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Why? “We gotta do it, they’ll be poking holes in us,” Holden explains. Soon after, the crew seal up their flight suits so they can depressurise the ship. Because the first thing I thought, being a fucking dweeb, was “As soon as they switch on the engines that coffee cup’s going to go flying.” Nevermind, it’s hardly the most egregious failure in accuracy in a sci-fi show. The Rocinante is a stolen ship, built by Mars, now a freelance vessel in the business of justice for the exploited. It’s emblazoned with the initials “MCRN” – Martian Congressional Republic Navy. Further down the ship James Holden, the captain, takes a sip from his sealed coffee cup and then lets go of it. Inside the Rocinante, its Martian pilot, Alex, reaches out and grabs his helmet, floating motionless beside him.
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The vulnerable freighter Guy Molinari aims to board the station with detachable breacher pods, whilst the gunship Rocinante covers the attack and intercepts enemy defence vessels. Here’s the scene: two ships are docked to one another, the Rocinante and the Guy Molinari, and en route to a mysterious station, which is their objective.
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It does more to shape character development than some of the main cast members of other shows. James Holden’s Coffee Cup may only appear on screen three times in a single episode, and it may not get any lines, and it may not be some mysterious glowy blue material that drives interplanetary wars, but James Holden’s Coffee Cup us more important to the narrative than you will ever realise. Look, at some point in your life some bright spark is going to wax lyrical at you about how manipulative and amazing Avasarala is, or how charming Alex’s cowboy affectations are, how compelling Gunny’s naive idealism is, but forget all that: the real star of the ‘The Expanse’ doesn’t even get listed in the credits.