The Expanse's Secret Weapon? Actual Science

The show features colorful characters, sharp dialogue, and complex political machinations, but what really sets it apart from other sci-fi TV is the realistic way that it handles gravity and orbital trajectories. Much of the credit for that goes to showrunner Naren Shankar, who holds a PhD in physics and engineering from Cornell. "Most space battles are just re-hashes of World War II fighter battles in the Pacific," Shankar says in Episode 240 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. "And that's fine, if they want to be that kind of a fantasy, but I find great beauty in the way the ships move in our show." That attention to detail is most evident in Episode 4, "CQB," which is set aboard a damaged spacecraft whose engines are failing, resulting in an intermittent loss of the ship's artificial gravity.