The Season 5 teaser for For All Mankind was released earlier this week, and it reminded me why I keep coming back to this series.
At this point, the show isn’t really “alt-history space race” anymore. It’s closer to “what happens when space stops being a stunt and becomes a system.” The Moon base era, the push toward Mars, the slow shift from exploration to infrastructure — that’s the part I’ve been enjoying most, and it feels like Season 5 is going to lean into it even more so. That teaser definitely teases us about it!
And yeah, I know, the show hasn’t been flawless. There have been a few story arcs in past seasons that didn’t quite land for me — moments where the drama felt a bit forced, or the pacing wobbled. But overall, it’s still doing something most sci-fi shows don’t: it takes big ideas seriously, and it lets consequences stack up over time.
This teaser also hit a weird nostalgia (here we go again...) button for me: it made me think of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars). Not because the stories are the same — they’re not — but because they share that “okay, now build it… and deal with what it costs” energy.
Which, honestly, makes me want to revisit those books.
Re-reading is always a different experience. The first time through, you’re chasing plot. The second time, you notice the quieter stuff — the choices people make, the compromises they justify, the way a story’s themes were sitting in plain sight the whole time. The book hasn’t changed, but you have.
So yeah. I’m looking forward to Season 5.
Mars as a real place — not just a destination — is exactly where this show gets interesting.
Season 4 ended with Mars at an uncomfortable midpoint.
Not a dream anymore.
Not a home yet.
And definitely not neutral territory.
By the finale, Mars isn’t just another frontier — it’s a pressure point.
Which is exactly why Season 5 feels so promising.
CK Out.
Past seasons
Season 1 (late 1960s–mid 1970s)
The Soviets land on the Moon first, and NASA goes into full panic mode. The U.S. doubles down on the lunar program, pushes harder, and starts bringing women into the astronaut corps as the space race escalates. By the end of the season, the Moon is no longer just a flag-planting contest — it’s the beginning of permanent presence and higher-stakes rivalry.
Jamestown (the lunar base) grows, and the Cold War tension goes from “political” to “dangerously real” on the Moon. NASA pushes new tech and new missions, while personal and institutional pressure builds on both sides. The season culminates in a major flashpoint where things nearly spiral into full disaster.
The space race expands beyond governments: private industry gets its hands on the wheel, and the next big target becomes Mars. Multiple factions (and egos) collide in the first serious push to get humans there, and it’s messy, risky, and expensive in every way. By the end, Mars shifts from “goal” to “setting.”
Happy Valley is established as a growing Mars base, and the big new fight becomes resources — especially asteroid capture/mining and who gets to control the future economy of space. Labor, politics, corporate interests, and Earth-vs-Mars priorities all start grinding against each other. The season leans hard into “colony problems,” not just “mission problems.”
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