Space Odyssey (TV series)

At an unspecified point in the near future, five astronauts, commander Tom Kirby, engineer Yvan Grigorev, medic John Pearson, geologist Zoë Lessard, and exobiologist Nina Sulman depart Earth orbit on a mile-long nuclear-powered spaceship, Pegasus. Six weeks later, Pegasus arrives in orbit around their first destination, Venus, where Lessard and Grigorev pilot the lander Orpheus to the surface, where Grigorev conducts a short walk in a specially designed reinforced pressure suit while Lessard remains inside the lander. During the walk, Grigorev visits the nearby derelict Soviet lander Venera 14, however he starts to fall behind schedule, and suffers from exhaustion and overheating, only narrowly making it back to Orpheus. After successfully launching and docking with Pegasus, the crew depart Venus for Mars.

After arriving in Mars orbit, the crew rendezvous with a pre-placed supply ship to refuel Pegasus. Kirby, Pearson, and Sulman descend to the surface of Mars in the lander Ares, landing near Melas Chasma, a part of the Valles Marineris canyon system, where they intend to search for liquid water buried beneath the surface at the bottom of the canyon using a robotic rover (named Charlie) carried by a balloon. Upon landing, Kirby is hit by a dust devil, but he is not injured. Their first attempt at finding water is thwarted by a solar flare, which forces the astronauts on the surface to take shelter in Ares for a few days, while Lessard and Grigorev in orbit onboard Pegasus take shelter too. Once the danger has passed, the crew of Ares return to the edge of Melas Chasma, where Sulman successfully guides Charlie to the bottom of the canyon, successfully finding a small amount of liquid water buried under the ground. However, Lessard reports that a large dust storm is developing in the canyon, which threatens to ruin their mission. After retrieving the water sample, the astronauts once again take shelter in Ares. Once the dust storm has passed, Ares lifts off and rejoins Pegasus.

Departing Mars, the next destination of Pegasus is Jupiter, which they will reach by swinging near by the Sun to pick up speed. On the way towards the Sun, Pegasus passes by Mercury, however no landing is conducted due to mission constraints. To protect them from the intense radiation of the sun, an artificial magnetic field is generated around Pegasus, but the power requirements of the generator force them to turn off non-essential systems, such as their laboratory and the centrifuge that provides artificial gravity for their sleep compartments. The flyby is a success, and the crew head to Jupiter. On their way through the asteroid belt, the crew perform an unplanned close flyby of a binary asteroid system, which passes much closer than predicted due to discrepancies in the data provided by mission control.

Pegasus performs an intense aerobraking maneuver in Jupiter's upper atmosphere to put them on course for Io. En route to Io, Pearson receives a diagnosis of lymphoma, which he received from a high radiation dose during the solar flyby. Upon arriving at Io, the primary landing site is considered unsafe due to an ongoing volcanic eruption, as is the secondary landing site due to lethal levels of radiation. After a heated discussion at mission control over whether to land at the still potentially risky tertiary landing site, or to land at the safe but uninteresting quaternary landing site, the decision is made to land at the more interesting site, but the mission duration is cut to reduce radiation exposure. Lessard then descends alone in the lander Hermes. On the surface, Lessard quickly becomes exhausted in her bulky radiation-shielded spacesuit, and is forced to abort her walk early, leaving all the samples she had collected behind. Pegasus then encounters Europa, where they send a robotic probe to the surface to collect sub-surface ice samples.

Their mission around Jupiter complete, Pegasus embarks on the long journey to Saturn. However, Pearson's condition continues to worsen, weakening him severely. Upon arriving at Saturn, Pegasus enters orbit around Titan, where they release a robotic probe to collect samples, however the probe malfunctions and is lost. Leaving Titan, Pegasus is placed in an orbit in the Cassini division, where Sulman performs a spacewalk to collect a fragment of Saturn's rings. However, during her spacewalk, Pearson dies. Subsequently, the remaining crew cut off communications with Earth for a whole day while they mourn Pearson and decide what to do next. During this period, Kirby floats the body of Pearson into the rings of Saturn. Upon restoring contact, the crew reveals that they have decided to continue the mission (in the US version, they decide to return home), and they leave for Pluto shortly afterwards.

Arriving at Pluto, Kirby and Grigorev land on the surface in the lander Clyde, where they set up a telescope array to detect exoplanets, which they had modified on their journey from Saturn to Pluto, and the telescope is pointed at Earth for a calibration test. Before leaving Pluto, Kirby and Grigorev perform a short memorial service for astronauts who have died in the pursuit of space exploration, including Pearson, who was intended to land on Pluto with them. Clyde later ascends and docks with Pegasus. On the way back to Earth, they rendezvous with a fictional long-period comet, Yano-Moore. Lessard and Sulman pilot the lander Messier to collect samples, but during their excursion, the nucleus of the comet breaks apart, sending high-speed debris towards Pegasus, severely damaging the ship, and injuring Grigorev, who was hit by a comet fragment that had pierced the hull. Unable to contact the damaged Pegasus, Lessard and Sulman abandon Messier and spacewalk to the airlock. After performing emergency surgery on Grigorev, the three able astronauts repair Pegasus and commence on the final journey home. Finally, after six years away, Pegasus arrives back at Earth.

Space Odyssey entered into pre-production in January 2003[3] and was first announced on 26 March that year,[1] set for a September 2004 release.[3] The title for the programme was announced to be Walking with Spacemen, set to be produced by Tim Haines and Jasper James of Impossible Pictures. Haines and James are the creators of the Walking with... franchise of documentary series on prehistoric life, having made the previous series Walking with Dinosaurs (1999) and Walking with Beasts (2001) together.[1]

Though it would differ considerably from the other Walking with... programmes in its settings and subject matter, the series was seen as the natural progression of the Walking with... franchise, which had gone from Walking with Dinosaurs (the age of the dinosaurs) to Walking with Beasts (the age of the mammals) to Walking with Cavemen (2003; human evolution) and would now step into the future.[1] Walking with Spacemen was also connected to the other series through its creators (Haines and James) and through using scientific knowledge and special effects to create a dramatic yet informative programme.[3] The BBC announced Walking with Spacemen as set to consist of two 50-minute programmes[1] whereas some other sources, such as Variety, reported that it would consist of six 30-minute episodes.[3]

The release of the series was delayed for a few months and by October 2004, Walking with Spacemen had been retitled as Space Odyssey. Though still involving Impossible Pictures and Haines, now executive producer, James had left the project. The press pack released on 10 October that year no longer made any connection between Space Odyssey and the Walking with... series beyond the involvement of Haines and Impossible Pictures. The new title instead connected the programme to the then in-development series Ocean Odyssey (2006).[2][4] Alongside Haines, Space Odyssey was now produced by Christopher Riley, with Adam Kemp also serving as executive producer.[2] Despite the title change, Space Odyssey was still referred to as Walking with Spacemen also after its release in some sources[5][6] and it aired in Canada under the original working title.[7] The soundtrack of the series, released by composer Don Davis, still referred to the main theme as the "Walking with Spacemen theme".[8]

In order to produce the most realistic and accurate vision possible of human exploration of the different worlds visited in Space Odyssey, the production team used facts collected on hundreds of different robotic missions, including details concerning rock formations, gravity fields and atmospheres. Numerous scientists and astronauts were consulted for the programme, including the aforementioned David Scott, Jean-Pierre Haigneré, Chris Welch and Kevin Fong, alongside astronaut Reinhold Ewald, space author David Baker, space physicist Michele Dougherty, mathematician and astronomer Carl D. Murray, astrobiologist Charles S. Cockell, SETI coordinator Alan Penny, astronomers David Hughes and Francisco Diego, plasma physicist Andrew Coates, atmospheric physicists Stephen R. Lewis and Peter Read, and Adrian Russell, Head of Concepts at the European Aeronautic Defence and Space company.[2]

Areas lacking in scientific research also influenced choice made in the series; the malfunction of the probe aimed at Titan and the subsequent lack of exploration of the moon was a decision made due to then impending real landing mission by the probe Huygens on Titan (14 January 2005), which could have resulted in new findings making the portrayal of Titan in Space Odyssey inaccurate.[9] Actual science also influenced the overall plot; the planets Uranus and Neptune are not visited in Space Odyssey since the planets were out of position to the path taken by the Pegasus.[10]

Most of the sets used in Space Odyssey were constructed by WonderWorks, a Los Angeles-based setbuilding company familiar with space movies. WonderWorks had previously worked on productions such as Apollo 13 (1995), From the Earth to the Moon (1998), Space Cowboys (2000), The Core (2003) and The Day After Tomorrow (2004). A set modelled on the International Space Station, previously used in The Day After Tomorrow was used in Space Odyssey, adated for the lab areas of the Pegasus. The command centre of the Pegasus was a modified cockpit of a Space Shuttle. The sets were shipped from the United States to London and constructed at two studios. Some portions were later taken to Russia and re-built on board a reduced-gravity aircraft so that the actors could film while weightless.[2]

The costumes used in the series were supplied by Global Effects, a Hollywood costume house that had also supplied space suits for Apollo 13, Contact (1997), Deep Impact (1998), Armageddon (1998), From the Earth to the Moon and Space Cowboys. In addition to the space suits from Global Effects, some scenes made use of real cosmonaut space suits; the producers believe that Space Odyssey was the first drama TV production to make use of real space suits. In addition to these authentic space suits, several props used in Space Odyssey were also real products developed for missions aboard the International Space Station, supplied to the production team by the European Space Agency and Roscosmos.[2]

The spacecraft of Space Odyssey were designed by series consultant David Baker, engineers at the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (a real manufacturer of spacecraft) and the Art Department of the production team. Every spacecraft shown was designed to adhere to strict principles of spacecraft design and were based on technologies and designs already being researched at NASA. The Pegasus, for instance, incorporates a magnetic shield, a technology which at the time of production was already being experimented with at NASA.[2]

The visual effects of Space Odyssey were created by the visual effects company Framestore, which had also worked on the Walking with... programmes.[11]

Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets was accompanied by a 50-minute stand-alone documentary titled Space Odyssey: The Robot Pioneers, first broadcast on BBC Four[2] on 9 November 2004.[12] Like the main programme, The Robot Pioneers was created by Impossible Pictures and produced by the BBC, the Discovery Channel and ProSieben, though also in association with the Science Channel. The Robot Pioneers explores the real history of space exploration as well as the science behind Space Odyssey, telling the story of the unmanned robotic missions to the planets of the Solar System.[2] The Robot Pioneers was directed by Christopher Riley, edited by Andy Worboys and narrated by David Suchet.[12]

A companion book to the series, also titled Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets was co-authored by Haines and Riley.[13] The book was released in the United States under the title Voyage to the Planets and Beyond: A Space Exploration.[14] The book is based on the fictional diary entries of the ground staff and crew on Pegasus, with supplementary factual information on the planets they visited and the real robotic missions which have explored them through history. It is illustrated with specially commissioned digital still images and screenshots taken from the programme.

The launch of Space Odyssey was accompanied by a tour, during which Christopher Riley traveled across the United Kingdom to host events for children seven and over in which he presented facts about the Solar System, the science behind Space Odyssey, unseen footage from the series and live demos.[2]

Using BBCi (BBC Interative Television), viewers could during the programme's original airing watch Space Odyssey with interactive features. Viewers could access the "Mission Report", a virtual mission control interface which included pup-up facts on the screen, as well as context and extra information for each scene.[2]

An accompanying website to Space Odyssey was launched in 2004, including information on the Pegasus and the other fictional spacecraft featured in the series, detailed profiles on the crew members and real scientific information. Also included on the website were games, including jigsaw puzzles and Space Doctor Interactive, in which players take the role of a doctor looking after astronauts on a mission to Mars.[2]