Topic: Apollo 17: The Untold Story of the Last Men on the Moon (Free Spirit Films)
Blackarrow Member
Posts: 3118 From: Belfast, United Kingdom Registered: Feb 2002
posted 02-15-2012 05:37 PM
For UK TV viewers (or those who can pick up Sky) the Quest channel is showing a one-hour documentary about Apollo 17.
Apollo 17: The Untold Story Of The Last Men On The Moon
2012 marks the 40th anniversary of when man last stood upon the moon.
On the 25th May 1961, President John F. Kennedy of the United States of America, committed the resources of his nation and launched Project Apollo: the greatest technological undertaking in the history of mankind. But in 1972, only two years after Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon, public and political interest in Apollo had dwindled. NASA was forced to cut the program short, making Apollo 17 man's final mission to the moon.
The world knows how the Apollo program began, but very few truly understand how it ended. Yet Apollo 17's voyage to the moon was the crowning glory of man's lunar exploration, breaking all previous records and making some of the greatest discoveries of the entire Apollo program.
This is the remarkable story of the determination and courage of a generation. It is a tribute to three brave astronauts and the thousands of men and women behind them during the final days of NASA's Apollo program.
It premieres tomorrow (Thursday 16th February) at 9.00 p.m. It's on Freeview ch. 38 and Sky ch. 154, repeated on Friday at 10.00 p.m.
Blackarrow Member
Posts: 3118 From: Belfast, United Kingdom Registered: Feb 2002
posted 02-16-2012 07:39 PM
I'm afraid I can only give the programme 5 out of 10. Good to see a documentary on an Apollo mission other than 11 or 13, but we had the usual abundance of film clips from other missions, often to a really irritating extent. Also, many of the rover TV segments were oddly blocky and pixellated. While the numerous (audio only) contributions from Jack Schmitt were interesting, it was very noticeable than Gene Cernan did not contribute to the programme.
posted 02-17-2012 03:46 AM
I thought the shot of Ron Evans in mission control was particularly amusing as he was obviously in the CM at the time.
Paul23 Member
Posts: 836 From: South East, UK Registered: Apr 2008
posted 02-17-2012 06:02 AM
There were elements of the documentary I really enjoyed, while I can never really tire of hearing the astronaut and mission control perspective (which I did feel was lacking from this one, despite the Harrison Schmitt voiceover interview), it was good to hear from some other interview subjects talking about the mission, particularly those who were involved first hand at the time.
The downsides as already mentioned were the abundance of clips from other missions, especially the Ron Evans one. I don't usually mind this as much with documentaries about Apollo in general like In The Shadow of the Moon and For All Mankind, but when the mission was specifically about Apollo 17, then all footage used should have come from the mission.
Speaking of For All Mankind, I felt at times the producers drifted into that territory with shots of the Moon being shown alongside an ambient soundtrack, at times it just felt like a bit of a cheap version.
I would say though it was good to see a documentary focus on another mission other than 11 or 13, and to focus on it fully. I did wonder at the start if it was going to be 45 minutes of space race then only a short period at the time specifically about 17 but it was good to see this wasn't the case.
Overall it wasn't a bad effort but I feel with a little more attention, and maybe a larger budget, it could have been a lot better.
Blackarrow Member
Posts: 3118 From: Belfast, United Kingdom Registered: Feb 2002
posted 02-17-2012 01:40 PM
For half the budget I would have made it twice as good!
Rick Mulheirn Member
Posts: 4167 From: England Registered: Feb 2001
posted 02-17-2012 03:45 PM
I'm with you Geoff. They should have asked you to make the program.
I have to confess, I thought the show was pretty dreadful... and cheaply done. The patchwork botched editing was lazy and irritating in equal measure.
The only contribution from the surviving crew members was an audio commentary from Jack Schmitt and little was made of the contribution made by the British engineers involved in the program.
Nothing about the program had previously been "untold" and the commentary from the UK experts merely regurgitated material we have heard elsewhere.
And the advertisement breaks seemed interminable and frequent to the point of distraction.
posted 03-14-2012 02:50 PM
Despite some of the problems, I thought this was very good. Normally UK produced programs are negative and full of mistakes. There was some footage I had not seen before like the drouge chute deployment from inside the CM.
Brilliant to see something other than Apollo 11 and 13. Wish they would do all the Apollo missions. This program seemed to have clips downloaded from the internet?
posted 02-15-2012 05:37 PM
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