Space

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.

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!

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".

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!