‘The best show you’re not watching’ is one of those annoying truisms whose annoyance is seated in how true it is. For All Mankind, the Apple TV show created by Ron Moore, Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi is a perfect example. It starts with a single historical change and, over its four seasons to date, has depicted a radically different world and a culture poised to step out into the edges of the Solar System. It’s brilliant, the fifth season and the first spin-off, Star City, both arrive later this month and Alasdair Stuart provides everything you need to catch up on season 1.

It’s 1969 and Alexei Leonov is the first man on the moon. Multiple other landings follow and when a female cosmonaut walks on the Moon, NASA has no choice but to enter the 20th century.

Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman) and Gordo Stevens (Michael Dorman) aren’t sure about that. Two of NASA’s best, Ed and Gordo are haunted by how close they got to the Moon and the failure of their organisation to follow through. Gordo is a sweet, gentle guy nursing a bit of a drinking problem. Ed is a hard-charging career astronaut who thinks everything can be beaten if you shout at it loudly enough. His wife Karen (Shantel VanSanten) is less sure about that or her place in the world.

When the female Astronaut Corps, nicknamed ‘Nixon’s Women’ arrive, the chaos begins to collapse into purpose. That new wave includes cocky, charming pilot Tracy Stevens (Sarah Jones) who spins Gordo’s head around and Ellen Wilson (Jodi Balfour), her quiet, determined friend terrified that her competency won’t be enough to hide the fact she’s gay from a job looking for any excuse to cut her. Molly Cobb (Sonya Walger) could care less about any of it, and her offhand confidence and charm drives her to clash with Ed and then to orbit, the Moon and further. Finally Danielle Poole (Krys Marshall), makes history as the first female black astronaut and wins Ed and Gordo over as the steady hand that keeps them all together through a hellish, unplanned long duration stay on the Moon.

Along with NASA engineer Margo Madison (Wrenn Schmidt) this group of gifted, not fully functional humans carve a new path across history. In the first season that path begins with ‘Nixon’s Women’ and culminates in Molly and Ed working together on Apollo 15 in 1971. The two colossal egos clash repeatedly but when Molly takes a risk and discovers water ice on the Moon, the space race is changed forever and her reputation is secured.

Two years later, Jamestown is landed on the Moon, a tiny colony facility marking the first ever permanently manned base on the Moon.  Ed, Gordo and Dani are on site in 1974 and nearing the end of their tour when Apollo 23 explodes on the pad. Two months later, the Russians establish their own moon base. As hardware problems delay Apollo 24 again and again, Ed, Gordo and Dani all struggle with emotional stress. Even when the mission finally launches, weeks late, the Russian presence means that Jamestown can’t be unmanned. Gordo and Dani are evacuated after weeks on the Moon, and Ed stays for a further month. At home, his fracturing marriage and his son’s unacknowledged trauma lead to a tragic car accident that takes Ed’s son’s life.

The situation deteriorates still further as it becomes clear political corner cutting has rendered the Saturn V launch vehicle and the Apollo ships themselves deeply unsafe. Apollo 24 suffers a failure in orbit and Apollo 25 is scrambled to repair it. A further problem kills one astronaut, throws the ship off course, and seriously injures veteran (and real-life astronaut) Deke Slayton. Molly is almost lost in space but is saved by Ellen while on the Moon, a cosmonaut in trouble asks for help from Ed who reluctantly agrees.

When it becomes clear Apollo 24 will overshoot, Ed and the cosmonaut jury rig a solution. With one ship tumbling, it’s almost impossible to dock. On Ellen’s suggestion, Ed literally throws the fuel tank over to them and Ellen, against all odds, makes the catch. The fuel allows them to course correct, and the two ships dock. Ed is saved, but Deke dies from his injuries and is buried on the Moon.

In an end credit sequence set years later in 1983, Ed and Karen watch the launch of Sea Dragon, a colossal, sea launched NASA booster (planned but never built) holding the plutonium for Jamestown’s new nuclear reactor.

 

The first four seasons of For All Mankind are on Apple TV now

Season 5 begins March 27th

Star City, the spin-off focusing on the alternate history of the Russian space program, begins May 29th.