For All Mankind 5.1: On the Intersection of Alternate and Real Histories

For All Mankind is back on Apple TV with the debut first episode of its 5th Season.

As has been usual with the more recent seasons, my favorite part of this season was the alternate history set up which we see at the beginning of this first episode of this new season.  As a reminder, the alternate history split in this series hinges on the Soviet Union beating us to the Moon back in the late 1960s.  Among the profoundly important consequences for the human species is that we have a much more active ensuing space program, as we vie with the Soviets for a predominant position off our planet.

My favorite alternate history flourishes in the 2004-2012 years that are the foundation of this 5th season are:

• John Lennon and Jay Z have a joint concert in this period, because, as was already established in an earlier season, Lennon was not assassinated at the end of 1980 in this alternate history.  Readers of my blogs will know this is so important to me: I wrote a short story, made into a radio play, then expanded into a novel in which John Lennon was not assassinated and The Beatles are still together in the mid-1990s.  I think that most assassinations are errors in the cosmos, and I feel especially good when an alternate history corrects them.
• I also loved the fact in this alternate history that JFK Jr is expected to run for President in 2012, meaning he didn't die in the plane that fell into the sea with his wife Carolyn Bessette and her sister, as they did in our all too often so cruel reality we apparently all inhabit off-screen.  In the alternate history portrayed in For All Mankind, former President Ted Kennedy -- yes, he's elected President in this series in 1972 -- Chappaquiddick didn't happen -- but dies a few years before 2012 of a brain tumor.  A good alternate history always mixes in some elements of real history to make the fiction convincing.  In our real history, Teddy died of a brain tumor in 2009.  

Now, on this last point of JFK Jr being expected to run for President in 2012, I just yesterday completed my review of Love Affair, the nine-episode narrative of JFK Jr's relationship with Carolyn Bessette, and how it ended so terribly tragically.   Talk about about the intersection of alternate and real history, you couldn't ask for a better example of the first episode of this season of For All Mankind debuting the day after Love Affair concluded.

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You'll notice that I haven't said anything about the story that continued after the alternate history Intro in For All Mankind 5.1.   That's because I didn't find anything of really exceptional interest in the ensuing story.   But not to worry -- I intend to keep watching and reviewing every episode.

See also For All Mankind 4.1: Back in Business and Alternate Reality ... 4.2: The Fate of Gorbachev ... 4.3-4.4: The Soviet Union in the 21st Century, On Earth and Mars ... 4.5: Al Gore as President and AI ... 4.6: Aleida and Margot ... 4.7: Dev on Mars ... 4.8: Sergei and Margot ... 4.9: Progress ... 4.10: Earth vs. Mars

And see also For All Mankind 3.1: The Alternate Reality Progresses ... 3.2: D-Mail ... 3.3-3.4: The Race

And see also For All Mankind, Season 1 and Episode 2.1: Alternate Space Race Reality ... For All Mankind 2.2: The Peanut Butter Sandwich ... For All Mankind 2.3: "Guns to the Moon" ... For All Mankind 2.4: Close to Reality ... For All Mankind 2.5: Johnny and the Wrath of Kahn ... For All Mankind 2.6: Couplings ... For All Mankind 2.7: Alternate History Surges ... For All Mankind 2.8: Really Lost in Translation ... For All Mankind 2.9: Relationships ... For All Mankind 2.10: Definitely Not the End

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