Space

Before Tom Hanks took us from the Earth to the moon, the adaptation of Michner's Space ran in the spring of 1985 on the CBS network.

Most movies, TV shows have concentrated on the original seven astronauts, or the Apollo spaceflights, Space shows the early history of rocket development through the work of Michael York's Dieter Kolf is based on Wehrner von Braun, who headed the team which developed the concept and the rockets which lofted American men into space. The mini-series concentrates on Harry Hamlin's John Pope, a Navy aviator, who ends up a Gemni astronaut. Lot's of good stuff on the often overlooked Gemni program, which was used to write the playbook to get us to the moon. Hamlin eventually is part of the Apollo program, and lands on the moon which is where the series diverges -- Hamlin is part of an accident on the moon and ends up dying in an explosion. Great drama, but we know it didn't happen. James Garner is great as a senator who bolsters the space program.

I wish somebody would release this on video. Seems there would be a market for it given all the recent space related programs and movies of late.

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".

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.

The series was actually filmed in many locations including Chestertown, Maryland which was transformed into the town of Clay. While filming in Chestertown was proceeding, a second unit filming in Huntsville, Alabama fell behind schedule. One scene the second unit was supposed to film was the swearing in of the WWII German rocket scientists. It was decided to use the old Chestertown Courthouse for the scene.

Like most folks around Chestertown I had grown accustomed to watching Harry Hamlin and Blair Brown play their roles of young sweethearts. I was in my 20's and training for a triathlon that summer and often road my bike through Chestertown. One day I was detoured down a narrow back alley because filming was occurring on Main Street. I was tearing down the sidewalk because the narrow street was filled with actor's trailers. Suddenly a lanky figure in a baggy Edwardian suite came bounding out of trailer and I had to slam on the breaks and nearly lay my bike down to avoid hitting him. It was Bruce Dern! I followed him and watched as he and Michael York took the oath of citizenship from the Mayor of Chestertown, Elmer Horsey!

Exciting mini-series about the US space program

During the Christmas season of 1987, this American series about the history of space travel from the end of the Second World War, through the great UFO scare to the moon landing, was broadcast on one of the West German private channels. The US premiere took place in April 1985 on CBS. The basis was the novel SPACE by bestselling author James A. MICHENER, which was published in 1982. In addition to the technical development, it was of course also about intrigue and love confusion - in the style of a soap opera.

The great cast included stars like James GARNER (as Senator Norman Grant), Beau BRIDGES (as the astronaut), Bruce DERN and Martin BALSAM. Blair BROWN, Harry HAMLIN and David DUKES were there as hot young stars.

And since the space program relied on the expertise of German scientists who had previously worked for the Nazi regime, there was also a storyline with characters of German descent.

CABARET (1972) star Michael York (two years later also as Abby Ewing's former childhood love in KNOTS LANDING) and the German actress Barbara SUKOWA (LOLA / THE LEAD TIME) played the German couple Dieter and Liesel Kolff, who had a decisive influence on the should get moon landing.

To my knowledge, this was Barbara SUKOWA's first appearance in an American production. A year later, the actress would be awarded the Silver Palm at the Cannes Film Festival for her role as ROSA LUXEMBOURG.

Interesting series that I really enjoyed watching back then. Recommended!