With Shepard’s first flight successfully on the books, where next for our intrepid adventurers, both professionally and domestically?

The Right Stuff rounds off its first season with an appropriate enough finale, beginning with Alan finally getting to make that first American flight into space, and then, as we experience the team’s moment of triumph, having everything after it sort of fall slowly apart.

And to be fair, that launch really does give us everything. There’s a moment of genuine warmth and camaraderie between Shepard and Glenn, there’s levity in a moment where the very delayed Shepard is caught short while sitting on the launchpad waiting to take off and there’s real drama in the events of the flight itself as we watch both Alan stuck in his tiny capsule in space and everyone else on Earth waiting on tenterhooks to see if he’ll make it back OK. Even though we the audience know how it’s going to turn out, the show manages to make us feel the pressure just like the characters on screen.

But of course having achieved that moment, everything starts to slowly deflate. For some at least, especially Shepard himself. Being the man he is, once he’s got the thing he was striving for, it feels a little hollow. It’s not clear whether he expected some sort of Damascene moment up there among the stars, but it is clear that he came back disappointed. It’s not even crystal clear whether he intends to keep cheating on his wife, even though he does at least seem a little chastened upon his return.

Elsewhere, Gordo finally has to face up to the consequences of his thoughtless comments on the television. Trudy is – understandably – not happy and determined to leave him to pursue Jennie Cobb’s offer of joining the female space programme. But will Gordo’s comments poison even that particular well for her?

It’s not all doom and gloom – Glenn seems content enough, Deke has a new job that’s nowhere near as good as actually being up there with the astronauts but still gives him something. And the gang at Nasa mission control are all generally happy with the fact they sent a man into space and back safely. Then Kennedy throws them a curve ball that not one of them was expecting, and suddenly all bets are off. Again.

Verdict: A fitting end to this first series that blends the excitement of the space race with the drama of the domestic lives of those involved quite beautifully. Season 2 is teed up nicely as well – fingers crossed for that one. 9/10

Greg D. Smith