'For all mankind' (Apple TV+)

[Kaleb]

Absolutely loved season 1, thought it was the best show Apple TV+ created, cant wait for season 2

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

Nice TV show, very good production value and acting.
I like alternate history and space stories, this one has both.

I could have sworn I saw a thread for this show before but no..search yielded no result.

 

[Kaleb]

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

Good !

 

[Kaleb]

 

[Flash525]

Never even knew about this. Could be worth a watch.

 

[Kaleb]

^You, should,it's so good

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

Fully worth it.

 

[Kaleb]

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

Time jump to the 80/90 ! Nice.

 

[Kaleb]

S2 premiers this Friday

 

[antsman41]

...finished s1, that run of 'Hi Bob' into 'Rupture' into 'Bent Bird' might have been of of the top 3 episode runs I have ever seen.

I finally figured out why I love this so much, it gives me strong Halt & Catch Fire Vibes.

 

[antsman41]

This first episode was a delight, especially the “alternative history” within the time jump montage.

I won’t bring up the heartbreaking sacrificial play one character does...

...but will flaunt that glow-up for Ed and Karen venturing into the bar owning/Springsteen playing gig. Bummer for Gordo though, he’s fat and on the Rotary Club circuit.

 

[Kaleb]

Someone on the reddit boards made a list of all the alternative historical events that took place during the time between S1 and S2

• 
  
  Spoiler: Alternative historical events between S1 and 2

  [*]Reagan won in '76, not '80 (which makes sense; he nearly primaried Ford in OTL, who wouldn't be the incumbent here). He also won reelection (obviously).
  
  
  [*]The Soviets have an N3 rocket, which a subtitle claims is the "biggest rocket ever launched" (note that this was before the Sea Dragon launch). Interestingly, based on the newspaper dates, this would've been a few months *before* Reagan's election (wonder if it played a role).
  
  
  [*]Nobody gives a **** about the Outer Space Treaty.
  
  
  [*]NASA launched a Mars rover sometime in the late '70s (in OTL, the first Mars rover wasn't until the '90s, and no missions to Mars were launched between the USA's Viking 2 in '75 and the USSR's Phobos 1 in '88, so no idea what this could be).
  
  
  [*]Elvis is dead (R.I.P.).
  
  
  [*]Roman Polanski was arrested (in OTL, he escaped to Poland, where he still is).
  
  
  [*]The Camp David Accords failed (uh oh).
  
  
  [*]The Soviets didn't invade Afghanistan (which has big implications for Pakistan and the Taliban, and will likely lead to no 9/11). They actually showed a picture of Bin Laden here (though he wouldn't have been nearly as famous had the Soviets not invaded).
  
  
  [*]Inflation in the US continued through the early 80s, as in OTL (but here it will likely hurt Reagan instead helping him).
  
  
  [*]Three Mile Island didn't have its famous meltdown, likely meaning there will be more nuclear power, and maybe safer reactors (though the first RMBK reactors will have already been built in the USSR). On a less-serious note, this has implications for the lyrics to the bridge of the Jimmy Buffet song Volcano.
  
  
  [*]Margaret Thatcher is the Prime Minister of the UK (in OTL, she was rather anti-space...that probably isn't the case here).
  
  
  [*]The Iran Hostage Crisis ended in a rescue by the military (instead of most being released upon Reagan's inauguration and the rest snuck out by "Canada") that left 4 hostages and 3 soldiers dead.
  
  
  [*]Poland has cracked down on Solidarity, just as in OTL (Solidarity was an anticommunist union - yes, that was a thing - that continued to operate underground and ultimately won elections in '89).
  
  
  [*]Mt. St. Helens still erupted.
  
  
  [*]The Strategic Defense Initiative exists (Reagan's "Star Wars" program). We didn't see anything of Space Station Freedom, though, so presumably that's not a part of it.
  
  
  [*]Chrysler managed to last until '81 without a bailout instead of '79 like they did in OTL, but in this timeline, that bailout never came, so they went bankrupt.
  
  
  [*]The "Miracle on Ice" was instead a 10-3 defeat for the US.
  
  
  [*]Someone shot J.R., just as in OTL (J.R. was not a real person; this was an advertising campaign for Dallas).
  
  
  [*]Lennon survived his assassination attempt.
  
  
  [*]John Paul II did not survive his assassination attempt (in OTL, he was shot four times by Mehmet Ali Ağca, a member of the far-right Turkish "Grey Wolves" organization, but he lived another two decades; there are largely unsubstantiated theories that the Soviet Union played some role in the assassination attempt). No word on who took over as the new Pope.
  
  
  [*]Anwar Sadat survive his assassination attempt (in OTL, he was killed by the Egyptian Islamic Jihad) It's strange that the attempt happened at all, since without the Camp David Accords, the EIJ would've had much less reason to dislike him. I'm going to assume the subsequent insurrection was even less successful than it was in real life (where they managed to control one mid-sized city for a couple of days).
  
  
  [*]Reagan fired the striking air traffic controllers, just as in OTL.
  
  
  [*]Yuri Andropov became Premier of the Soviet Union in '82 after Leonid Brezhnev's death, just as in OTL.
  
  
  [*]Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court in '81 after Potter Stewart's retirement, just as in OTL.
  
  
  [*]Cats (the musical) still exists (yes, this was in there).
  
  
  [*]Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, married Charles, Prince of Wales
  
  
  [*]The first space shuttle launch was in '81 (just as in OTL), but this is apparently a slightly souped-up shuttle that can also reach the moon (in OTL, there were vague plans for a "moon-to-orbit" shuttle in the early days of STS planning, but it would've looked much more like the Apollo vehicle than what we usually think of as a space shuttle, and couldn't have handled reentry).
  
  
  [*]The first space shuttle is named "Enterprise", after the Star Trek ship; based on comments later in the show, it is apparently capable of reaching space (in OTL, the prototype shuttle was named "Enterprise", but it wasn't capable of reaching space).
  
  
  [*]It seems that John Hinckley Jr. didn't attempt to assassinate Reagan in '81. Or, if he did, it didn't make the opening newsreel.

 

[antsman41]

I was sad to see USA lost to Russia... and "Miracle" never happened.

 

[moviefreak]

I don't have Apple+, however I had someone who sent me all episodes of FAM. Excellent series if somewhat too far off in term of historical accuracy even in alt-timeline. I was a space buff in my pre-teen days and have a lot of books, illustrations on the Mercury, Apollo programs and some materials on the Soviet programs.

I get that Ron Moore mentioned that the series fall way closer to 'fictional fantasy entertainment'. I also feel that the series aim to take the premise of USA losing the race to Moon as the point to turn into an optimistic future, i.e., no Osama bin-Laden et al fighting the Soviet leading to no 11/9, no Princess Diana & Paris death, green energy, electric car, earlier adoption of computer & mobile phone, human colonies on Moon & Mars, etc.

In the first season, the Soviet revealed the first woman on the Moon. Big deal, in the real timeline, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in the space in 1963. It wasn't until 1982 when Svetlana Savitskaya became the second woman in space & the first woman to take a space walk. heh bloody 20 years. It took USA a long, long time before sending their first woman (with the help of the Star Trek actress Nichelle Nichol no less), third overall, Sally Ride in 1983. In the 1960s, USA astronauts were drawn from the pool of military test pilots, there were none at that time. The women group that Cobbs belonged to will never get that chance no matter what. USA (& Soviet) was and is still too much of 'white patriarchy'.

The Soviet N1 rocket will never be the success as the USA's Saturn V. All four N1 first stages failed badly.

IIRC, N1s were rushed, didn't undergo some specific lab test especially after the death of the 'Chief Designer' Sergei Korolev, the program was underfunded and the principle people who took over were the one who opposed Korolev, especially Valentin Glushko who were in charge of most of the rocket design programs pre & post Korolev and whom frequently clashed with.

I get that in FAM, Korolev survived his surgery and led the Moon program but the conflicts between the various dept still exist, unlike NASA with their centralised control of various dept. Korolev was more of a brilliant engineer-c-u-m-manager and was able to see the big picture issues unlike Glushko. If Korolev had succeed in ironing out the issues with N1, the Soviet will probably have made a successful launch but likely months later than the USA with their Saturn V.

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

Random question while watching ep02.
Anyone knows this car brand and model ?
A

 

[moviefreak]

Random question while watching ep02.
Anyone knows this car brand and model ?
A

View attachment 43462

I'm not too sure but this look lot like 1970s Porsche, specifically Porsche 911 Targa (Porsche 930 in N America) that I saw on the road.

 

[Kaleb]

Random question while watching ep02.
Anyone knows this car brand and model ?
A

View attachment 43462

It's a Datsun 280Z

 

[moviefreak]

It's a Datsun 74/77

That's right. I wasn't sure about my answer as I don't recall Porsche with this type of back aerodynamics.

How did I not remember the old Datsun. My old friend had one, so did my mother's old lawyer and I rode in it. lol

 

[Kaleb]

Holy **** the scene at the end with the Baldwins was just an amazing tour de force, honestly had no idea Joel Kinnaman had that in him.

Also kind of rooting for Gordo this season.

 

[Kaleb]

Man, I really don't like what they are teasing with Karen and Gordo's kid .

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

Random thought: should it not have less gravity on the Moon base than on Earth for the astronauts are moving as if gravity was the same.

PS : I don't think "should it not have" is the proper formulation...it doesn't flow nor sound right when I say it.

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

Man, I really don't like what they are teasing with Karen and Gordo's kid .

The guy gave me more of an emphatic vibe than a feeling of love toward Karen but you are probably right.

 

[Kaleb]

*sigh* they actually went there with Danny and Karen.