Truth is stranger then fiction as the saying goes. If there ever was need to prove this one would need to look no further then HBO's 1998 miniseries From The Earth To The Moon. Acting a bit as television companion to Ron Howard's feature film Apollo 13, this miniseries covers the years between 1961 and 1972, this epic twelve hour miniseries covers the race to the Moon from the perspective of those in NASA who went on the missions, supported them from the ground and watched them take place.
The epic cast of the miniseries is where much of its success lies. While it may be lacking any "named stars" in its cast it is a perfect place for numerous character actors to show their talents. The cast ranges from Nick Searcy as Deke Slayton, Lane Smith as the Walter Cronkite-like TV reporter Emmett Seaborn, David Andrews as Frank Borman, Stephen Root as Chris Kraft to Ted Levine as Alan Shepard, Rita Wilson as Susan Borman, Dave Foley as Al Bean and Mark Harmon as Wally Schirra amongst many, many others. Then there is of course executive producer Tom Hanks who acts, at the start of all but the last episode, as a sort of Chorus introducing the viewer to the story that is about to unfold.
The series is also blessed with fantastic effects work. From The Earth To The Moon builds on the fantastic effects work done for the feature film Apollo 13 to accurately and dramatically recreate the flights of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. Of special mention is the effects work done in the episodes "1968" and "Mare Tranquilitatis". The CGI and model work blends in near perfectly with the archival material used in places throughout the series. Yet perhaps the biggest special effects highlight of the production is the moon walk recreations. As other productions on the moon landings have shown, recreating these famous moon walks are not easy and yet by the time you have finished watching the twelve hours this miniseries covers you'll be amazed at just how convincing the moon walks are. While there are one or two questionable special effects (such as the LLRV crash in "Mare Tranquilitatis") the effects are fantastic pieces that help make the recreation of the missions all the more believable.
Yet the heart of From The Earth To The Moon lies in the scripts of its twelve episodes. Perhaps better then a documentary could, the miniseries' writing brings to the light of day the ambitions, dreams, egos, emotions, politics and the people behind the scenes of the Apollo mission to the Moon. While the first episode "Can We Do This?" moves along far too quickly due to the fact it covers as much history in a hour as the rest of the miniseries covers in eleven, the other eleven hours make for fascinating viewing. The various episodes cover the political fights that came up after the Apollo 1 fire ("Apollo One") to the lead-up to the flight of the first manned Apollo flight ("We Have Cleared The Tower") to the building of the Lunar Module ("Spider") to the media coverage of the Apollo13 mission ("We Interrupt This Program") to the scientific flights of the later part of the program ("Galileo Was Right") to the effect of the mission on the astronauts wives ("The Original Wives Club") to the contrasts between the 1902 filming of the George Melies film Le voyage dans la lune and, seven decades later, the last of the Apollo mission done in a documentary format ("Le voyage dans la lune"). Each script tells the story not only of the missions but of the people there as well and never does it descend into the cliché one has come to expect from TV docudramas.
The best episode of the miniseries, in my opinion anyway, would be its fourth episode entitled simply "1968". Better then any documentary on the Apollo 8 flight I have seen to date, the Al Reinert (the filmmaker of the wonderful Apollo documentary For All Mankind) scripted episode puts the Apollo 8 flight in the perspective of the other disastrous events of 1968. Even more intriguing, the episode is stylishly shown with all of the Earth-bound scenes in this episode are filmed in black and white, while the astronaut scenes are in color giving an amazing documentary like effect for most of the episode. Add on the aforementioned acting and special effects, especially in the earth rise sequence, and the result is an amazing fifty-four minutes of television.
Across the twelve hours and twelve episodes it covers, From The Earth Of The Moon is an amazing piece of television. From its fine acting, incredibly done special effects and fantastic scripts cover the story of the voyages of Apollo. It tells not just the story of the technological achievement of the Apollo flights but of the human stories that lied behind them, mostly unseen. While it might not always be exactly true to life it may well be as close to an accurate recreation of those amazing missions as we are ever likely to get.
The epic cast of the miniseries is where much of its success lies. While it may be lacking any "named stars" in its cast it is a perfect place for numerous character actors to show their talents. The cast ranges from Nick Searcy as Deke Slayton, Lane Smith as the Walter Cronkite-like TV reporter Emmett Seaborn, David Andrews as Frank Borman, Stephen Root as Chris Kraft to Ted Levine as Alan Shepard, Rita Wilson as Susan Borman, Dave Foley as Al Bean and Mark Harmon as Wally Schirra amongst many, many others. Then there is of course executive producer Tom Hanks who acts, at the start of all but the last episode, as a sort of Chorus introducing the viewer to the story that is about to unfold.
The series is also blessed with fantastic effects work. From The Earth To The Moon builds on the fantastic effects work done for the feature film Apollo 13 to accurately and dramatically recreate the flights of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. Of special mention is the effects work done in the episodes "1968" and "Mare Tranquilitatis". The CGI and model work blends in near perfectly with the archival material used in places throughout the series. Yet perhaps the biggest special effects highlight of the production is the moon walk recreations. As other productions on the moon landings have shown, recreating these famous moon walks are not easy and yet by the time you have finished watching the twelve hours this miniseries covers you'll be amazed at just how convincing the moon walks are. While there are one or two questionable special effects (such as the LLRV crash in "Mare Tranquilitatis") the effects are fantastic pieces that help make the recreation of the missions all the more believable.
Yet the heart of From The Earth To The Moon lies in the scripts of its twelve episodes. Perhaps better then a documentary could, the miniseries' writing brings to the light of day the ambitions, dreams, egos, emotions, politics and the people behind the scenes of the Apollo mission to the Moon. While the first episode "Can We Do This?" moves along far too quickly due to the fact it covers as much history in a hour as the rest of the miniseries covers in eleven, the other eleven hours make for fascinating viewing. The various episodes cover the political fights that came up after the Apollo 1 fire ("Apollo One") to the lead-up to the flight of the first manned Apollo flight ("We Have Cleared The Tower") to the building of the Lunar Module ("Spider") to the media coverage of the Apollo13 mission ("We Interrupt This Program") to the scientific flights of the later part of the program ("Galileo Was Right") to the effect of the mission on the astronauts wives ("The Original Wives Club") to the contrasts between the 1902 filming of the George Melies film Le voyage dans la lune and, seven decades later, the last of the Apollo mission done in a documentary format ("Le voyage dans la lune"). Each script tells the story not only of the missions but of the people there as well and never does it descend into the cliché one has come to expect from TV docudramas.
The best episode of the miniseries, in my opinion anyway, would be its fourth episode entitled simply "1968". Better then any documentary on the Apollo 8 flight I have seen to date, the Al Reinert (the filmmaker of the wonderful Apollo documentary For All Mankind) scripted episode puts the Apollo 8 flight in the perspective of the other disastrous events of 1968. Even more intriguing, the episode is stylishly shown with all of the Earth-bound scenes in this episode are filmed in black and white, while the astronaut scenes are in color giving an amazing documentary like effect for most of the episode. Add on the aforementioned acting and special effects, especially in the earth rise sequence, and the result is an amazing fifty-four minutes of television.
Across the twelve hours and twelve episodes it covers, From The Earth Of The Moon is an amazing piece of television. From its fine acting, incredibly done special effects and fantastic scripts cover the story of the voyages of Apollo. It tells not just the story of the technological achievement of the Apollo flights but of the human stories that lied behind them, mostly unseen. While it might not always be exactly true to life it may well be as close to an accurate recreation of those amazing missions as we are ever likely to get.