The Expanse - 'Dulcinea'

Juliette Mao (Florence Faivre), Joe Miller (Thomas Jane), Naomi Nagata (Dominique Tipper), Jim Holden (Steven Strait), Alex Kamal (Cas Anvar), Amos Burton (Wes Chatham) and Chrisjen Avasarala (Shoreh Aghdashloo)

In the not-so-distant future, humanity has expanded to Mars and the Asteroid Belt. Earth is a technocratic paradise under the authority of the UN, Mars an independent military power and the Belt a hellish industrial serfdom where oxygen and water rationing are used to control the Belter population of Ceres, whose work mining the asteroids keeps Earth and Mars supplied with raw materials. In our opening episode we split out time between Ceres, Earth and the Belt itself.

Lost in Space.

We open with Julie Mao, a woman trapped in a small compartment in zero-G and running out of water. She manages to break out to find the ship deserted and apparently bloodstained, eventually reaching the engine room where a human is apparently melting into a fizzing blue... something. Atmospherically speaking, my mind leaps to Event Horizon and holes into Hell, but it might just be the reactor.

Cut to Ceres, essentially the Belter capital. Under Earth control, Ceres is the theoretical flashpoint for any future conflict between Earth and Mars. Belter cop Detective Miller is doing nothing for the douchey image of men in hats. Considered a race-traitor for working for the company, he's kind of like Harvey Bullock without the charm, although by the end of the episode he has at least gone back on a deal to turn a blind eye to a guy cheaping on his air filters and leaving his tenants choking on bad air. He's also been given a special assignment, off book, to find Julie Mao and send her home to her wealthy family.

Worst trilby ambassador ever.

On Earth, UN official Chrisjen Avasarala pays with her grandson before interrogating a Belter terrorist by making him stand up in Earth gravity. Not much for the character, but the scene is a good piece of world-building.

Probably the bulk of the episode is spent aboard the ice miner Canterbury. Detoured when acting XO Holden reports a distress signal from Mao's ship, the Scopuli which the captain would have preferred to ignore. They find the ship empty and the distress transmitter proves to be automated pirate-bait. As they head back, a stealthed Martian ship destroys the Canterbury, leaving Holden and his rescue crew stranded in the shuttle Knight.

There's a lot of world to build in 'Dulcinea', and it does pretty well. It's not perfect - a hard SF series really ought to be wary of 'stealth' spaceships, although I'll give them the benefit of the doubt for now, and the 'flip and burn' manouevre looked a little too violent - but it's pretty good, and utterly committed to being a serious SF series for serious people. Definitely worth episode 2.