Mars Season One
Red state
released 10 april 2016 | 12 | Blu-ray/dVd Director everado Gout Cast Jihae, alberto ammann, Clémentine poidatz, anamaria Marinca
Drama projects are turning up in the strangest places nowadays. In the wake of the History Channel’s success with Vikings, National Geographic are the latest to get in on the act with this ambitious fusion of fact and fiction, which portrays an attempt at colonising the Red Planet two decades in our future.
Aiming to be rigorous and factual, the series depicts the many problems life on Mars would present, from inhospitable temperatures to dust storms that last for months. It also intercuts events in the 2030s with segments of pure documentary, in which present-day experts (including figures like Neil deGrasse Tyson and The Martian author Andy Weir) discuss the science and history behind the events depicted in the drama.
This documentary strand is consistently excellent, with each episode exploring subjects like the planet’s environment, the psychological strain colonists could come under, and the historical events that hobbled Nasa’s post-Apollo attempts to start a Mars mission.
The drama thread also explores and echoes these subjects, but not always in the most successful way. Produced on a modest budget compared to something like The Martian, the show is at its strongest when concentrating on the various battles for survival, but stumbles when trying to tackle the bigger, more profound themes (especially with its clunky and overwritten voiceovers). The casting is also mixed – there are plenty of strong performers but a number of weak links. The result is a strange hybrid of a show that’s always fascinating but never quite rises above its many flaws.
Extras There’s a sizeable Making Of (45 minutes), as well as behind-the-scenes featurettes on filming, the sets and the cast (14 minutes). Prequel short “Before Mars” (32 minutes) follows two of the characters in 2016, and comes with a brief behind-the-scenes bit of its own. Then there are 16 mini-docs on practically every aspect of Mars (34 minutes), and interviews with a dozen cast and crew (24 minutes). Saxon Bullock
Erfoud, a desert in Morocco, stood in for Mars. The cast wore special clothing with tubes pumping cold water to keep cool.