1983, Jamestown is now a Lunar colony and the US Space Programme is privatised. As a team of astronauts on the Lunar Surface prepare to witness sunrise on the moon, a terrifying new development leaves them in danger and their Earthbound colleagues in disarray.

You start being lulled into wondering exactly what the writers have altered this time around as the opening montage starts, taking us through familiar developments like Reagan’s election, but then as it rolls on and we hear of John Lennon narrowly escaping death at the hands of an assassin and Prince Charles’ wedding to Camilla being celebrated, it starts to click.

Funny then that an early shot reassures us that the more things change, the more they stay the same, as Margo, now head of operations at NASA, wakes up on a sofa bed in her office, gets herself ready for the day and then begins work without skipping a beat. Plus ca change…

Elsewhere though, much has indeed changed. Ed is now Head of Astronauts, spending his days playing putter in his office and frustrating the dreams of wannabe astronauts, and his evenings at home with his wife and their daughter in Karen’s successful new restaurant. Recalling where we left the Baldwins, it’s lovely to see them having moved on with their lives so successfully, even if the hints remain that all is not quite as well as it could be under Karen’s cheerful surface demeanour.

The Stevens meanwhile are no longer the Stevens – Gordo is alone, making a living giving talks about his adventures as an astronaut while Tracey is off living her best life and that includes a surprise for both Gordo and everyone else who knows her.

Up on the moon, Jamestown is now a full colony manned by a whole team of astronauts led currently by Ellen, who is due to return home to a 40th birthday party she’s not all that keen on. The rest of the astronauts are out on the Lunar surface, getting ready to experience (and document) a sunrise between twin peaks, when things start to go very sideways.

For once it isn’t the Russians (an ever-present background nuisance in the spirit of the ongoing Cold War-esque rivalry between the two nations) but a natural phenomenon that puts the lives of every person on the moon and in orbit on space stations, ships etc in very real danger. As everyone up there scrambles to get safe, back on Earth there’s other concerns. What happens when neither the Americans or Russians are able to see one another with their satellites down? Will one side or the other blink first in assuming their enemies across the globe might take advantage of this natural event to slip in a first nuclear strike? Tensions are high, and that’s before you even consider that the military are champing at the bit to put some of their hardware up into space.

It’s what we’ve come to expect from the series in many ways – constant, ratcheting tensions on multiple levels and a careful study of the various characters involved. But it’s nice to see some developments as well, even if the fateful choice of one character as the episode draws to a close is one that could never have been in doubt, given what we know of them.

What’s really satisfying though, is how the whole thing feels so natural. Having moved the narrative on around a decade, and skipped a fair amount of development in between, it would be easy for the audience to feel off kilter with developments, but instead the show feels like it never went away. It’s a different era, with different folks in the driving seats of power, but underneath it all it’s the show we know and love. In these uncertain times, there’s a lot to be said for that.

Verdict: Powerful and familiar though not without a few nice surprises of its own along the way. It’s good to be back. 8/10

Greg D. Smith

Check out our interview with the show’s executive producers talking about the challenges of the new season here