NYCC 2019: The alternate past of For All Mankind

If there was an altverse of the Apollo era, it would never have been Neil Armstrong who took those first steps on the Moon, which would have instead been broadcast from Russia. That is For All Mankind.

"The fun part of this show is showing real moments but how we get there in a different way or how the outcome is a little different … we wanted it to be grounded and have moments in history that are real so you know where you are," co-executive producer Maril Davis told SYFY WIRE at NYCC.

Not all the characters, themes, or sets are fictional. If you had never cracked a history book and had no idea there ever even was a Moon landing, you would probably buy this as what actually happened. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins are all there. The social constructs and pressures of the '60s, which were a strain on the astronauts' families as they tried to present a certain image to the media, are also there. So is the control room.

Sets can seem real to the point of appearing like they are built to scale. That wasn't enough for the other executive producer of For All Mankind, Ronald D. Moore, who has always been fascinated by the space program and wanted to make his alternate version of history seem real to the point of rebuilding the entire NASA control room (as it was back in the '60s) to scale.

The producers also decided to one-up Russia in one particular area. Russia might not have been the first country to land humans on the moon, but it was the first to send a woman to the Moon — an entire decade before the U.S. did. The Americans are the first to send women to the Moon in the show's version of history.

If you want to find out how else For All Mankind twists history, keep watching!

This article was contributed to by Elizabeth Rayne.