Could the original executive officer in The Expanse (s1e1) be referencing Mark Watney in The Martian? [closed]

Question

I've been following a great series called The Expanse recently. I was showing the show to a friend and we started it from the beginning,

There's a scene in the very first episode where the main character James Holden (played by Steven Strait) goes into the original Executive Officer's (played by Jonathan Banks) dorm to find him going crazy and stepping in dirt. They also mention he had been talking to his plants for months.

I don't know how I decided there could be a link between the two but it just triggered something. I thought they could be referencing main character from The Martian (the book) to whom gets stranded on Mars for 550+ sol, and he studied Botany at University (which could explain him talking to his plants)

Also in the scene he's walking around barefoot trampling dirt and in The Martian he used over 100 square ft of The Hab to grow potatoes. Meaning he would have walked around in dirt for a long time.

The guy literally goes crazy in the scene and shoots his weapon at the screen and starts sobbing, wouldn't years in isolation on Mars send you crazy?

Could there be a link between the two?

Answer 1

The Martian and The Expanse do take place in the same fictional universe, according to the authors.

That's probably jokingly based on an easter egg in Babylon's Ashes where a ship is named "the Mark Watney", named after the main character in The Martian, as covered in this answer.

However, your connection between the two works based on a short scene from The Expanse seems a little tenuous. I don't really see how it contains anything that directly references The Martian.

I don't know how I decided there could be a link between the two but it just triggered something. I thought they could be referencing main character from The Martian (the book) to whom gets stranded on Mars for 550+ sol, and he studied Botany at University (which could explain him talking to his plants)

Just to clarify, are you asking if the XO of the Canterbury is supposed to literally be an older Mark Watney? The Martian takes place in 2035, while The Expanse takes place around 2250–2350, so that's not possible. Apart from that, I don't think it's conspicuous that a guy in space who misses Earth brings plants.

Also in the scene he's walking around barefoot trampling dirt and in The Martian he used over 100 square ft of The Hab to grow potatoes. Meaning he would have walked around in dirt for a long time.

This seems even more vague. The XO misses walking barefoot in dirt. Mark Watney did not walk barefoot in dirt (or did he?), and he probably wouldn't miss walking around in the dirt of The Hab growing potatoes.

The guy literally goes crazy in the scene and shoots his weapon at the screen and starts sobbing, wouldn't years in isolation on Mars send you crazy?

This is the longest leap. Yes, isolation on a spaceship and isolation on Mars could both drive you crazy, but I don't understand what that has to do with this scene.

In addition, the authors of the respective works "decided" it was canon that their works were in the same continuity on or around October 3, 2015. That's about half a year after the pilot episode, where the scene in question is from, was first screened.

Could there be a link between the two?

So yes, there is a link between the two works, but I doubt there's a link between the scene you mention and The Martian.