For All Mankind Series Overview

On April 1st, 2026, the Artemis II mission launched bound for the Moon, marking the first time in half a century that human beings would head to another world. It’s a test drive for what will hopefully be the next lunar landing, but it’s still a big step forward. And I for one dont just think that it’s about time we went back; I think we never should have stopped going. If we had kept things up, there’s a chance we might have reached Mars by now. Sadly, while this timeline has yet for mankind to make it there, there’s a show on Apple TV+ thats all about one of the biggest what-ifs in history: what if we never stopped going to the Moon? I’m RJ Writing Ink, and this is a look at the drama series, For All Mankind.

What do you Mean Korolev Lived?

When Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969, it was one of the most important events in human history. It could have been the start of a push to reach the stars and make the rest of the Solar System our home. Instead, after achieving their goal and rubbing it in the Soviet Union’s faces, America lost all motivation and gave up for the next fifty years. Without a rival to push us forward, we had no reason to keep aspiring for greater things. In the timeline of For All Mankind, though, something momentous happens that changes everything: the Soviets beat America to the Moon.

In our timeline, the main force for a Soviet push to the moon was its lead rocket engineer, Sergei Korolev. He died in 1966 thanks to a botched surgery, and without him, the Soviets couldn’t put a plan together. However, in the timeline For All Mankind, he survived. As a result of that, the series premiere has the entire world watching as the real-life Cosmonaut, Alexei Leonov, becomes the first person to walk on the moon, a full month before Apollo 11 does so.

Despite still managing to accomplish their self-appointed goal of making it to the moon before the decade was out, seeing their rival beat them yet again naturally enrages America. This renewed fire leads the country to keep pushing the space program further and further, sending more missions to the Moon before trying to be the first to set up a permanent base there. As a result, both sides remain driven to innovate and improve in an effort to one-up each other as the years go by. And the world begins to change.

A Moon Base in the 70s? Not as Far-Fetched as you’d Think

If you’ve never seen alternate history, then a major selling point of the genre is how changing something in the past can lead to a wildly different present. For All Mankind does a fairly convincing job working with this concept, as while you’d think America building a base on the moon in the 70s sounds impossible, it really isn’t. We had the idea on the drawing board. The technology, while fairly primitive, could have been improved upon. The show seems to think that all we were missing was the right motivation. And while the Cold War rivalry remains the main instigator of drama and even nearly heats up into a war, the show has a fairly optimistic view on what could have been. The continued exploration of space eventually brings America and the Soviets together, and other nations start to join in on the final frontier. In a moment that I find hilarious, once the show moves towards landing on Mars and the Americans and Russians are competing to get there first, neither of them does. They’re outdone by a third party nobody even considered feasible. It just shows how, in the grand scheme of things, who gets somewhere first or where they come from doesn’t matter. What matters is getting there, because that’s ultimately a win for all mankind.

That’s not to say that there isn’t any conflict, though. This is a drama series!

Dramatic Conflicts between Astronauts!

If you were going to go into this series and think that it would revolve around fictional versions of the real-life figures from the space race, you would only be partly right. People like Neil Armstrong, Werner Von Braun, and Sally Ride are in the show, but eventually, they all get phased out in favor of the fictional cast. As this is a series that takes place over the span of decades, many characters are introduced and killed off throughout its run. Some have been a part of the series since the beginning. Others we see grow up as time passes and they begin to take on a bigger role. And there are a number of characters that die. The bottom line is that this is a show with a big cast, and it only gets bigger as time goes on.

Since For All Mankind starts off in the middle of the Cold War, the initial cast of the show has that “us vs them” mindset, with them being the Soviets who beat them to the moon. Sadly, politics isn’t something that is left behind on Earth, and as the two nations compete to travel further into our Solar System, the rivalry doesn’t let up. However, by the second season, everyone slowly starts to realize that space isn’t the place to be concerned about petty differences, and that it’s better to work together. Fast forward to the current season, and those old issues are gone. But they’re also replaced with new ones as new players join. In addition, once people start settling other worlds, this interstellar colonialism leads to history repeating itself. Or, to put it bluntly, the people living on Mars are chafing under Earth’s rule.

#Marsisours

If mankind decides to start settling the planets and moons of the Solar System, we’re going to have to deal with the inevitable birth of independence movements. When that comes, humanity will need to decide what kind of interstellar civilization we want to build. Will it be one of unity and equality for all, or will there will be an Earth first mentality. At the moment, that same conflict is brewing in the current season of For All Mankind, and I’m betting that things will come to a head before the season ends. In addition, given their age, its likely this will be final season for the original cast members.

Artemis II has reignited a global interest in traveling to the stars; I’ve been looking on social media and seeing plenty of people excited about this step into space. My generation could be the first to see people living on the Moon! Yet it’s shows like For All Mankind that tell me that we didn’t have to wait this long. We’ve had the means to do this for decades, and I think it’s high time that we do it again. I love this world, but I do think mankind’s future lies in the stars. Sooner or later, we have to leave the cradle. And the second it becomes publicly available, I’m buying a ticket!