Sergei Korolev He was one of the most important figures in the early days of space exploration. This Ukrainian-born engineer gave an excellent summary, as he oversaw the development of the R-7 rocket (derivations of which are still used in Soyuz spaceship), Sputnikand Vostok programs. It was one of the main reasons why the USSR beat the US in most of the early exchanges of the space race, such as the first satellite, Ffirst man in orbit, first woman in orbitand first space walker They all came from the eastern side of the Iron Curtain.
However, most people in the Soviet Union (even his closest colleagues) did not even know his name. Instead, during his lifetime he was referred to simply as “the Chief Designer,” as Communist Party officials were paranoid that he had become a target for assassination or defection to his Cold War rivals in Washington.
SPOILERS FOR EPISODES 1 AND 2 OF STAR CITY AHEAD
Korolev’s death during surgery is also the tone-setting moment in “Sliding Doors.” alternate timeline or “For all humanity” in motion. The Apple TV show’s creators, Ronald D Moore, Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi, have identified the engineer’s death in 1966 as the point at which their fictional universe diverged from history. The theory goes that if Korolev had survived, the USSR would have maintained its advantage in the space race and defeated Apollo 11 to the Moon in 1969.
Over the course of five seasons (to date), “For All Mankind” has extended that thought experiment into the depths of the 21st century, propelling space exploration to a point where thousands of humans call Mars home. But the new spin-off show “Star City” harkens back to the days before the parenting program began to become “The Expanse”.
Like “For All Mankind,” it begins with Alexei Leonov planting the USSR flag on the lunar surface, but this time we see it from the Soviet perspective, in mission control overseen by the aforementioned “Chief Designer” (played by Rhys Ifans). Although fictional, this meticulously realized period piece is a great eye-opener for anyone interested in space exploration.
Apollo is one of the best-documented human endeavors in history. Many of NASA’s key players (from Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the Nazi rocket scientist Werner von Braun) became household names, while stories (even those of “failures” like Apollo 13 — have been told as many times as those of the Beatles.
The entire Western world was watching when Armstrong took that first small step toward the lunar surface, but the contrast with the Soviet version of events could not be more striking.
In the opening episode of “Star City,” “The Eyes,” there is no advance expectation about Leonov’s groundbreaking moonwalk. In fact, even his own wife has no idea that her husband is very far from home, and only learns that he is in outer space when KGB agents knock on the door in the middle of the night and escort her to mission control; possibly not the most pleasant (or celebratory) way to learn that a loved one just became a state hero.
As “Star City” co-showrunner Nedivi told SFX Magazine: “Obviously a lot of research was done on the Soviet space program when we were working on ‘For All Mankind,’ because a lot of that concept started from a place of theirs. [the USSR] and we [the US]. And the more we read and researched it, the more fascinated we became. One of the challenges of ‘For All Mankind’ was that so much was already known about the early days of the American space program, about Apollo; Countless movies, television shows, and books have been published about it. But with the Soviet space program, no one really knows much, even now. “I think the secrecy was what made it so intriguing.”
That obsession with keeping everything as necessary, where the Party decrees that practically no one needs know — is at the heart of “Star City.” just a moment The Soviet space program’s eponymous base of operations was a state secret.its location unknown to all but a select few. How different from NASA equivalents in Cape Canaveral (then Cape Kennedy) and Houston, which were already well established in the national lexicon by the late 1960s.
And while putting a human being on the Moon was certainly a costly propaganda exercise for the United States as well, “Star City” takes the political machinations to the next level. It’s both “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” and “The right thing“.
For all the influence of the “chief designer,” KGB officer Lyudmilla Raskova (Anna Maxwell Martin) is the real power in this version of the Soviet space program. She employs a permanent surveillance team, including Irina Morozova (Agnes O’Casey), who will lead Roscosmos in later seasons of “For All Mankind,” to find out all about the cosmonauts and engineers on the payroll. In his own words, he wants to “know what each person thinks before they think it.”
The program relies heavily on conspiracy theories that Yuri Gagarin’s death was not an accident. So when high-flying (but outspoken) cosmonaut Yana Akhmatova (Niamh Algar) is falsely accused of spying for the Americans, it becomes easier to execute her than to exonerate her. As Raskova coldly explains: “We don’t arrest innocent people.”
And when the speech of Anastasia Belikova (Alice Englert), the first woman on the Moon, deviates from the government-mandated script, the powers that be threaten to replace her with a tamer double before a publicity tour to Paris. It raises the constant question of whether Armstrong’s famous “One small step…” speech was misquoted It seems like a mere triviality.
There is also an inescapable sense that cosmonauts are forced to live on the edge much more than their astronaut counterparts. At the beginning of “For All Mankind,” astronaut Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman) complains that NASA’s safety-first approach is costing the United States the Moon. But look inside Belikova’s capsule and it’s clear that no expense has been wasted on comfort.
It is particularly interesting to compare its transfer to the lunar lander with the complex, almost balletic maneuvers that the Apollo command modules performed to dock with their LEMs. Instead, she has to make a precarious spacewalk to get into the small ship that will take her to the Moon.
Cosmonauts are effectively the human equivalent of the first Laika dog, sacrificing themselves, if necessary, for the good of the general population. And that relentless ambition shows no signs of slowing down.
After the Soviet flag is planted on the lunar surface for the second time, there is talk of Soviet missions to Venus and the construction of bases on the Moon. Most of the show is fiction, of course (the real Sergei Korolev had died long before the “Star City” period), but it’s an intriguing look at another way of doing things, an Iron Curtain away from the popular image of Apollo’s superstar heroes.
“For All Mankind” has certainly lost some of its original period since it upped the sci-fi quotient with missions to Mars and beyond. “Star City” offers a chance to return to those early days, but with added Cold War paranoia and plenty of danger, both in outer space and closer to home.
The first two episodes of ‘Star City’ are now available on Apple TV. New episodes debut on Fridays. Five seasons of ‘For All Mankind’ are also available on the platform.
