Two cosmonauts for every boy: STAR CITY on Apple+

Rhys Ifans & Anna Maxwell Martin in the Russian alterna-universe spinoff of For All Mankind.

No Bob, No Gordo but a whole lotta wood-paneling, Brutalist architecture & Soviet grimness! Wee!

Episode 1 was pretty good imo! Looking forward to watching more already.

Bookmarked thread. Haven't gotten to this yet

Episode 2 was great, confirmed that I am very much into this show

Although: I realized I don’t actually know a ton abt the Russian space program - didn’t know Chief Designer was a real guy named Korolev, or the moon gal w arranged marriage Tanya Markelova seems based on Valentina Tereshkova, the first Russian woman in space who herself had an arranged marriage to cosmonaut etc
so I am def going to seek a few library books and go rabbitholing :)

great story so far

Oberg's Red Star In Orbit probably still the best book out for the early history: https://archive.org/details/redstarinorbit0000ober

Also Asif Siddiqi's books: https://www.asifsiddiqi.com/work/peaks-ak5l4

I bailed on For All Mankind halfway through season 2 for a) focusing too much on boring Earthbound relationships over cool space staff and b) being waaaayy too goddarn American.

Maybe I'd like this one more?

And is it sufficiently standalone for me to try?

Also Asif Siddiqi's books: https://www.asifsiddiqi.com/work/peaks-ak5l4🕸

I have requested the second siddiq book (they didn’t have vol1) so we’ll see! or I might try Oberg

great reveal at the end of Ep 3, and that space docking sequence was pretty tense.

And is it sufficiently standalone for me to try?

I'd say so, as long as you're familiar with the general premise - alt universe where the Russians made it to the moon first. There are a few characters who also appear in FAM but so far it hasn't been necessary to know who they became later, just interesting to see their younger versions.

Wait which ones? I hadn't noticed that.

Irina Morozovsza!
The fresh faced spy girl!

I think they referenced Chief Designer & the engineer guy too but I don’t really remember them

Soviet engineer Sergei is Margo's love interest

Oh duh that’s right <3

I didn't know why Tanya was marking her record plays so it was really fascinating to learn about bootlegged "bone records", made out of discarded x-rays that you can only listen to a few times before they warped:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jan/29/bone-music-soviet-bootleg-records-pressed-on-xrays

Ok I finally watched ep 3 & was not expecting THAT ending. Dang.

Episode 5 is a fucking banger - final scene was very oh shit we’re really doing this

Death to Infantile rats imo

(Oh and I finally picked up Red Star In Orbit by James Oberg on the history of Russian space program. Really well written & impressive amount of shoe leather in the research. Learning a lot already!)

Saw the first episode, pretty solid, wild that this show exists at all. Distracting that everybody has UK accents, given the Russians spoke English with Russian accents in For All Mankind, but whatever.

!!! incredible episode

Holy shit that was fucking stressful AF & horrible & great. How is this show so good?

was very amused that they got a Newman/Dennis Nedry lookalike as one of the space techs

Raskova is such a fascinating character - like yes it's totally insane that she made that order, otoh it's understandable that she felt she didn't have much of a choice - she knew she was already in trouble after learning that a secret launch took place with a traitor and foreign scientist on board right under her nose.

You guys this finale ripped me to shreds I am posting this as a husk of my former self

This fucking SHOW omg. Part espionage novel, part epic Russian novel, part Russian space program & cook it into the richest stew and make you weep in ANGUISH like fucking Tolstoy

These guys are not fucking around. whatever your misgivings about For All Mankind, this season of Space City is like the best Gordo season of FAM multiplied by a factor of 10.

I cannot overstate how good this is.

Now close the door and black out the windows I need to be alone for a month to recover

ditto all of that.

some parts of the finale will definitely challenge your suspension of disbelief a little bit ("i'm going to come and save you... from space! Will be there in just a few mins and land less than 20km away!"). but the way they built up the emotional stakes was so strong that it didn't matter one bit, the impact still hit so hard.

It's a shame that the show doesn't seem to be getting much public attention though, really hope it gets renewed.

Yeah I agree re suspension of disbelief! they did such a great job of making us care about each of the main characters, once they up the stakes you are just so latched onto each storyline like fishhooks in your skin.

Cinematography in this ep was so good too! That scene when Belikova is standing in the green field in her silver suit with the blue & white flowers was really beautiful

I’m a couple episodes behind… can’t wait!

Just finished, so good. A different flavor than FAM, darker and deeper about the interpersonal relationships and personal choices. Salute

Rewatched this again - binging it all at once this time. I can't remember the last time I rewatched sometime so soon after. Hoping that more folks will check this out

It’s crazy how good it is!

I don't have the heart to watch the most recent season of FAM, will it matter, or will I miss out on anything if I watch this instead?

You won't miss out on anything other than seriously mediocre and directionless television. In the timeline, Star City sits somewhere between season 1 and 2 of FAM.

I thought so, good news then. Thank you!

Forgot to mention this book: The Russian Cosmists: The Esoteric Futurism of Nikolai Fedorov and His Followers by George Young. - https://academic.oup.com/book/6271

It's not a book about the Soviet space program (Fedorov died in 1903) but about a philosophy underpinning the beliefs of some important scientists in its wake.

In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, a controversial school of Russian thinkers emerged, convinced that humanity was entering an advanced stage of evolution and must assume a new, active, managerial role in the cosmos. This book offers a dynamic and wide-ranging examination of the lives and ideas of the Russian Cosmists. Although they wrote as scientists, theologians, and philosophers, the Cosmists addressed topics traditionally confined to occult and esoteric literature. Their writings explored the extension of the human life span to establish universal immortality; the restoration of life to the dead; the regulation of nature so that all manifestations of blind natural force were under rational human control; the effect of cosmic rays and other particles of energy on human history; and practical steps toward eventual human control over the flow of time. Suppressed during the Soviet period and little noticed in the West, the ideas of the Cosmists have in recent decades been rediscovered and embraced by many Russian intellectuals. The book offers a sympathetic analysis of the ideas of the Cosmists within the contexts of Russian philosophy, Russian religious thought, and Western esotericism

Ooh interesting!

Finally started watching.

Nostrovia! (Keep the vodka handy)

Welcome aboard comrade!