Nearly six decades after “Star Trek: The Original Series” first declared space to be the final frontier, television has maintained its fascination with exploring every corner of the unknown. But few networks or streamers are as dedicated to the cause as Apple TV+.
In just the past year, the five-year-old service returned to space with new seasons of “For All Mankind” and “Foundation,” debuted two new mysteries in “Constellation” and “Sugar” that pondered the galaxies in their own ways, and even launched Reese Witherspoon into orbit for “The Morning Show.” For those counting, it also went in the other direction to explore an uncharted dimension beneath our own, referred to as “under space” in the Godzilla spinoff, “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.”
The anchor of Apple’s space race is “For All Mankind,” the alt-history drama about what would have happened if the United States hadn’t been the first on the moon in 1969. In its fourth season, taking place in the show’s own version of 2003, Mars is being colonized while earthbound characters fight back against global space fatigue. Among the first series to launch on the streamer in 2019, it has remained a fan favorite even as most of its original cast either perished in the name of galactic progress or now endure hours-long makeup sessions to convincingly look like they’re in their 80s.
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Ronald D. Moore, the co-creator of “For All Mankind,” got his start writing on “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Since then, he’s remained close to the genre, shepherding series like “Battlestar Galactica” to critical acclaim and a Peabody Award. But as he watches streamers like Apple carve out a place in their libraries for gigantic space operas, he looks to the real world for an explanation why.
“I think the world has shifted its focus back to it as well, and I think private enterprise had a lot to do with that,” he says. “Frankly, SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, these private companies that have expanded into space, have caught the public’s imagination, in one way or another.”
He adds, “The world has just kind of woken up from a bit of a slumber on manned space travel and certainly all the opportunities that are out just beyond the atmosphere. It seems like it’s a time of great excitement about it, once again.”
“The Morning Show’s” brief-but-memorable trip to space in the first two episodes of Season 3 came courtesy of a storyline involving an Elon Musk-type billionaire played by Jon Hamm, who takes Witherspoon and Billy Crudup’s characters on a trip to space for a live broadcast during the eponymous news program. Showrunner Charlotte Stoudt says the excursion was inspired by “Good Morning America” host Michael Strahan’s voyage into orbit with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin in 2021.
“I felt like if he can do it, Bradley Jackson could too,” Stoudt says of Witherspoon’s character.
But the real reason the drama series went to space was a bit more grounded. The Season 3 writers room convened as COVID restrictions were loosening, which Stoudt says left everyone “really unmoored” in a way that only a zero-gravity storyline could capture.
The show’s upcoming fourth season will feature far fewer trips to space, but Stoudt is glad she got the chance to take an otherwise straightforward series to the stars.
“I think this is one of those magical, magical things about making television that, every once in a while, you realize why you’re addicted to it,” she says. “You type ‘Interior. Space Capsule. Day.’ into Final Draft and then an extraordinary number of very talented people try to make that scene a reality.”
