For All Mankind (AH Tv series at Apple TV)

Some interesting responses and comments there. Thanks.

Here are some of my thoughts.

The Baldwin/Stevens/Poole mission is definitely designated Apollo 21. At the end of Episode 5, the voice over refers to the Jamestown base being ready to receive the crew of Apollo 21, and is dated October 1973. However, it seems certain that Apollo 21 didn’t launch until well into 1974, if the crew were waiting to be relieved in August 1974. An initial stay on the Moon of longer than, say, one month, seems to stretch credibility too far.

It’s probably right that there is a parallel Apollo programme operating in LEO, and Apollo 25 seems to be part of this. This may be where they are building experience of longer duration flights, for both crews and hardware, and it would account for some of the missing numbers, and also explain how they can stay on the Moon for longer periods, with some confidence.

However, as someone said, it would be interesting to see the scriptwriters’ flight schedules and crew assignments.

It is clear, from the dialogue, that Apollo 25 will be Tracy Stevens’ first flight, although she’s been assigned for 3 years. Before that, Waverly and Slayton will fly on Apollo 24, so we may learn if this is Waverly’s first mission. The way her character has been built up, with the focus on her private life, suggests that it is. If she’d already been to the Moon, she’d surely have a much higher profile in society generally, and so keeping her affairs secret, would be much tougher, and she’d probably be less concerned about being exposed, and losing her up-coming flight.
 
Here are some of my thoughts.

The Baldwin/Stevens/Poole mission is definitely designated Apollo 21. At the end of Episode 5, the voice over refers to the Jamestown base being ready to receive the crew of Apollo 21, and is dated October 1973. However, it seems certain that Apollo 21 didn’t launch until well into 1974, if the crew were waiting to be relieved in August 1974. An initial stay on the Moon of longer than, say, one month, seems to stretch credibility too far.

But then were assuming Jamestown lands in late 74, and if a one/two month mission prior to the Apollo 23 Disaster (the teacher appears to not know, forget or wilfully ignore Baldwin is on the moon) and that it is Apollo 21 currently stranded, then that not only means Jamestown is unattended for near eight months, but that Apollo 21, 22 and 23 were planned for a window of about 3 months.

I'm still subscribed to Apollo 21 being an all male team ( Cobb going up on 23, Poole being there, and Stevens/Waverley not appearing to have had high priority missions as yet [and Tracey not knowing what the shower sounds like] ), prior to the current Apollo 22 mixed gender crew
 
But then were assuming Jamestown lands in late 74, and if a one/two month mission prior to the Apollo 23 Disaster (the teacher appears to not know, forget or wilfully ignore Baldwin is on the moon) and that it is Apollo 21 currently stranded, then that not only means Jamestown is unattended for near eight months, but that Apollo 21, 22 and 23 were planned for a window of about 3 months.

I'm still subscribed to Apollo 21 being an all male team ( Cobb going up on 23, Poole being there, and Stevens/Waverley not appearing to have had high priority missions as yet [and Tracey not knowing what the shower sounds like] ), prior to the current Apollo 22 mixed gender crew

There seem to be several errors in your hypothesis. The end of episode 5 shows Jamestown touching down in October 1973, and the voice over says its ready to receive the 'boys' on Apollo 21. This means a long gap, of as you say, around 8 months until it is occupied. Baldwin, Gordo and Poole are all seen wearing Apollo 21 patches, so I'm not sure why you think they are the crew of 22. The crew of Apollo 23 are Mike Collins and two unnamed (and previously unseen) men. No sign of Cobb, so not sure where you got this idea from.
 
There seem to be several errors in your hypothesis. The end of episode 5 shows Jamestown touching down in October 1973, and the voice over says its ready to receive the 'boys' on Apollo 21. This means a long gap, of as you say, around 8 months until it is occupied. Baldwin, Gordo and Poole are all seen wearing Apollo 21 patches, so I'm not sure why you think they are the crew of 22. The crew of Apollo 23 are Mike Collins and two unnamed (and previously unseen) men. No sign of Cobb, so not sure where you got this idea from.

I mistyped with the date that Jamestown landed, apologies.

I thought it was 3 men too, but a review I read ( https://www.vulture.com/amp/2019/11/for-all-mankind-recap-season-1-episode-6-home-again.html ) said that it was Cobb on Apollo 23 with Collins, so they must've been wrong.

Can you clarify at which point Baldwin, Gordo and Poole are clearly wearing Apollo 21 patches? I rewatched the episode today and couldn't see any clear mission patches that stated Apollo 21? Happy to be proved wrong.
 
I mistyped with the date that Jamestown landed, apologies.

I thought it was 3 men too, but a review I read ( https://www.vulture.com/amp/2019/11/for-all-mankind-recap-season-1-episode-6-home-again.html ) said that it was Cobb on Apollo 23 with Collins, so they must've been wrong.

Can you clarify at which point Baldwin, Gordo and Poole are clearly wearing Apollo 21 patches? I rewatched the episode today and couldn't see any clear mission patches that stated Apollo 21? Happy to be proved wrong.


That review seems to have misidentified Cobb! Re-watching that short sequence confirms both the members of Collins' crew are men, who we haven't seen before.

I haven't re-watched the rest, and I genuinely thought there were visual references to Apollo 21. However, if you are right, it makes a bit more sense, from the perspective of the timeline, and the flight numbering. Let's see what Episode 7 brings.
 
I saw that the other day - and if what he says that we go to 74 in the first season, that means the next four episodes are pretty compressed into two months (we're already c. October 74).
 
I had chance to see first Episode "Red Moon"

AND I LOVE IT !

The way Nixon react is brilliant made in Show
and I imagine a similar reaction of Nixon in "2001: A Space Time Odyssey" as Soviet landed first on Moon

I hope that Next episodes are also so good
 
Just re-watching a couple of episodes tonight, and I was left wondering how Tracy Stevens will possibly survive in space, without her cigarettes!
 
I also wondred if Tracy was left without a mission for so long is because she simply wasn't that good a candidate and only made it through because Nixon practically insisted that she did.

So, Cobb as the most experienced candidate got the first flight, closely followed by Poole. I think Waverley is the only one we don't have any fixed idea of prior flights except her being Mission Commander on an upcoming flight.

I wouldn't be surprised if Cobb was a Mission Commander between 1971 and 1974 either.
 
Just re-watching a couple of episodes tonight, and I was left wondering how Tracy Stevens will possibly survive in space, without her cigarettes!

Given the rate of smoking from most of the Astronauts wouldn't that be an issue for any/all of them?
 
I also wondred if Tracy was left without a mission for so long is because she simply wasn't that good a candidate and only made it through because Nixon practically insisted that she did.

Yes, I think she was kicked down the road, for the reasons you've mentioned. Although it wasn't apparent, at the time, she was assigned to Apollo 25 over three years before the planned launch.

So, Cobb as the most experienced candidate got the first flight, closely followed by Poole. I think Waverley is the only one we don't have any fixed idea of prior flights except her being Mission Commander on an upcoming flight.

Waverly was Cobb's back-up on Apollo 15, so it likely she'd have flown within a year or two, but, as you say, its not explicitly stated. Maybe it will be clarified when she goes up on 24.
 
Episode VII: Hi Bob

The ants are loose on Moonlab. Oh no.

FBI is reading Ellen's psych profile. Her annoyance is understandable. I like the whole exchange--Ellen seems honestly insulted on Larry's behalf.

Gordo's paranoia about the ants is understandable. I hate the things too. But it's clear his psyche is straining a bit on this mission.

I'm amused to see Tracy taking the reactionary pro-spanking view. This show's a bit brave to not be uniformly 'woke.' Heh. Hell hath no fury like a mother fighting a school principal.

Suits really should be stained black after all this exposure to the regolith.

Hehehe. I like the gag about the studios trying to block recording. But I'm reminded about some of the discussion on Skylab--the astronauts wanted a library and books more than a film projector. A few paperbacks might make a difference.

Aaand the astronauts have actually cracked. They're coping as well as can be expected, but acting out the laugh track is a little much.

Ellen's barkeep girlfriend is being a bit immature about this. What exactly did she think three years of beard-dating were building up to?

Gordo's actually snapped. Can they restrain him somehow? This is an unfortunate side-effect of NASA committing to long-term lunar habitation without real research. And a good observation on the limits of the astronaut psychiatric profile for long-term space exploration.

Oh. Oh dear. Gordo's psyche really is damaged.

Fuck. Danielle really screwed herself up. That's a lot to do on Gordo's behalf.

Hardware: We got a four-engine super-LEM. Didn't get a good look at it, but it seems to be fully-reusable (else it wouldn't have legs in orbit). The engines would presumably be RL-10s (to justify the 'mining' happening at Jamestown, and to facilitate reusability), so if they can get the deep-throttling CECE was supposed to get IOTL (sub-10%), that implies a dry mass of 16 tonnes--more, in fact, than Jamestown was. Implying 21 tonnes of LH2/LOX propellant, for a total required tank volume of 50 m3 of LH2 and 15 m3 of LOX--which is a serious load of propellant, but might just fit into a super-LEM with a 6-m-diameter descent stage. Mission architecture's a bit of a mystery here--presumably each Saturn V hauls a new CSM, and this super-LEM is a reusable surface-orbit ferry. I guess it's also got room for cargo, and presumably the CSMs now carry big cargo pallets that can be loaded onto it next to the LM cabin. So this means termination of LM production.

I like this shot of the solar panels--they appear on the Jamestown 2 mission patch, implying that setting them up was a big part of the mission objectives.

Well, kiss your marriage goodbye, Ed. Your wife's gonna blame you for your son going out alone and getting (presumably) hit by a car.

All in all, a very good episode, though the tech development is a bit wonky. I'd have liked a show that sticks a bit closer to some of the real plans. Of course, we're never really going to get a film adaptation of Voyage, so I'm happy this show is airing, but obviously a show to answer every technical question the uber-nerds can have will never happen.

I am still kind of astounded that they just gloss over the first-black-in-space thing with Danielle. I get that they can't fit everything into a 10-episode season, but that seems kind of relevant.
 
Well, kiss your marriage goodbye, Ed. Your wife's gonna blame you for your son going out alone and getting (presumably) hit by a car.
I'm not sure that will happen, but in the immediate term, they need to keep that hidden from him while at the same time giving him time to talk to someone on Earth so he doesn't go nuts due isolation
I am still kind of astounded that they just gloss over the first-black-in-space thing with Danielle. I get that they can't fit everything into a 10-episode season, but that seems kind of relevant.
Or maybe the Soviets pulled another first and put a black Cuban in space (as in OTL) before Danielle
 
A few thoughts about the last episode.

So, NASA executives are worried about sexual scandals of all kinds.

On the other hand, the first half of the 1970s, and two white guys and a black girl spend time together in the enclosed space of a small moon base for how many months? And at the end of the mission, she returns home with a broken arm. I can’t even imagine the amount of dirty rumors, conspiracy theories and racist jokes running around...

By the way, in the real world, something like this happened on the other side of the ocean. The Soviet political system was officially tolerant and politically correct, but Soviet society deep down was quite racist and xenophobic. Soviet people liked to tell each other racist jokes about Vietnamese, Mongolian, Cuban and other foreign cosmonauts from the Interkosmos program.
 
A few thoughts about the last episode.

So, NASA executives are worried about sexual scandals of all kinds.

On the other hand, the first half of the 1970s, and two white guys and a black girl spend time together in the enclosed space of a small moon base for how many months? And at the end of the mission, she returns home with a broken arm. I can’t even imagine the amount of dirty rumors, conspiracy theories and racist jokes running around...

By the way, in the real world, something like this happened on the other side of the ocean. The Soviet political system was officially tolerant and politically correct, but Soviet society deep down was quite racist and xenophobic. Soviet people liked to tell each other racist jokes about Vietnamese, Mongolian, Cuban and other foreign cosmonauts from the Interkosmos program.
No spoilers because this is just an opinion, but seriously: if you go to the Moon, wouldn't anyone want to try how 1/6g sex works?
 
No spoilers because this is just an opinion, but seriously: if you go to the Moon, wouldn't anyone want to try how 1/6g sex works?
Well in the fight Baldwin was able to bounce Gordo off the roof, so it reasonable to think that the possibilities are a bit wide open.

As for the Episode, I liked it was very intense and continues to make me interested in seeing how it plays out. I hope at some point the showrunner put out something that explains the tech and missions they don't show on the screen.
 
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