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RI have been rewatching the TV series For All Mankind. The basic premise of the show “explores what would have happened if the global space race had never ended”.
It begins in 1969 with the moon landing. Except, it’s not Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin who step out onto the surface of the moon, but a Soviet, Alexei Leonov, who proclaims the achievement in the name of ‘the Marxist-Leninist way of life’.
NASA, outraged, steps up their efforts to get Americans there. The USSR keeps up the pace by putting the first woman on the moon, prompting NASA to embark on training a cohort of female pilots to be astronauts.
For All Mankind is an alternative history, a fantasy, and a science fiction show. Many of the characters are based on real life people, or outright depict historical figures, such as Saturn V rocket designer Wernher von Braun. The blurring of these lines makes for compelling viewing, because although
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the stories are not factually accurate, there are echoes of real personalities and allusions to real events.
This made even more effective by the clever use of archival audio and video footage. We see or hear: JFK, Gorbachev, Nixon, Kissinger. We also get glimpses of astronauts: Alan Shepard, Jim Lovell (who was aboard the infamous Apollo 13 flight), and Gus Grissom (who was tragically killed in the Apollo 1 capsule on the ground during a launchpad fire). Also depicted are: Pope John Paul II, John Lennon, Tom Brokaw and even Kurt Cobain.
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As for mixing in allusions to historical events, the show opens with Ted Kennedy as president, who, concerned about the Soviets pulling ahead, skips the Chappaquiddick party and thereby escapes the incident that ensured that back in the real world, he would never become president. Instead, however, the show has him being caught in an extramarital affair with Mary Joe Kopechne who was killed in the Chappaquiddick incident.
Similarly, a faulty O-ring (determined to have caused the Challenger explosion in 1986) in the series causes a fatal launchpad explosion (reminiscent of the real-world Apollo 1 explosion and death of three astronauts).
The pace of ‘For All Mankind’ is fast and broad swathes of time are covered quickly. Season (i) takes place from the late 60s to early 70s; the second season is set in the mid 80s, and the third is set
in the mid 90s.
As the space race progresses, we see the superpowers of the era compete to find water on the moon and build a moon base. We see some militarisation of the moon, which includes some interesting discussion about how guns might work in a low gravity environment. By the second season, space is being commercialised and an entrepreneur has built a hotel in orbit around Earth. By the mid-90s, the race to Mars is full-on.
The technology is futuristic. They find a way to mine and exploit Helium (iii). Nuclear engines are critical to the moon base, and to the trip to Mars.
Meanwhile, despite their great achievements, no one has a perfect life. Beloved characters die.
They suffer alcoholism, crippling perfectionism, failing marriages, untimely family deaths, and opt for marriages of convenience in order to advance politically.
The series is one of Apple TV’s originals. The creators are also responsible for several Star Trek TV series, the Battlestar Galactica of the 2000s, and the Outlander TV series.
As a bonus, there is a South African actress playing an astronaut who rises in the rank of NASA to ultimately become one of the most powerful people on the planet.
The whole series is a good watch and an interesting speculation on the world that could have been. Season (iv) is due to be released in the coming weeks.