“The inspiration of the race is the race,” Edmund Blyden

For the uninitiated 

“The series explores what would have happened if the global space race had never ended.” –IMDB, but more specifically it speculates on what we might have done had we not been the first country to put a person on the moon.

Now that you’re caught up 

There is a lot to like about this series – a lot! A great cast, great writing, awesome era-appropriate soundtrack, and just enough drama mixed in to keep it feeling interesting on a human level. The first thing I liked about this show was that it posits the theory that coming 2nd place to Russia where being the first nation to land a man on the moon spurred us to race towards something else to take 1st place at, a lunar or, perhaps, Martian station. Either way, it seems Reese Bobby of Talladega Nights said it best, drunk or not, “If you’re not first you’re last.” Humorous though the philosophy may be, it’s still fairly accurate given the zeitgeist of the 60s to be 1st in space as far as reaching low Earth orbit (LEO), which we lost to Russia with Sputnik 1, then again when Yuri Gagarin became the first man to reach LEO and make a single orbit. 

So not only does Russia beat us by succeeding with the first manned-mission to the moon, but get this one all my fellow egalitarians: they also put the first woman on the lunar surface as well maybe a few months after! What does US President “Tricky” Dicky, who’s not keen on being one-upped by a foreign power, do? He makes sure NASA has women ready to rock ‘n roll for space! The first all-female astronaut candidate (informally ASCAN) class including a first not even found in the original Right Stuff crew, one of the computer women – see Hidden Figures (2016). Danielle Poole, played by Krys Marshall (Supergirl, This is Us), becomes the first black lady astronaut – like I said, there’s a lot to like about this show. 

Next up on my list of why this show did so well was Colm Feore’s (Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, Chicago) portrayal Dr. Wernher von Braun: bravo! So much indeed that I didn’t realize that was Colm until the second episode where he declines to follow Nixon’s directive to make the proposed lunar station a military base; consequently, Nixon’s men fillet him for his involuntary involvement in the 3rd Reich’s SS prior to the end of WWII and gets dismissed from NASA thus. 

Along the lines of historical figures in the show whose lives I was (mostly) pleasantly surprised to see play out as differently as Dr. von Braun’s did – some less pleasantly than others. Apollo 11 continues on much like what actually happened with some additional drama because it’s TV; however, unlike all the fanfare and notoriety that Neil and Buz and Mike got following their return to Earth originally this time they received no fanfare as NASA finds itself panicking to setup a moon-base, but first Donald “Deke” Slayton – played by Chris Bauer (The Wire, True Blood) — of the Mercury 7 crew is ordered to recruit and assemble the aforementioned first all-women ASCAN class. While of course none of those ladies were historical figures many of the tests they were subjected to including learning to operate the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle were definitely historically accurate as the LLRH nearly cost Neil his life. 

After ruling out 15 of the 20 initial candidates Deke’s got my own favorite of the crew slated for Apollo 15, Molly Cobb played by Sonya Wagner (Anon, Flashforward). Initially cynical of the program as anything more than Nixon showing prospective voters that anything Russia can do the US can appear to do better – she wasn’t wrong, though she finds that regardless of PR campaigns when Deke Slayton says she’s an astronaut he’s serious about sending her up with Apollo 10’s commander Ed Baldwin played by Joel Kinnaman (Altered Carbon, Suicide Squad) for Apollo 15. 

Baldwin’s got some solid moments, and more than a few. For instance, when Nixon’s committee is looking for every reason to dismiss von Braun they ask Baldwin whether it was von Braun who cost us the moon on Apollo 10 and Baldwin stuck to his Naval philosophy, “Up there it’s my ship to command.” Well, Nixon’s men being Nixon’s men still found a reason to fillet von Braun over the aforementioned matter of his background with the SS. My initial reaction to the Nixon committee rubbing von Braun’s face in something he had no choice in put me on the border of nausea. 

Another one of the cool parts of this show was how the all-lady ASCAN class inspired so many women around the world to take up studying math, physics, engineering and so forth much like I can only imagine the men of Mercury 7 must’ve received as well. In the middle of the class some of the fanfare gets posted outside the classroom in the form of fan mail. Still every bit the cynic about actually becoming an astronaut (rather than merely a candidate), and to the surprise of some of her classmates, Molly is unmoved by the notion of fan mail. For the time being her husband Wayne is all the fandom she’s looking for. 

Meeting Wayne Cobb, the former pre-med cannabis-smoking artist husband of Molly, was rather nice. I related to him on so many levels, including a rather human moment where Ed’s wife Karen is working at her all to maintain an everything’s-going-to-be-alright façade while Ed and Molly use Apollo 15 to scout for a lunar landing site; Wayne and Karen share a very human moment about their shared fear of Apollo 15 potentially failing in some way. I liked most of all the characters in many ways, but Wayne I connected with for his willingness to show vulnerability. During the Apollo 15 launch he grabs Karen Baldwin’s hand as the SaturnV rocket launches. And Ed Baldwin comes up with a line that has the kind of clout as Lovell’s famous line about having “a problem,” shortly after the close-out crew closes the hatch on Apollo 15 Molly states that it was a whole lot of fanfare given they hadn’t really done anything yet. “Well, you did just strap your ass to a half a ton of high explosives for government pay. It’s not smart, but it’s something.” That earned a belly laugh out of me! 

Unfortunately, by the 2nd episode we find that while the race for the moon has greatly accelerated our space program the patriarch is every bit alive and well. The all-female ASCAN class being the biggest for instance of that no less. While that class showed a great step forward one of the new lady astronauts it turns out is bisexual leaning lesbian. Sadly, the late 60s and 70s were not known for sexual tolerance in government circles. 

While the Apollo program pushes well into 18 and beyond President Ted Kennedy signs the Equal Rights Act into law, upon which the company who had been manufacturing the Saturn rockets switches and an alternative manufacturer’s parts are used for the launch assembly. The switch to a different manufacturer leads to a catastrophe on the launch pad for the slated Apollo 23 launch killing 11 members of NASA ground crew including historical figure Gene Krantz played by Eric Laden (American Sniper, Boardwalk Empire). That accident was one of the moments in the story where I found myself wondering if the writers meant to suggest that equal rights doesn’t mean equal quality of work. In case you didn’t pick up on that, yes, they get well into the 20s on the Apollo series. 

So, speaking of intolerance in government circles there’s a witch-hunt that ensues in light of the accident from Apollo 23. The FBI assigns itself to investigate the accident on the premise and unfounded suspicion of possible Soviet and/or internal sabotage. Their only suspects are those staff members with even the most remotely questionable social lifestyles (like being seen visiting clubs of noted homosexual activities), and a modest Mexican janitor working at the Houston Flight Center who had to use unconventional means to gain entry into the US – he had to get a fake social security number. Suffice to say, much like I questioned the writers for the suggestibility of the Equal Rights Act juxtaposed to the launch accident so too did I find myself questioning the writers with how they needlessly persecute the NASA staff; left me wanting to call them the Federal Bureau of Instigations. 

Moving beyond the aforementioned witch-hunt were some scientific hang-ups that made little-to-no sense to me. For starters, while Ed and Molly are on the moon there are more than a few scenes where either character appears to be looking into the direction of the sun, but their sun visors aren’t down. Yet in other sequences when they’re facing the same way the visors are down. What in the Star Wars?? Continuity carries a lot of weight. Fortunately, the show makes up for these (potential) errors by speculating that there is ice on the moon. What’s that mean, science fans? A location for the first lunar base – codename: Jamestown. 

You could almost think of episodes 7 – 10 as the 2nd act of the first season in that we not only put a woman on the moon (Molly), but starting in episode 7 former “computer” Danielle Poole is with Ed Baldwin and Gordon “Gordo” Stevens, played by New Zealander Michael Dorman (Daybreakers, Triangle), all “holding down the fort” on Jamestown as NASA is in a further panic to relieve them. For the whole first season I’ve been wondering if Gordo was based on historical fellow Mercury 7 astronaut Gordon Cooper. 

What really came across as interesting in the ladder half of the season was that utter sensation of isolation. 3 individuals mostly stranded on the cold and totally unforgiving lunar surface just waiting as patiently as they can for a proper relief crew. If you have ever read Scott Kelly’s Endurance the author talks about how frustrating it got one day when he received a call from one of his daughters back in Houston while he was doing his year-long stint aboard the ISS and NASA had made the request of his daughter’s call seem like an emergency – she was looking to say hi. If something had been an emergency there would have been not a thing he could have done about it from so many thousands of miles above Earth in LEO. Same could be said for the crew of three at Jamestown, only considerably worse. 

Even though stuff was still happening back on Earth, for better and worse, stuff was also happening up there on the moon not far from Jamestown. One thing I loved about what the writers suggest about the Russians is that no matter what we try to pull ahead with and come in “1st place” with they will just keep pushing on anyway. If you have ever gambled, even a little and won, you know winning is a drug in its own right. While the crew at Jamestown work to mine the ice in the Shackleton crater the Ruskies are also keeping an eye on things from their own lunar base, Zvezda.  

Unfortunately, it’s just one round after another of bad news as far as the updates from NASA about numerous launch delays regarding Apollo 24 relieving Jamestown’s current occupant. Finally, when the ship is launched into orbit there is yet another hang-up trying to reach ignition for transit to the moon from Earth orbit known as trans-lunar injection (TLI). Not that there hasn’t already been so many other firsts we get to see yet another first, and this one a particularly exciting one: a low-earth orbit EVA to repair the problem on Apollo 24. Don’t get me wrong, I’m fully aware that the Gemini and Mercury missions were chiefly LEO EVAs so what should make this particular EVA any more unique? First and foremost, you’re just going to have to watch the show and see for yourself.  I will say the repair job doesn’t quite go as expected. If you saw the movie Gravity and got that sensation of ah, shit when the debris knocks George Clooney’s character into irretrievable deep space, well, you get that same sensation for Molly once the repair mission goes awry. 

Apollo 24’s stage 4 booster fires prematurely as the computer mistakenly thinks it’s back on track for TLI yanking Harrison Liu into the booster’s jet blast and strapping Deke Slayton helpless to the side of the rocket for quite a while; finally, as Ellen Waverly – played by Jodi Balfour (The Crown, True Detective) –  comes back to consciousness from the g-force of the stage 4 booster she gets Deke pulled back into command module, and they’re both able to course correct enough to get back on track for Jamestown. The last episode had both its ups and downs: the biggest downer was the way Deke pretty much admonished Ellen for her bisexual lifestyle, but as I thought about it he wasn’t wrong and in fact states that while he understands her choice “there are still to many like,” him, “in the world.” Appreciably modest. The upside: once the remaining crew member –now Captain- Baldwin of Jamestown is properly relieved and sent home. Unfortunately, he got some of the worst news a man can receive while he’s away from home – another part of the show where I questioned the writers’ motives.  

Alas the finale of the credits shows a scene over the Pacific with Ed and Karen Baldwin in the background talking about the latest launch. Initially this fairly big object begins to ascend out of the water and you hear Ed mention that it’s a Plutonium payload meant to expand Jamestown. The rocket that comes out of the water is nothing shy of behemoth. Maybe three Saturn 5 rockets! I was also pleased to see this other rocket – basically a Sea Dragon – getting used in lieu of the Space Shuttle vehicle that NASA became synonymous for. In other words, there’s going to be a second season!