Spacerush

I'm woefully behind on TV. I've got shows like Silo and Foundation season 2 that have been lingering on my list for a while now, but one that I'm not planning on letting slide by is the upcoming fourth season of Apple's For All Mankind. The streaming service released the trailer at this year's New York Comic Con, and I'm ready to get sucked right back into the show.

If you haven't seen it, it's an alternate history series from Ron D. Moore (who created the fantastic Battlestar Galactica reboot 20 years ago) that begins in 1969 when the Russians land on the Moon, beating the United States. That kicks off a new series of events and renewed race for control of the heavens. The first two seasons are concerned with reaching and living on the Moon (the first season deals with the US gearing up for a more intense space race, and then reaching the Moon's South Pole, while the second is an intense Cold War fight set in the 1980s), while the third season is all about the race to reach Mars as the US, Soviet Union, and a private space company all work to reach the Red Planet first in the early 1990s.

This new season jumps forward another decade to 2003. We've reached Mars and the goal is now to set up a permanent settlement when we get a bit of a wrinkle: scientists discover an asteroid containing an incredible amount of iridium. From the looks of things, we're in for a season where we'll be dealing with how far folks will go in the pursuit of wealth.

I'll be interested in seeing how this season turns out. One of my favorite books from a couple of years ago was Daniel Suarez's Delta-V, about a team of miners who are hired by a secretive company to mine an asteroid, and all the complications that come with it.

We'll find out on November 10th when the series returns.