So anyone who has seen any television ever will agree that the first episode will say a lot about a show, from Lost to Game of Thrones. TV shows have to make a impression in order for anyone to continue watching them. A while back SyFy released a series called Battlestar Galactica that became the staple of science fiction television. Easily joining the ranks of such great science fiction shows like Babylon 5, and Star Trek The Next Generation. Well recently SyFy shows have been less than lack luster, from the meh  like Defiance to Dominion to the WTF shows like all those reality shows that made me face palm asking what are you doing SyFy.

In recent times, SyFy definitely heard my pleas and many others. When I first heard they were doing a show based on a book series I love called The Expanse written by James S.A. Corey. I knew SyFy could not mess around, it has to be all or nothing. Now after watching the first episode of The Expanse I can safely say that SyFy wants to return to the glory days of SG1 and BSG where they had the best shows in science fiction and wouldn’t let other stations like HBO and Showtime to steal their thunder.

For those of you who don’t know. The Expanse isn’t just a “space ship” show like Star Trek it is more of a realistic version of space travel. In the future mankind has colonized the solar system and only the solar system cause let’s face it, beyond Pluto you can’t really go anywhere else. Not without warp drive which doesn’t exist cause its not possible. Now to get to the story without giving much away. Mars and Earth are walking on pins and needles to avoid war, and there are a group of people who live in the asteroid belt who call themselves “The Belters” who basically mine everything in the asteroid belt. Also it involves a detective who has to go and search for a missing girl, and a ship of water haulers who get a distress signal…now I don’t want to go into much more than that cause I don’t want to give anything away and I want you all to discover it for yourself.

What I can say, it is very nice seeing Thomas Jane come back and play a badass like he did in The Punisher. He plays Detective Miller and he does such a great job as a cop in the Belt. I always did see him in the role and he executes it perfectly. Now also Steven Strait plays Holden, who just incase you don’t know who that is, he was in Magic City and 10000 BC. I thought he was alright in Magic City but here he actually plays a very good XO to the crew of Canterbury. Also one surprising actress to be in this show is Sholreh Aghdashloo who if you don’t know she was in Flash Forward, and 24 and also for all you nerds, she voiced Admiral Shala’Raan vas Tonbay from the Mass Effect Trilogy. She currently plays a new character I believe…still checking on this but I believe she plays a character that wasn’t in the books.

Overall, I am loving the first episode, it helps establish the universe of The Expanse. The sets, the cultures, and the ships especially play a part in the book that the show has captured with very fine detail. So far the first episode follows closely to the first book called Leviathan Wakes very well. I know SyFy is trying to recapture its science fiction audience that has gone to networks like AMC and HBO since us science fiction nuts have had to go elsewhere to get our great shows. If the rest of the season is as strong as the first episode then we are definitely in for a treat when The Expanse debuts December 14th at 9pm central.

If you wish to catch the first episode you can watch it on syfy.com