Space Race

The BBC have shown that the as-yet-to-mature genre of 'docudrama' can compete with the best their is to offer from either of its parent genres. The script was tight - and by that I mean sounding like what real people might actually have said - and the acting of a good standard. I do not confess to know the intricate details of the actual American-Soviet space race, but suspect the scriptwriters distilled the story to just the right level, allowing for an understanding of the larger issues without losing a sense of the real people behind the events. My only complaint: perhaps a little more of the budget could have been directed toward the CGI sequences.....? Informative and watchable, I look forward to the BBC's next foray into the world of docudrama.

This mini-series was so riveting, I had to watch it several times in it's entirety to catch everything. I certainly wish that there were more docudramas like this. The portrayal of Sergei Korolev was, for lack of a better word, amazing. All production values, in my opinion, went above and beyond anything that I have seen on television in years. Yet, it is such a shame that the series ended with the Apollo 11 moon landing. Though, it would be interesting to see the development of the Space Shuttle, MIR, The Voyager Missions, Viking, Spacelab, and the I.S.S. as well as other Soviet and current Russian spacecraft documented in a continuation of this series. I found Space Race to be inspiring as well as aspiring for future generations to know that we can do anything, if we dare to dream.

Firstly I should say that I saw the US version of the miniseries - apparently this version has a different narrator than the English version. Why the creators felt that was necessary is beyond me - is an English accent all that distracting for Americans? I don't think so. The 'Walking with Dinosaurs' videos have the same problem, and are virtually ruined by poor quality narration for the American versions.

I liked this movie, but some things frustrated me.

I think the scriptwriter made a mistake in trying to cover both the US and Soviet efforts to land a man on the moon. I think the miniseries would have been better if it had concentrated on the Soviet side of things (as the US side has been virtually done to death). The Russian parts somehow seemed deeper to me - I don't know why - perhaps it was that the personalities were more likable, or maybe the acting was just a bit more nuanced. Anyway, I felt cheated whenever the action shifted to the US.

The movie is technically very good, with great special effects and good accents all around. When German is spoken it really sounds like German - none of the deeply accented German we're used to hearing with British/American productions. The Russian also seems good, although my knowledge of the Russian language is not that good.

Where the movie really fails is in terms of the scope of the production: far too much is squeezed into four hours, and a great deal of important detail is lost. We get about five minutes covering Yuri Gagarin's flight, and less for Alexei Leonov's first space walk. Valentina Tereshkova's flight (the first female in space) is not even mentioned - in fact she doesn't get any mention at all - one is led to believe that all the cosmonauts were men. Similarly omitted is the Soviet lunar module. Basically the Russian side of things is basically ignored as Apollo gets off the ground. Finally, I felt the miniseries fizzled out - the US moon landing was covered very sketchily, and that was the end. I felt the film would have benefited if the Apollo-Soyuz mission was covered - that was, after all, the true end of the US-Soviet competition, and it would have ended the film on a note of hopefulness and international cooperation.

This television series is probably the best ever written about the 'Space Race' by the Soviets and the Americans. I never know the full history behind the Soviets designer, Sergei Korolev. And after watching this it gives you the whole background knowledge you need ever. This is a series I would really recommend watching whether you are interested in Space or not as either way it is fulfilling. I liked the way that the actors playing Werner Von Braun and Sergei Korolev were precise and really made you think that it was really them. Although when you first learn about Space history all you learn about is the first man on the moon and I don't think that the Soviets really get a big a mention as the Americans as it was the Soviets who first got into Space as a start.This series takes you through from the first satellite into outer space to the landing of the first man on the moon. Great series I recommend it to anyone.

I've just visited Russian forum of our TV-channel that had showed this film. Well... 99 per cent of active Russian audience is disappointed. We wanted to see more true facts of our space achievements in this film. But authors had in mind something else... :( We are big and beautiful country with intelligent people living here. We are proud of all our space dreams, real achievements on the one hand in this field and in science on the other hand. So I'd like to ask authors: Where is our LUNOHOD? And where, the Hell our MIR station? Ah? I'm quite sure, that LUNOHOD events took place much earlier Armstrong's "walk on Moon". And to comment numerous technical and science mistakes - I really have no time and enough space here! Se our constructive critics in Russian forum on www.1tv.ru