How the best character in ‘The Expanse’ changed sci-fi for the “better”

The best character in The Expanse swears all the time.

Even before The Expanse became a TV series — initially for the SyFy Channel, then for Amazon — Chrisjen Avasarala was a fan favorite among readers.

She’s not a twenty-something fighter but a seasoned politician, navigating the complex relationships of the various factions in The Expanse, from Earth to Mars, the Belt, and the infamous Outer Planets Alliance.

In the middle of the first two seasons, she appeared in 2016’s Star Trek Beyond as Commodore Paris, Captain Kirk’s boss at Starbase Yorktown.

“I love, love, love interacting with the fans,” Aghdashloo gushes.

“I was talking to a friend of mine who’s a member of the Labour Party in the UK, who was not in favor of science fiction,” she says.

What about all of Avasarala’s weaponized swearing? Does Aghdashloo ever feel like it’s too much? When asked, she laughs, and it feels impossible that the dignified Shohreh Aghdashloo would ever use profanity.

I went to Ty Franck and I said, ‘Ty, you never told me, am I doing this right?’ And he looks at me and he goes ‘You’re better than what we thought or what we put in the books.

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