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Prompts the question... what will be the first actual scripted show done on the moon?

NASA has started awarding SpaceX money to deliver people and cargo to the moon by 2024 with Starship. It can carry 100 people and cargo to the surface for ~$15M, and they don't really need 100 people on set to make a show, so they could carry a lot fewer than that and sell the other seats to other people/organizations.

If For All Mankind or Space Force lasts long enough, it seems plausible that they could have a 7th season where an episode is actually shot on the moon. The moon is a kind of mundane place for other sci-fi space* shows like Star Trek, Orville, or The Expanse to take place.

*Can't call them sci-fi anymore if they could realistically happen.
That’s preposterous. SpaceX just got its cost down to $62 million per launch. Down from $95 million. That is just cost. That is just to get to low earth orbit. Even if they hit their target to return to the moon with the combined resources of SpaceX, NASA, and Blue Origin you are talking about billions. SpaceX plans to charge $58M per seat to take someone just around the moon (not landing) NASA charge was about $80M. Game of Thrones one of the more expensive shows on tv has a budget of $6-$10M per episode. No one is paying $58M per actor to shoot an episode on the moon. Even if these cost came down dramatically you are still talking about $300-$400 million dollars to shoot one episode. Tv shows rarely even travel to the deep oceans or mountain ranges to shoot because of logistical cost. And those are here on earth.
 
I think you’re reading far too much into this. As matrix07, they’re just reflecting what happened in reality. The basis of the show is ‘how would the US respond if Russia landed a human on the moon first?’. The show takes the logical route that in that situation, the US try to have an answer for every move the Soviets made, *including* their own female astronauts.
Didn’t get upto US having female astronauts. Didn’t get far into the series.
 
But the moon is literally in the sky. You can’t put stuff on it. It would fall outside the world!
Hmmm… Usually everything you post is spot on, chucker23n1, but this here authoritative depiction of the universe clearly shows that while the moon is indeed in the sky, anything that fell off it would fall onto the world, not outside it:
Flammarion.jpg
 
Your complaint feels a bit like saying that MASH largely ignored the war going on around it by staying focused on the activities in the hospital; Korea Patrol was a much better film because it showed the war. The thing is these are two very different stories. MASH also seemed overly focused on "hot-button social issues" which is a bizarre dismissal of some of the most significant events of our time. I accept that For All Mankind is not the show you want to see but what you are asking for is not relevant to the story. As an editor I would have cut the scenes you are asking for because they do not add to the story being told.

And what story is that exactly? A boring space "race" with no tension, where there isn't really even an antagonist? I'm all for addressing social issues, but squeezing everything into 10 episodes came across as patronizing and, as a gay man, I found it offensive. These characters are cookie cutter and so were their storylines. As viewers, we've been introduced to 20 or so new characters and we've barely had time to get to know any of them before the show becomes a rapid fire succession of clichés.

The only decent writing in the whole dismal first season was between Karen and Molly's husband (can't remember his name). Their conversations were the only part of the show that carried any emotional resonance. The rest was derivative, pandering, and flat out boring. I forced myself to watch the whole season because I read comments on here especially about how it gets so much better. If your brand of entertainment is derivative creative mush with cookie cutter characters and plot lines that pander to under-represented groups in society instead of treating them with respect, by all means, this show is a masterpiece.
 
I can't refute your criticisms about not developing an "alternate America", but I still like the show. No where near the appeal of High Castle. A shame that one had to end. Another quite worthy SF show, IMHO, is The Expanse.

Even though I ripped it apart, I won't deny that the show is watchable, especially if you favor mainstream network TV shows. Say what you will about the writing and the story, the actors were all pretty good and the show looks great. I definitely didn't like it, but I didn't absolutely hate it either. In the end, I just found it to be a huge disappointment and that upsets me more than if it had been flat out terrible. The concept is great. Seeing a great concept wasted is really infuriating!

I loved High Castle. It wasn't perfect, but it was a very satisfying show on many levels. I absolutely loved the world they created and I really appreciated that we got to see so much of it. As I said, this is what really bugged me about FAM. The show's creators want us to believe that a different space race is happening, yet feed us only crumbs about this new America.

I feel like FAM could have taken each of its major storylines from the first season and pretty much made a season out of each one. Women in the space program. Instead of a patronizing whirlwind, it should have been a whole season. The relationship between the gay astronaut and gay mission controller (sorry, I found the characters so boring I only remember a few names) was so poorly constructed. Again, that should have developed over time. There should have been more to it, not just a marriage of convenience amid a rapid fire succession of social justice issues. Father/son relationships and losing a child? I mean, come on, that deserved a lot more. It was all superficial. I loved BSG, but I'm pretty convinced now that BSG was a fluke for Moore.

I love the Expanse! The first season got a bit SyFy cheesy at times, but it's one of the most realistic looks at where humanity might be in 200 years. No Star Trek fantasy. I'm so glad that Amazon rescued it. Season 4 was excellent. The finale left me totally gripped. I might re-subscribe to Apple TV+ when Foundation launches as I imagine my free year will expire before then. There's really nothing else on ATV+ that appeals to me as a viewer at the moment, but I'm certainly open to trying new shows if they ever launch one that looks interesting.

I still find that Netflix offers the most bang for the buck. It's the only streaming service that I find worthy of having year-round, versus the subscribe and binge strategy (like I did with CBS All Access for that rancid piece of excrement called Picard). I just started season 4 of 3% on Netflix. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. It's a pretty low budget Brazilian near-future sci-fi show with some very satisfying twists and turns. The creator has a new show on Netflix about drones that looks intriguing. I'm going to check that out next.
 
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That’s preposterous. SpaceX just got its cost down to $62 million per launch. Down from $95 million. That is just cost. That is just to get to low earth orbit. Even if they hit their target to return to the moon with the combined resources of SpaceX, NASA, and Blue Origin you are talking about billions. SpaceX plans to charge $58M per seat to take someone just around the moon (not landing) NASA charge was about $80M. Game of Thrones one of the more expensive shows on tv has a budget of $6-$10M per episode. No one is paying $58M per actor to shoot an episode on the moon. Even if these cost came down dramatically you are still talking about $300-$400 million dollars to shoot one episode. Tv shows rarely even travel to the deep oceans or mountain ranges to shoot because of logistical cost. And those are here on earth.

You're talking about the price of seats on a Dragon launched on a Falcon 9. That's SpaceX's current launch setup, which is only ~80% reusable* and takes about a month to prepare for reuse.

*The second stage is jettisoned in space - only the first stage and fairings or dragon is recovered.

NASA has contracts with SpaceX to carry astronauts to the ISS on Falcon 9 and Dragon. Private individuals have contracts to fly in this vehicle other places, like around the moon. It's not designed for moon landings though.

SpaceX's next generation vehicle is the Starship. It's designed to be 100% reusable and capable of taking off just 8 hours after landing. It's also designed to carry much larger payloads. This is supposed to all result in a vastly lower price per launch, where tickets to the moon would be closer to $1M/person. They could feasibly send up 3 actors and maybe 2-3 crew to film an episode on the moon. Or, really, there's no reason to just do a single episode while up there - do a few episodes during a few weeks on the moon, so the per episode cost comes down.
 
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