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[For All Mankind] Fuck Space
Styrofoam Sammich
WANT.normal (not weird)Registered User regular
WANT.normal (not weird)Registered User regular
For All Mankind is an alt history show on Apple TV now in its third season. Its premised on Sergei Korolev not dying in 1966, and the Soviets winning the moon race, leading to a continued and escalated space race between the USSR and the US.
Seasons 2 and 3 sit at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes
Its a perfect show and has literally anything you could conceivably want.
- Space [good]
- Space [bad]
- Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival
- Interpersonal drama. Gay drama. Gay interpersonal drama.
- Chris Bauer
- Obscure and oblique US and world history from 1970-1992
- Absolutely horrible ways to die in space
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I would like there to be Gerard K O’Neill.
I love how they accelerated everything (electric cars in the 80s, smartphones in the 90s), but the look and aesthetic stays firmly in the decade they are protraying. Like phones in season 3 - they have video calls, but the UI is still 90s netscape
Also, thanks for that little nugget - I actually didn't know that or know Sergei Korolev.
EDIT: Also, in terms of thread title - "hi, Bob"
In reality his survival probably wouldn't have been enough for the Soviets to win, but it was a crippling blow. As far as alt history goes its a compelling divergence point.
Carry on.
I just figure if they keep getting renewed and keep time jumping, it'll turn into a BSG prequel eventually.
The USSR doesn't collapse because it forgos invading Afghanistan in favor of more space spending. Wildly increased space spending leads to widespread nuclear based electrical infrastructure and micro electronics roughly 10 years faster than they actually happened.
Lots of other minor divergence points. John Lennon survives. The IRA kills Thatcher.
Totally worth it.
Loving it but also feeling like it's a guerilla propaganda campaign to get me to sink another 100 hours into Kerbal Space Program.
The Bluedog Design Bureau mod has been adding parts for the show, in addition to those it already had for Eyes Turned Skyward.
I don't know if any of the Soviet mods have done the same, but there's not as much new stuff shown for them anyway and Tantares is a must have companion for BDB anyway.
The N1 wasn't going to happen, with or without him. Assuming Korolev's survival fixed the rampant quality control problems, the Soviet Union just didn't have the flight control systems to manage so many engines on a rocket, even the US couldn't pull that off in the 60's/70's. The TKS probably would have happened, though, which very well could have killed the era of the space plane entirely and certainly changes the era of Soviet stations a lot with the limitations of Soyuz off the table, but FAM has the Russians still using Soyuz and Zond derivatives until Buran launched.
The URM series rockets (basically a Proton onion staged out sideways until it looks like a lumpy cathedral rising into the sky) were even less likely to get built before his death, since it was a direct competition against his Soyuz rocket series and he did a lot to hold it back. Also it probably made the avionics issue even worse since the moon rocket would have had something like 50+ engines and over a dozen drop boosters.
Was "dont ask, dont tell" implemented by executive order in the 90s?
Overall, another great episode.
A law was passed in Nov 1993 stating that new guidance would be issued, which it was 2 months later by the Clinton Administration.
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I forget from time to time just how amazing this series' soundtrack is while I'm watching it.
The Jimmy plotline isn't great either, and I get a similar vibe to what you're saying. Date wise the show is very close to the Oklahoma City bombing, so we could be looking at that happening. Alternatively I don't think anything ever came out about the second reactor on the moon, it could be they find out about that.
The series is at it's best when it's looking outwards, not inwards and while they do some of the interpersonal drama well at times (if you ignore the whole Danny business) I'd like to see more time spent on that.
Jesus fuck, thatending looked really bad.
Margo
Then I expected her to walk straight to the FBI. Maybe that will be the opening of the season finale.
Overall, damn, this show is awesome.
The first episode was sort of boring but as soon as it became woman astronaut training camp it was pretty fire
It’s a testament to how well this show works for me that my first thought reading this was “shit, man, that was
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Seeing his character develop over the decades into someone whos aware of his faults and tries to work on them is great. Strongest part of this show is that the characters all feel like real people.
Was it a deep fake or did they splice together existing stuff and work around it?
The big season 2 fight about his daughter going to Annapolis and the resolution of that was awesome.
With space being a goal unto itself and not just a busywork project to keep the rocket scientists on payroll between missile upgrades I feel like China of all countries would have done something less janky.
This is a much smaller nit pick than putting Buran on a shuttle style stack but still leaving it without ascent engines. What is that external fuel tank even FOR?
North Korea flying the Unha (two Scuds with an anti artillery solid rocket on top) I'll forgive because we only ever hear about it failing anyway.0
Edit: speaking of jank, the smart phones aren't really that far off. Palm Pilot had the idea of merging the PDA and phone almost from their start, and the whole Convergent Technology thing of the 90's and 00's (which ultimately gave us the nGage and Blackberry) was just smart phones with some of the most important tech just not being there yet. And like the electric car in season 2, it's not really clear if they're really there yet or just tech enthusiast early adopter crap.
Big clunky hand helds with shitty touch screens
In season 2 NASA was a cabinet level department, so it's getting way more money to start. That also means it has powers that real world NASA doesn't. For decades up to half of NASA's budget has been burned on bloated no bid cost plus contracts that NASA never got a say in but which Congress enshrined in law so nobody can even break them.
FAM world NASA didn't chase the ALS/ILS/ELS/Constellation/SLS rabbit for 36 years after Lockheed missed the delivery deadline for the Orion ACRV.
I think that’s the worst death, up there with the cosmonaut that burned alive in his own suit