Space Race 

The BBC's Space Race is a documentary/drama chronicling the major events and characters in the American/Soviet space race, leading up to the first moon landing. The series concentrates on ... See full summary »

Stars:

Richard Dillane, Steve Nicolson, Ravil Isyanov

1 nomination.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Richard Dillane	...	Werner Von Braun 4 episodes, 2005
Steve Nicolson	...	Sergej Koroljov / ... 4 episodes, 2005
Ravil Isyanov	...	Glushko 4 episodes, 2005
Max Bollinger	...	Russian Cosmonaut 4 episodes, 2005
John Warnaby	...	Mishin / ... 2 episodes, 2005
Chris Robson	...	Dieter Huzel / ... 2 episodes, 2005
Mariya Mironova	...	Nina / ... 2 episodes, 2005
Robert Lindsay	...	Narrator 2 episodes, 2005
Stuart Bunce	...	Gaidukov / ... 2 episodes, 2005
Mark Dexter	...	Staver 2 episodes, 2005
Michael Gor	...	Derow / ... 2 episodes, 2005
Ingo Gottwald	...	Propulsion Engineer 1 episode, 2005
Stephen Greif	...	Colonel Toftoy / ... 2 episodes, 2005
Rupert Wickham	...	Debus 2 episodes, 2005
Tim Woodward	...	Nedelin 2 episodes, 2005

Storyline

The BBC's Space Race is a documentary/drama chronicling the major events and characters in the American/Soviet space race, leading up to the first moon landing. The series concentrates on Sergei Korolev, the Soviet chief rocket designer, and Wernher von Braun, his American counterpart, as their rivalry intensifies and the pressure to be the first builds.

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Plot Keywords:

reenactment | docudrama | 

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Genres:

Documentary | Drama

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Did You Know?

Trivia

According to Deborah Cadbury in her book Space Race, just a few days before three months of filming was to begin in Romania a truck containing all the props for filming was stolen in ilford, England. Among the props inside the truck were countless Nazi Uniforms, period Soviet and NASA space suits, a replica of the first Russian satellite and a life size V-2 rocket that when assembled was three stories high.

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Goofs

The narrator twice says that the Mercury-Redstone could put an astronaut into orbit. The best the Mercury-Redstone could do was put an astronaut into a 15-minute ballistic trajectory which peaked out around 120 miles up. No orbit.

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Quotes

Sergei Korolev: Without a rocket as powerful as the Saturn, we will *lose*

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Connections

Featured in History Buffs: Apollo 13 (2016)

User Reviews

effective docu-series

I watched the series on the European Arte channel and was really impressed. I am not a fan of the docu-series mixed with actors, but in this case the method played well by filling in the wholes in documentary coverage, and by telling much more and in a more expressive manner about the principal characters in the space race and their feelings and motivations.

Certainly, there are many details that were left out, and many of the Russian viewers on the different Web fora pointed out that the presentation lacks balance and accuracy. Yet, the documentary information was extremely valuable, as all the Soviet space program was so much covered by secrecy and deformed by propaganda that I realized that despite the fact that I was living in a Communist country by that time I knew almost nothing about it.

This is a film to watch, and hopefully more will be done on the same subject and throw more light on these exciting aspects of mankind recent history.

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 September 2005 (UK)

Also Known As:

O agonas gia tin kataktisi tou diastimatos

Filming Locations:

MediaPro Studios, Bucharest, Romania

Box Office

Budget:

EUR2,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Mediapro Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

240 min (4 parts)

Sound Mix:

Stereo (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1