For All Mankind: Prime Crew

Streaming service Apple TV premieres the fourth episode of Ronald D. Moore’s fictional alternate history of the American space program, For All Mankind, starring Joel Kinnaman, Michael Dorman, and Sarah Jones. Sonya Walger (Lost, Flashforward) guest stars.

1971: The ongoing race to establish the first permanent human presence on the moon has now claimed casualties – one of the women in NASA’s astronaut training has died, and a Lunar Orbiter satellite spots debris from a failed Soviet lunar landing – debris indicating that the Soviets were ready to start building a base on this flight. Nixon again realigns NASA’s goals to favor a moon base, and the plan to land a woman on the moon is all but cancelled…except that Deke Slayton assigns the four surviving female candidates to the Apollo program, and reassigns Molly Cobb to the upcoming Apollo 15 flight, bumping Gordo Stevens from his seat. While this wins NASA points with women, it earns Slayton the most powerful enemy he could possibly have in Washington. And in the weeks leading up to liftoff, Ed Baldwin, who was reinstated to the Apollo 15 prime crew after his contrite Congressional testimony, begins to wonder if his new crewmate is ready to fly.

written by Naren Shankar
directed by Allen Coulter
music by Jeff Russo

Cast: Joel Kinnaman (Edward Baldwin), Michael Dorman (Gordo Stevens), Sarah Jones (Tracy Stevens), Shantel VanSanten (Karen Baldwin), Jodi Balfour (Ellen Waverly), Wrenn Schmidt (Margo Madison), Chris Bauer (Deke Slayton), Sonya Walger (Molly Cobb), Eric Ladin (Gene Kranz), Michael J. Harney (Jack Broadstreet), Dan Donohue (Thomas Paine), Arturo Del Puerto (Octavio Rosales), Olivia Trujillo (Aleida Rosales), Krys Marshall (Danielle Poole), Meghan Leathers (Pam Horton), Nate Corddry (Larry Wilson), Brian Stepanek (Shorty Powers), Dave Power (Frank Sedgewick), Lenny Jacobson (Wayne Cobb), Edwin Hodge (Clayton Poole), Noah Harpster (Bill Strausser), Nick Toren (Tim “Bird Dog” McKiernan), Daniel Scott Robbins (Hank Poppen), Spencer Garrett (Roger Scott), Matt Battaglia (John Glenn), Teya Patt (Emma), Tony Lewellen (Coop), Teddy Blum (young Shane Baldwin), Jason Scott David (young Daniel Stevens), William Lee Holler (young Jimmy Stevens), Dan Warner (General Arthur Weber), Tracy Mulholland (Gloria Sedgewick), Darin Cooper (Businessman), Krystal Torres (Cata)

LogBook entry by Earl Green