Challenge: Soap opera about the space programme

Petike

Petike

I'm in a bad mood right now, so I want to cheer myself up with something seemingly goofy. :p

Fellow AH.commers, how and when would you do a soap opera (or telenovela) about the space programme and the people working in it ? :D

(The space programme in question doesn't need to be a single one, you can involve the space programmes of various countries.)

Bonus points if it's a deliberately comedic soap opera.
 

MatthewFirth

Spaceman, the continuing adventures of the British Space Agency and it's astronauts.
May struggle as a soap opera though.
 

e of pi

I don't know about a telenovela, but there's sort of an anime/manga of the type. Rocket Girls, about a private space company. If they can wring an anime out of it, they've gotta be able to wring a telenovella.
 

Sam R.

Petike said:
Fellow AH.commers, how and when would you do a soap opera (or telenovela) about the space programme and the people working in it ? :D

(The space programme in question doesn't need to be a single one, you can involve the space programmes of various countries.)

Bonus points if it's a deliberately comedic soap opera.
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I'm imagining a strong character drama centred on the capacity of two men to fly a space ship given their homosocial relationship and effective pair bond. They would be persecuted by a psychiatrist, who would question their dedication to the space programme. It would mainly centre of their preparations for space travel, rather than space travel as such, and would be mostly set in military bases and civilian life in the 1960s.

For comic effect let's concretise the metaphor of their nascent homosexuality in a woman (need more women in this man's man show). The woman could be a geeky yet domestic figure, one man could possess her, and the other desire her. That way we've converted dangerous gay into kinky bi, and people will love the use of metaphor to express deeper themes.

The woman could go around barely dressed, but convert through costumes to meet the demands imposed on female identity in the 1960s. Yeah! And she could live in a phallic vase. And be played by Barbara Eden.

yours,
Sam R.
 
Petike

Petike

Sam R. said:
snip
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Would Hideo Kojima or someone similar be a script supervisor ? :D He loves dicking around with hinted-at same-sex romance.

If it wasn't as earlier made series, but a modern one, I'd replace Eden with Julianne Moore. Because.

You might add some occassional jabs of feminist characters to the effect of "Why is the early space programme a sausage fest ? We want more women in capsules, less MCHPs !". :p


Also, another possibility would be to immensely soaperize From the Earth to the Moon. After all, one of the episodes was centered on the lives of the wives of one of the Apollo crews.

e of pi said:
I don't know about a telenovela, but there's sort of an anime/manga of the type. Rocket Girls, about a private space company. If they can wring an anime out of it, they've gotta be able to wring a telenovella.
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Interesting... But why is it set in the Solomon Islands, of all places ?

Garrison said:
Two words:

Jupiter Moon
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Oh, another, more recent space-soap opera show that springs to mind is this : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1319690/ I swear to God, it unravels like some kind of odd transparent ripoff slash parody of the Beeb's earlier Space Odyssey : Voyage to the Planets.
 

MikeTurcotte

Just base it in reality. I mean, we had that whole 'Astronaut diaper' thing where one female astronaut drove 18 hours to break up a love triangle with another astronaut - right? Plenty of drama there.
 
Petike

Petike

Hey, come to think of it, an adaptation of Robinson's Mars series would be a soap opera par excellence. The very international relationships of a very international crew... :p

MikeTurcotte said:
Just base it in reality. I mean, we had that whole 'Astronaut diaper' thing where one female astronaut drove 18 hours to break up a love triangle with another astronaut - right? Plenty of drama there.
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Wasn't that rumour eventually proven false ?
 

Richter10

e of pi said:
I don't know about a telenovela, but there's sort of an anime/manga of the type. Rocket Girls, about a private space company. If they can wring an anime out of it, they've gotta be able to wring a telenovella.
Click to expand...

There is also the animes PlanetES and Stellvia of the Universe (Stellvia in particular have some dramatic elements that could be soap opera-ish)
 

e of pi

Petike said:
Interesting... But why is it set in the Solomon Islands, of all places ?
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8 degrees south lattitude makes for good equatorial boost, while it has clear shots to the east for low-inclination obrits and north/south for polar. Supply chain sucks, but if you had a ton of money and wanted isolation/secrecy...it's not the worst choice.
 

Polish Eagle

Petike said:
I'm in a bad mood right now, so I want to cheer myself up with something seemingly goofy. :p

Fellow AH.commers, how and when would you do a soap opera (or telenovela) about the space programme and the people working in it ? :D

(The space programme in question doesn't need to be a single one, you can involve the space programmes of various countries.)

Bonus points if it's a deliberately comedic soap opera.
Click to expand...

Doesn't this kinda count?
 
Meadow

Meadow

Aaron Sorkin has always been very romantic about space. While he doesn't write soap operas (YMMV on The Newsroom...) it's not actually implausible for him to want to write a West Wing-esque long running drama about a continuing US Space Programme.
 

David S Poepoe

Banned
I think the British already have a few space programme soaps on film, but can't remember the names of a lot of them. Space 1999, comes to mind, but I thought there was one based on a L5 space station or maybe a space ark - and I'm thinking these were from the 1970s.
 
Michel Van

Michel Van

e of pi said:
I don't know about a telenovela, but there's sort of an anime/manga of the type. Rocket Girls, about a private space company. If they can wring an anime out of it, they've gotta be able to wring a telenovella.
Click to expand...

Rocket Girl is pure fun for space flight fan.
it's about a Japanese "private*" space program, it's new launch rocket is total failure.
they force to use smaller rocket, but to get manned Capsule in Orbit. They take young High school girls as Astronauts.

* acutely is spoof about Japanese State Space program :rolleyes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA3tyjq34MA

there allot Pilots and one seasion series /Mini serie about spaceflight and even as space-soap opera in TV network

like Earth II (TV pilot 1971)
Moonbase 3 (1973) a BBC program about a European Moonbase.
Plymouth (TV_pilot 1991) about a Moon Colony "plymouth"
Defying Gravity (TV series 2009)

the Plymouth plot was a Space telenovella, sadly it remain a Pilot.
 
Petike

Petike

e of pi said:
8 degrees south lattitude makes for good equatorial boost, while it has clear shots to the east for low-inclination obrits and north/south for polar. Supply chain sucks, but if you had a ton of money and wanted isolation/secrecy...it's not the worst choice.
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That makes sence. But the SI must have really gotten an economic boost in that universe in order for them to have their own space agency and regularly launching spaceport. :) :cool:

Meadow said:
Aaron Sorkin has always been very romantic about space. While he doesn't write soap operas (YMMV on The Newsroom...) it's not actually implausible for him to want to write a West Wing-esque long running drama about a continuing US Space Programme.
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Wow, really ? :eek: That bit of info is news to me ! :cool: Sorkin... Whodathunk !

Polish Eagle said:
Doesn't this kinda count?
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Oh, I liked The Cape. :) Very 90s portrayal of NASA (STS, X-33 still in the talks, new cooperation with RKA shown, etc.). :D Shame this series has become kind of forgotten. But, TBH, it wasn't that soapy. If anything, it reminded me more of all those "rule of cool" 90s/2000s German action adventure series, though one made by Americans. ;)

modelcitizen said:
You know, it could make for an entertaining Collaborative Writing Project.

Yup. It could!
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You called it ! ;) :p

I think a sitcom-cum-soap would work best. Sort of like a cross between Red Dwarf and Scrubs. :D Goofy, lovable characters as a must.
 
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