Race to the Moon

Despite what you might assume based on the title of this episode of "The American Experience", this show is NOT about the first moon landing but about Apollo 8--a mission that had the astronauts orbit the Moon and then return to Earth. Several months later, the first landing (Apollo 11) would occur.

This film is pretty typical of an episode from this series. It's filled with interviews, old film and narration in order to tell the story of this trip. While it's reasonably interesting, it's also a bit anti-climactic, as the mission came off without a hitch as folks around the world followed the crew's progress in space. No real surprises here, though I did get to learn that one of the crew members had diarrhea in addition to his well publicized cold. Worth seeing but not as inspiring or interesting as an average installment of the show.