Characters:

Auggie Salazar (Eiza González), a nanotechnologist and member of the "Oxford Five”. A woman with a real conscience, who doesn’t care about the money but about the welfare of the planet. Jack Rooney (John Bradley), an entrepreneur and member of the "Oxford Five". Jin Cheng (Jess Hong), a theoretical physicist and member of the "Oxford Five”, she is the one  who comes up with the idea to prepare an early answer to the invasion plans of the San-Ti. Will Downing (Alex Sharp), a sixth form physics teacher and member of the "Oxford Five" who is diagnosed with stage 4 cancer early on. He is madly in love with Jin Cheng but he never told her and currently she in a relationship with Prithviraj Varma (Saamer Usmani) a Royal Navy Officer. Saul Durand (Jovan Adepo) a research assistant and member of the "Oxford Five”, former boyfriend of Auggie. He sees himself as unimportant but apparently, the San-Ti do find him of great importance and that’s why he was selected as a Wallfacer! (Someone who will independently develop secret strategies for defeating the San-Ti.)

Rosalind Chao (current) and Zine Tseng (past) as Dr. Ye Wenjie, an astrophysicist whose spiteful decision as a young scientist threatens the survival of humanity. Thomas Wade (Liam Cunningham), chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), who also heads the global Strategic Intelligence Agency. He is a real hard-ass, he is a bit of a lout. But he is determined to defend our earth against these San-Ti. Marlo Kelly (Tatiana Haas), is a fanatical member of a group of humans working for the San-Ti. "Sophon" (Sea Shimooka), a sophisticated intelligence platform used by the San-Ti to communicate with humanity. These Sophon, are the eyes and ears of the San-Ti, nothing happens on earth without them knowing about it. The only thing they cannot do, is reading minds. Clarence (Da Shi) (Benedict Wong), an MI6 officer working for Wade and the Strategic Intelligence Agency. Mike Evans (Jonathan Pryce), a friend of Ye Wenjie since the 1960s who shares her view that humanity should be eliminated. He has become a prominent member of the small group of humans working for the San-Ti. (characters with help from Wiki)

Origins of the story:

In the 1960’s, in China, Dr. Ye Wenjie, who had to endure many hardships when she was young, becomes involved with a secret scientific project designed to make contact with extraterrestrial life. At a certain point she makes contact with an extraterrestrial being, who tries to warn her about his or her own people, that they are invasive. But Dr. Ye Wenjie believes humankind deserves to be destroyed, so she pushes through.

Decades later, the consequences of Ye's actions begin to emerge. Scientists around the world start dying under mysterious circumstances, while others encounter disturbing evidence that the fundamental laws of physics may no longer be reliable.

The Mysterious VR Game:

This game transports its players to extraordinarily realistic worlds where civilizations rise and fall because of the unpredictable behavior of a planet orbiting three suns. It turns out that it is not just a game: it is connected to the extraterrestrial civilization known as the San-Ti.

The game turns out to be a genuine scientific problem: predicting the motion of three gravitationally interacting bodies is far more complicated than the two-body case. The San-Ti face this instability on a planetary scale.

Humankind discovers the San-Ti:

We learn that the San-Ti’s home planet is approximately 4 light years away from earth and that they’ve decided to leave their dying and unstable home system. The horrific revelation is of course that they are coming to earth. Their journey will take centuries though, approximately 400 years before they will arrive. So, even though there is no immediate danger, this knowledge has been given humankind a deadline. The San-Ti have evolved much further than humankind and they posses technology which is way beyond ours.

The San-Ti can interfere with our scientific progress, through incredibly advanced technology. Through these Sophons they are able to manipulate observations and experiments, creating the appearance that established scientific laws are breaking down. This threatens our ability to develop the technology humankind would need to defend itself.

The Human Response:

Instead of waiting for them to arrive, Thomas Wade and his intelligence organization begin developing a strategy for humanity's eventual defense. The Staircase Project is one of the most important initiatives, which attempts to send a human brain toward the approaching San-Ti using a tiny space probe. Will Downing, who is terminally ill, ultimately becomes central to this extraordinary mission.

Meanwhile, a new project has been set-up, called the Wallfacer project. Three individuals will independently develop secret strategies for defeating the San-Ti, their plan must remain hidden, even from their own colleagues because the San-Ti possesses technology capable of monitoring humanity, but they cannot read minds.

The season finale episode “Wallfacer” brings many of these storylines together. The Staircase Project launches, will it succeed? Saul is unexpectedly selected as one of humanity's Wallfacers. Meanwhile, these San-Ti are approaching while the earth has centuries to prepare for their arrival.

Final Word / My thoughts about the first season:

As I said, I really enjoyed the first season, for I believe it is quite an original story, as a TV show anyways. An alien civilization who is coming to conquer us, but they will not get here for centuries, but they do have the ability to interfere with our scientific progress. It definitely is a different science-fiction story than we are used to, again, on TV that is. The characters are genuine, strong acting, very capable actors. A story that spans several decades, the story also crosses many (country) borders, it is not just based on a particular place in the world, it is a globally told story. Besides the alien storyline, there is also a humanity storyline, these friends who are trying to deal with this situation, who are worried about their friend Will, who has cancer, it is interwoven quite nicely.

The 3 Body Problem is a TV show that I don’t watch when I am tired because you have to be alert, to not miss anything. It is not a fast-paced action-oriented SCI-FI drama, it is slow going, which is perfectly fine by me, but that means I must not watch it when I am tired.