Another Life (2019)

An unknown object shaped like a large Möbius strip lands on Earth and grows a crystalline tower above it. Erik Wallace, a scientist employed by the United States Interstellar Command,  attempts to communicate with the alien structure.  Wallace's wife, astronaut Niko Breckenridge, and her crew embark on a high-risk mission to explore the genesis of an alien artifact.... and then dramatic stuff happens I imagine.

And that's about as much as I know.  The trailer looks good though.  I've watched it a couple of times and saved the series to the planner but I haven't actually pressed play yet because I'm still working through Lost In Space S3, to be followed by The Expanse. S6... if I don't get side tracked by other shows.  There's so much genre TV about now. Its hard to imagine I used to trawl the new weeks listings in The Radio Time and TV Times, looking for anything remotely sci-fi to watch and quite often coming back with nothing at all.  We live in bountiful times.

I'll maybe revisit with another post once I've watched it.

Steve

Lucy in the Sky (2019)

Lucy in the Sky is a 2019 film .  It stars Natalie Portman as Lucy Cola, an astronaut, who returns to Earth from her first space mission and then begins to feel disconnected from normal life.

I saw this flash up while flipping between platforms tonight and immediately pulled a face at the title because it always strikes me as cynical to name a film after a well known song.  Then I read the write up and thought, well they cover this sort of stuff in For All Mankind but having watched the trailer for it, I'm thinking I might give it a go. Reviews seem very mixed but that can sometimes indicate a movie that's a little challenging, not necessarily one that's bad.  We will see but feel free to drop your thoughts in the comments.

Steve

For All Mankind - season 2 (2021)

Season two of For All Mankind is every bit as brilliant a continuation of the ongoing alternative reality TV show where the space race just kept on going.

Here are some more lovely images of the spacesuits and tech as seen on the lunar landscape but there are also some wonderful human stories told throughout the 10 episodes as characters struggle to make it to the moon against all sorts of issues and prejudices.  Masterful storytelling.

Steve

For All Mankind - Season 1 (2019)

For All Mankind is an Apple TV original series that sets up the premise of an alternate reality from the point where the Soviet Union are the first to land a man on the Moon.  Rather than faltering at this unexpected setback,  NASA double down and the Space-race picks up a notch or two as the two superpowers compete for dominance.

Its a brilliantly written show and very well made.   Its also amazingly tense and when you think you have the measure of it, it will throw in a curve ball that will catch you off guard.  Its also very respectful of the true history of NASA and the very many real life people that feature in the progression of the story.  In a single word, it's: Quality.

If you are the kind of person that hangs about on blogs about Spacesuits, its probably very much your cup of tea. So h

ere are some images from the first season to get a quick feel for it  but I suspect I will be revisiting this show a number of times through the coming year.

Steve

...sitting here impatiently waiting for season 3.

Kate Bush - The Dreaming (1982) A gallery

Back here again for which I make absolutely no apologies as the pretty pictures more than justify another look

These are a set of publicity images of Kate Bush and her dancers in the costumes they wore for The Dreaming video back in 1982.  You can follow the Ventilation Suit label below to get a pretty good history of where else these "Fairy Suits" have appeared and also their origins in the real world of aviation.

These are perhaps some of the best views of the suit's detailing that I've managed to find but really its OK if you just want to ignore all of that and spend your time admiring the goddess inside them... just so long as you absolve your sinful thoughts by going and listening to some of her beautiful back catalogue of music - you wont be sorry.

Steve

The Silent Sea (2021)

Happy New Year to you all, its good to be back and with lots to catch up on.

Last thing first, I've literally just finished watching the final episode of the 8 part South Korean TV show that's on Netflix called The Silent Sea and... you know... it was alright!

Its a lovely looking thing for sure and there is something refreshing about watching foreign shows where there's enough of a cultural difference that it puts a slight spin on the usual set of characters.  The larger idea is in itself quite interesting although the scenes that carry us through the story can at times seem quite derivative of other sci-fi cinema such as Moon, Aliens, Aliens 3 and even Splice.  It was all very watchable though and a pleasingly distracting way to wind-down of an evening.

So whats the set up?  Well this is how Netflix describe it and its probably as much as you need to know going in

"Set in the not-so-distant future, the Earth is dying and undergoing desertification. Earth’s only chance of survival rests in the hands of a specialist team sent to the Moon, whose task is to retrieve a mysterious sample from the Balhae Base research station."

...and then things start to go wrong, stuff happens and secrets are revealed amidst life and death drama.  Everything you would want.  But are there some good looking spacesuits in it, I hear you ask?

Yes.  Yes there are...

 

Steve