The past few years have seen a flood of different sci-fi shows and movies, from the out-there fare like Netflix's "Star Trek Discovery" and "Another Life" and Amazon's "Star Trek Picard" to blockbusters like Denis Villeneuve's new film "Dune" to blockbusters like Denis Villeneuve's new film "Dune". But the standout sci-fi show for me is "The Expanse."

It is based on hard science fiction where gravity and the laws of physics really matter, such as "Leviathan Wakes" by James S. A. Corey (actually the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Frank). The "Expanse" series debuted in 2015 and gained a cult following thanks to its gritty depiction of what life would be like if humans succeeded in traveling to the farthest reaches of the solar system.

The astronauts in "The Expanse" don't wear futuristic onesies and breeze in the breeze like the crew of the USS Enterprise, but instead wear magnetic boots to keep them from floating around in zero gravity. Also, when a spaceship like the Rocinante, the hero of The Expanse, activates Epstein Drive, the crew is injected with a cocktail of drugs to negate some of the dangerous effects of the high-G "burn."

This is a harsh reality of space travel, but it creates an interesting ship design and maneuvering, and a deep plot of intrigue centered on the various factions vying for status, resources, power, and survival throughout the solar system. But there is also a mysterious, otherworldly alien element that other science fiction works have failed to convey.

So I'm a big fan of the series, which is why I'm excited that Bethesda's "Starfield" has a whiff of "The Expanse."

"The Expanse" could be the setting for a great game, especially since the next season of "The Expanse" will be the final one, and I doubt the developers will license it. However, Bethesda's new "Into the Starfield: However, from the looks of Bethesda's new video, "Into the Starfield: The Endless Pursuit," a tantalizing mix of Skyrim exploration and a realistic sci-fi setting, the game It could be.

The new video is mainly Bethesda boss Todd Howard and fellow developers talking about how they are approaching "Starfield" with a similar scope to "Skyrim" but with more realism, but some new screenshots/artwork were shown.

The screenshot below shows the interior of what appears to be a spaceship. Instead of holographic displays and hissing sliding doors, it looks brutally functional.

Webbing is used to hold things in place, not a buzzing force field. And the walls are crammed with storage units and other details that show that no one has wasted space in space. I love the Normandy as a ship to explore between missions in Mass Effect Legendary Edition, but from this shot, it looks like Starfield's ship has a lot to offer.

Turning to the exterior, the shot of the spaceship below is not a sleek saucer or a sharply angled ship, but one that could have been created by both NASA and the ship designers for The Expanse.

Function rather than form appears to be employed here, indicating that spacecraft need to be designed to handle the rigors of space, not merely to look cool as they slip between gas planets.

Again, this looks like the kind of ship you want to look at closely and in detail in the game.

And in a way, this is very similar to what I did in Skyrim. But rather than gazing at the paneling and plumbing, I was drawn to the books, jars, goblets, and other knick-knacks in the halls of the various jars.

Another similarity to Skyrim can be seen in the last fresh screenshot above, where the ship is framed in against the setting sun.

Skyrim has many fascinating sunsets, and they were wonderful then in 2011 and still are today. And I spent hours just positioning the character's gazes to get the perfect screenshot of the land bathed in the reddish-orange hues of the setting sun.

The film also has a brilliant visual sense and strange, mesmerizing sunsets, thanks to Amazon taking over the production of "The Expanse" and preventing it from being canned by SyFy.

[3] In short, "Starfield" could be a mix of "Expanse"-inspired hard sci-fi and "Skyrim" exploration. If so, November 22, 2022 will be a very pleasant time for me and my fellow sci-fi fans.

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