Must Watch: Once Upon a Time in Space

Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.

This week, Hayley Campbell and Scott Bryan join Naga Munchetty to review ‘Once Upon a Time in Space’ - a new documentary series telling the personal stories of astronauts at the heart of the space race.

The series is directed by BAFTA Award winning director James Bluemel, who was behind similar history series like Once Upon a Time in Iraq, which told the story of the Iraq war, and Once Upon a Time in Norther Ireland, which looked back at The Troubles.

What do the Must Watch reviewers make of it?

Naga: “Hayley, how was it for you?”

Hayley: “This was a Must Watch. I think what James Bluemel does so well, is he takes a huge story like Northern Ireland or Iraq or space travel and he makes it small and human and something you can get an emotional grip on. There are some hugely moving parts to this series about the basic admin of being an astronaut.”

Hayley: “There was one NASA astronaut who was writing letters to his son every night, and his little boy hadn't yet learned the word ‘daddy' because his dad had been gone for so long. He was just asking for forgiveness. And while he was reading out the letter his chin was trembling.”

Hayley: “Then there were the ridiculous human things — and you probably liked this bit, Scott. Before the astronauts were launched onto the International Space Station, a Russian performer sang ‘I Will Survive’ at the launch party and everyone was like, ‘oh boy’.”

Scott: “You were very right in that. I liked that moment, yes.”

Hayley: “And I really liked the history of the International Space Station, how the US controls the power and Russia controls the propulsion and the thing doesn't work unless both countries are cooperating with each other. So I thought all of that stuff was great. But what I really like about this series is that it hammers home that none of this happens without enthusiasts.”

“I find the idea of space both incredibly romantic and also completely terrifying, and in the middle of it you've got these people who are willing to trade off some of the fear for all of the thrill of being in space because of some dream they had when they were five years old and they had a rocketship toy. These people are still excited about it after all of these years - even in their retirement. So what I realised while watching this documentary is that while all of this space stuff may be controlled by governments, it's fueled by enthusiasts and just people — that's what I really like about these documentaries.”

Hayley: “You take this story which brings in so much history of international war, disagreements and agreements, and there are so many avenues you could go down to tell this story and what Bluemel does is he goes straight to the people and says: ‘what was it like?’ I think that humanises something even as big and as cold as space. Another bit I liked - how many episodes did you watch?”

Scott: “I saw it in an odd order because of boring reasons. Basically one of the episodes wasn't available so I saw, I think the first episode, the third and the fourth.”

Hayley: “There was a bit in the third episode which is all about the Russian space station, Mir, and the Americans were using it for a bit but then they wanted to build something bigger and newer, so they decommissioned this Russian station that they've been using and they blow it up and it falls into the Pacific Ocean. For some reason I get really emotional if something in space is decommissioned...”

Scott: “Why?”

Hayley:”I don't know, but do you remember that Mars rover that used to sing Happy Birthday to itself?”

Scott: “Oh no, that is so depressing.”

Hayley: “And then it died and its last words were: ‘my battery is low and it's getting dark’. It upsets me so much. Anyway, there's footage of the Russian Mission control office and they're watching the last images come in from the space station and they're crying. One guy said it was like a wake because the space station wasn't like a car — the Americans were treating it like a car; the car gets old, you buy a new one. And the Russians were saying it's not like a car, it's like a home and you've just blown it up. It was really emotional. Unexpectedly emotional, although I should have expected it from James Bluemel.”

Scott: “I agree with Hayley. I mean, space is obviously a big topic. It's an endless topic. It's space! I found at first I was a bit surprised because they do skip over some events. They don't really talk that much about the moon landings. It is mentioned. They talk about the Cold War but then it pretty much goes to the end of the Soviet Union but I think it’s the fact that instead of trying to tell the whole story, which could make it quite unwieldy but you would really find it hard to go and get into detail, they've sort of honed in on certain stories and those stories I think, the later you get on in the series, some of the stories, I've never heard them anywhere else. It makes you think about the risks to be involved in a space programme. They highlight that there’s a countdown to when a space shuttle goes up, but it also might be the countdown to you dying. There's no easy way of getting around that.”

Scott: “There's a heartbreaking story about how someone on the International Space Station got a sort of request to go on a phone link and he was told that his mum had died in a traffic accident at home and he couldn't come home from the space station and had to go and do her eulogy from the space.”

Naga: “When I spoke to James Bluemel earlier this morning, you can listen back on it on BBC Sounds, it was about 11:35 and I said: ‘what was one of the things you learned?’ And I interviewed Eileen Collins last week, a trailblazing NASA pilot commander, first woman to pilot the space shuttle and to command a space shuttle mission and I said ‘do you think they're cold?’ and it wasn't meant as a diss or being rude. It was just, they have to be so precise and they compartmentalize everything. When Eileen Collins took off, two bits of tile came off and they knew there were problems and you don't hear any emotion in her voice because it's just ‘do the job’, and yet you see these heartbreaking stories that happened to them and how they deal with it. I think it's a fascinating insight into relationships, into the politics of the time and how that was put aside.”

Naga: “Carl is one of my favourite characters from Episode 1, whose brother was the first black American astronaut and I was saying to James Bluemel, the way he kind of just reels off the racism that they were experiencing, and with a smile, you know - sign of the times, this is what we went through and everything. I'm really looking forward to seeing the last three.”

Hayley: “Watch out for episode three because when they’re decommissioning that thing…”

Naga: “Anything that can make Hayley cry has got to be emotional.”

Once Upon a Time in Space is available to watch on BBC iPlayer now.

But before all that, why not contact Scott and Hayley with the shows you’ve been loving, loathing or both on mustwatch@bbc.co.uk.

This week, the team reviewed It: Welcome to Derry and Nightwatch.

Must Watch is released as a podcast every Monday evening on BBC Sounds.