June 1969. The Soviet Union stuns the world when cosmonaut Alexei Leonov becomes the first man to walk on the Moon. The Americans, whose own effort is just a few weeks away, are infuriated. The Soviets plan to surprise them again with a second mission to put the first woman on the moon, but their plans are thrown off when their chosen cosmonaut is accused of treason. Cosmonaut Anastasia Belikova has to take over at the last minute without much preparation, to the consternation of mission control. The hopes for the glory of the Soviet Union are riding with the men and women of Star City.
Star City is a spin-off series from Apple TV+'s For All Mankind, set in the same alternate timeline stemming from the same instigating event (Soviet space programme guru Sergei Korolev surviving and driving the Soviet effort to the moon and beyond). However, the show is very different in tone and structure, and no foreknowledge of For All Mankind is needed. It's a taut political thriller which mixes engineering problems with espionage and counter-espionage storylines, along with solid character arcs for the main cast.
The core of the series is the Chief Designer, Sergei Korolev (though nobody is allowed to call him by his name). Played supremely well by Rhys Ifans, Korolev is a nearly-irreplaceable genius who believes in science and engineering and is angered by his security-obsessed superiors' conservatism. His superiors want to secure a space station in orbit and a base on the moon, but Korolev dreams of going further and sending a manned flyby mission to Venus. His sometimes-ally, sometimes-foil is KGB surveillance head Lyudmilla Raskova, an officiously brutal performance by Anna Maxwell Martin. Raskova is an (almost) humourless martinet but Martin plays her with just enough humanity that you start to feel sorry for her when her opponents try to set her up to fail.
One of our more direct POV characters is Irina Morozova, a young surveillance operative who shows impressive initiative in exposing a real mole at the base, causing Raskova to start grooming her as a protege of sorts. An older Morozova appears in For All Mankind, and part of the intrigue is seeing how the young woman here (played with conflicted charm by Agnes O'Casey) turns into the more cynical operative we've already met. Our other main POV characters are cosmonauts Anastasia Belikova (Alice Englert), the first woman on the moon who finds her success quickly risks becoming a straitjacket, and the ambitious Sasha Polivanov (Solly McLeod), a pilot whose eagerness for action risks overriding his good sense. Another key lead is Tanya Mironova (Ruby Ashbourne Serkis), a young wife whose boring life on the base becomes a lot more interesting than she'd ever feared.
It's a great cast that expands throughout the season, with the addition of a younger version of Sergei Nikulov (another For All Mankind character here shown in his younger days, played by Josef Davies) and Indian engineer Lakshmi Chadha (Priya Kansara) whose design for a new life support system sees her invited to join Star City, with the attendent scrutiny for a non-Soviet given access to a top secret installation.
The season moves quickly, spanning several years and mixing together multiple storylines. The cosmonauts are torn between seeking personal glory and making sacrifices for the motherland. The scientists are more interested in research and achievements, and find their political constraints stifling. Irina is torn between her ambition and her humanity, whilst in the close confinement of the base there is no shortage of marriages, affairs and scandal.
But the show successfully gets across an atmosphere of stifling scrutiny. The characters are wary of being spied on or betrayed. Trust is in short supply. The gap between the truth and what the government says is the truth sometimes becomes a yawning chasm. A few commentators have called the show "Chernobyl in space," as it touches on many of the same themes and uses a similar desaturated filming look to make it look more like a period piece (which even extends to the superb visual effects). It can't be quite as good as Chernobyl, and a couple of plot twists stretch credulity badly, but its most intense dramatic moments and best dialogue exchanges do recall HBO's masterwork.
The first season of Star City (****½) is, for most part, exceptional stuff. A great cast portraying complex, relatable characters in conflict situations, with taut pacing and excellent effects. Easily superior to anything For All Mankind has done since (maybe) its first season, Star City is available to watch globally on Apple TV+ right now.
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