Even if they have no plans to join NASA, I think they will find it inspirational. Also, if you have daughters, definitely watch it with them. Nothing is ever perfect, and not every plot line in For All Mankind works, but this is a great show and more than deserves its upcoming second season. One of the great things about this show is that you don’t know which rocket will crash, or who will get to the moon. There are beautifully played moments as Baldwin and the men learn how to get along with Cobb, while she in turn learns what it means to be a team player and a role model. Stirling postulates an alternate history where the first space probes of the early 1960s confirm that Mars and Venus are both habitable and have life (including. Her tolerance for being patronised by male astronauts, meanwhile, is set to absolute zero. But her dreams have already been squished once, and so she is deeply cynical about the new training programme. Cobb was part of the Mercury 13 programme: she has proved she has what it takes. The female astronaut candidates are all well written and acted, but most fun is Molly Cobb (played by Sonya Walger). Read more: Women are finally getting equal access to the Hubble Space Telescope But it is an ensemble piece, and Baldwin’s credibility as our hero is largely measured by the grace with which he responds to the new trainees. Joel Kinnaman, who plays fictional astronaut Ed Baldwin, has top billing in this show and is excellent. Now, on Nixon’s personal orders, NASA scrambles together 20 female pilots for an emergency space training programme. The Soviet Union has put a woman on the moon, while the US doesn’t have a single woman in astronaut training. The women in those background shots at NASA and the wives watching at home can’t believe their eyes. This is when For All Mankind bursts into life. Then up comes their mirror visor, and it is a woman. On 1960s TV sets we see a cosmonaut standing on the lunar surface. While the US scrambles to get its act together, the Soviets land on the moon for a second time. It is the second what-if twist, though, that packs the punch. “Moore deliberately sets a scene that is almost nauseatingly familiar, in order to upend it” Kennedy becomes a national hero and icon to the United States (. Suddenly we are plunged into an alternate timeline, in which the space race heats up rather than down, and a moon base becomes a US priority. The year is 1969, after surviving an assassination attempt six years prior, President John F. It’s 1969, and a rapt world is watching the first man land on the moon Alexei. Then comes the first what-if twist: the Soviet Union gets boots on the moon first. Apropos of its title, For All Mankind begins with one small step, in a different direction. There are women, but they are holding trays of tea or, at best, working in the back-up team. Read more: After years of sexism in space we urgently need more female astronautsĪt mission control we are served row upon row of men in dark-rimmed spectacles chewing pencils and doing flight calculations on bits of paper. Its an interesting premise, looking at a history where the continuing space race meant the Cold War continued into the 90s, and where cheap energy from the moon has restructured the global economy.
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