5 ms·

Somewhat related: I've been enjoying the series "For All Mankind" on Apple TV+. Really fun alt-history drama that explores these topics.

ArtWomb 4y ago
I'm sure spec scripts in this vein already exist, but it would be cool to do a 1970s "parallel history" in retro futurist style where NASA fully realizes Werner von Braun's concept for a Kubrikian spoke-and-wheel spinning mega space station ;) 1952 Colliers' article: "Man Will Conquer Space Soon!" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Will_Conquer_Space_Soon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Will_Conquer_Space_Soon!
- mahrain 4y ago
  Spoiler alert for Season 3 ;-)
- Bud 4y ago
  That is actually featured in the new season of For All Mankind.
- adolph 4y ago
  Like 2001: A Space Odyssey? I guess the station wasn't central to the plot.
xwdv 4y ago
Is this show like a prequel for The Expanse?
- freeflight 4y ago
  That's a fan theory I've heard based on both shows trying to keep the space action mostly realistic.
  - MarcScott 4y ago
    Except that the moment they enter the Jamestown base, gravity suddenly seems to be 1g.
- Rebelgecko 4y ago
  I'd consider it more of an informal sequel to Battlestar Galactica. Especially given all the people the two shows have in common and similar style (unsteady crash zooms across vast reaches of vacuum!)
amysox 4y ago
The article's mention of lunar bases based on LM-derived vehicles made me think of For All Mankind and Jamestown Base. Jamestown was landed on what were, essentially, four LM DPS engines.
- BitwiseFool 4y ago
  Not spending any time showing the effort to design the base was a huge missed opportunity. The show basically went from mentioning "the race for the base" in the beginning of one episode to showing a few seconds of it landing at the end of the episode with virtually no in-between. Some of the best scenes in HBO's From Earth to the Moon were about how the engineers tackled designing the LM and expositing all sorts of things about the technical challenges. I still enjoy the show, but I really wish they catered to the space-nerd audience a little more by spending a little less time on interpersonal drama.
foobiekr 4y ago
I find it incredibly depressing. At least through season 2 it presents a better America that didn't just give up.
- WorldMaker 4y ago
  If it's a consolation prize, I think there are interesting parts of For All Mankind's timeline that aren't better and may actively be worse. I'm not sure how much of that is intentional message or not, though. The biggest for instance: in our timeline gay rights advances were able to piggy back on other civil rights advances and waves of feminism. In getting major civil rights and feminist victories early in space it seems like not as much happens "on the ground" as it did in our world, especially with regard to follow up rights such as gay rights. The next biggest and certainly much more obvious is that the Cold War is much, much worse and international politics a bit more fraught and MAD overall. There's lots of little other things like earlier backslides in immigration policies. There's deep implications that tobacco companies won for longer and there's less EPA power and there's a lot less public awareness of radiation concerns and carcinogens. (Things that stopped, for instance, real world Project Orion from anything like tests in Earth's atmosphere.) So much of these details are easy to miss in the background, and again I don't know how much is intentional commentary versus accidental bits of world building. A lot of people joke about all the Beatles Reunion Tour of the 90s stuff as evidence that the world building of FAM has overly generously been "super optimist utopia" the show claims to have created, but if you actually pause some of the headlines and stories there's a lot of nasty stuff, too, including a lot of interesting digs into that same Reunion Tour with shades of "aged rockers past their prime who don't like each other anymore don't bring anything new or exciting to label requirement to tour again". I can't fault the show for being optimistic and it's a big reason I tune into the show because I want that "competence porn" of smart people doing cool smart things. I don't think the intent is "utopian" though, I think the writers understand if all the smart people are busy doing smart stuff in space, there's fewer smart people on the ground and some of that bleeds into the world building and I appreciate that as a viewer.

ArtWomb 4y ago

I'm sure spec scripts in this vein already exist, but it would be cool to do a 1970s "parallel history" in retro futurist style where NASA fully realizes Werner von Braun's concept for a Kubrikian spoke-and-wheel spinning mega space station ;) 1952 Colliers' article: "Man Will Conquer Space Soon!" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Will_Conquer_Space_Soon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Will_Conquer_Space_Soon!

mahrain 4y ago
Spoiler alert for Season 3 ;-)
Bud 4y ago
That is actually featured in the new season of For All Mankind.
adolph 4y ago
Like 2001: A Space Odyssey? I guess the station wasn't central to the plot.

xwdv 4y ago

Is this show like a prequel for The Expanse?

freeflight 4y ago
That's a fan theory I've heard based on both shows trying to keep the space action mostly realistic.
- MarcScott 4y ago
  Except that the moment they enter the Jamestown base, gravity suddenly seems to be 1g.
Rebelgecko 4y ago
I'd consider it more of an informal sequel to Battlestar Galactica. Especially given all the people the two shows have in common and similar style (unsteady crash zooms across vast reaches of vacuum!)

amysox 4y ago

The article's mention of lunar bases based on LM-derived vehicles made me think of For All Mankind and Jamestown Base. Jamestown was landed on what were, essentially, four LM DPS engines.

BitwiseFool 4y ago
Not spending any time showing the effort to design the base was a huge missed opportunity. The show basically went from mentioning "the race for the base" in the beginning of one episode to showing a few seconds of it landing at the end of the episode with virtually no in-between. Some of the best scenes in HBO's From Earth to the Moon were about how the engineers tackled designing the LM and expositing all sorts of things about the technical challenges. I still enjoy the show, but I really wish they catered to the space-nerd audience a little more by spending a little less time on interpersonal drama.

foobiekr 4y ago

I find it incredibly depressing. At least through season 2 it presents a better America that didn't just give up.

WorldMaker 4y ago
If it's a consolation prize, I think there are interesting parts of For All Mankind's timeline that aren't better and may actively be worse. I'm not sure how much of that is intentional message or not, though. The biggest for instance: in our timeline gay rights advances were able to piggy back on other civil rights advances and waves of feminism. In getting major civil rights and feminist victories early in space it seems like not as much happens "on the ground" as it did in our world, especially with regard to follow up rights such as gay rights. The next biggest and certainly much more obvious is that the Cold War is much, much worse and international politics a bit more fraught and MAD overall. There's lots of little other things like earlier backslides in immigration policies. There's deep implications that tobacco companies won for longer and there's less EPA power and there's a lot less public awareness of radiation concerns and carcinogens. (Things that stopped, for instance, real world Project Orion from anything like tests in Earth's atmosphere.) So much of these details are easy to miss in the background, and again I don't know how much is intentional commentary versus accidental bits of world building. A lot of people joke about all the Beatles Reunion Tour of the 90s stuff as evidence that the world building of FAM has overly generously been "super optimist utopia" the show claims to have created, but if you actually pause some of the headlines and stories there's a lot of nasty stuff, too, including a lot of interesting digs into that same Reunion Tour with shades of "aged rockers past their prime who don't like each other anymore don't bring anything new or exciting to label requirement to tour again". I can't fault the show for being optimistic and it's a big reason I tune into the show because I want that "competence porn" of smart people doing cool smart things. I don't think the intent is "utopian" though, I think the writers understand if all the smart people are busy doing smart stuff in space, there's fewer smart people on the ground and some of that bleeds into the world building and I appreciate that as a viewer.