@christopherbrown @killyourfm But the TV show drops the whole thing and moves briskly on to completely other mysteries, a pattern that is repeated again and again.

So, as a result, although it reaches for greatness, in the end those parts of it only really serve as an epic but ultimately meaningless backdrop to the gritty politics in the foreground.

@christopherbrown @killyourfm ...and are then replaced, unremarked, by whatever is presented in the next series.

As an example, take the protomolecule from series 1. Where did it actually come from? What was it's purpose? Was it accidental that it ended up sitting dormant in our solar system for billions of years, or was that part of its creators plans? Why did it turn people into nuclear zombies? What was the intended purpose of the gate it created?

Maybe these are resolved in the books.

@christopherbrown @killyourfm yeah, fair. I have a love/hate relationship with it. On the one hand, by some measures it is clearly the best classic science fiction series that has ever been on television. Subsequent series keep up the high standards in effects and writing and story and characters, depicting an evolving gritty reality.

On the other hand, it is mostly a very literal story. What I call "a ripping yarn", by which I mean it might be exciting or enthralling, but...