Every history-making journey starts with a vision, a dream. This presentation simply puts forth one possible path. It may not happen this way. It may never happen, but I'd like to think we, as a species, have the vision to pursue the possibilities. I applaud the effort and goal.
6 Reviews
This is going to be a great series
desertsongbird30 October 2016
I have to say this show seems like it is going to be good series. It gave me that excitement I once felt about how wonderful science is and can be. It has a nice blend of characters as well as amazing visuals. It is also nice to see a realistic time frame of what could possibly be a mission to Mars. It is apparently obvious that the writers did their research and knew who to seek advice from to make this series realistic in nature. There were moments that were more intense than others and moments that drove great emotion. I appreciated the diversity of cultures and countries with the same goal working together achieve a great goal. I am usually a bit skeptical about science 'fiction' TV shows, but I gave this one a chance and I am glad I did. It kept my attention from beginning to end. I look forward to the next episode.
Edu-Drama that's neither educational, nor dramatic
m404015 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
This show was billed as sort of an edu-drama. It's supposed to be both educational and dramatic... and it kind of fails on both levels. This was HEAVILY promoted by NatGeo, and they were obviously hoping for a hit with this one, but it's really sort of... meh. I was hoping for more from the premier. Maybe it'll get better?
The dramatic aspect fails due to the complete lack of character development. We saw no real personality in any of the actors (mainly due to dry and predictable script writing). There was no humor or any other aspect to these people that makes you like any of them. No scenes with their families... no joking around... no nicknames... no relationships between any of them... just two-dimensional cardboard cutout characters.
So the acting and writing weren't great... but my hopes were more focused on the science anyways. And the scientific aspect to this show makes you hope and pray that NASA and other space agencies have better plans than the sort of "hail Mary" cluster**** depicted in this show.
Final note... I'm still not even clear what these people are supposed to be doing on Mars. This whole show tries to impart how epic this mission is... but they haven't actually told us what the mission is. Are they there to stay? Do they think they will colonize Mars by mating 3 pairs of disinterested humans? Is there a return plan? More people coming?
The dramatic aspect fails due to the complete lack of character development. We saw no real personality in any of the actors (mainly due to dry and predictable script writing). There was no humor or any other aspect to these people that makes you like any of them. No scenes with their families... no joking around... no nicknames... no relationships between any of them... just two-dimensional cardboard cutout characters.
So the acting and writing weren't great... but my hopes were more focused on the science anyways. And the scientific aspect to this show makes you hope and pray that NASA and other space agencies have better plans than the sort of "hail Mary" cluster**** depicted in this show.
- One would hope there would be a viable habitat waiting... and that they wouldn't have to manually land a gigantic living module when they got there.
- One might also hope that they would ORBIT Mars for a while, work out any kinks, and verify all the systems before attempting their descent. Apparently this mission was planned as a single-shot dartboard style attempt (and they better hit the bullseye on the first shot or the whole thing is screwed). The scene with a guy rushing down into the bowels of the ship to make repairs while it plummeted into Mars' atmosphere was quite ridiculous.
- One would hope nobody would design the living quarters as a tall, upright rocket that would precariously balance on 3 spindly legs. If one of them sunk into softer sand, the whole thing would topple over. Heck... a good gust of Martian wind might spell doom for everyone.
- As others have mentioned, this is supposed to take place in 2033, and be the height of mankind's future technological endeavors. I would hope to see something new... some really cool computers or some other gadgets we haven't invented yet. I saw none of that. It's all pretty much shown as existing tech. Apparently we're not making any tech leaps in the next 17 years... depressing.
Final note... I'm still not even clear what these people are supposed to be doing on Mars. This whole show tries to impart how epic this mission is... but they haven't actually told us what the mission is. Are they there to stay? Do they think they will colonize Mars by mating 3 pairs of disinterested humans? Is there a return plan? More people coming?
2001 A Boring Oddyssey
Johnny_West11 June 2017
I bailed out 17 minutes into this boring docudrama. This show makes the most boring moments of 2001 A Space Odyssey seem exciting. It was a big rip of the most boring tech moments of 2001 A Space Odyssey, Alien, and a few other movies.
I turned it off at the point one of the astronauts is floating around in a hallway trying to take apart the panels of the ship in order to fix some wiring. Really?? Even in 1968, the space ships were more advanced. Star Trek and Lost in Space were more advanced. This looked like a B movie space ship from the 1950s.
Having a monotone voice narrating most of the scenes for the sake of the "docu-drama" cred only made it ten times more boring. Dialogue like "Johnny promised us the technology, and he delivered." Blah Blah Blah, show us the technology. A wall full of air conditioning filter panels is not going to get anyone to Mars.
I turned it off at the point one of the astronauts is floating around in a hallway trying to take apart the panels of the ship in order to fix some wiring. Really?? Even in 1968, the space ships were more advanced. Star Trek and Lost in Space were more advanced. This looked like a B movie space ship from the 1950s.
Having a monotone voice narrating most of the scenes for the sake of the "docu-drama" cred only made it ten times more boring. Dialogue like "Johnny promised us the technology, and he delivered." Blah Blah Blah, show us the technology. A wall full of air conditioning filter panels is not going to get anyone to Mars.
Novo Mundo
Prismark1025 November 2018
Mars is a drama documentary from National Geographic.
It flips between a dramatised manned mission to Mars set in 2033 to documentary footage in 2016 where scientists and Elon Musk talk about going to Mars.
That is Elon Musk who is incapable of writing several nice words on Twitter.
In the opening episode I found the incessant narration was a turn off. I could never get into the drama as it was boring and there was no need for the documentary bits. The inclusion Musk just made this a farce.
Far better is the French series Missions.
It flips between a dramatised manned mission to Mars set in 2033 to documentary footage in 2016 where scientists and Elon Musk talk about going to Mars.
That is Elon Musk who is incapable of writing several nice words on Twitter.
In the opening episode I found the incessant narration was a turn off. I could never get into the drama as it was boring and there was no need for the documentary bits. The inclusion Musk just made this a farce.
Far better is the French series Missions.
Successful liftoff
lor_30 March 2024
Viewed initially 8 years after broadcast, I was quite impressed with this "Mars" opener, appreciating the documentary-style approach adopted. The early 1950s sci-fi movies like "Rocketship X-M" and "Destination: Moon" similarly took such a tack, and I much preferred it to the more recent melodramatic space movies, certainly the trend in the wake of "Alien"'s success.
I recall when "2001: A Space Odyssey" was released how much it affected me -watching it several times in the Cinerama format, even sitting up close to the screen for the immersive effect of the Curved screen, similar to attending a play in Theater in the round seating. I also remember how Kubrick edited the movie after early screenings, cutting out much of Gary Lockwood's footage on the voyage as being redundant and slowing down the movie -Keir Dullea's daily activities sufficing. In this fashion, I thought it was a great idea to skip entirely the 7-month trip from Earth to "Mars" in this series, taking us directly to the drama of the hazardous landing, without acclimating the viewer to life in space, as Kubrick and so many other movies over 50-plus years have given us that vicarious experience.
Casting Jihae in a leading role was a great choice: her granite-chiseled features are so different and commanding, compared to the traditional beauties in space that femme roles have delivered from Zsa Zsa Gabor through to Sigourney Weaver, etc.
Elon Musk's on-screen importance in the documentary sections of this first episode had me wondering. Clearly, as of 2016 he was a central figure in the proposed "man living on Mars" project due to Space X's importance, and he seems quite reasonable here. But flash-forward several years and we have Musk's obsession with X (f/k/a Twitter) quite disturbing as diverting his attention from Mars to instead becoming a leading backer of misinformation. Do we need a right-wing nutcase in charge of such an important project?-obviously not. And the series' choice of 2033 as date of a manned Mars mission was clearly way too ambitious a projection.
I recall when "2001: A Space Odyssey" was released how much it affected me -watching it several times in the Cinerama format, even sitting up close to the screen for the immersive effect of the Curved screen, similar to attending a play in Theater in the round seating. I also remember how Kubrick edited the movie after early screenings, cutting out much of Gary Lockwood's footage on the voyage as being redundant and slowing down the movie -Keir Dullea's daily activities sufficing. In this fashion, I thought it was a great idea to skip entirely the 7-month trip from Earth to "Mars" in this series, taking us directly to the drama of the hazardous landing, without acclimating the viewer to life in space, as Kubrick and so many other movies over 50-plus years have given us that vicarious experience.
Casting Jihae in a leading role was a great choice: her granite-chiseled features are so different and commanding, compared to the traditional beauties in space that femme roles have delivered from Zsa Zsa Gabor through to Sigourney Weaver, etc.
Elon Musk's on-screen importance in the documentary sections of this first episode had me wondering. Clearly, as of 2016 he was a central figure in the proposed "man living on Mars" project due to Space X's importance, and he seems quite reasonable here. But flash-forward several years and we have Musk's obsession with X (f/k/a Twitter) quite disturbing as diverting his attention from Mars to instead becoming a leading backer of misinformation. Do we need a right-wing nutcase in charge of such an important project?-obviously not. And the series' choice of 2033 as date of a manned Mars mission was clearly way too ambitious a projection.
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