Over the last few years, Apple TV has built itself up into the undisputed monarch of the sci-fi genre on streaming. While other platforms like Netflix do have occasional big hitters (like Stranger Things), no other streamer seems to be making as many high-quality sci-fi shows, or anything even close to what Apple TV is managing.
Its most long-running sci-fi show has been For All Mankind, which has attracted plenty of fans over the course of its five seasons and counting, and it's now getting a spin-off to underline how highly Apple rates it. Star City rewinds the clock back to the start of For All Mankind, showing us an alternate version of history where the US and Russia are competing to build a moon base first.
Having seen the American side of this story in the first season of For All Mankind, we're now going to get the Soviet version, and it looks like it'll be a lot grittier for it. The show will be set in 1969 in a version of history where the Soviets have stolen a march on the US and have advanced plans for a moon base, but also a paranoid attitude to the risk of leaks and spying.
It looks like the show will star Rhys Ifans as the lead architect of Russia's plans, but also Anna Maxwell-Martin as a military enforcer trying to keep his base secure, and happy to use brutal tactics to do so. The tug of war between Moscow and its scientists promises plenty of tension, and the show looks like it might be quite a lot darker than For All Mankind.
Another interesting and crucial difference between the shows comes in terms of pacing and time skips. For All Mankind has leapt forward in time between each of its seasons, bringing us back to broadly the same cast of characters but showing us how things have changed years down the line.
Star City will not follow the same approach, possibly because the existence of For All Mankind would preclude it from having many plot twists in store. Rather, its second season, as currently planned, would pick up directly from the first and continue in the same time period. That means it could end up being a more traditional show, and also that there won't be an easy escape from the tension of its setting.
The first season, though, starts on 29 May on Apple TV, and if you're a sci-fi fan it's probably one to check out.
