so far, the show seems to be holding up pretty well, although a few things have me puzzled.

why is the blonde geologist still so interested in maddux, isn't she convinced that he lied to her about his vasectomy? (even though he didn't). i would be pissed if i were her. and did the new commander, (the black guy) really have an affair with the old captain's wife before take-off? and why did the captain get a case of the sulks until the old captain chewed his ass out? you'd think something disturbing enough to put a seasoned, high ranking astronaut in a psychological funk wouldn't be curable with just a little chewing out.

after re-reading the above I can see this really is "space opera", but maybe something about the mystery behind the mission will explain some of this. it looks like the secret is unraveling at mission control and the crew is starting to figure out that headquarters is feeding them a line of bull, things are falling apart pretty quickly on the antares.

incidentally, i looked up "antares" and it isn't just the name of a star, it also means "rival of mars". could this be a clue, given the tragedy of the mars mission maddux and the skipper were on?