kouzof-315-939842 Review of Missions

Missions (2017– )

Another scifi series favoring cheap thrills over scientific accuracy

[6/10 · 4 July 2017]

A French millionaire funds a Mars mission competing with a Tony Stark - Elon Musk type American millionaire funding another one. The US ship is much more realistic. No imagination there, they copied Elon Musk's ship design and mixed it with that of the Falcon 9 rocket, and it turned much more scientifically accurate than the French design. The French design, by the way, is a lot like the Eagles spaceships of Space 1999. Probably that's where they got their inspiration for the thriller plot twists. The script is plagued with the usual errors when the writer or the director has no idea of orbital mechanics, flight operations or engineering. Malfunctions and accidents occur randomly, and the crew heroically overcomes them disregarding safety regulations or scientific principles for that mater. There is not even a backup crew, a standard practice in all space programs. The landers are, very much unwise, hooked up sideways to the spaceship, in order to make sets and filming easier - no need for vertical sets. The crew seats in the spaceship are fighter airplane ejection seats. Crew has lots of things stored in nets or taped to walls, which would make good missiles while aerobraking. The spacesuits are straight out of Kubrick's 2001 Space Odyssey. No reference to lightweight mechanical counter-pressure suits being developed for Mars as we speak. Probably due to plain ignorance and cost savings. Good production though, nice sets and not a total waste. A small step forward for the European scifi film making, while US makes large jumps ahead with series like the Mars miniseries by the Discovery Channel and the Expanse. A pity.