Recently, I started watching ‘From the Earth to the Moon’ and I have to say that it is really good. I know I’m about 9 years behind (was originally released in 1998) but I recently came across Apollo 13 on TV a few weeks ago which led me to read about it on Wikipedia, which lead me to the mini-series.
Both Tom Hanks and Ron Howard were part of the production team. The series is about the Apollo space program in the 60’s and 70’s. It mixes both historical footage with scripted footage. It really gives you a great breakdown of NASA at the time and the race to beat the communists to the Moon.
It is a 13 part series, with the first episode quickly going through all the events leading up to the start of the Apollo program. It can be hard to follow at times because of all the people involved with the program. Sometimes you forget who’s an astronaut and who is working within NASA as administrators, but that is just a minor detail.
The series really works at telling the whole story. While it’s main focus is on the astronauts and space flight, they focus on the ground crew and the families of the astronauts. It shows the tragedies of Apollo 1 along with the triumphs of the other missions.
It does something special for Apollo 13. We’ve seen the movie which is largely based on the astronauts in space trying to make it back to Earth. They focus on mission control and the family. The mini-series overall has great effects. You feel as if you are right there with them at times.
Overall, it is a great mini-series that was very well done. I know reruns are running on The Science Channel, but your best bet is to watch it off the DVD. It runs more like a movie that way. At times it can be rather slow and commercials might kill it for you. Being able to watch it without any interuptions is probably your best bet.
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