been the eternal dream of mankind.
In reality, our space engineering has never stopped.
Recently, the successful return of Chang'e-5 has taken China's dream of landing on the moon a step further.
On the screen, we have also been using the magic of film to wield our imagination.
There is "Interstellar" that travels through the black hole to save mankind.
There is also "Star Wars" that stages a clash of cosmic forces.
Interstellar
With the continuous improvement of special effects technology, in recent years, there have been more science fiction dramas with space as the theme.
In terms of word-of-mouth, it is absolutely indispensable to "The VastNess of the Sky", which began to be broadcast five years ago.
This drama has a huge pattern, a magnificent scene, and a very surprising scale.
It was seen by many viewers as a "space version of Game of Thrones".
Just a few days ago, this drama officially announced its return.
Uncle Fish, let's talk about it-
The Vast Expanse Season 5
The Expanse Season 5
Since the first season of 2015, "The Sky is Vast" has always had a good reputation.
The first four seasons that have been broadcast have good scores of 8.6, 9.2, 9.4 and 8.4 on Douban, respectively.
Just returning in season five, it has also rushed to 9.4 points.
Rotten Tomatoes is even more soaring.
From a freshness of 77% in the first season, it has climbed to 100% freshness now.
It also maintains a 95% audience rating at all times.
"The Vastness of the Firmament" is based on the novel by James F. Kennedy. S· An adaptation of A. Corey's science fiction novel of the same name.
The original was critically acclaimed and had a large fan base.
Interestingly, james, the author of the Hugo Award, is not a real writer.
It is a shared pen name for two authors, Daniel Abraham and Ty Frank.
Both of them have served as authors of the Game of Thrones series, George W. Bush. R· R. Martin's apprentice and assistant.
Therefore, this work also inherits Martin's grand world view setting and multi-perspective narrative technique.
Even the scale is close.
However, they moved the stage of strife and intrigue from the fantasy continent to the vast universe.
The story is about the future world 200 years from now.
Humanity has colonized the solar system, and the concept of nationality no longer exists.
In its place are the Earthlings, Martians, and asteroid belts.
The Earth became a community, ruled by the United Nations, and the Moon became an outpost.
Because of the rapid increase in population, a series of crises such as resource depletion have been triggered.
Earth is increasingly dependent on the resources of other planets in the solar system.
As sea levels rose, a was built around the Statue of Liberty.
Early humans colonized Mars established an independent regime, the United States of Mars.
They want to build Mars into another Earth, while also harboring ambitions to occupy it.
Because of the use of the imperial system, coupled with the humans who came to Mars, they originally belonged to the elite.
Mars was able to possess no less military power than Earth in a very short period of time.
Although not as large as Earth, the weapons are much more advanced.
And their unique stealth technology is their biggest advantage.
Compared with the strengths of Earth and Mars, the asteroid belt is much more miserable.
They formed an exoplanet alliance, which is mainly responsible for the transportation of resources on Earth and Mars.
It is expected to be on an equal footing with Earth and Mars, but the local residents seem to live in slums.
Without the strength to confront the other two forces, even the right to survive cannot be mastered.
Therefore, among the three forces, the asteroid belt has the lowest status and is discriminated against.
In 200 years, although science and technology have developed rapidly, it is still the old problems that bother mankind.
Resource inequality, inequality between rich and poor, sharp ethnic contradictions ...
Space wars on the big level, survival worries on the small level.
This is also the most attractive part of this show, enough hardcore, enough realistic.
Many viewers called the show "the hardcore sci-fi work of all time."
Unlike many space science fiction works that just sell settings, soft science fiction.
"The VastNess of the Firmament" is a real effort to establish a complete "space age" for the audience.
From the details of props to the design of special effects, there are rigorous scientific theories as the basis and are unambiguous.
For example, gravity is one of the elements with a very strong sense of existence in the play.
Asteroid belt people are thin and long because they live in low-gravity environments for a long time.
Putting them under the gravity of the earth would be very uncomfortable, and it would be the most cruel punishment.
In addition to this, there are:
The spacecraft turn requires many thrusters to work together;
Gravity boots need to be worn in environments without gravitational acceleration;
On asteroids that run by artificial gravity (rapid rotation creates centrifugal force), water flows only in a curved fashion.
Details like this that stand up to scrutiny make this future of space more authentic and believable.
And the story is no longer the traditional confrontation between good and evil.
After decades of intensifying contradictions, the three forces have finally come to the brink of war.
Horton (Steven Stratter), the captain of an ice tugboat, accidentally walks into the center of the storm.
He was accidentally attacked by an ice boat and escaped.
Along with another important character, Detective Miller (Thomas Jane) accidentally discovers a huge conspiracy in human history on Eros– the "protomolecular virus".
The virus has the ability to alter other life forms and gradually takes control of the entire planet Eros.
This causes the entire star to gradually evolve into a life form with thoughts, rushing towards the earth.
In the end, Miller prevented the disaster from happening by sacrificing himself.
However, after the decomposition of the protomolecular virus, a mysterious "ring" was formed in the outer orbit of Uranus.
In fact, it is a network of countless interstellar gates, connecting more than 1,300 unknown galaxies.
Star rings
A large number of stargates
Its number is numerous, and it contains countless spatial resources.
This is extremely tempting for all forces.
So everyone focused their attention on the galaxies inside the rings.
This has led to martians no longer wanting to occupy the earth, and have left Mars.
Some unscrupulous asteroids speculated at this time to make profits, flying into the rings of stars, taking advantage of the chaos, making the enclosure king, and declaring the planet's belonging.
More extremely, one of the terrorists has always hated the planet.
They stole martian stealth technology while their people were busy building new homes.
At the end of the fourth season, a meteorite was thrown at Earth.
With its sophisticated production and rich core, "The Vast Sky" has become more and more important among science fiction fans.
What is more worth mentioning is that the production process of this series can be described as fateful and good things.
Viewers who often watch American dramas know that how long a series can be filmed is often determined by ratings.
If high investment does not get a high return, it is only a cut share.
Even the rich Netflix has cut "Super Sense Eight" for cost reasons.
"Super Sense Eight"
The Syfy television network, which produced "The Sky is Vast", also announced that it would not renew after the third season of 2018.
Syfy is not a big player like HBO and Netflix.
Relying on high word of mouth alone cannot support such a high-cost and low-yield hardcore science fiction drama.
However, after the news came out, including George W. Bush, the first of the two companies. Many bigwigs, including RR Martin, have spoken out online that they are not acceptable.
Hardcore fans also began a series of crazy self-help operations.
They launched the #SaveTheExpanse# campaign on the web.
Since Amazon CEO Bezos is also a fan of the show, fans hope that Amazon can take over.
First, crowdfunded charter planes pulled banners over amazon buildings.
Then, send a petition cake to the Amazon studio.
Finally, a model of a spaceship in the play was pushed into the stratosphere...
In the end, after the unremitting efforts of fans and creators, the situation ushered in a turnaround.
On May 26, 2018, Amazon CEO Bezos personally announced that he would take over "The Sky Is Vast".
With the new gold lord dad, the new season after that can also clearly see "rich".
After solving the existential crisis in reality, the creators of the series continue to maintain the original high standards and unified narrative rhythm and style.
A hardcore science fiction drama like "The Vast Sky" may not be suitable for audiences who like cool dramas.
For example, in the three episodes that just aired in the fifth season, most of the time was spent on the relationship between the main characters.
The meteorite at the end of the fourth season that everyone cares about the most.
The total appearance time is less than half a minute.
It will not make small-significance explosive points in order to attract attention, nor will it use various cool points to please the public.
In the era of fast food, "The Vast Sky" can still focus on a calm and delicate narrative rhythm.
This kind of narrative is an important step in shaping the characters and promoting the plot.
If you want the story to be authentic and believable, and the characters to have clear motivations, these are all essential.
"The Vastness of the Firmament" is a rich and thick "space opera".
Wrapping the core of human nature in the cloak of science fiction, telling the truth of history with the imagination of the future.
Like the famous quote from Game of Thrones:
"All mortals have one death, and all mortals need to serve."
This statement, in the space age, remains unchanged.
Will technology make humanity better?
Can going into space create a new era?
Everything is unknown.
But it is precisely based on this unknown that it conceives of what might be seen in the future.
Take the initiative to think about the diversity of life and its relationship with nature.
Knowledge can be explored, and technology can progress.
But the shortcomings of human nature are always there.
As we continue to move towards the future and into space, should we also occasionally slow down and reflect on the double-edged sword of technology?
This is exactly what serious science fiction works like "The Sky Is Vast" bring to us.
It seems to be out of the blue, but it warns the present with a sincere attitude:
We still need to be cautious about the future.