WWDC 2022 ends today but something is starting that will also keep our attention. The third season of “For All Mankind” is among today’s first Apple TV+ to follow its alternate history of a space race between the USSR and the United States that never ended due to the rivalry between the two powers. There is a great desire to start watching the new episodes, but you may not remember very well what happened in the first and second seasons. Fear not: here’s a good summary to jog your memory.
Season 1: A moment in history that changes everything
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Warning: From here we are developing spoilers for the first two seasons of For All Mankind. Read at your own risk! |
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It all starts in June 1969, when “For All Mankind” changes real history and begins an alternate reality. A parallel universe to ‘What If’, in which the point that causes differentiation is that the Russians manage to reach the Moon and plant their red hammer and sickle flag in front of the United States.
From there, everything changes. Astronaut Edward Baldwin pressures NASA to follow the path of the Soviets and go to the Moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin arrive a hair’s breadth later, surviving after crashing their lunar module. But the Russians keep sending more cosmonauts (including the first woman), and the a race to establish a permanent base on the Moon.
The Americans and the Soviets advance on their missions, with NASA finding ice in some caves that can be used to generate fuel and provide water supplies to early “colonizers”. At the same time, the remains of a Russian mission clearly show that from the USSR they also want to settle. So, with great effort, in 1973, the American permanent moon base was opened jamestown which is currently powered by solar energy.
All those advances from the 70s alts (which we haven’t seen here yet or in 2022) cause other milestones in American society, such as an equality amendment approved in 1974. The more technological progress, the more social progress. Quite a message.
At the same time, tensions between the two great superpowers continue to rise, with astronauts discovering spy cameras in their lunar mine from which they extract materials and ice. The climax comes when a Soviet cosmonaut asks for help on his way to the base jamestown from the permanent base of the USSR, to which Edward Baldwin decides to help him but also to keep him as a prisoner. Ultimately, the dilemma is resolved with the prisoner helping in an American crisis rescuing the crew from a mission and being freed.
Season 2: The Cold War heats up on the moon
Ten years later, in other eightiesthe base jamestown it is powered by nuclear energy and has expanded to encompass several sections with a greater number of employees. Russia also has its own permanent base, so tensions persist.
On Earth, technological advancements brought about by the space race translate into electric cars and mobile devices. Our protagonist, Edward Baldwin, owns one of these electric cars and drives it every day to work as the Director of the Astronaut Section at NASA.
The problems on the moon continue, both from the USSR and the challenges of wanting to live on a satellite without an atmosphere. A solar storm leaves scars for Molly, an astronaut from season one who now aspires to become a NASA administrator. This organization, by the way, prepares a space shuttle powered by a nuclear reactor.
The USSR and the United States try to move to the moon in harmony, but tensions are inevitable and end in the worst possible way
Communists work side by side with the United States in the joint Apollo-Soyuz mission, in an attempt to collaborate and promote peace between the two superpowers which becomes a source of tension. The director of NASA dies when the plane he was traveling in is shot down by the USSR, and NASA manufactures the first weapons designed to be fired at the moon. These serve as a deterrent to Russian cosmonauts leaving an American lunar outpost they had hijacked without permission, but lead to a critical incident when two Russian cosmonauts seeking to surrender are killed by American astronauts who believed them to have intent. hostile.
Which causes the russians invade the base jamestown violently, killing several American astronauts; and that the nuclear shuttle’s mission is compromised by the interception of another Russian shuttle. Tensions reach an unbearable point, but ultimately the two shuttles choose to greet each other in search of peace. This soothes the atmosphere at the Jamestown base, which sees how two of its best astronauts must sacrifice their lives to solve a possible meltdown of the nuclear reactor that powers the base.
The second season ends with the USSR and the United States trying to maintain a good climate despite everything that has happened, realizing that a war between the two fronts would have disastrous consequences for all of humanity. Even so, the USSR manages to infiltrate NASA, securing a very valuable source of information.
Season 3: Conflict Follows Us to Mars
It leads to at the start of the third season, already in the middle of the nineties, with Nirvana triumphing atop the charts as the Space Race reaches Mars. In the trailer, we can already see some details of what we’re going to find: large space stations orbiting Earth, private companies joining these SpaceX-style superpowers, and nuclear reactors set to make the journey to Earth. March and the construction of a permanent base on a ride. We also guess certain characters trying their luck in politics.
You can now watch the first episode of this third season of ‘For All Mankind’ on Apple TV+ to see how this alternative history continues, which is further and further away from our chronology.
