Space

Based on the James Michener novel of the same name this mini series which originally aired on CBS tells the tale of Americas space program through fictional characters. Beginning with German Rocket scientists who choose to go to the Americans side after the war up to the manned lunar landings. The politics, money making business, careers and romances of those who made up the space program are covered.

The original broadcast was the best version. It has been rebroadcast a few times since but has always been edited in some form or another. A little heavy at times on the soap opera romance bit but still a good mini series. Don't miss reading the novel by Michener.

After seeing the film in production and then watching it I would rank it 8.5 out of 10. I got to film as an extra in the MCC scenes and meet Dick Gordon as Capcom, Joe Sargent, Bruce Dern, Maggie Han and Blair Brown. I was a Rear Admiral in the viewing room scenes at Mission Control, filmed in Houston. At one point we were told to look shocked and sad at loosing the crew in the Lunar Module after lunar ascent. It was hard because we had only lost a crew on the pad many years before. Several Months later the Challenger accident happened. Scenes in Germany were accurate and one would expect Von Braun to emerge in the scenes with the allies taking over the rocket engineers.

The political scenes in Washington hold true today and Garner, Brown and Martin Balsom played the roles well. We could have done without Strabismus but it was too deep in the story to root it out. An interesting twist his company United Scriptures Alliance (USA) was similarly used for the company name United Space Alliance (USA) for the major contractor for Shuttle work for NASA in later years.

From Penemundee to the tragic 'Apollo 18', it was quite an inspiration to saw this miniseries as a kid 15 years ago. The 80s saw the production of some of the best TV miniseries around and this is certainly one of them. As usual, the novel was even better though I only got to read it years later. It potrayed the human spirit version of the space program in their golden era. Great work by Harry Hamlin and Michael York as John Pope and Dieter Kolf respectively. If you're looking for some heart warming, feel good time, this's one worth the watch.

I saw this movie in 1988 and I found it to be a very entertaining history on early space travel. It ranks up there with The Right Stuff and Apollo 13. The acting was great, and the story progressed at a good clip. If you find this on Cable TV someday, watch it. You won't be disappointed.

My thoughts are essentially in agreement with the previous commentators. If you've read the book you'll know what to expect: an "epic" in the true sense of the word. The Mercury, Gemini and early Apollo astronauts are depicted pretty well as history shows them; in fact it seems difficult to separate the fictional from the might-be-real-but-not-well-known.

The version I saw in Australia has a final section covering the destruction of the "Challenger". This is done is a somewhat different style to the rest of the movie (a bit too "soft focus" and "tearjerker" for my liking), and is not in the book, either.

In style and approach, I would rate this as a little closer to "Right Stuff" than to "Apollo 13".