Start a debate about the greatest space opera TV shows of the 21st century, and it won’t be long before The Expanse enters the chat. Starting on Syfy before switching to Prime Video for its second half, The Expanse adapts the first six installments in James S.A. Corey’s novel series, covering everything from the Canterbury’s destruction to the Free Navy’s defeat.

For all its freshness and originality, The Expanse is packed bow-to-stern with classic sci-fi ingredients. Intense space battles between rival ships, fantastical technology humanity cannot hope to control, ancient and advanced alien civilizations, a crew of plucky underdog heroes fighting against the odds – The Expanse‘s potent cocktail of influences combines Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Mass Effect, and plenty of other iconic sci-fi franchises from the past 60 years of operatic space-faring media.

Since The Expanse is so often considered quintessential sci-fi, it’s all too easy to forget that the series occupies a completely different genre during its first season. The pure space opera material sits between seasons 2 and 6, but The Expanse season 1 brews a far more distinct, nuanced blend of interplanetary adventuring.

The Expanse Season 1 Isn’t Entirely Science Fiction

The Expanse‘s debut season essentially follows two separate protagonists. The first is, of course, James Holden, who begins as the second-in-command of the ice hauler Canterbury before being unceremoniously thrust into becoming the face of a system-wide rebellion and the captain of a stolen (sorry, legitimately salvaged) Martian gunship.

Holden’s story exclusively provides the sci-fi elements of The Expanse season 1. The space-faring, the zero-gravity battles, the militaristic crew dynamics, and all of the other tropes typically found aboard a fictional starship happen from Holden’s perspective. It’s the kind of genre-based storytelling the series is most closely associated with.

The Expanse season 1’s second protagonist is Detective Miller, working for the Star Helix security contractors on Ceres Station in the Belt, and Miller’s perspective can barely be described as science fiction. Aside from the constant reminder that humans have managed to colonize a dwarf planet between Mars and Jupiter, there’s very little indication that his scenes take place within a futuristic era of space travel and early contact with the remnants of an alien civilization.

Miller’s story in The Expanse is almost entirely a neo-noir detective mystery – the hard-boiled, jaded, alcohol-fueled detective going against the rule book to investigate the disappearance of a young girl who ran away from her rich parents. It’s a premise taken directly from the pulp novels of the 20th century rather than the galactic exploration of shows like Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica.

Miller meets shady contacts in bars, shakes down reluctant witnesses, and clashes with his boss over the true meaning of justice in an unjust world. The fact that Miller isn’t actually on Earth barely registers. It’s one step away from Blade Runner, but even Deckard was investigating hyperrealistic androids and traveling in a flying car.

The Expanse Dropped The Noir Genre From Season 2 Onwards

Toward the end of The Expanse season 1 and the beginning of season 2, Miller’s path dovetails with that of Holden’s crew and he jumps aboard the Rocinante. At that point, the noirish tones that were once prominent fade faster than the memory of Shed Garvey. Miller slips into the guise of a supporting character, while Holden gets promoted to the position of The Expanse‘s undisputed main character. Miller’s investigation into the Julie Mao case continues, but this time inside a giant metal capsule as part of Team Rocinante, and that’s how it stays right up until the time he leaves the show entirely. No more sketchy bars, no more cop work, and no more escaping the fact this is a space opera.

Even when Miller, complete with trademark porkpie hat, begins appearing as a Protomolecule vision in James Holden’s mind circa season 4, it’s merely a reverie of what The Expanse used to be rather than a proper return to the original sci-fi/noir duality.

It’s not that The Expanse season 1, with its space-colony-private-investigator angle, is better or worse than the rest of the show. It’s simply that the shift in genre after The Expanse‘s initial run of episodes is impossible to ignore, and by the time Miller resurfaces as part of James Holden’s troubled psyche, viewers would have almost certainly forgotten how different The Expanse looked back when the detective was stalking his way around Ceres desperately trying to solve a crime he had no idea was connected to the fate of the entire galaxy.

The Expanse’s Genre Shift Is Even More Prominent In The Books

The way Leviathan Wakes, the literary equivalent of The Expanse season 1, is laid out makes the genre flip even more stark than it is onscreen.

In addition to Holden and Miller, The Expanse‘s live-action adaptation offers up a wider variety of perspectives, including that of Earth-based politician Chrisjen Avasarala. That gives the TV version a strong whiff of political drama right from the beginning. Leviathan Wakes, on the other hand, focuses entirely on Holden and Miller, switching between the two with alternate chapters. It’s “Chapter One: Holden, Chapter Two: Miller, Chapter Three: Holden, Chapter Four: Miller” right the way through the book.

Using such a structure makes Holden and Miller true co-leads of the opening novel. More than that, it means half of Leviathan Wakes is a sci-fi space opera and the entire other half is a detective noir mystery. On TV, competing with Avasarala and other additions means Miller’s investigation only accounts for around a third of the season’s overall narrative. When Caliban’s War, the second book, kicks fully into sci-fi, therefore, the shift is even more noticeable.

Something about experiencing The Expanse in written form contributes to the sensation that Leviathan Wakes is as much a noir tale as sci-fi. On TV, the environments of Ceres Station can’t help but pull viewers into the future at regular intervals. By living Miller’s movements in print, it’s easier to conjure up images of dusty 1920s offices, dimly-lit corridors, and a femme fatale whisked away by local gangsters. James S.A. Corey’s words provide the blueprint, and the reader’s imagination runs wild filling in the locations and side characters. Miller’s world truly does feel light years away from James Holden being taken aboard giant MCRN vessels, witnessing torpedo battles, and enduring high-gravity burns through the Belt.

Release Date

2015 – 2022-00-00

Network

SyFy, Prime Video

Showrunner

Naren Shankar, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby

Directors

Breck Eisner, Jeff Woolnough, David Grossman, Kenneth Fink, Rob Lieberman, Terry McDonough, Thor Freudenthal, Bill Johnson, David Petrarca, Jennifer Phang, Mikael Salomon, Sarah Harding, Marisol Adler, Anya Adams, Nick Gomez, Simon Cellan Jones

Writers

Georgia Lee, Robin Veith, Hallie Lambert, Matthew Rasmussen, Ty Franck, Naren Shankar, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Daniel Abraham, Dan Nowak

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  Dominique Tipper

  Naomi Nagata