Mars (National Geographic TV Mini-Series)

[Volunteer_Kirby]

"The first manned voyage from Earth to Mars leads to a 2033 mission to colonize the red planet."

Mars (TV Mini-Series 2016) - IMDb

Fun little mini series, very relevant to what's going on today. Nat Geo isn't doing bad here, this series has fantastic production but it's not getting much recognition out there.

Anyone else watching this? It's halfway through the 6 episode series.

 

[SWIL]

I found it curious to see Elon Musk pitching this show on the commerical; is he one of the producers or something?

 

[Volunteer_Kirby]

I found it curious to see Elon Musk pitching this show on the commerical; is he one of the producers or something?

He is involved directly in the show via interviews, there also appears to be a character based on him in the fictional part of the show.

There are two parts to this show. One part involves discussing the actual logistics of getting to Mars by interviewing key figures (astronauts, scientists and the like, plus a few interviews with Elon Musk), they then go on to discuss various theoreticals regarding the topic of space travel and Mars.

The second part is the fictional series - the bulk of the show - which follows the first crew that lands on Mars (in 2033). The goal of the mission is to create a sustainable home/settlement on Mars.

 

[Grand Vol]

So far...not bad. Not good though. Kind of "meh, I can kill an hour with it" kinda show. The characters so far are flat. Zero personality. Faked emotions. And the supposed to be suspenseful scenes...just aren't.

It's a kinda sci-fi show which provokes my inner nerd. But if you are going to try to make it into a drama, needs more, well, drama. Or characters that you can somehow relate to and keep you watching.

However, I do like how they are getting the experts of today involved in the making of the show.

 

[Coug]

I saw a few minutes of this show which was enough to determine I wasn't going to be interested.

 

[Grand Vol]

Okay, Season 2 has turned into a serious "save the environment and we hate corporations" show.

 

[TheDeeble]

I thought the same thing initially, but it may be a realistic suggestion that private corps and govt sponsored research will butt heads over land usage.

Although they went over the top with the evil corp tactics/manipulation. I doubt they would try that in real life.

 

[Grand Vol]

I thought the same thing initially, but it may be a realistic suggestion that private corps and govt sponsored research will butt heads over land usage.

Although they went over the top with the evil corp tactics/manipulation. I doubt they would try that in real life.

With me, it's doing the "flashback" scenes and going into the "big oil bad, we need to be eco-friendly, private corporations will ruin Mars" talk nearly every show so far. Politics aside, there's other avenues for that in other shows they could put on.

I do somewhat agree with what you think about governments and private entities butting heads. The problem is, private companies are going to go after the resources in the solar system sooner rather than later. And in turn, those same government agencies (NASA, Roscosmos, ESA, etc) are going to turn around and buy those very same resources from them to keep operations going. It's going to be cheaper to buy water or fuel (one in the same really) from that private company mining it out of asteroids/comets rather than launching it from earth. Something the show doesn't really portray. Well, yet at least.

 

[TheDeeble]

With me, it's doing the "flashback" scenes and going into the "big oil bad, we need to be eco-friendly, private corporations will ruin Mars" talk nearly every show so far. Politics aside, there's other avenues for that in other shows they could put on.

I do somewhat agree with what you think about governments and private entities butting heads. The problem is, private companies are going to go after the resources in the solar system sooner rather than later. And in turn, those same government agencies (NASA, Roscosmos, ESA, etc) are going to turn around and buy those very same resources from them to keep operations going. It's going to be cheaper to buy water or fuel (one in the same really) from that private company mining it out of asteroids/comets rather than launching it from earth. Something the show doesn't really portray. Well, yet at least.

When I made my post earlier I had only seen the first episode. Now that I've caught up, I see what you mean about "big bad oil", eco friendly, ect ect. It's almost to the point that I just fast forward through it to get back to the Mars story. I have found Newt having interesting counter points though. I'd never really thought about it in terms of "preservationists are moving against the tide of history."

If they get to the point where the admit that govt agencies will be buying from private companies, I don't think it will be this season. Only one more episode I think.