S04.E02: Have a Nice Sol

[tessaray]

Release Date:  November 17, 2023

New Helios employees arrive on Mars as NASA undergoes major changes. 

[Mr. R0b0t]

-Really enjoyed this episode; perhaps more than the first because it's not weighed down with all of the table-setting. 

-Surprised a couple of tiny humans can house so much tequila at once and live to tell the tale. 

-Ed Baldwin is an a-hole, but a really interesting television character.  I wish he would get on the first ship back home, but I'm sure he will not do that and cause lots of trouble for some folks.

-Why do I feel like they are setting up desperate father-of-the-year candidate Miles to hook up with his lady friend bunkmate?  To be clear, I hope they don't go there.

-I hope Margo survives this situation (coup attempt?).  I need to see Aleida and Margo come face-to-face again somehow, some way.

-Wild theory corner:  Danny is de facto incarcerated in one of the do-not-enter NK areas of the base

[PurpleTentacle]

I know this is supposed to show inequality, but if you live on Mars for a while, you really, really want to live underground. Otherwise the radiation will kill you. So those workers have it far better than the astronauts in that regard. That's also really the only reason why you'd build underground in the first place. Otherwise it would be far easier to plonk more habitats on the surface. So while I get the attempt at showing the class devide in sharper contrast, I don't think it holds up in reality.

Also I'd think at the point of time where the show is set now, they'd be more cognisent of how the workers mental health impacts performance and at least give them some flat screen wall panels that simulate windows. But then again, capitalists are dumb and will lose millions to save a penny sometimes.

Ed is a massive asshole again. I thought we had gone past that point with his character development, but I guess being the king of Mars for 8 years, with nobody to push back, brought out his worst traits.

I think we are setting up for mutiny on Mars and tbh Ed has it coming. Good thing they have Danielle up there. I assume she'll be able to end the conflict after two to three episodes.

I guess the soviet union just underwent a coup? Putin, maybe? I mean in our russia he came to power through elections, but not before bombing a few apartment complexes in a false flag operation with the help of the FSB, so he could posture as a strong man. Since he would be as connected in the KGB as he was in the FSB (same thing really), I can see the show going with that.

Aleida, if your therapist isn't working for you, you are allowed to look for another one. In fact often you have to go through a few till you find one who works for you.

Kelly and Aleida are going private. That could be interesting. Maybe that is a way of bringing Dev back into the picture. He was ousted from Helios, if I remember correctly, but he'd still be a billionair.

9 hours ago, Mr. R0b0t said:

-Why do I feel like they are setting up desperate father-of-the-year candidate Miles to hook up with his lady friend bunkmate?  To be clear, I hope they don't go there.

Yeah, they are going to go there. It's lame and has been done to death. If they wanted to do something at least slightly novel, they could have had him hook up with a guy. Who says an oil rig worker can't be bi? But of course instead they have co-ed dorms so he can easily hook up with a hot lady.

9 hours ago, Mr. R0b0t said:

-Wild theory corner:  Danny is de facto incarcerated in one of the do-not-enter NK areas of the base

Or in the "unfinished levels". Well probably not Danny, but those levels most certainly house some kind of secret and aren't simply unfinished.

But Danny is somewhere. Either still on Mars or on earth in a mental institution. I don't buy that he killed himself between seasons.

[marinw]

Scenes from the class struggle in Not So Happy Valley!

Random things:

“Make it so XO” Danielle is such a Trekkie! Did TNG exists in the FAM timeline?

Outside of the Russian bakery there is a heat pump! Did those even exist in our 2003? I only got mine for my condo in 2021.

Sorry but Miles is so boring.

So the Birth Control is the only thing that's free?

Ed: The beatings will continue until morale improves. 

Danielle: Let's fix the wi-fi instead.

So many parallels between Jamestown in season Two and Happy Valley in Season 4. This is looking more and more like a prequel to The Expanse, where all the class struggles will be completely solved. Or not.

Edited November 18, 2023 by marinw

[PurpleTentacle]

2 hours ago, marinw said:

Outside of the Russian bakery there is a heat pump! Did those even exist in our 2003? I only got mine in 2021.

Air conditioners and fridges are heat pumps, so yes. Basically since the early 1900s. Heat pumps that can heat or cool a whole building are getting more common, more efficient and cheaper, but the technology has been there for decades, really. The market just wasn't that interested with cheap fossil fuels around.

This actually appears to be an air conditioning unit from a real brand:

I would guess it was just there when they shot on location, but it could totally exist in the FAM world in 2003.

Edited November 18, 2023 by PurpleTentacle

[marinw]

It’s sad that there’s no real mention of further exploration like to the many, many moons of Jupiter and Saturn.

ETA: Kelly’s monologue about liquid makes me speculate that a trip to Europa may be in her future. 

Edited November 18, 2023 by marinw

[FishyJoe]

A submarine is way more cramped than the mars base and they spend months underwater without even seeing daylight. 

I'm just not buying how bad these crews and conditions are on mars. They are living in relative luxury. Dude is complaining after a couple weeks, sheesh. Wasn't the North Korean dude eating cat food when they found him? 

[txhorns79]

4 hours ago, FishyJoe said:

I'm just not buying how bad these crews and conditions are on mars. They are living in relative luxury. Dude is complaining after a couple weeks, sheesh. Wasn't the North Korean dude eating cat food when they found him? 

I just kind of roll my eyes.  I view it like the Army, comparing the living conditions of privates versus a General.  Of course Danielle has much nicer facilities and amenities!  She's overseeing the entire station based upon her 30 or so years of experience.  Her responsibilities would likely overwhelm Miles.  She's awesome and already has shown herself to be a significantly better leader than Ed.   

Also, it seems like a lot of the things Miles was upset about, like losing part of his salary to food and other things, would have probably been explained to him before he left.  I get the sense that he is one of those people who only heard what he wanted to, and ignored everything else.  

I would also support Aleida's husband leaving her after pulling this latest stunt.

And kudos to Wrenn Schmidt.  I thought Margo looked legit terrified during the run in with the police in the park.     

[Haleth]

On 11/17/2023 at 12:00 AM, Mr. R0b0t said:

-Wild theory corner:  Danny is de facto incarcerated in one of the do-not-enter NK areas of the base

Oh, wow!  I bet you are right!

On 11/17/2023 at 4:56 PM, marinw said:

 This is looking more and more like a prequel to The Expanse, where all the class struggles will be completely solved. Or not.

I kept thinking this too.

10 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

Also, it seems like a lot of the things Miles was upset about, like losing part of his salary to food and other things, would have probably been explained to him before he left.

It was probably all in the small print that he didn't bother to read.  Like the penalty for bailing early.  But I don't blame him for being angry that he was in a bait and switch deal.  Sure, circumstances change and they all have to adjust, but he can still be pissed off about it.

Danielle is the best.  Go home, Ed.

I don't get what practical purpose there is for Kellie's research other than to give her and Aleida something to do so they quit whining.

Poor Margo.  Things go from bad to worse.

Edited November 19, 2023 by Haleth

[marinw]

On 11/17/2023 at 10:22 AM, PurpleTentacle said:

I know this is supposed to show inequality, but if you live on Mars for a while, you really, really want to live underground. Otherwise the radiation will kill you. So those workers have it far better than the astronauts in that regard. That's also really the only reason why you'd build underground in the first place. Otherwise it would be far easier to plonk more habitats on the surface.

How soft is the soil in Happy Valley? IIRC is Season Three they found lots of lava tubes and caves, so they could  easily build habitats there.

One depressing aspect about this otherwise optimistic show is how Humanity outsources both our class structures and environmental exploitation to other worlds, so far the Moon and Mars and a bunch of asteroids if they can make better cable bracing. Global warming on Mars would probably be seen as a positive.

Nit Pick: I appreciate the bright lighting when so many other shows are deliberately dark and "moody". Yet the sunlight on Mars is much dimmer, yet the exterior shots are usually nice and bright.

On 11/17/2023 at 1:00 AM, Mr. R0b0t said:

Ed Baldwin is an a-hole, but a really interesting television character. 

The Asteroid Thing happened under his command, yet he is not the one suffering the consequences other than the genuine grief he feels over the loss of his friend. The career and financial ramifications are being felt by Miles and even Kelly. 

ETA: Kelly's Robot Dog program may have been cancelled not just for the cost, finding evidence of Indigenous Martian Life would complicate all the mining projects. Not that this has even stopped Humanity before,

Edited November 20, 2023 by marinw

[TimWil]

So it’s a possibility we’ll see Putin as the actual leader of the Soviet Union? Yikes. So perhaps total worldwide nuclear annihilation in the series finale?  With the Mars folk stranded forever?

In this episode I only stopped to watch the Kelly/Aleida scenes and the ones with Margo. I don’t care about Bad Makeup Job Ed or anybody else. Well, maybe Danielle.

As for Danny I like to think the production regime finally got a clue how universally hated he was and if he does return it’s a photo double playing the role of his dead body.

 

 

[marinw]

35 minutes ago, TimWil said:

So perhaps total worldwide nuclear annihilation in the series finale?  With the Mars folk stranded forever?

I loved Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles where that exact thing happens, I even loved the critically panned TV adaptation because I am weird.

[Dev F]

1 hour ago, TimWil said:

So it’s a possibility we’ll see Putin as the actual leader of the Soviet Union? Yikes.

I'm assuming the leader of the coup will be Fyodor Korzhenko, the fictional Russian opposition leader depicted briefly in the opening newsreel (and a bit more prominently in one of web-only alt-history videos). The writers would probably be reluctant to present a really unflattering alt-history version of a real, living world leader like Putin, even one whose real-life image is already really negative.

That's also why I don't ever expect the show to feature Trump in a major role, even though it would be super interesting to see a President Trump who's a raging New York liberal but still an amoral bully possibly compromised by the Russians.

Edited November 20, 2023 by Dev F

[Haleth]

4 hours ago, marinw said:

The Asteroid Thing happened under his command, yet he is not the one suffering the consequences other than the genuine grief he feels over the loss of his friend. The career and financial ramifications are being felt by Miles and even Kelly. 

I like that Miles’ new friend pointed out that no one was wearing the other guy’s initials, the other guy that died. (Parker?). No one cares about his death. 

[PurpleTentacle]

On 11/19/2023 at 2:05 AM, FishyJoe said:

A submarine is way more cramped than the mars base and they spend months underwater without even seeing daylight. 

If it's not war time it's usually about two to three months before shore leave. These people are on Mars significantly longer.

Also on a sub you don't have the captain looking out a window from his spacious cabin. Or the company nickle and diming you for your necessities in the style of old US company towns.

On 11/19/2023 at 2:05 AM, FishyJoe said:

I'm just not buying how bad these crews and conditions are on mars. They are living in relative luxury. Dude is complaining after a couple weeks, sheesh. Wasn't the North Korean dude eating cat food when they found him? 

I think the point is that what a few frontiers men and women, who are there for the glory and very good pay, go through, isn't what normal workers should go through for shit pay.

This is where Ed is out of touch. He thinks these workers should suffer like he did, but get none of the benefits he did.

On 11/19/2023 at 3:28 AM, txhorns79 said:

Also, it seems like a lot of the things Miles was upset about, like losing part of his salary to food and other things, would have probably been explained to him before he left.  I get the sense that he is one of those people who only heard what he wanted to, and ignored everything else.  

That still doesn't make it right. Also what was explained to him before he left, was that he'd be making massive bonuses, so that some of his normal pay being eaten up wasn't a big problem (I doubt they advertised the full extent).

Now there are none of these bonuses to be seen and he is stuck repairing the HVAC system, when he signed on for asteroid mining.

6 hours ago, marinw said:

How soft is the soil in Happy Valley? IIRC is Season Three they found lots of lava tubes and caves, so they could  easily build habitats there.

The lava tubes weren't that big.

I don't think anybody knows what kind of stone there is in happy valley. Might be Tuff, might be Granite. Either way, it should be easier to blonk more habitats on the surface.

But my main point still being, that you want to be under ground anyway, because of the radiation. So this is pretty weird.

Also pretty weird that the corpo wouldn't even make an attempt to make this nicer, with simulated windows and such. But then again, corpos ignoring science that could make them more money, isn't exactly science fiction. Every study done on the subject says that you get more total productivity out of your workers with a 4 day work week than with a 5 day work week. Yet 5 days are still standard.

6 hours ago, marinw said:

Nit Pick: I appreciate the bright lighting when so many other shows are deliberately dark and "moody". Yet the sunlight on Mars is much dimmer, yet the exterior shots are usually nice and bright.

True there is less sun on Mars than on earth, but I'm not sure if what we've seen on the show is exactly wrong. The sun isn't pluto-distance away from Mars and the days are generally fairly well lit. Seems about right to me.

real:

show:

 

Edited November 20, 2023 by PurpleTentacle

[marinw]

Wading into more FAM Tech here. Please be gentle with me! The iPod came out in 2001. Did anyone see one in the background or something? Does Apple even exist in the FAMverse? Seems like a weird omission since this is an Apple Show,

In Margo's Russian scenes, we see a lot of older cars and buses that may be gas, electric, or both. I don't recall seeing that many cars or buses in the US. What would early 00's cars, buses, trains and other types of vehicles produced or sold in the  American FAMverse look like? All I can think about from our timeline is the Prius and some other little electric sedans that have since gone out of production for reasons I won't get into here.

Edited November 21, 2023 by marinw

[PurpleTentacle]

1 hour ago, marinw said:

Wading into more FAM Tech here. Please be gentle with me! The iPod came out in 2001. Did anyone see one in the background or something? Does Apple even exist in the FAMverse? Seems like a weird omission since this is an Apple Show,

In Margo's Russian scenes, we see a lot of older cars and buses that may be gas, electric, or both. I don't recall seeing that many cars or buses in the US. What would early 00's cars, buses, trains and other types of vehicles produced or sold in the  American FAMverse look like? All I can think about from our timeline is the Prius and some other little electric sedans that have since gone out of production for reasons I won't get into here.

Interesting questions. I feel like the show is very inconsistent with its technology advancements. We saw the first practical electric cars in 1983. More than a decade sooner than in our timeline. Yet, we still see a lot of gas cars and buses driving around in 2003, 20 years later. Certainly in russia, but even our working class hero in the US seemed to drive a gas truck. Which is really weird with how we were repeatedly told that electricity is dirt cheap due to fusion, that oil workers are basically all out of a job, that global warming isn't an issue (transportation is a big part of our greenhouse emissions) and how many decades FAM battery technology must be ahead of ours.

I could see the iPod not exactly being rated for radiation in space, but if you kept it powered off during your travel and preferably somewhat shielded, it shouldn't be a problem to use once you are under ground on Mars. So I would expect to see some workers with one. They should have experience with how dull working away from civilisation can be and should have prepared accordingly. So maybe there really is no Apple in this universe. But then, wouldn't another company have invented something similar? Even if there isn't exactly MP3, I'd expect audio compression algorithms to be ahead in the FAM-universe, not behind, as those would be really usefull for communication in space. Well, maybe we'll see one later in the season. It has only been two episodes after all.

[zapper]

While .... "maybe there really is no Apple in this universe." ... I found the apple tree in the lobby of happy valley to be telling :)

[marinw]

1 hour ago, PurpleTentacle said:

Certainly in russia, but even our working class hero in the US seemed to drive a gas truck.

Miles may have swapped out the gas tank and ICE for a battery for his truck.  I think they did that in The Last of Us where they had a lot of cars and trucks but no gas. (And the refined gas that was around would have degraded over time)

A lot of folks would have clung onto gas cars for reasons like cost or simply preferring older cars over newer ones.

Edited November 21, 2023 by marinw

[txhorns79]

5 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

So maybe there really is no Apple in this universe.

They were using the old Newtons last season, so Apple definitely exists.   

[PurpleTentacle]

9 hours ago, marinw said:

Miles may have swapped out the gas tank and ICE for a battery for his truck.  I think they did that in The Last of Us where they had a lot of cars and trucks but no gas. (And the refined gas that was around would have degraded over time)

Nope, you hear the sound of a combustion engine.

I don't know about the last of us games, but in the TV show you see them siphoning gas and talking about how you can't get very far on it anymore, since it degraded. Which isn't how it works, but whatever.

9 hours ago, marinw said:

A lot of folks would have clung onto gas cars for reasons like cost or simply preferring older cars over newer ones.

I don't think gas cars should still be cheaper 20 years in, with rapid technological development and super cheap electricity. Also still doesn't really square with climate change not being a problem, if everbody just hung onto their gas and diesel vehicles, including the buses we saw in Moscow.

[meep.meep]

On 11/20/2023 at 12:39 PM, PurpleTentacle said:

 

The lava tubes weren't that big.

I don't think anybody knows what kind of stone there is in happy valley. Might be Tuff, might be Granite. Either way, it should be easier to blonk more habitats on the surface.

The same technology that Kelly was using to find water is available to help understand the surficial and underground geology.  I know several people who do that for a living right now.

Mars' atmosphere is much thinner than Earth's so a lot of light reaches the surface.  And the day is longer.

[PurpleTentacle]

3 hours ago, meep.meep said:

The same technology that Kelly was using to find water is available to help understand the surficial and underground geology.  I know several people who do that for a living right now.

I meant nobody in the real world knows what the composition there is. Of course they know in the FAM-universe. They've been there for nearly a decade.

3 hours ago, meep.meep said:

Mars' atmosphere is much thinner than Earth's so a lot of light reaches the surface.

But there is also a lot of dust in the air so the light is always somewhat difuse and it is quite a bit less energy that reaches Mars 589 W/m2 vs. 1367 W/m2 on earth.

Still as said above, the days are pretty well lit.

[Joimiaroxeu]

Hi Bob!

It was a little jarring to me to hear them call a day on Mars "Sol" because on Raised by Wolves "Sol" was what the nutty religious space cult called their highest deity.

The powers that be didn't waste any time developing a class system on Mars. Dani immediately picked up on the developing problems while Ed was maintaining a certain blindness to the have nots. Meh, who has time for cake? 😉

Kelly and Aleida had never met before. Huh.

Aleida's daughter mean-mugging hungover Kelly was cute.

What a sorry secret space bar. The homemade vodka looked like pee, lol.

[marinw]

1 hour ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

The powers that be didn't waste any time developing a class system on Mars. Dani immediately picked up on the developing problems while Ed was maintaining a certain blindness to the have nots. Meh, who has time for cake?

The conditions endured by Miles and his roommates seemed equivalent to what Gordo, Ed and Dannielle contended with in the first spay in Jamestown. Only then they were noble explorers and they understood what they were getting into.

[ahpny]

On 11/19/2023 at 7:51 AM, Haleth said:

Poor Margo.  Things go from bad to worse.

I'd didn't quite buy her naivate about the presumed Soviet coup issues. She's been shown to be nothing but bright, and well enough attuned to emotional/social issues to secure the top spot at overly-bureaucratic NASA for decades. More specifically, she can read people and groups and navigate successfully around them (at least after being pushed by Von Braunto do that better). And apparently she's now fluent, or nearly so, in Russian (but with what seems to be a horendous still southern accent, however). How can she not get that this type of political turmoil is something best left unpoked? Even the baker knew to keep his mouth shut. Margo is presumably far smarter and worldly then he is. While she may not have grown up in a culture where people instinctively know to stay far away from certain kinds of trouble, she's certainly been there long enough to pick that up. That would seem to be a lot easier to learn than Russian.

On 11/17/2023 at 4:56 PM, marinw said:

This is looking more and more like a prequel to The Expanse, where all the class struggles will be completely solved. Or not.

The Expanse was more attentive to scientific reality. The Expanse did not have people living for years on Mars' surface, unprotected from radiation issues. While For All Mankind mentions radiation issues and shows some radiation-caused damage (Molly's blindness and presumed death of the Dutch astronaut she saved), this show doesn't quite reach The Expanse's level of scientific authenticity. For All Mankind is also inconsistent with how it treats gravity issues, but it is still engaging and filled with interesting stories.

 

 

Edited March 10 by ahpny