guyzradio
In the 1950's, space sci-fi (movies, Rocky Jones, Captain Video, etc.) were a must see for me. When Men into Space hit television, I was glued to the screen. Ratchet forward 60 odd years, and episodes don't have quite the dazzle they did in 1959. Each episode seems to have the same mix of the following:Relatively mature themes with a hint of soap opera that stressed science, over fiction. These would have appealed to adults as well as kids back then. An moment of clairvoyance, in which they explore, or at least mention a concern of science or space flight that won't become relevant for at least 50 years, women astronauts being an example. One episode has striking similarities to the Apollo 13 mission.Silly science, including floating stars whizzing by, "tanker" rockets for refueling in space, and walking the moon in space suits about as thick as pajamas. The various rockets appear to be about as big externally a mini van, but a Greyhound bus on the inside. In one story, we see meteors pummeling the surface of the moon, and we hear the thud of each impact.
A formulaic, fairy-tale ending where the astronauts face some life-threatening ordeal Through clever MacGyver improvisation and a stroke of ever-present luck, everyone lives happily ever-after.Actors we'll see in the coming years becoming stars of note to varying degrees. In Episode 1, McCauley's wife is played by Angie Dickenson. Saturday morning breakfasts now include a segment called "You won't believe who appeared in this morning's 'Men Into Space'." So do I like it after decades? Definitely. Part of the appeal is purely nostalgic, and the other part is looking for examples of the above and how they were woven together in a half hour show in 1959. The show tells us a lot about ourselves two years before Alan Shepard's first US manned space flight, and a mere 10 years before the moon landing. "2001: A Space Odyssey" with its attention to scientific detail is just nine years off. As a kid, I would have given Men Into Space 11 stars, Today, not so many.
GUENOT PHILIPPE
That's not I first thought about of when I started watching this TV show. In this series, I remembered Nathan Juran's FIRST MEN IN THE MOON, Irving Pichel's DESTINATION MOON, Kubrick's 2001 SPACE ODYSSEY, Phil Kaufman's THE RIGHT STUFF, Rich Donner's X15, Robert Altman's COUNTDOWN, Byron Haskin's CONQUEST OF SPACE...Well, nothing to do with other space operas where aircrafts have to fight monsters of all kinds. I am not a pure sci-fi specialist, and this TV show is made for those die hard buffs looking for authentic details, speaking of truly facts, close to actual events. Too technical for me. Sorry. I prefer the ALIEN kind, or IT THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE.But I insist: this is a truly good TV series. There must exist this kind of stuff, and not only monsters all over the space.
leemrmg
I was around 6 or 7 (like everyone else it seems). My clearest episode memory is one where they are all walking around on the moon, and one man notices some sort of sand streaming down off a large rock, so he walks over & cups his gloved hands under the stream. He immediately starts screaming in agony, but I don't remember why. Maybe it was super hot, or else some extremely corrosive substance.In another episode, one member of the team is terrified because he swears he saw something moving while he was walking around on the moon. Eventually they all discover that he had seen his own reflection in a sheet of ice. This was their first discovery of ice on the moon, and they realise the implications.This show significantly helped to define the exciting world I was lucky enough to be growing up into. Now the world has regressed thousands of years.
t442163
This was a quite good pre-Mercury attempt to show the future of space travel with emphasis on the team work of the crews involved. I recall shows dealing with landing on the moon and what man would find there. As well as working on building a space station and what would be involved. It did try to be factual but took dramatic license on a number of occasions.I am possibly the only one who still has his official Col. McCauley space helmet (still in the original box).