Sources:

Erid and Adrian's data are from Andy Weir's astrophage physics.xlsx spreadsheet.

I actually haven't watched Avatar (lol) so I'm not sure which source is the most reliable. The data in the table is taken from the Avatar Fandom Wiki which claims its data is from "James Cameron's Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide, p. 6" - which is self-contradictory because a planet moon with 11,447 km diameter and 0.72 M🜨 would have a surface gravity of 0.89g instead of 0.8g. Something weird is going on here. Anyways I love the concept of habitable moons!!

Cybertron's depiction varies greatly from continuity to continuity and sometimes even changes a lot within the same continuity. The info here is taken from the calculation in the blog Cybertron's Size in "The Ultimate Doom". Absolutely adores this persons' calculations.

Trisolaris - everyone calls it hard sci-fi but little information is provided about the planet itself. In real life an unstable three-body system as described in the book cannot persist for long and would soon end in collision or ejection. And planets can't even form in such an unstable environment. Yet that planet somehow survived and turned out to be Earth-like and developed life and those lives even decided to seize Earth because our conditions are basically a more stable version of their condition. Such a miracle world.

A widely known fun fact is that Pandora, Cybertron, and Trisolaris are all from the Alpha Centauri triple star system. Cybertron's orbit is unknown. Pandora's planet Polymorphous orbits Alpha Centauri A aka Rigil, while Trisolaris basically gets tossed around by all 3 stars of the system.

Why is nobody (except the Daily Mail) talking about this?

Months ago, I remember talking to friends about 2 or 3 deaths, and now there are 10. Something is happening... Feels like watching the three-body problem happen in real life.

In the first book of Liu Ci Xin's Three Body Problem series, we are introduced to our main antagonists, the Trisolarans. Whilst we never get to see them directly, we are shown some of their biology via the game that our protagonist plays.

ID: A grand domed palace in a chinese style sits in the background of the image. The foreground has hundreds of ancient Chinese soldiers holding white placards on sticks. Two people dressed in Chinese armour can be seen riding horses towards the palace.

In the game it is revealed that Trisolaris, the planet in the Alpha Centauri system on which the aliens reside, revolves around not one, but three suns. As such, the system is subject to the classic physics conundrum of the three body problem (after which the first book in the series is named), which states that for most initial conditions the trajectories of three celestial bodies is chaotic and difficult to predict.

This means that Trisolaris experiences very extreme, unpredictable conditions, divided into "stable eras" and "chaotic eras". Stable eras come about when Trisolaris settles into orbit around one of its three suns, bringing relative prosperity to the planet. However, chaotic eras result in disasters, such as extreme droughts, seemingly endless nights, and even changes in gravity. The first novel partially revolves around the Trisolarans attempting to see if humans could collectively solve the three body problem and bring some level of predictability to their planet.

During the course of the game, it is revealed to the protagonist (and us, the readers), that in order to cope with the devastation and unpredictability of chaotic eras, the Trisolarans can dehydrate themselves and enter a spore-like state, hibernating until the next stable era comes. This allows them to bypass some of the extreme conditions and ensures the survival of the species as a whole.

Believe it or not, we have our very own Trisolarans here on Earth. In fact, there's loads of examples, from bacteria to triops, to my favourite of the bunch, Bdelloid Rotifers.

ID: An electron micrograph of some Bdelloid Rotifers and their mouthparts. They are long and slender, with a distinct mouth and tail section. Their mouthparts look like two semicircles lined with a comb-like structure.

These microscopic animals look freaky, because they are. If you've got any media literacy you've probably picked up by now that I am segueing here because they are somewhat similar to the aliens in the Three Body Problem, except this time they are very much real. Like the Trisolarans, Bdelloids live in very ephemeral environments: their usual haunts are the very thin film of water on moss and lichen. As you can imagine, these do not last all that long, and thus when they dry up, so do the Bdelloid Rotifers; in biology, we call this process anhydrobiosis.

"Ok, that's all well and good Ocean Sunfish Hater, but why do you like these guys more than the other anhydrobiotic creatures that roam our good, green Earth?" I hear you ask.

So you know how things that reproduce asexually don't have all that much genetic variation, and how sexual reproduction gives you an edge over asexual populations since you can keep that genetic variation fun and funky fresh, and how that has been the cornerstone for eukaryotic reproduction? Well. Well. Just like me, Bdelloid Rotifers have been completely celibate for 35-40 million years, with some people even bringing that number up to 100 million years, when they diverged from their sister clade. So how do these turbo-virgins not go extinct, racking up tonnes of deleterious mutations, not having any advantageous innovations, and eventually exploding into a genetic soup?

The secret lies in their ability to dehydrate. Not only is it a really handy dandy way to stay alive when your only source of water is gone, it literally rips apart their cells and genes! And why! Why the fuck does that help? It sounds like the opposite of helping!

ID: An electron micrograph of the foot of a Bdelloid Rotifer. It has been shaded a light green. The structure looks almost like a face, with a smile and two stalk-like structures that could be mistaken for eyes. But this is not a face.

Having this mild-to-moderate level of cell membrane and chromosomal damage enables the Bdelloids to take up genetic material from their environment, mostly via their digestive systems, where their last meals are slowly being broken down to reveal that juicy DNA inside. When the water returns and the Bdelloids rehydrate, this genetic material gets incorporated into their chromosomes as their cells get back to work repairing themselves. And they sure ain't picky. In fact, it has been shown that in some species of Bdelloids, up to 8% of their genetic material has non-animal origins. How cool is that?

This is probably what has allowed them to continue adapting and evolving, even when they have been reproducing asexually for so long. This strategy has been so successful that the Bdelloids have managed to diversify into over 450 species. Pretty impressive for a class of animals that haven't had sex in over 40 million years.

Perhaps the Trisolarans might have a similar mechanism as part of their biology (even if they do reproduce sexually as stated in the book). Maybe they've managed to survive for this long because they have been able to absorb useful genes from their home planet, just like Bdelloids have been doing here on Earth. I don't know if these are what Liu Ci Xin had in mind when he wrote the Three Body Problem, but they sure were what I was thinking of when I read the book.

At the start of the third episode, another dead scientist is found. I noticed that I really like Benedict Wong's new voice actor. It gives a clear distinction from his role in the MCU films. Usually, I’m not a fan of such changes, but in this case, it works really well.

The relationship between Will and Jin is explored in more detail here, which I appreciate because it makes what follows more understandable. In the book, I missed this a bit, even though the author touches on it, but I felt it was a bit brief.

When Auggie discovers the game and rushes to the others, I find what Saul says very interesting, or rather how he says it. It also becomes clear that Jin and Jack don’t fully understand the game’s objective yet. As a viewer, it seems obvious, but from their perspective, it makes much more sense. They don’t know it’s about the three-body problem; they see the game world just as the Trisolarian civilizations do.

Level two also shows that the civilizations are still focusing on the wrong priorities, a point made clearer in the book. Sophon (Tomoko) later explains this. The Trisolarians always focus on survival and realize very late that this isn’t viable and that they need to consider leaving their world. This is where the series could have emphasized the Trisolarians’ dire situation more. The number of civilizations before the fleet launch is only briefly mentioned. (I know this will happen later through Sophon, but it could have been built up a bit better for suspense.)

The games Clarence lists actually exist. Here are the Wikipedia links if you want to check them out:

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Jet Set Willy

I've been wondering if there’s an equivalent to Jin’s friend in the book, but I don’t think so. There is someone who leads a later operation, like Raj Varma, but I don’t think there’s a connection to Jin in the book.

Ah, now I remember what I wanted to write in the last post. The sound design is worth mentioning. The first time you notice it is when Vera plunges into the tank, but it stands out again in the third episode when Auggie tries to restart the nanofiber project, and the countdown begins again. It’s impressive both visually and audio visually.

What I also like about Sophon’s (Tomoko’s) portrayal in level three is how she floats. Usually, characters that float look like they’re suspended from their hips, hanging like a sack. But here, they did it differently. Either she wears a different harness, has excellent posture, or stands on a post and was then edited in. It looks different and superior, which fits her character perfectly.

I wish they had spent more time on communication and the differences between the two civilizations. (Scene on the Judgement Day with the old Michael Evans)

When Jack and Jin are invited (level four), it’s clear that while the characters in the series have the same traits as their book counterparts, some things are shifted. According to the book, Auggie should be the one to solve the game’s puzzle and go to the summit in London, since she is the series counterpart to Wang Miao, who did all this in the book. (Please don’t take this as criticism; I just enjoy noting these differences!)

Towards the end, Sophon (Tomoko) explains how the Trisolarians ventured into space and how humanity is involved.

Jin and Jack undergo a test to see whose side they’re on. We also see more of Tatiana, who in the book is just a bodyguard for Ye Wenjie. But the kindness of the Trisolarians, shown again through the little girl, doesn’t last long. Thomas Wade and Jin Cheng will learn much more later, which I’m looking forward to because it’s one of my favorite parts of the series.

We know the stakes, the characters involved, and the motives of various factions. But it only gets crazier from here in many ways.

Up to this point, there's a lot that is fascinating and exciting. When it’s later explained how some things came about or how they worked, it may lose some impact, but the explanation is even more fascinating. I find this incredibly exciting and a testament to a high degree of creativity in science fiction.

I found a quote from D.B. Weiss about the series' content and how far they want to adapt the books:

“We always wanted to get to the final page of the third book, and it’s really, really thrilling to us that we will get to do just that.”

This is reassuring, so I don't have to worry about the series ending abruptly or strangely. However, he also mentions that while there’s no episode list yet, there will likely be 8 episodes per season again. This feels too few, and I fear they might leave out important parts or alter too much.

Okay, I'm seriously considering whether I should write one or two posts per episode because I haven't even really started the second episode yet, and I could already write books about the first episode.

During my last rewatch, I had just finished the first book. As I mentioned, I have now read all three. I'm currently fascinated when I see Jin Cheng (Jess Hong) because, thanks to the books, I know what will happen to her in the future. In my fascination, I assume she is Cheng Xin from the book. I know, the names are similar, but the characters in the book are changed in a lot of ways in the series, so I don't know what will happen in future episodes.

The bar scene at the beginning of the first episode is very relatable to me; that kind of place was never my thing, and when it changes for the worse, it's always super annoying.

The way they depicted the countdown here is also very interesting because, in the book, they are images taken with a camera. Here, Auggie gets them projected directly onto her retina.

Oh, by the way, the Netflix series is not the first adaptation of the books. There is also an original Chinese series with over 30 episodes and a CGI series that, unfortunately, was never released. I hope this changes because the trailer looks incredibly good.

Here is the link to the Chinese series (through the Viki Rakuten portal).

This series is incredibly close to the book, but I only watched the first two episodes back then because I didn't want to spoil myself. But I will change that in the future.

Therefore, I don't know how far the series goes and if it really covers all three books. I have an uneasy feeling that Netflix might decide to include only part of the trilogy in the series.