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This page is about the Tv icon TV character. For the books incarnation, see Alex Kamal (Books).
Book-icon-simple Books character Tv icon TV character


Alex Kamal was a veteran navy pilot originating from Mars. Having undergone military training, he was one of the best and most precise pilots in the Sol system. [2]

That was one hell of a ride.
— Alex Kamal
in Season 5, Episode 10: "Nemesis Games" ("Jumping ship" [16:50])

Biography[]

Background[]

Alex was born on Mars, in the Mariner Valley. Having grown up there, Alex was raised with the incongruous Texas drawl that has caught on among the largely Indian and Chinese population who live there. Unlike the rest of his sizable family on Mars, Alex looked at the generations-long terraforming project with a sense of restlessness and dread.

With dreams of flying fast attack gunships, he enlisted in the Martian Congressional Republic Navy.

After his tour honorable service discharge, a sentiment of adventure developed within him and made him determined to seek a pilot job in the industrial navy of the Asteroid belt. Alex served aboard the Pur'n'Kleen ice hauler, Canterbury as one of her pilots alongside his crewmates until the vessel's destruction.


Throughout the series[]

In "Dulcinea", a small crew from the ice hauler Canterbury – Alex, Amos Burton, Naomi Nagata, Shed Garvey and Jim Holden – respond to a distress call from a seemingly abandoned ship, the Scopuli. Once aboard, they discover the distress call was planted. Shortly thereafter, the small crew watches as a ship with advanced stealth technology blows up the Canterbury, killing the rest of the crew that wasn't on the smaller Knight.

In "The Big Empty", with oxygen dwindling, Alex and the surviving crew of the Canterbury struggle to stay alive in their shuttle. They theorize the Canterbury’s destroyers were Martian, since the distress call transponder was of Martian Naval origins and since it used stealth technology. Jim Holden broadcasts a public message that implicates Mars in the attack, thus ensuring he and his crew won’t be killed by Mars, for fear they’ll look more guilty. The message goes out just as a Martian warship, the Donnager, approaches the shuttle.

In "Remember the Cant", the Martian navy detains and interrogates Alex and his crewmates over Holden’s public accusation that the MCRN destroyed the Canterbury. Given that Alex was part of the MCRN for twenty years, he is treated better than the rest, creating distrust among his crewmates regarding his motives. In his defense, he focuses on the suggestion that Naomi is OPA.

In "CQB", the Donnager comes under attack by a fleet of stealth ships just like the one that destroyed the Canterbury. The crew realizes this indicates Mars’ innocence. Though Shed is killed, Alex pilots a Martian attack ship, the Tachi, to safety away from the exploding Donnager, saving Holden, Naomi and Amos and regaining his crew's trust.

In "Back to the Butcher", Alex and his crewmates escape the Donnager’s destruction through the fighter ship, the Tachi. They receive an offer of help and refuge from Fred Johnson. After much debate, given Fred’s reputation, they decide to take him up on his offer, shortly before disguising the ship with the new name of the Rocinante.

In "Rock Bottom", Alex and his crewmates arrive on Tycho, where Fred Johnson reveals that he was the one that chartered the Scopuli, the ship whose distress call starts the chain of events that destroyed Alex's ship, the Canterbury. He tells Holden he needs their ship, the Rocinante, to go find the Scopuli’s sole survivor – code name Lionel Polanski. Holden agrees to lend the ship if he is part of the crew, as Lionel might be able to reveal who really destroyed the Canterbury. Fred reluctantly agrees, and Holden, Naomi, Alex, and Amos decide to stick together until they get answers.

In "Windmills", on the way to retrieve Lionel Polanski, the person that can reveal who destroyed their ship, Alex and co. elude detection by a Martian warship thanks to Alex’s experience in the Martian Navy. They discover Avasarala’s spy, Kenzo stowed away aboard the Rocinante.

In "Salvage", Alex and the crew find the Anubis at the coordinates provided by Lionel Polanski. They realize the Anubis was the stealth ship that blew up the Canterbury, and is filled with a dangerous substance that must have killed the crew. The crew traces the Anubis’ shuttle to Eros, where they meet Miller and escape UN Undersecretary Errinwright’s team of assassins, only to discover the agent they’re looking for – Julie Mao - is dead and infected with the same strange substance.

In "Critical Mass" and "Leviathan Wakes", Alex and his crew compare notes with Miller. Both parties realize that the trails they’re following point to the bioweapon that made its way from Phoebe. Eros goes on lockdown, and Miller deduces it is the work of the same people responsible for the bioweapon. Alex and the crew escape via the Rocinante. Moments before Dresden, the principal culprit for the genocide on Eros, escapes, Alex manages to record an encoded transmission being broadcast from his stealth ship. Alex and the others vow to find Dresden, the lead scientist who is responsible for locking down Eros to use its population as an experiment for the bioweapon.

In "Safe", in the aftermath of the Eros station disaster, Naomi and the crew of the Rocinante are once again on the run, this time with a sample of the protomolecule, the extrasolar lifeform responsible for all of the havoc on Eros station. With so much at stake they decide to reconvene on Tycho with Fred Johnson, the very man who sent them there in the first place.

In "Doors & Corners", once on board Tycho, the Rocinante crew hatches a plan to eradicate the protomolecule, the extra-solar life form that destroyed Eros. Alex pilots the Rocinante towards Thoth, a Black-Ops station hidden in the belt and the whereabouts of the foremost protomolecule scientists. Once they approach Thoth, Alex engages in battle with an unknown stealth ship while protecting the two breaching pods slated to board Thoth. Only one of the pods survives.

In "Static", Alex is scarred from the battle at Thoth Station, where he blames himself for not having prevented twenty-five members of a boarding pod from dying. Alex runs the simulation over and over again, determined to learn from his mistakes and never again be responsible for the end of someone else’s life.

In "Godspeed", Fred Johnson and Miller inform Alex and the Rocinante crew of their plan to get rid of the Protomolecule threat on Eros once and for all: by using a commandeered Nauvoo as a battering ram, they plan to push Eros into Sol. Eventually, Naomi gets on board with the plan. Alex, Naomi, Holden and Amos take off with the massive generational ship the Nauvoo in tow, which will be used to destroy Eros and the protomolecule. Once they get close to Eros, they encounter a small rogue Belter ship, the Marasumus, has boarded Eros and been exposed to the protomolecule. Holden has no choice but to fire upon the Marasmus crew lest they infect the rest of the system with the protomolecule. Later, the Rocinante crew launches the Nauvoo into Eros, but the asteroid defies all physics and dodges the starship.

In "Home", with Eros now hurtling towards Earth at speeds that defy physics, Holden and the Rocinante crew convince the UN to give Fred Johnson the codes to a horde of nuclear missiles so that he can control them remotely through information the Rocinante feeds him. The UN agrees, but it is Miller that saves Earth when he convinces a protomolecule-Julie Mao hybrid controlling the asteroid to change course to Venus.

In "Paradigm Shift", Alex and the Rocinante crew return to Tycho and are hailed as heroes. Alex regales a group of women at a Tycho bar, with tales of his adventures, when a jealous Belter picks a fight with him. Amos steps in and beats the man half to death, shocking Alex in the process. Alex does not know what to make of Amos’ gesture, but it appears to cause a rift between the two. Worried about the sample of the protomolecule still in the Rocinante’s possession getting in the wrong hands, he convinces the rest of his crew to blast it into the Sun to destroy it. Naomi, thinking it may be valuable to the Belters, secretly saves it, lying to Holden in the process.

In "The Seventh Man", Alex and the crew of the Rocinante are pitching in to help the Ganymede refugees when their attention gets pulled towards Anderson Dawes. When Anderson attempts to flee Tycho station with protomolecule expert Cortazar in tow, Alex and Naomi chase after his ship. They are able to pierce the Epstein drive on his ship to immobilize it, but when they capture the vessel, only Diogo is on board. Anderson has outwitted them.

In "Pyre", Alex and Amos continue to clash over offering help to the people of Tycho. After the disaster they both witnessed on Eros, Alex cannot stand that Amos is totally unaffected and tensions between the two are raw. Then, they depart for Ganymede to destroy the protomolecule that is there.

In "The Weeping Somnambulist", Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are en route to Ganymede, but need a way onto the damaged Jovian moon that is less conspicuous than boarding with a Martian gunship. They hitch a ride on an aid ship called the Weeping Somnambulist and conscript the unwilling help of two Belters for safe passage to Ganymede. Alex stays on the Rocinante and hides behind a smaller Jovian moon called Cyllene, to lay in wait until they need help, which will probably be sooner rather than later, as Ganymede seems to be a hot bed of destruction and corruption.

In "Cascade", Alex has parked the Rocinante behind one of the Jupiter’s smaller moons Cyllene, when he gets a warning that Ganymede is now considered a no fly zone and that any ship found in the vicinity will be fired upon. The lockdown of Ganymede station brings memories of the last days of Eros flooding back.

In "Here There Be Dragons", Aboard the Rocinante, Alex receives a warning from the Martian Navy that only one ship, the Karakum, has been cleared for landing on Ganymede. He checks the Karakum’s flight plans and sees that they are landing near where Holden and crew are investigating. To avoid detection, he plots an engine-less slingshot route around Jupiter’s moons and lands the Roci right where Holden and the rest of the gang have been investigating Mei’s disappearance. He and Holden see a protomolecule-human hybrid in open space without a vacuum suit.

In "The Monster and the Rocket", Alex, Holden, and Prax are in pursuit of the human-protomolecule hybrid on Ganymede. The creature seems to evade their every move, and Prax suggests that he himself try to reason with it, but Holden is convinced that it needs to be destroyed. When MCRN ships surrounding Ganymede target lock on the Weeping Somnambulist, Alex and Holden abandon the chase in order to save them. They are successful in this endeavor; however, unbeknownst to them, the hybrid creature seems to have latched onto the Rocinante and is now burrowing into the ship’s hull.

In "Caliban's War", Alex and the Roci crew discover that the human-protomolecule hybrid aboard the ship and must construct a plan to destroy it. In the ensuing battle, Holden gets pinned to the wall by one of the cargo boxes that the creature hurled at him. Luckily, the creature seems more interested in finding the ship's nuclear power-source than killing the captain. Prax and Naomi board the exterior of the ship with one of the Roci’s nuclear missiles. When Alex cuts power from the Epstein Drive, the creature is drawn to the radiating energy of the missile's core. Prax hurls the core away from the ship and the creature leaps after it. Then, Alex turns on the engines to incinerate the hybrid.

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Personality[]

Having grown up in Mars' Mariner Valley, Alex was raised with the incongruous Texas drawl that has caught on among the largely Indian and Chinese population who live there. He did not accept consecrating his life to the terraforming project, a project whose result he would never see. Much like Holden, once he dedicates himself to a cause, he won't stop until it is completed.

He likes to talk to the ship, encouraging her to perform, as in, "C'mon, darlin'." He did once make the mistake of referring to Bobbie Draper with a diminutive, and she made it clear that it wasn't welcome!

Alex has a warm personality and enjoys fixing food for his crewmates. He misses his wife and son, even though he left them on their own and allowed them to think he was dead.

Despite his humble beginnings as a transport pilot, Alex possesses a distinct capacity for daring acrobatics behind the Roci's controls, and on numerous occasions bails the crew out of immediate danger through icy calm, total determination, and uncanny knowledge of his craft. This calculating precision does not rob him of his humanity, however- Alex is in many ways the one member of the Roci crew who consistently makes an effort to bring the other three together, particularly following explosive arguments and altercations. He is a family man, and though his original family is beyond him now, he seems to seek to fill their void with the family he's found aboard the Rocinante. He is particularly fond of lasagna, and uses meals and light conversation as a salve for keeping morale aboard his ship high.

Alex is a country music fan, and often can be found alone on the bridge singing along to the music in his headphones.

Upon learning of James and Naomi's relationship, Alex and Amos burst out laughing and indicate to the bemused Holden and Nagata that Alex has just lost a bet regarding whether they actually were together.

Memorable Quotes[]

Right? Megatons of thermonuclear ordinance, state-of-the-art guidance systems, and, somehow, thirty of them didn't get that self-destruct message. They just kept on going [to] who-knows-where. Kind of an unsettling thought, don't you think? Yeah, it is.
— Kamal to Holden in "Paradigm Shift"


Appearances[]

Season One
1 "Dulcinea"Appears
2 "The Big Empty"Appears
3 "Remember the Cant"Appears
4 "CQB"Appears
5 "Back to the Butcher"Appears
6 "Rock Bottom"Appears
7 "Windmills"Appears
8 "Salvage"Appears
9 "Critical Mass"Appears
10 "Leviathan Wakes"Appears
Season Two
1 "Safe"Appears
2 "Doors & Corners"Appears
3 "Static"Appears
4 "Godspeed"Appears
5 "Home"Appears
6 "Paradigm Shift"Appears
7 "The Seventh Man"Appears
8 "Pyre"Appears
9 "The Weeping Somnambulist"Appears
10 "Cascade"Appears
11 "Here There Be Dragons"Appears
12 "The Monster and the Rocket"Appears
13 "Caliban's War"Appears
Season Three
1 "Fight or Flight"Appears
2 "IFF"Appears
3 "Assured Destruction"Appears
4 "Reload"Appears
5 "Triple Point"Appears
6 "Immolation"Appears
7 "Delta-V"Appears
8 "It Reaches Out"Appears
9 "Intransigence"Appears
10 "Dandelion Sky"Appears
11 "Fallen World"Appears
12 "Congregation"Appears
13 "Abaddon's Gate"Appears
Season Four
1 "New Terra"Appears
2 "Jetsam"Appears
3 "Subduction"Appears
4 "Retrograde"Appears
5 "Oppressor"Appears
6 "Displacement"Appears
7 "A Shot in The Dark"Appears
8 "The One-Eyed Man"Appears
9 "Saeculum"Appears
10 "Cibola Burn"Appears
Season Five
1 "Exodus"Appears
2 "Churn"Appears
3 "Mother"Appears
4 "Gaugamela"Appears
5 "Down and Out"Appears
6 "Tribes"Appears
7 "Oyedeng"Appears
8 "Hard Vacuum"Appears
9 "Winnipesaukee"Appears
10 "Nemesis Games"Appears


Media[]


See also[]

References


External links[]

News

Icon-syfy-22x22 syfy.com: Fantastic Feasts: Alex Kamal's Expanse lasagna recipe

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