FOR ALL MANKIND

So Ron Moore, the guy behind the Battlestar Galactica reboot from a few years back (and who also wrote a few damn good episodes of Deep Space Nine), made a new TV show where Hollywood's preferred victors in the Cold War, the Soviet Union, beats the USA to the Moon. This prompts Hollywood's favorite Democrat of yesteryear, Ted Kennedy, to not kill Mary Jo Kopechne and instead to kick off a political duel with Hollywood's favorite villain, Richard Nixon, over the future of the space program.

In so doing, we get treated to Hollywood's preferred take on Hollywood's most obnoxious issues, e.g. illegal immigration (we see a family cross the border at the same time Armstrong and Aldrin are on their way to the moon, muh symbolic) and the Equal Rights Amendment. The most hilarious upshot of all this is that the writers get their rocks off reminding everyone that Wernher Von Braun was a NAAAAAAAAAAAZI... but the people making this point are making it to sideline the now-peacenik Von Braun and establish, and I am not kidding here, a Space Force.

Oh, they don't call it that. But that's what they are. Congratulations, Hollylibs, you played yourselves.


Episode One
Our story about the Soviets beating us to the Moon and the consequences thereof begin in Mexico, where a family speaks in unsubtitled Mexican Spanish. What the fuck. I'm sorry, but your attempt to shoehorn illegal immigration into this story is just obnoxious and an instant turn-off. Ron Moore used to understand how to shoehorn his politics in without instantly alienating half his audience - for example, he let you get sucked in to two seasons of Battlestar Galactica before he started lobbing Iraq War soapboxes at you. But now I know, when the Mexicans show up I can just take a bathroom/snack break, because I ain't gonna get any of this.

We shortly cut to a bar in Houston where several astronauts, including Apollo 10 commander Tom Stafford "Edward Baldwin" are watching Alexei Leonov (who in real life was part of the first joint US-USSR space mission; the American half was commanded by... Tom Stafford) take man's first steps on the moon.

Deke Slayton summons all the astronauts together and tells them that their training is on hold for the weekend; today they can go and "get pissed." They do. Stafford/Baldwin spills his guts to a reporter, blaming NASA higher-ups for losing their balls after the Apollo 1 fire and claiming that Apollo 10 could have landed on the Moon. Slayton finds out and takes Staffwin off of Apollo 15.

I'm sorry, I thought the divergence point here was that Leonov landed on the moon. Apparently it's not, because that's not how Apollo flight rotation worked. In real life, Apollo 15 was commanded by Dave Scott, the Command Module Pilot of Apollo 9; the first time an Apollo 10 veteran flew again was on Apollo 16. I can understand them changing Stafford's name to Baldwin because Stafford is still alive, but... I can't make heads or tails of these other unnecessary changes.

Staffwin is reassigned to Apollo Applications (aka Skylab) and contemplates quitting NASA. Meanwhile, training for Apollo 11 continues. The astronauts encounter a 1202 alarm in the sims, but Overweight White Male NASA Technician freezes up and can't figure it out. In the back room, Plucky IT Girl figures it out and tries to get him to continue, but Overweight White Male NASA Buffoon is a buffoon and the sim is aborted. Von Braun tells Plucky IT Girl that she needs to be more assertive.

At a gathering of the Astronaut Wives Club, Mrs. Slayton tells Mrs. Staffwin that if Staffwin recants what he said and calls the journalist a liar, he can have Apollo 15 back. Gene Kranz assembles the flight controllers for Apollo 11's launch and tells them that failure is not an option. The illegal immigrants sneak across the border. Apollo 11 goes to, and crashes on, the moon. Mike Collins refuses to come home without them, but then it turns out that Neil and Buzz are okay.