Mars - General Discussion

[Meredith Quill]

A place to discuss particular episodes, arcs and moments from the show's run. Please remember this isn't a complete catch-all topic -- check out the forum for character topics and other places for show-related talk.

[ClareWalks]

This show fascinates me. I did wonder how they got down into that further crevasse by the ice, though, since their cable was totally used up on the first drop.

[Canada]

I want to know how they managed to get so easily back up to the surface during the sandstorm in order to fix the electricity cable.

[shrewd.buddha]

We caught episodes 4 and 5 and will be going back to watch the others on demand. 
I actually like the split between NASA-reality and the imagined future - as long as the real documentary segments don't drag out too long.  It's sort of like The Martian but with a much lower special effects budget. 

It's too bad that NatGeo could not do some joint venture with PBS. I think a lot of people could get into this series if it had more exposure (and less of the really long cable channel commercials). 

Edited December 15, 2016 by shrewd.buddha

[TexasGal]

5 hours ago, shrewd.buddha said:

We caught episodes 4 and 5 and will be going back to watch the others on demand. 
I actually like the split between NASA-reality and the imagined future - as long as the real documentary segments don't drag out too long.  It's sort of like The Martian but with a much lower special effects budget. 

It's too bad that NatGeo could not do some joint venture with PBS. I think a lot of people could get into this series if it had more exposure (and less of the really long cable channel commercials). 

Same on the mix of documentary and fiction.

My random burning question though, is how much black eyeliner did the now-mission lead take to Mars with her?  Or was unmentioned mission one to find a suitable kohl substitute?

[ClareWalks]

1 hour ago, TexasGal said:

Same on the mix of documentary and fiction.

My random burning question though, is how much black eyeliner did the now-mission lead take to Mars with her?  Or was unmentioned mission one to find a suitable kohl substitute?

Good question. Maybe she got the permanent stuff done before she left. I know if I were being sent to Mars I'd get a LOT of hair lasered off beforehand.

[Haleth]

On 12/15/2016 at 5:57 PM, TexasGal said:

Same on the mix of documentary and fiction.

My random burning question though, is how much black eyeliner did the now-mission lead take to Mars with her?  Or was unmentioned mission one to find a suitable kohl substitute?

Not to mention her stylish haircut.

I am really enjoying the series too.  It's slow paced which is a good thing for the mission folks.  Drama is not a good thing for them.  Still I'm waiting for the maladjusted botanist to snap and for Hana and Leslie Richardson to butt heads.  (I had to check IMDB for their names.)

Thanks for adding this, Silver!

Edited December 17, 2016 by Haleth

[shrewd.buddha]

Having gone back to start from the beginning, I was disappointed with episode 3 where they just glossed over the arrival of the second crew and ship -- and about three years of time. It seems as if there could have been a lot of significant moments during that time. Now there are bunch of nameless extras walking around that were not given any introduction. 
You would think it would be a major undertaking for five people to build a settlement that involved lowing everything down a 300+ meter cliff, but they time-lapsed it to the point of looking incredibly easy.  

I also think it is a missed opportunity that TPTB have decided to not show the crew eating any meals, how they spend their downtime, how they deal with cabin fever, or how they handle their hygiene needs (getting haircuts, shaving, etc.)
I would imagine it could become uncomfortable for the commander to exchange messages with her twin sister on Earth who has the luxury of going on vacations, going home after work, eating at different restaurants - - while the commander is stuck living at the office 24-7.

Another aspect of Mars mission they have apparently decided not to bother with is the whole Big Brother, fishbowl situation the crew has to deal with. How would if feel to have hundreds of people second-guessing your every decision and constantly monitoring your every move?  It would be a very weird combination of isolation and overexposure because of the cameras and monitoring equipment. They would also have to deal with keeping up appearances because of corporate/financial pressures. 

I'm still looking forward to tonight's final episode (?), but regret all the missed opportunities. 

Edited December 19, 2016 by shrewd.buddha

[SonofaBiscuit]

I don't like the 2016 NASA/space stuff mixed in with the 2033 story, mainly because I'm enjoying the 2033 stuff too much!  I want to see more of the Mars mission and planet colonization, but I imagine that portion of the show is quite expensive to create (2016 footage there to cut costs, maybe?).  Anyways, I was a bit annoyed with time jump because I became invested in the Javier/Amelie relationship when they were close-talking about rain and lavender, so I wanted to see if the show would develop that.  So...they waited like four years to kiss?!  Was a good kiss, though.  I wonder if relationships between crew members are frowned upon?  Ha, I suppose there's not much they can do to you if that's a no-no.  

Frankly, I'm not sure why anyone would want to travel to Mars and live underground like mole-people.  Too claustrophobic for me!  

[ClareWalks]

When they finally kissed I was like "finally, someone to breed around here!" I mean, they're there to colonize Mars, right? Are they not going to make any babies up there? Do they have a doctor who can perform abortions if needed? No birth control is totally foolproof. I would love to know what the long-term plan is.

[TexasGal]

I'm going to have to watch this last one again - whatever they found on the coils, after further investigation, is evidence of life on Mars?  That is, something was growing on the coils?

[shrewd.buddha]

The final episode was okay, but not great, not I-can't-wait-for-more levels of exciting. The revelation of (microscopic) life on Mars had been telegraphed a few episodes back. The last minute 'save' of the Mars mission felt like a  'Hollywood ending' to me.

There seemed to be a lot more segments of the 2016 documentary in this episode, too, making it more dry than some others. I enjoyed seeing the impassioned speeches given by the scientists who were disappointed with the government's pullback after the Apollo 13 incident. As with all exploration and discovery missions, it seems as if the only thing that will spur interest is some type of competition between countries or a possible financial reward. 

There were a lot of nameless faces in the Mars colony - did they every discuss how many ships had been sent since the first team? And after four years, no one had brainstormed a way to get the first ship over to the main landing site? There seemed to be a lot of missing pieces to the story. 

Maybe this would have been better if it weren't tied to the book "How We’ll Live on Mars", which was not really a dramatic type of story. If only they had been able to get writers similar to those who adapted "The Martian" into a movie. 

[sleepyjean]

Well...that ended with a whimper instead of a bang. Crazy plant guy went nuts, got a bunch of people killed, everybody cried, they thought they'd have to go home, but then they discovered some live cells, and they all lived happily ever after. The end.

I wanted to like this series more than I actually did. I found that I disliked just about every character and couldn't drum up enough enthusiasm to remember their names or care about what they were doing. How did plant guy pass the psych eval and get on the crew with his tendency toward obsessive behavior? Who give a crap about the romance between doctor lady and the guy who mutters to himself in Spanish (not unlike crazy plant guy muttered to himself)? Where'd they get those etched names for the gravestones? How did they plan to evacuate the entire crew with a rocket that only carried 6 people? What were they going to do for food with all the plants dead? Who the hell were all those people living there that we never learned anything about? Why didn't that bitch lady who insisted on laying the lines before dust storm season ever apologize for screwing everyone over?

The finale left me feeling a combination of bored and slightly annoyed.

Edited December 21, 2016 by sleepyjean

[Haleth]

So that's the end?  I think I missed an episode.  At this point I don't care.

[ClareWalks]

9 hours ago, sleepyjean said:

Well...that ended with a whimper instead of a bang. Crazy plant guy went nuts, got a bunch of people killed, everybody cried, they thought they'd have to go home, but then they discovered some live cells, and they all lived happily ever after. The end.

I wanted to like this series more than I actually did. I found that I disliked just about every character and couldn't drum up enough enthusiasm to remember their names or care about what they were doing. How did plant guy pass the psych eval and get on the crew with his tendency toward obsessive behavior? Who give a crap about the romance between doctor lady and the guy who mutters to himself in Spanish (not unlike crazy plant guy muttered to himself)? Where'd they get those etched names for the gravestones? How did they plan to evacuate the entire with a rocket that only carried 6 people? What were they going to do for food with all the plants dead? Who the hell were all those people living there that we never learned anything about? Why didn't that bitch lady who insisted on laying the lines before dust storm season ever apologize for screwing everyone over?

The finale left me feeling a combination of bored and slightly annoyed.

I will just quote you because you said everything I was going to say, practically verbatim. I was like "thanks, bitch, for bringing your fucking crazy husband to Mars! Nobody ELSE brought THEIR crazy husband to Mars!"

[twinkietwin94]

On 12/19/2016 at 2:53 PM, SonofaBiscuit said:

I don't like the 2016 NASA/space stuff mixed in with the 2033 story, mainly because I'm enjoying the 2033 stuff too much!  I want to see more of the Mars mission and planet colonization, but I imagine that portion of the show is quite expensive to create (2016 footage there to cut costs, maybe?).  Anyways, I was a bit annoyed with time jump because I became invested in the Javier/Amelie relationship when they were close-talking about rain and lavender, so I wanted to see if the show would develop that.  So...they waited like four years to kiss?!  Was a good kiss, though.  I wonder if relationships between crew members are frowned upon?  Ha, I suppose there's not much they can do to you if that's a no-no.  

Frankly, I'm not sure why anyone would want to travel to Mars and live underground like mole-people.  Too claustrophobic for me!  

I'm the opposite, after the first two episodes I started fast forwarding through the 2033 stuff and only watching the documentary stuff. The drama stuff just felt so unrealistic to me, then again I love The Martian and even parts of it drive me crazy.

[raven]

It did kind of peter out at that end, didn't it.   I binged it over the last couple of days and started out very interested but gradually lost interest in the dramatized portion.   I love Antarctic exploration history and was enjoying how they were tying that in with a possible Mars mission - harsh terrain, isolation, etc - but I was less interested in re-usable rockets.  

On 12/20/2016 at 0:27 PM, shrewd.buddha said:

I enjoyed seeing the impassioned speeches given by the scientists who were disappointed with the government's pullback after the Apollo 13 incident.

I liked this piece also.  I pretty much enjoyed almost all of the real life interviews.

It was a bit too convenient that in the drama piece they confirmed that life could grow on Mars just when the mission was going to be pulled, but I guess they wanted some tension to spice up the end. 

I stuck with it because overall I was interested, I just would have tweaked it a bit. 

[Enero]

On 12/19/2016 at 6:52 PM, ClareWalks said:

When they finally kissed I was like "finally, someone to breed around here!" I mean, they're there to colonize Mars, right? Are they not going to make any babies up there? Do they have a doctor who can perform abortions if needed? No birth control is totally foolproof. I would love to know what the long-term plan is.

I suspect their mission was set up like soldiers going to war. All of the women (and maybe even the men too. By 2037 maybe men could be on some form of DEPO or the pill) were likely put on some regiment of birth control. Sex is okay, but they didn't need to start procreating for a VERY long time.  It's four years into their mission and IMO they still weren't at a point where they should be bringing children into that environment, much less a a condition like pregnancy. Though it's not much of a risk on Earth, on Mars it would likely be a completely different scenario that could bring a much higher risk of complications for the mother and fetus. I think the idea was to study the environment extensively, then move towards colonization which would lead to families etc. once they had a good understanding of Mars' environment and how they could successfully utilize and interact with it.

I thought this show was okay.  At times it could be fascinating, but at other times sleep inducing. I liked the fact that they did have many things go wrong and dealt with individuals who'd trained their whole lives for this mission, not being able to deal with the stress of the mission in reality.

I do agree with whoever that questioned why anyone would want to go to Mars and live underground indefinitely? I guess that's why there looked to be only scientist on the mission. I assume everyone there was doing some form of research on  how their area of study was affected by the living conditions and environment on Mars. 

[Token]

Wow, just watched the first episode of season 2.... they just ruined this show.  I LOVED season 1 and was really looking forward to this.  They just destroyed it by introducing a bunch of assholes.  I couldn't even finish the episode.  I'm out!

[Annetteboardman]

I was nervous about the show after the first 10-15 minutes, but it did set up some interesting issues (who is the law on Mars, after all?).  And I am so excited to see it back again.  I like the mix of people (characters and actors) on it.

[Razzberry]

I just discovered this show, so had some catching up to do.  I like it and finished the first season yesterday.   Is it wrong that I was cheering Richardson on when he opened the door?  They really need to screen the applicants better, imo.

[pootlus]

I don't mind the introduction of Lukrum.  While the characters are pretty one-dimensional (apart from the engineer woman and the attempt at humanising the commander with the video message from his daughter), the wholesale exploitation of Mars (and the disregard of laws they haven't signed) is pretty realistic - as they pointed out, it happens on Earth already.  I think it sets up some decent conflict between the scientists and the miners.  And they wear DARK suits, see?  Because they are evil.  Hopefully they get more depth.

The speed of terraforming seems highly unrealistic.  The original timescale was by the time that Chinese guy (who looks old enough to have young kids)'s grandkids' retirement (so say 80-odd years from 2042?), and now it's been halved?  Hmm.  Still, it'd be interesting to see if it happens over the course of the series (especially if they make more timejumps or tech improves further).  In Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars books he does it by having treatments developed that dramatically extend life, so major characters live for 200-odd years and see it happen.

[WildPlum]

I don't see the point of mining on Mars - Mars isn't likely to have metal ore veins to mine and even if it did, the cost to get any kind of ore out of even Mars's weak gravity well and back to Earth has got to be prohibitively expensive. And if you were going to mine the moons or the asteroid belt, you wouldn't bother putting a base on Mars.

And I can't see the scientists getting so huffy about Lukrum when the scientists themselves are terraforming Mars by adding solar mirrors. Either you keep the least footprint possible (sealed climate and complete recycling) or you are doing damage to Mars's ecosystem, such as it is.

(Assuming we solve the "how are we going to keep from killing people via radiation exposure on the trip out" question in the next 20 years and go to Mars in the first place.)

 

Of course, I do have to look at this show and think: Oooo, look, it is the prequel to "The Expanse" (formerly on Syfy, soon to be on Amazon).

[pootlus]

On the one hand I'm glad that the plots are really simplistic because I can watch this and only half pay attention, on the other hand it's so frustrating being able to predict everything about ten minutes before it happens.

(There's no spoiler policy in this forum, so I'm going to tag this major plot spoiler for season 2 episode 3)

Spoiler

I really don't get the point of sticking Joon on a shuttle to Mars, making me wonder how they were going to CGI two versions of Jihae for two episodes, only to kill her off abruptly before the shuttle arrived.  It just seemed so utterly pointless when she could still have served a plot point by staying on Earth.  It just seems like some of the last-minute plotting that makes the show so frustrating.

I do enjoy the Mars scenery though.  And I don't know which of the present-day Earth smart bods said it but they were right - now that space is opened up to private enterprise, Mars is never going to be 'pristine'.  There was a chance while it was still governments, but not a hope in hell now.

[sempervivum]

On ‎11‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 3:57 AM, pootlus said:

now that space is opened up to private enterprise, Mars is never going to be 'pristine'.  There was a chance while it was still governments, but not a hope in hell now.

Yeah, because governments are never ever influenced by private enterprise or a profit motive. I hate the cliche of business=villain, considering that without the Musk/Bezos intervention, none of the amazing advancement of space travel would be happening today (IMO). 

I didn't mind the celebrity talking heads interlarding the action when it was more about the science, but lately it seems to be uncomfortably close to political commentary. I keep switching away from this stuff and forget to return; it says something about my fascination with the subject that I'm still tuning in at all.

[pootlus]

15 hours ago, sempervivum said:

Yeah, because governments are never ever influenced by private enterprise or a profit motive.

I did say 'a chance', not that it was guaranteed.

I do like what Musk is doing (Bezos is playing catchup IMO and has a way to go to start driving forward) even if he's a complete dick sometimes (or frequently) and am a big fan of SpaceX.

What political commentary has been creeping in? I haven't noticed, but then I do watch the show while doing other things.

[sempervivum]

On ‎12‎/‎5‎/‎2018 at 4:26 AM, pootlus said:

What political commentary has been creeping in?

Trump bashing and climate change stuff.  It's NatGeo's show and they can do as they wish, but I really am watching this show for ESCAPE

The latest episode 'Contagion' featured a loooong exposition about an anthrax outbreak among the reindeer in a part of Siberia, which the voiceover blamed on climate change (permafrost thaw had exposed diseased animal corpses from an outbreak 70 years earlier). Apparently this was supposed to be a side-by-side with the terraforming/mining taking place on Mars, where something deadly has been dug up (I guess). A poor analogy, IMO, but also calls into question exactly what they consider acceptable activity by man on Mars? Anyway, this is just annoying to me and not what I want to watch.

[pootlus]

Huh, I didn't notice any Trump bashing.  The climate change analogy was supposed to relate to us screwing up yet another planet after we've almost reached (and have possibly exceeded) the tipping point on this one - at least that's the way I read it, thus explaining the reactions of some of the IMSF crew to Lukrum's actions.

With the reindeer I thought that climate change was mentioned as "look, here's yet another bad thing that's going to happen" rather than this trying to be a direct analogy in the drilling instance.  The main thing was just 'here's an unexpected outbreak of disease' IMO.  They could have used digging up plague victims in London or something (which does happen, and they have to take suitable precautions against the bacterium).

I do think that they are spending a long time on the Earth-bound segments, but I guess it's cheaper to interview people than to do CGI/sets for the fictional sections.  I'd rather they concentrated on the science of survival/terraforming, but eh.  Like you say it's Nat Geo's show.

The plot was overly simplistic again and it was obvious that

Spoiler

the Spanish guy wasn't going to die and that Marta was going to save everyone in a guilt trip about her going rogue over the drill site

, but I guess it's not going to change.  Also predictable was 

Spoiler

not!Kevin McKidd deciding that he'd make a better leader.  

Do the Chinese really still use 'basic' penicillin when the rest of the world doesn't in 2042? That seems a little too convenient. Deus ex Beijing.  I'm assuming all this (and portraying the Chinese as a disinterested neutral/helpful party) is to do with flogging the show to China?

Also are Spanish guy and French doctor just okay now? That all got apparently resolved with a single snog last episode when it seems that it should have at least played out for a while.

[Sentient Meat]

I didn't understand why a scientist searching for new forms of life wouldn't be wearing gloves and a hazmat suit to begin with... it made sense that Marta was collecting them in her suit... but then the casual handling of the specimens by her assistant without any protection seemed absurd to me.

Maybe this show is trying to create the magic of both the Cosmos series... blending some hopefully entertaining drama to make the science less dry... but I get why some of you think the present day segments are too drawn out.

What I'm amazed about is that the drama often works in spite of the poor execution...  it's a shame one of the Nolan brothers didn't work on it instead... the themes are so powerful and have such dramatic potential.

They only included one shot of Trump IIRC.  I realize this isn't a political forum but let's try not look at this debate as a binary debate between two sports rivals and consider the science using objective sources not found on Fox or CNN.

The polar caps are melting... this fact isn't in dispute by either side.  Why not err on the side of caution and try to prevent this even if somehow contrary to most scientific data it wasn't man made?  If the scientists are right... we can make life for our children and grandchildren more tolerable.  If the businessmen are right... so they lost a few billion in extra profits.

Sure some scientists have biases and want to make a name for themselves... but history proves that businessmen and politicians tend to be much more evil than scientists.

Edited December 10, 2018 by Sentient Meat

[sempervivum]

On ‎12‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 2:12 AM, Sentient Meat said:

They only included one shot of Trump IIRC.

There was more of this stuff on the latest episode (last night), and I noticed that the interviews (at least on this episode) were almost all with 'journalists' (and Newt Gingrich!) not scientists, which is what I'm more interested in.

What happened with the plague last week? I must have been in channel-turning mode if this was already explained.

How could Hana's second-in-command guy NOT have known how his cutting off power would, uh, cut off power to the Lukrum colony? All I cared about was whether Marvin the dog was OK.

Apparently they found cargo space for a load of smoky eye shadow; I could barely see the actual eyes of the pregnant woman. I would also like some scientists to yak about the potential complications of delivery on Mars; the show sort of glossed over the mother's worries.

On ‎12‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 2:12 AM, Sentient Meat said:

history proves that businessmen and politicians tend to be much more evil than scientists.

Businessmen and politicians tend to have much more power than scientists!

[Sentient Meat]

Modern antibiotics were too sophisticated for the primitive Mars organism.

They determined penicillin would be more effective against a simple one.

American pharmaceutical companies no longer used penicillin so they were able to acquire it from the Chinese satellite.

As soon as they used penicillin, the threat was stopped.

Still can't believe biologists would handle live foreign cultures without prophylactic measures.

[shrewd.buddha]

So, the Mars team leader, Hana Seung, takes her position seriously and does not fraternize with subordinates - for 10+ years ..?
Then she gets the opportunity for a relationship - - but she turns the guy down because he has decided to take a position that gives him a purpose, removes him from being her subordinate, but makes him no longer a part of the initial Mars mission..?
Why not just say "I'm just not that into you"?

We are enjoying the show, but it is sort of bummer now with the reminders of how corporations care more about the bottom line than ... well, most everything.
But it is a bit hypocritical for the 'pure scientists' to complain about the contamination of Mars when they are trying to terraform the entire planet with space mirrors -- okay more than hypocritical. 
And we have had a long history of 'mad' scientists who never let a mouse, monkey, or man stand in the way of 'scientific' discovery. 

Edited December 12, 2018 by shrewd.buddha

[pootlus]

On 12/12/2018 at 4:10 AM, sempervivum said:

All I cared about was whether Marvin the dog was OK.

THIS! Did we ever get a shot of the dog alive? Engineer lady did look upset but then she did nearly die in that very unrealistic "the moment the life support cuts out everyone will die" segment.  Also the dog was perfectly perky all along so clearly he didn't get the memo that he was supposed to be out of air.

Edited December 14, 2018 by pootlus

[TexasGal]

On 12/13/2018 at 6:31 AM, pootlus said:

THIS! Did we ever get a shot of the dog alive? Engineer lady did look upset but then she did nearly die in that very unrealistic "the moment the life support cuts out everyone will die" segment.  Also the dog was perfectly perky all along so clearly he didn't get the memo that he was supposed to be out of air.

My first reaction was - if they brought a dog onto this show just to kill him I'm out!  My second reaction was - doggie actor was not trained to pretend to run out of oxygen.  They tried to sort of crop out his face but you could see him eyes wide open and fine every now and then.

[shrewd.buddha]

I am happy the IMSF (?) leader lady finally got a win - it was a long time coming. And she managed to stick it to the Lukrum CEO. 
Also happy the Lukrum company dog manages to survive all the disasters.

The competitive Lukrum colony plot seems to have been mostly resolved at the end of the season - - also  appreciated. I like that TPTB, for the most part, end the seasons on a feel-good note. 

As for the real-life commentary that was mixed in: I doubt humans will suddenly be thoughtful or careful when/if they colonize Mars. For any group or country that tries to be environmentally respectful, there will be a dozen others who will not. 
For past experience, it seems as if humans change their exploitative ways only when they are forced to by circumstances or lack of resources. 
"What happened to all the trees?" "How is it possible to wipe out all the fish in the ocean?" 

Edited December 18, 2018 by shrewd.buddha

[sempervivum]

Yay! Marvin the dog survived disaster #2. Also a cute Mars-born baby who can breathe! Also water! And clouds!

Again, half of the show was various 'authors' (not scientists as far as I could tell) preaching about climate change. We're supposed to be horrified at the Lukrow 'barbarians' using explosives to get through basalt to reach water, yet we're apparently expected to cheer the success of the terraforming-as presented, doesn't this seem contradictory?

They need to make a better case for why changing a planet's climate(!) to make it livable for humans is more ethical than extracting the water that is absolutely vital to their continued presence on Mars. (leaving aside the tragic consequences of the one decision-so far)

And really , no matter how desperate they were to start making money for the corporation, why would Lukrum be drilling/blasting so CLOSE to their base, that just seems stupid at this point (where they know very little about the geology, etc. of Mars). 

[pootlus]

I feel like an idiot because I just realised why the dog was called Marvin (Marvin the Martian).  Glad he lived though!

Much more action this week, and the usual 'end on a hopeful note' wrap up of the season. I wonder if there'll be a next season now there are CLOUDS?

[Haleth]

I'm a week or two behind (just watched the epidemic episode) but wanted to say how much I'm enjoying this season.  Except seeing that toad Newt Gingrich.  (No pun intended.)

I think the justification for terraforming Mars is that it once did have a water/oxygen climate so science was just returning it to its previous state?  The organisms in the sand did not "wake up" until exposed to the oxygen in the lab.  The scientists didn't destroy the native organisms, they renewed them?

I'd like to think that the scientists we're seeing are the ancestors of Alex Kamal and Bobbie Draper.

[raven]

I finished watching the second season yesterday and had the opposite experience then when I watched the first - I was more interested in the fictionalized portion than in the real world talking heads.  The real world people became extremely repetitive - yes, it's an important message, but they were basically giving us different variations on the same theme.  Some were more interesting than others but I ended up FF through most of them in the last couple of episodes.

Some of the fictionalized portion was predictable - Hana's second in command going rogue when he got the chance; explosives being a disaster - but it was still interesting to watch.  When they running out of oxygen at the Lukrum station, the woman in charge is telling everyone to get into their suits and..no one does?  That was odd.  She gets major points from me for going back to rescue Marvin.  OK, I remembered the dog's name and not hers - Jen, I looked it up.

I was highly annoyed with Hana's sister - very selfish of her to take that chance IMO

Spoiler

- her colleagues end up having to deal with her corpse and then deliver it to her sister.

I felt a little badly for incredibly-fake-looking-baby in the incubator for two months with apparently no human contact.  I understand the medical reasons but don't babies need human contact too?  It didn't look like there was a place to put in your (covered) hands but maybe I missed it.  Then again her diaper must have needed to be changed so maybe they did reach in once in a while.   That plotline was a bit of a whiplash - mom is supposedly completely ready to get back to Earth until she finds out she's pregnant.  I understand it was a long trip back and all but her change of heart was abrupt to me.

 

Quote

I think the justification for terraforming Mars is that it once did have a water/oxygen climate so science was just returning it to its previous state?  The organisms in the sand did not "wake up" until exposed to the oxygen in the lab.  The scientists didn't destroy the native organisms, they renewed them?

I'm not really sure about this - sometimes organisms die out for a reason.  Or maybe they were just fine with the way they evolved.  If there is a S3, maybe these themes will be explored a bit more because CLOUDS!

On 12/21/2018 at 8:19 AM, Haleth said:

I'd like to think that the scientists we're seeing are the ancestors of Alex Kamal and Bobbie Draper.

Me too :)

[Rus-L]

On 12/6/2018 at 11:51 AM, sempervivum said:

Trump bashing and climate change stuff.  It's NatGeo's show and they can do as they wish, but I really am watching this show for ESCAPE

The latest episode 'Contagion' featured a loooong exposition about an anthrax outbreak among the reindeer in a part of Siberia, which the voiceover blamed on climate change (permafrost thaw had exposed diseased animal corpses from an outbreak 70 years earlier). Apparently this was supposed to be a side-by-side with the terraforming/mining taking place on Mars, where something deadly has been dug up (I guess). A poor analogy, IMO, but also calls into question exactly what they consider acceptable activity by man on Mars? Anyway, this is just annoying to me and not what I want to watch.

Ironically, at the time NatGeo made this show, they were owned by FOX.

They did not blame the Anthrax outbreak on climate change directly.  They specifically said the outbreak was caused by forest fires (which of course could be blamed on climate change) which thawed out the deer carcasses, releasing the Anthrax.  Then, they went on to say future warming of the Arctic could release more pathogens.