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Author
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Topic: Space (James A. Michener)
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stsmithva
Member Posts: 1970
From: Fairfax, VA
Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 04-08-2009 11:18 AM
   
Is "Space" by James A Michener a good read? From what I understand it's a fictional account of the early space program, concentrating mostly on management and technician characters but also with at least one made-up astronaut. Is this "alternative" account interesting and entertaining, or are all the differences from what really happened too distracting? |
KSCartist
Member Posts: 2927
From: Titusville, FL
Registered: Feb 2005
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posted 04-08-2009 12:08 PM
It is a wonderful fictionalized account of Operation Paperclip, the beginnings of NASA and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. There is more than one "made-up" astronaut. I've read the book more than three times in the last 20 years and if you like Michener and his attention to detail - you'll love "Space". |
garymilgrom
Member Posts: 1966
From: Atlanta, GA
Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 04-08-2009 01:43 PM
I'm with Tim - a great read. Very entertaining. |
ilbasso
Member Posts: 1526
From: Greensboro, NC USA
Registered: Feb 2006
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posted 04-08-2009 01:47 PM
I haven't read it for more than 20 years, but it was the only Michener book I had ever read at the time, and it encouraged me to read more of his work. The fictionalized flight of Apollo 18 is worth the price of the book itself! |
GoesTo11
Member Posts: 1325
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Jun 2004
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posted 04-08-2009 04:52 PM
Judging from the comments here, I may have to revisit this one. I remember enjoying the Apollo 18 chapters, but generally finding the book overlong and weighed down by several tangential subplots that struck me as only marginally relevant. But I was very young when I read it (had to be at least 20 years ago), and it may have just been too much of a "grown-up" book for me. If I ever get caught up on my must-read list (increasingly unlikely) maybe I'll give it another go. |
space4u
Member Posts: 326
From: Cleveland, OH USA
Registered: Aug 2006
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posted 04-09-2009 09:42 AM
Yes I would recommend it Steve. I happened to have my hardback, new copy of it (in 1982) with me in Florida on a trip and heard Edgar Mitchell speak in Florida and got him to autograph my copy for free! |
medaris
Member Posts: 184
From: United Kingdom
Registered: Mar 2007
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posted 04-13-2009 04:33 PM
I enjoyed it as well. The main characters are composites, but it's difficult not to try to work out some of the astronauts that influenced their portrayal! |
bnick
New Member Posts:
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posted 04-08-2011 03:31 PM
I just recently finished reading James Michener's "Space" and I had heard there was a mini-series made of the book back in the 1980's. I really enjoyed the book but I have been unable to locate the mini-series in any form. If anyone has any information about how one can see the mini-series in any way (video, dvd, online, etc.) I'd be very interested. Editor's note: Threads merged. |
RSimon007
Member Posts: 24
From: Saginaw, MI USA
Registered: Apr 2004
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posted 04-09-2011 02:22 AM
No idea if it's great or lousy but I saw this source online for the DVD. If you buy it please share your thoughts on the quality of the DVD and the mini-series. |
skye12
Member Posts: 49
From: Austin, TX, USA
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted 08-23-2012 05:34 PM
It was a CBS mini series which I thoroughly enjoyed at the time in 85. The original airing was 5 parts and 13 hours in duration. It starred Harry Hamlin and Beau Bridges as the main astronauts. Also had Blair Brown, Bruce Dern, Michael York and James Garner it.After the initial airing, subsequently it was cut down to 4 parts and 9 hours in length. This is the cut a few knockoff sites supposedly have. I would love for the original 13 hour version to be put out and find it strange it has disappeared. If anyone has a line on this, that would be great. |
Andy McCulley
Member Posts: 245
From: Lansdale, PA
Registered: Jul 2001
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posted 08-24-2012 08:08 AM
The ad on this site appears to be a copy of the original 13 hrs. |
Jay Chladek
Member Posts: 2272
From: Bellevue, NE, USA
Registered: Aug 2007
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posted 08-25-2012 11:48 PM
I watched it when it first aired on CBS. I may have a couple of the episodes on Beta video tape still (not that they do me much good since I don't have a functioning Beta VCR anyway). Michener's style at the time was to write like that and cover historical times with fictional parallel accounts, but heavily grounded in the history of what actually happened and he was a first class researcher. That was the style of things back then as there are numerous other books that came out in the 1970s and 80s that paralleled that writing style. The "Space" miniseries I believe was produced thanks to the success the networks had in their broadcast of "Centennial" in the 1970s.Guenther Wendt worked as a technical advisor on the series and there may have been some astronaut involvement as well (I don't know for sure though). Miniature, costume and effects work as I recall were groundbreaking at the time. I particularly remember a scene in the fictional Gemini mission where you saw Harry Hamlin as astronaut "John Pope" asleep in the Gemini after an Agena dock and they do a long camera pullout from the window until it was just a small dot in the sky orbiting the Earth. The book I've never read entirely, but I did glance at a couple pages in high school and it seemed to have very good educational content as the American scientist who in the stories did the fictionalized account of "Paperclip" used a pair of jeeps and some circles drawn on the flightline of Ellington field to help explain a simplified account to Pope and Claggett (Hamling and Bridges) of orbital mechanics in rendezvous and docking. I believe the book version of the Gemini mission was a variation of the Gemini 11 flight which involved rendezvous with two Agena vehicles (something the movie did not cover). I've still got a Clagget, Pope and Perry Apollo 18 mission patch which was based on the prop patches from the film. I got it at Star Realm many years ago and I don't exactly know who made it. |
carl walker
Member Posts: 366
From: Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2006
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posted 08-29-2012 03:56 PM
The patches for the "Space" miniseries were made by Stewart Aviation in the UK. I think part of the show might have been filmed in UK (apparently Orfordness in Suffolk).The Gemini capsule featured in the series is on display at the USS Intrepid Air and Space museum (or it was...) Great book and miniseries. |
liftoff1
Member Posts: 235
From: Cumberland, Wisconsin
Registered: Aug 2001
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posted 09-16-2012 10:25 AM
I'm looking for James A. Michener's television miniseries "Space." Does anybody know if it is available on DVD?Editor's note: Threads merged.
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Cozmosis22
Member Posts: 1018
From: Texas * Earth
Registered: Apr 2011
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posted 07-17-2020 06:42 PM
Came across some old VHS recordings made when this CBS miniseries first aired back in 1985. It premiered on a Sunday night, April 14th, and ran for 3 full hours. Recordings include local commercials on Detroit television station WJBK Channel 2; which was at the time a CBS affiliate. The following four nights it aired for two or three hours for a total of thirteen hours airtime. A few subsequent rebroadcasts of the miniseries years later were shortened to nine hours and then six. Wonder why there doesn't seem to be any DVDs available? During the Sunday night broadcast there were commercials for the all new minivan from Chevy, the ASTRO. Another night had commercial with a Challenger crew member on the launch pad craving a nice cold Pepsi cola. And of course there was TANG instant orange drink. During one commercial break there's a quick news update from space. "NASA is debating whether or not to perform a risky unplanned spacewalk to fix a stranded satellite. Meanwhile, 51-D astronaut Senator Jake Garn is doing well aboard space shuttle Discovery." An Apple II full minute advertisement ran each night showing a grade school student using a computer in class. LOL, he can't decide if he wants to be an astronaut or a marine biologist? |
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