Everyone knows Apple TV is the home of prestige science fiction on streaming, and one of its best series is coming back in just a couple of months. For All Mankind returns in March for Season 5, and now is the perfect time to catch up if you haven’t watched it. Created by sci-fi veteran Ronald D. Moore with Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi, the series has quietly become one of the best and most ambitious works of the genre of the past decade. With character-driven drama and carefully thought-out storylines, it reimagines the space race in a way that’s accessible and engaging even for those who aren’t really fans of sci-fi.
‘For All Mankind’ Is Set In A World Where The Space Race Never Ended
It’s the summer of 1969, and everyone is glued to the television watching as humanity reaches the Moon. Instead of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, however, it’s Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov who has the honor of doing so in our name, a full month before the Americans. That’s the premise of For All Mankind, making it one of the best alternate history series around. The “silver medal” in the race for the Moon is a huge blow for NASA and the US government, prompting them to hurry up not only to catch up with the Soviets, but also to overtake them with increasingly more ambitious missions.
This simple historical plot twist is enough to give For All Mankind a whole different outlook on what the space race was really about and its potential to change the world for the better. Instead of materializing as an ideological battleground, the Moon becomes a permanent frontier for humanity, and the competition continues to drive innovation, policy, and cultural identity. Each season tackles different challenges for the race with generational stakes, as the goals get further away into space and the political background changes according to what’s happening on Earth. Cooperation and diplomacy are redefined, as are NASA’s ambitions and expectations.
Before long, the Moon becomes an established gateway for larger endeavors, and it’s all explored through the eyes of characters who are directly engaged in them, especially astronauts and their families. With those characters on center stage, the story has an emotional depth that goes beyond the wonder of discovery, giving each new step in the race dramatic stakes on Earth as much as space. Although some of the key characters are based on real-life figures, the series never holds them to what their counterparts did, instead allowing them to do their own thing — and deal with the consequences — as they develop within the story.
In ‘For All Mankind,’ Humanity Is The Great Beneficiary of the Space Race
One of the essential traits of sci-fi is to reflect our hopes and fears about our own world, and For All Mankind does that by exploring how much the world would benefit from continued investment in science and technology through the space race. This progress is tangible and transformative, with technological breakthroughs arriving earlier and faster in ways that ripple outward into everyday life. Before you know it, there are screens around people’s houses, for example, but not quite like our own. The production design is perfect, in that sense, building this alternate future closer to how it was imagined in the past than what it became in reality.
Another deeply inspiring aspect of the continued space race is how it becomes a driver for social change. Soon after Leonov, for example, the USSR puts a woman cosmonaut on the Moon, forcing the US to catch up quickly, lest it seems like a retrograde society not only to the world, but especially to its own people. All of a sudden, social issues have to be addressed head-on and promote real change much earlier than in real life, as it becomes clear that technological progress for its own sake is essentially meaningless if it isn’t accompanied by societal progress, too, especially in terms of rights, equality, and representation.
Still, for all its optimistic outlook on what could have been, For All Mankind isn’t based on “what ifs,” and retains a great deal of realism that sets it apart from other alternate history series, like Watchmen and The Man in the High Castle. Progress happens unevenly and often reluctantly, always with resistance — a reflection of how change actually occurs. Of course, some things remain essentially the same, especially politics and capitalism, which, apparently, can’t work perfectly in any reality. But looking at the stars with hope never gets old, as For All Mankind reminds us.
As Humanity Returns To The Moon, Now Is The Best Time To Catch Up On ‘For All Mankind’
The timing of For All Mankind‘s return couldn’t have been better, actually, and that’s because humanity is set to return to the Moon in the real world, too. The upcoming Artemis II mission will send four astronauts — including the first woman and the first person of color — around it and further than any person has ever been, with an updated launch possibility set for February 8. This is the first step toward landing on the Moon again, which is expected to happen with the Artemis III mission in 2027. It’s impossible not to think of this series as the best watch for anyone who feels inspired.
What’s particularly interesting about watching For All Mankind right now, is that it also offers context and elicits important questions. Although the space race is effectively over, there are new players focusing on space, from China to billion-dollar privately-owned companies, so pondering what sustained exploration requires, who gets to shape it, and what future we are building by going back up there is as important and relevant as ever. For All Mankind reminds us to engage with those issues with a humanistic approach as we reach for the stars again.
For All Mankind is available to stream on Apple TV.
