“It is sprawling, sometimes muddled, consistently riveting”
“Director James Bluemel’s new series, Once Upon A Time in Space, may have moved the camera lens skywards but it remains exceptional television. Over four episodes it is surprisingly moving and as much about humanity as it is about space.”
Carol Midgley, The Times
“Once Upon a Time in Space doesn’t have a grand thesis and never lectures the viewer. It is sprawling, sometimes muddled, consistently riveting – much like the lives of the astronauts and cosmonauts who continued to journey to the stars in the decades following the moon landing and long after anyone cared if they had the right stuff.”
Ed Power, The Telegraph
“You expect a space documentary to be expansive and majestic; this is restrained and domestic. Interesting and affecting as these memories are, they are more a case of relatable experiences – overcoming self-doubt to chase a dream career; growing up unaware of the hard choices one’s parents are facing; grieving for a family member suddenly lost – made remarkable by their unusual context, rather than the regular Once Upon a Time trick of making a complex political situation more comprehensible by showing us its simpler details.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian
“Dr McNair was a physics specialist in the doomed Challenger launch in 1986. This documentary replayed footage of the shuttle’s explosion, without dwelling on it. But his older brother Carl, choking up as he talked, described how he learned of Ron’s death from news reports, and how impossible it was to escape seeing the disaster replayed countless times on TV. We rarely hear about astronauts’ families, and this show changed that.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail
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