Instead of a camera or lens review this week, I’m reviewing a tv show – For All Mankind on Apple TV+. Season three is now out, and this will be a review of the first episode, entitled Polaris. If you haven’t watched the first two seasons, you should hit pause, binge-watch them, and then come back and unpause.

For All Mankind is Apple’s alternate history of the space race. For those who haven’t seen it yet, the basic premise is “what if the space race continued”. Season one concludes with a permanent U.S. lunar base. Season two ups the tensions, and global nuclear war is averted at the last moment of the season’s finale, but not before a dramatic, and ultimately pointless, major character death and a dogfight between two space shuttles in lunar orbit. Yes, space shuttles in lunar orbit. How they got there is never really explained in the show, directly.

Season three takes place in 1992, ten years after the end of season two. Like the beginning of Seasons one and two, there is a montage of historical events that further branch off from our timeline to bridge between the seasons.

One event that differs is the launch of the JWST. Instead of having that name and launching in 2022, it launched in the 90s and was named after Thomas Paine, a real-life NASA administrator who, in-universe, dies on KAL 007. The Paine telescope was also designed to be repaired in orbit. A mention of this happening occurs in the episode proper; however, the major focus of this season is the first human landing on Mars, which was hinted at in the season two finale and season three trailer. A secondary plotline in season three is the introduction of commercial space tourism.

The first episode features a visit to the Polaris Orbital Hotel, which is attached to what looks like an ISS, built during the ten years between seasons two and three. Several of the main characters from the last season are in the hotel before it opens for their kids’ wedding. An accident happens at the station that almost results in a massive structural failure, but it’s averted at the last moment. Of course. But not before a couple of station workers are violently killed, though.

Writing-wise, the season opener was okay, but I found the space station crew’s dialogue during the emergency a little stilted and bland. In general, the technical discussions the characters have don’t feel very organic, just randomly listing concepts and components, like they’re talking about “oh the blah blahmajig, that will fix the problem with the engine-inator” when they’re talking about a niobium nozzle on a nuclear thermal rocket engine, both of which are authentic pieces of technology. That’s probably my rocket nerd brain, though.

What really bugged me about the episode was bringing back one of the squicky subplots from season two that was, in my opinion, just unnecessary. It did nothing to advance the plot, and a whole bunch of other fans didn’t like it last season or the reminder in this episode.

One of the characters in that subplot got to be a hero during the accident though, somewhat redeeming him in my eyes. Though how he got the skills to pull this off is never really explained, except for a passing reference in the news montage to him becoming an astronaut.

Despite all of this, I’m going to stick to and watch the rest of Season three of For All Mankind, which is available on Apple TV+.