Countdown to chaos

Can five college friends save humanity from an allen threat in a sci-fi epic from the creators of Game of Thrones?

- REBECCA MAHONEY

NEW SCI-FI 3
Body Problem
From Thursday 21 March, Netflix

Ever since fantasy juggernaut Game of Thrones ended almost five years ago, the world has been eagerly awaiting the next epic offering from showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. Now, the master storytellers are back with their unique take on a series of sci-fi novels, promising mindblowing physics, virtual adventures and a huge star-studded cast.

The duo have joined forces with True Blood writer Alexander Woo to adapt 3 Body Problem, the first book in Chinese author Liu Cixin's Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy, which follows how a murder during the Chinese Cultural Revolution alters the fate of the universe and triggers an extraterrestrial threat.

The series unfolds over intertwining timelines, but begins in 1960s Beijing, when astrophysics prodigy Ye Wenjie (played by both Zine Tseng and Rosalind Chao) suffers a tragic loss and makes a vengeful, far-reaching decision.

Meanwhile, in present-day Oxford, a group of scientist friends known as the ‘Oxford Five’ – Auggie (Eiza González), Jack (John Bradley), Jin (Jess Hong), Saul (Jovan Adepo) and Will (Alex Sharp) – question why experiments all over the world are beginning to fail.