Under a Red Moon

Imaginary Worlds

Eric Molinsky

Arts, Science Fiction, Fiction, Society & Culture

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 14 November 2019

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ronald D. Moore is probably best known for rebooting Battlestar Galactica as a gritty political commentary in the early 2000s. His latest show For All Mankind on AppleTV Plus imagines what if the Soviet Union had beaten the U.S. in the space race and planted the hammer and sickle flag on the moon. But Moore spins that nightmare scenario into a positive alternative history where a newly invigorated space race not only gives NASA the budget it wanted in the 1970s, but it forces the agency to be far more inclusive than it actually was in real history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Sometimes running a business can feel like cycling uphill with square wheels.
0:07.0	But zero online accounting software can help predict the future cash flow of your business.
0:15.0	So you can stay one step ahead. Soon it'll feel more like free-wearing downhill.
0:21.0	On a tandem! What, mate? With a messer on the back.
0:25.0	Oh, that's nice.
0:27.0	Search zero with an ace. Because healthy business is beautiful business.
0:31.0	You're listening to Imaginary Worlds, a show about how we create them and why we suspend our disbelief.
0:36.0	I'm Eric Balinsky.
0:39.0	Long time listeners to this show probably know that I'm obsessed with all things having to do with cold war.
0:45.0	That goes back to my childhood in the 1980s when I was a nerdy kid who was fascinated by geopolitics.
0:52.0	In fact, I did a whole episode about Soviet science fiction.
0:55.0	I'm also a big fan of alternate histories.
0:59.0	I did an episode about the TV show Man in the High Castle, which imagined what if the Nazis had won the Second World War.
1:06.0	So I was really intrigued to learn about the new show for all mankind on Apple TV Plus, which imagines what if the Soviet Union had landed a man on the moon before the United States?
1:19.0	In the opening scene of the pilot, Gimli Chills, every day Americans are gathered around TV sets, in bars, offices, or living rooms, watching Walter Conquights' historic coverage of the moon landing.
1:32.0	It's a moment in history that we've seen many times before.
1:36.0	And if like me, you were born after the moon landing, it's kind of hard to get into the state of mind of those people who still didn't know what was going to happen.
1:46.0	But this time, the man inside the space suit is speaking Russian, and the flag that is holding on those flickering black and white TVs is the hammer and sickle.
1:58.0	Okay, we have the translation now. These are the words that Cosmonaut Alexey Lano, the first man, said foot on the moon, spoke just moments ago.
2:11.0	I take this step for my country, for my people, and for the Marxist, Leninist way of life, knowing that today is but one small step on a journey that someday will take us all to the stars.
2:29.0	But what really got me curious about this show is the person behind it, Ronald D Moore.
2:37.0	Ron Moore is probably best known for rebooting Battlestar Galactica in the early 2000s.
	...

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