The Expanse has the coolest space battles I've ever seen in movies or TV [Spoilers including S3]

[More_Badass]

Finally up to S3 after binging S2 recently, and the show is scratching an itch I didn't know I had. Mainly because the space battles on The Expanse are unlike most space battles in sci-fi movies or shows. Like the dogfights and massive bombardments of Star Wars and BSG may be more epic in scale and more visually exciting, but Expanse's dedication to hard sci-fi elements - gravity, physics, realistic ship designs - means the battles are able to do scenarios and feature maneuvers that so many onscreen science fiction just can't

Just the inclusion of gravity effects means The Expanse can mine tension and interesting scenarios from the danger of pulling off desperate high-G maneuvers or trying to operate within a ship in zero-G. For example, in S3's IFF, the pursuit and rescue of the Razorback is also complemented by the struggle to manage the crushing Gs threatening Chrisjen and the tense sequence with the loose power tools flipping around the ship as the Roci tumbled and re-oriented.

Even the ship designs themselves add to the thrill of the battles, with the show using realistic fin/thruster-powered vessels that can rotate versus the classic WW2-fighter styles of most sci-fi shows, and with engagements being fought with point-defense systems and rail-guns and long-range computer-guided missiles. I just love that the show can have a character say "17 minutes till impact" after an enemy ship has launched missiles at them.

The only other place I can recently recall seeing something similar is the super-niche indie game Children of a Death Earth, which is designed as being a super realistic space warfare sim with stuff like orbital mechanics, tubular/narrow ships, guided missiles traveling for minutes between targets, complex physics governing nuclear warheads and railguns, and so on. You just don't see aspects like often represented in science fiction on-screen, but The Expanse does it exceptionally well.

The Donnager battle from S1 | The Thoth Station assault from S2

 

[Stardust Handshake]

I've only seen S1, but the space battles were a breath of fresh air so to speak. Not as flashy or thrilling as something like Star Wars (probably due to budget as much as story) but are still fascinating and entertaining in their own way because they are more scientifically grounded. There really isn't anything else that does it like The Expanse.

 

[SofNascimento]

I think they lack something visually. I'd say The Expanse has, by far, the coolest battles scene when we see inside the ships. But outisde? It lacks a more clear style.

Overall, BSG still takes the prize. TV AND films.

 

[QuigleyMcShine]

There's an early season 2 space battle that's really cool looking.

 

[Messofanego]

I'm liking the sound of the more realistic battles so I'll give it a watch but nothing can ever top the excitement and influence of BSG space battles.

 

[More_Badass]

I'm liking the sound of the more realistic battles so I'll give it a watch but nothing can ever top the excitement and influence of BSG space battles.

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I mean, that classic style is always going to be more visually exciting and straight-up action-y, due to the dogfight pursuits and the whole squadron/capital ship style of combat. Hard sci-fi realistic space battles aren't going to be doing dogfights through debris or have huge cannon barrages or have ships pulling off slick evasive maneuvers like in BSG. It's going to be long-range missiles from ships that are only visible on radar, and tumbling ships rotating with thrusters and protecting themselves with point defense systems, and not pulling off slick evasive maneuvers because of gravity

But that the fights in Expanse do that and don't do the more stylish stuff of Star Wars or BSG is what makes them more interesting and unique

 

[Himynameischris]

Yup, The Expanse does space right, I really hope someone picks them up for another season.

 

[Seeya]

I think they lack something visually. I'd say The Expanse has, by far, the coolest battles scene when we see inside the ships. But outisde? It lacks a more clear style.

Overall, BSG still takes the prize. TV AND films.

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This really looks like BSG meets eve online

 

[Stiler]

What sets it apart from most other space/sci fi shows is how in depth they go with the technology behind it.

In most sci fi shows they just throw all the problems that come with things like inertia/high speed travel, or they explain it away like in Star Trek with "internal dampners." Meanwhile they have ships pulling high g flying with the seats just casually sitting on deck like it's a luxury cruise liner and no one even has issues (unless they get hit, then everyone suddenly jostles and gets tossed around).

On this show however they actually have the seats made to be moved and not confined to being stuck on one space, then they have the fluid that is injected into their spines to help their blood take the inertia and keep them from passing out.

They even had an episode showing the guy who came up with the Epstein Drive, which was the breakthrough for long range space travel and how he was utterly crushed to death (literally) because he didn't have a way to stop his ship before the g forces killed him.

It's that kind of attention to detail that makes the space battles, and the general ships/flying so much better compared to most other sci-fi shows imo.

 

[TheSkullPrince]

#KeepTheRociFlying

 

[TerminusFox]

What sets it apart from most other space/sci fi shows is how in depth they go with the technology behind it.

In most sci fi shows they just throw all the problems that come with things like inertia/high speed travel, or they explain it away like in Star Trek with "internal dampners." Meanwhile they have ships pulling high g flying with the seats just casually sitting on deck like it's a luxury cruise liner and no one even has issues (unless they get hit, then everyone suddenly jostles and gets tossed around).

On this show however they actually have the seats made to be moved and not confined to being stuck on one space, then they have the fluid that is injected into their spines to help their blood take the inertia and keep them from passing out.

They even had an episode showing the guy who came up with the Epstein Drive, which was the breakthrough for long range space travel and how he was utterly crushed to death (literally) because he didn't have a way to stop his ship before the g forces killed him.

It's that kind of attention to detail that makes the space battles, and the general ships/flying so much better compared to most other sci-fi shows imo.

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If you can control gravity, you can control inertia by default. There was no need for sci fi shows to even have dampeners in the first place.

Artificial gravity takes care of that already.

 

[Xe4]

I'll never forget the captain of the Donnager in season one giving orders and then leaving the bridge in the middle of the battle because the missiles still had 20 minutes until impact. I love stuff like that and it's super underrepresented in sci fi. S3E2 as you said was an excellent representation of a realistic space battle with high tension still there.

Shame it got cancelled, really hoping it gets picked up because it really is a breed of science fiction not seen elsewhere outside of books.

 

[DavidDesu]

Can anyone gif in some Battlestar Galactica shots. That still looks amazing to this day what they did on that show. I've not seen this but may watch some day so I'm not wanting to spoil myself.

 

[Stiler]

If you can control gravity, you can control inertia by default. There was no need for sci finshows to even dampeners in the first place.

Artificial gravity takes care of that already.

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That greatly depends on how the gravity is generated and at what force.

As far as artificial gravity the two main ways to achieve it is either through rotation, which uses centripetal force (this is what 2001 a space odyssey and Interstellar showed in some of their ships) or by acceleration when a ship is moving (which they showed on the expanse in just a few episodes back), which is why they have magnetic boots and things when moving about a ship and why they have to "lock" down things so they don't float or move around.

With Star Trek they have gravitons in the ships under the floors which give a sense of gravity and pull things to them (think of how a tractor beam would work), however they still make use of dampners in order to take care of the sudden forces applied when jumping in and out of lightspeed because the force of that inertia is greater then the force of the artificial gravity. However this kind of technology is basically the "easy" way out in terms of showing the effects of gravity/inertia and everything that comes with it.

Though I may be wrong, I am not an expert or anything but that is my take on it from things I've read.

 

[BossAttack]

I think they lack something visually. I'd say The Expanse has, by far, the coolest battles scene when we see inside the ships. But outisde? It lacks a more clear style.

Overall, BSG still takes the prize. TV AND films.

Click to shrink...

I like you.

 

[Breqesk]

I dunno if they're my all-time favourite, but I certainly like them a whole heck of a lot.

To address the BSG comparison... I realise this is an unpopular opinion but, while I don't hate them or anything, the BSG space battles have never done a huge amount for me, honestly. I think it's that hey just spend too much time on the fighters for my taste?

It probably doesn't help that I've never been a huge fan of nuBSG generally, so it was tough to get invested in the space action.

 

[Hey Please]

Yep, that said, in the latest season, some aspects did raise my eyebrows (aside from sound in space.... because entertainment for ignorant pheasants):

CURRENT SEASON SPOILERS AHEAD:

1. Why does the Rocinante/Contorta needs to burn "hot and dirty" or in other words constant propulsion in vacuum of space especially when not trying to perpetually accelerate (like when Avasarala and the Martian marine were trying escape be outside the effective firing range of UN battlecruiser aboard the racing vessel, Razorback)?

2. The representation of the drone thrusters that were used by the Belters to recover the generation ship, Nauvoo was not entirely accurate. The thrusters were activated to change the orientation of the vessel and then were shut off and the ship's reorientation was shown to be slowing down subsequent to said shut off. Unfortunately, in the vacuum of space and without the any significant gravity, the Nauvoo would have continued to change orientation without external application of force to retard and finally stop the process.

Little things like these bug me because the show has been so good with following the scientific method closer than any previous sci-fi tv show.

 

[FreezePeach]

New BSG was far better. More epic feeling and entertaining. Lot more felt at stake with BSG.

 

[Breqesk]

Yep, that said, in the latest season, some aspects did raise my eyebrows (aside from sound in space.... because entertainment for ignorant pheasants):

CURRENT SEASON SPOILERS AHEAD:

1. Why does the Rocinante/Contorta needs to burn "hot and dirty" or in other words constant propulsion in vacuum of space especially when not trying to perpetually accelerate (like when Avasarala and the Martian marine were trying escape be outside the effective firing range of UN battlecruiser aboard the racing vessel, Razorback)?

2. The representation of the drone thrusters that were used by the Belters to recover the generation ship, Nauvoo was not entirely accurate. The thrusters were activated to change the orientation of the vessel and then were shut off and the ship's reorientation was shown to be slowing down subsequent to said shut off. Unfortunately, in the vacuum of space and without the any significant gravity, the Nauvoo would have continued to change orientation without external application of force to retard and finally stop the process.

Little things like these bug me because the show has been so good with following the scientific method closer than any previous sci-fi tv show.

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I can address your first point:

It's standard procedure for ships in The Expanse to burn for the whole trip--all their courses are calculated on the basis of being under constant acceleration/deceleration. This provides the crew with gravity and, more importantly, drastically cuts down on travel times. They could've calculated a transfer orbit that didn't involve constant acceleration, but it would've taken them dramatically more time to get to where they were going--which, even if the task of rescuing Prax's daughter wasn't already urgent, would've pretty much guaranteed they'd run out of food, or air, or water en route.

As for your second point... It didn't look like that to me, I guess? And I was paying attention to see if they handled the turn over properly, since this show kinda encourages that attention to detail.

EDIT:

For something almost completely different, I wanted to link one of my other all-time favourite sci-fi space battles:


(Note that it's been cut down significantly from what it looked like in the actual show, 'cause copyright strikes. Soundtrack's a little bit different, but it's mostly how it actually was.)

Space Battleship Yamato 2199 isn't one of my favourite shows or anything, but I absolutely love this space battle. Probably my favourite implementation of my favourite kind of sci-fi weapons: big ol' beams.

 

[Hey Please]

I can address your first point:

It's standard procedure for ships in The Expanse to burn for the whole trip--all their courses are calculated on the basis of being under constant acceleration/deceleration. This provides the crew with gravity and, more importantly, drastically cuts down on travel times. They could've calculated a transfer orbit that didn't involve constant acceleration, but it would've taken them dramatically more time to get to where they were going--which, even if the task of rescuing Prax's daughter wasn't already urgent, would've pretty much guaranteed they'd run out of food, or air, or water en route.

As for your second point... It didn't look like that to me, I guess?

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Yep, you're correct. Looking at a reddit thread, a part of discussion highlighted that when talking about "speed" the crew always talks in "G"s. So, this would mean that the crew quarters or rather all the crew quarter decks and fixed furniture aboard all the spaceships in expanse are perpendicular to the direction of thrust. This would make sense given (and I now realize) that whenever they go into battle/high maneuverability mode, not only do they engage the gravity dampening fluid for the crew but also activate magnetic boots/gloves.

Thanks.

 

[KHarvey16]

Just to clarify, the ships in this universe typically accelerate toward the destination for half the trip and then "flip and burn" to accelerate in the other direction and slow down for the second half. So the effect is like gravity the whole trip!

 

[Breqesk]

Yep, you're correct. Looking at a reddit thread, a part of discussion highlighted that when talking about "speed" the crew always talks in "G"s. So, this would mean that the crew quarters or rather all the crew quarter decks and fixed furniture aboard all the spaceships in expanse are perpendicular to the direction of thrust. This would make sense given (and I now realize) that whenever they go into battle/high maneuverability mode, not only do they engage the gravity dampening fluid for the crew but also activate magnetic boots/gloves.

Thanks.

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No worries! Yeah, all the ships are built like skyscrapers, with the 'ground' as the engine. I'm not a stickler for realism in sci-fi by any means, but I've always thought that was a cool little detail in The Expanse.

 

[golem]

I really like how the limitations of their technology inform the ships designs, such as the Razorback which has two seats that rotate to orient the g-forces to a direction that is more sustainable for humans

 

[Breqesk]

Yeah, and when they were like, 'okay, sure, there's technically room for more than two people in here, but anyone who doesn't have a seat is getting mulched'.

 

[More_Badass]

Yeah, and when they were like, 'okay, sure, there's technically room for more than two people in here, but anyone who doesn't have a seat is getting mulched'.

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And then the loose power tools nailed that point home

 

[Vic_Viper]

I really like how the limitations of their technology inform the ships designs, such as the Razorback which has two seats that rotate to orient the g-forces to a direction that is more sustainable for humans

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This was such an awesome space battle scene. Like most, I loved the space battles in BSG, but The Expanse has had some awesome scenes aswell like this one.

This show looked amazing imo, especially for a show on a channel like SYFY. They have been upping their game lately, but this is still one of the best looking scifi shows ive seen in awhile.

 

[starpower]

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The projectiles piercing the hull in this scene like that will always stick out in my mind when I think of this show

 

[Breqesk]

The projectiles piercing the hull in this scene like that will always stick out in my mind when I think of this show

Click to shrink...

I know--it's so cool! It's really weird: The Expanse is one of the hardest sci-fi shows I've ever watched, but in some ways, the combat calls back to, like, 18th century naval combat - with broadsides, and shrapnel flying everywhere inside the ships - more than any other sci-fi show I can think of.

 

[saenima]

Agreed. I want more The Expanse and less Star Wars.

 

[Grimminski]

Agreed. I want more The Expanse and less Star Wars.

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A-Fucking-Men

 

[the_id]

I finished reading the seventh book - Persepolis rising and the space battle gets even more epic and the politics even more believable.

Spoiler: Persepolis rising spoilets

The story is about the first ever formation of a human interstellar empire, Laconia Empire. The story feels familiar to humanity's colonial history but yet told on a futuristic way. Throughout the book, I couldn't pick which side had the better ideology - Laconia wants humanity to expand and be united, but under authoritarian rule. The old system wanted to keep an independent status quo with multiple factions bickering as always.

The empire wins and humanity is set for a different future.

The battles get more epic. Laconia has a Protomolecule ship with the power of a megnatar and they decimate the Earth-Mars Coalition and Transport Union 200+ ships in one battle

 

[More_Badass]

I finished reading the seventh book - Persepolis rising and the space battle gets even more epic and the politics even more believable.

Spoiler: Persepolis rising spoilets

The story is about the first ever formation of a human interstellar empire, Laconia Empire. The story feels familiar to humanity's colonial history but yet told on a futuristic way. Throughout the book, I couldn't pick which side had the better ideology - Laconia wants humanity to expand and be united, but under authoritarian rule. The old system wanted to keep an independent status quo with multiple factions bickering as always.

The empire wins and humanity is set for a different future.

The battles get more epic. Laconia has a Protomolecule ship with the power of a megnatar and they decimate the Earth-Mars Coalition and Transport Union 200+ ships in one battle

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

Does the series still retain its sci-fi hardness once it starts getting into stuff like interstellar travel and whatnot?

 

[lordlad]

The final episode of Battlestar Galactica has the best space dogwing battles in TV

 

[the_id]

Spoiler

Does the series still retain its sci-fi hardness once it starts getting into stuff like interstellar travel and whatnot?

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

It does, except the stuff about the Protomolecule and the civilization that formed it. Venus eventually spits out a ring gate system that connects to a hub zone that connects to 1300 star systems. Still explains things based on physics but how the Protomolecule creators manipulated space time with the Protomolecule hasn't been fully explained yet. And that civilization got killed by something a lot more powerful than them.

The politics gets more intriguing.

 

[jett]

I remember BSG having some really cool stuff, but The Expanse is indeed awesome. They take into account a lot of real-space physics.

 

[apocat]

I agree. Rooting the battles in actual physics, with bullets perforating the hulls of the ships and the gravitational pull having an effect on the crew inside the ship makes it more tense and somehow relateable. The battles are usually nailbiters, while space dogfighting feels like it's going through the motions in most other shows and movies nowadays. The Millennium falcon can't go a movie without dancing gracefully through crevices or downed stardestroyers these days, but it never feels like it's real and the stakes are nonexistent. BSG was good, but I absolutely prefer the Expanse right now. It brings something new and different to the table.

 

[Turin Turambar]

The problem is that hard scifi space combat is going to be boring and impersonal. Hell, air warfare as of today, is ALREADY boring and impersonal, firing cruise missiles at 400kms of distance, and planes shooting missiles to each other at 30-40kms away. No one see each other, they don't even get to see the explosions. But somehow in the future hundreds of years away, combat is depicted as more close up and personal.

 

[Funky Papa]

The projectiles piercing the hull in this scene like that will always stick out in my mind when I think of this show

Click to shrink...

Point Defence Weapons and railguns fucking shit up will never get old.



Once the hull is pierced (and by God, those things get shot to shit so easily) entire sections of the ship alone with everybody in them will be SOL.

 

[Trickster]

Spoiler

It does, except the stuff about the Protomolecule and the civilization that formed it. Venus eventually spits out a ring gate system that connects to a hub zone that connects to 1300 star systems. Still explains things based on physics but how the Protomolecule creators manipulated space time with the Protomolecule hasn't been fully explained yet. And that civilization got killed by something a lot more powerful than them.

The politics gets more intriguing.

Click to shrink...

Well now I'll be even more sad if the show doesn't get picked up, this sounds amazing

 

[MistakenMobius]

Damn and now I am back to project Rho:
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacewarintro.php

Best site for realistic space depiction information for aspiring author

 

[Antagon]

Well now I'll be even more sad if the show doesn't get picked up, this sounds amazing

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

The hub zone will be covered this season.

 

[SofNascimento]

I like you.

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Why, thank you!

I dunno if they're my all-time favourite, but I certainly like them a whole heck of a lot.

To address the BSG comparison... I realise this is an unpopular opinion but, while I don't hate them or anything, the BSG space battles have never done a huge amount for me, honestly. I think it's that hey just spend too much time on the fighters for my taste?

It probably doesn't help that I've never been a huge fan of nuBSG generally, so it was tough to get invested in the space action.

Click to shrink...

This battle scene is indeed great, but the thing I remember the most about it is this: https://g.redditmedia.com/crNKPaQr4...nted=false&s=23ec54af4233749ac35fb7acb57b1f00

It's the bullet trails "falling" because of the acceleration of the ship. This kind of attention to science is something no other sci-fi show has and maybe never did, not in space battles at least.

 

[Carn]

Yup, it has been very well done. Tactically, it's much more akin to naval/submarine battles; and because of the vacuum and lack of default gravity we have to consider everything between weightlessness and extreme (de)accelaration curves/G-forces.

 

[Kharnete]

OP, check the Honor Harrington books for some sexy space battles. There are some issues on them, but all the space parts are wonderful.

 

[Kyougar]

I second the Honor Harrington books.

 

[hwalker84]

One of my favorites is the Battle to Retake Deep Space Nine.

 

[More_Badass]

Damn and now I am back to project Rho:
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacewarintro.php

Best site for realistic space depiction information for aspiring author

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If you like this stuff, you should check out Children of a Dead Earth. It's the only space combat game that does hard sci-fi realistic space warfare. We're talking orbital mechanics, delta-v, nuclear warhead missile traveling hundreds of kilometers between combatants, railguns, tower-shaped ships, etc

 

[Kyougar]

Also, Legends of Galactic Heroes has some good tactical combats.

 

[Crispy75]

The problem is that hard scifi space combat is going to be boring and impersonal. Hell, air warfare as of today, is ALREADY boring and impersonal, firing cruise missiles at 400kms of distance, and planes shooting missiles to each other at 30-40kms away. No one see each other, they don't even get to see the explosions. But somehow in the future hundreds of years away, combat is depicted as more close up and personal.

Click to shrink...

Well The Expanse does have plenty of that long-range combat. "20 minutes to impact!"

The close range combat is definitely not standard procedure. Those bullet-storms of tracers are from PDCs - point defense cannons. Their primary function is tracking and shooting down incoming missiles. The close quarters battles are all justified by the context, eg. surprise attack from a stealthed/silent running position. The Roccinante couldn't go toe-to-toe with a big capital ship, so they have to pull clever tricks to sidestep the long-range combat.

When the capital ships *do* fight, it's all at long range.

 

[MasterVampire]

What about the series Stargate?