One of these days, Alice... This four disc collection was purchased as a Christmas gift that was on my son-in-law's wish list. I assume that he's enjoying it as well as sharing it with his young son. No negative feedback from them, so I'm giving it five stars.
compelling history! My 11 year old son got this from Santa for Christmas, and our whole family pretty much watched it beginning to end over the next week. Not only was it a great story, with drama and suspense that kept you on the edge of your seat at times, but it lets kids who weren't around when it all happened see how they worked with what they had to get to the moon and back. As my son said - an iPhone has 10 times the computing power of the instruments of an Apollo rocket. The most fun our family has had together in months. I bought this set for my space history crazy 13 year old son, and he persuaded my husband and me to watch it with him over the course of two weeks. It was a great time together. This is a very well done series, and for the most part, historically accurate. I must admit I found it a bit disconcerting in places where fact and fiction were intertwined -- for instance, on the Apollo 13 series, where they did the old veteran professional journalist being upstaged and ultimately replaced by the hotshot young tabloid-style reporter. I wanted to know who the old guy was supposed to have been, and found out he was a fictional character. I loved the first two episodes, but was less entranced by the third, which was the Apollo 7 episode. Mark Harmon just didn't get Wally Schirra right. The fourth and fifth episodes, depicting Apollos 8 and 9 (and 10 got a brief mention) were wonderful. The episode on Apollo 11 focused on the complex character of Buzz Aldrin, and I think it could have been done better. Apollo 12 was pure joy; and the one on Apollo 13 I liked even though it was the least focused on the mission itself. I found myself not swept away by the Apollo 14 mission one, mostly because, again, it's hard to get Shepard right, and this one came close enough to be irritating when it didn't. We loved the Apollo 15 episode, that focused on how hard it is to train pilots to be geologists. I liked the Apollo 16 episode which focused on the wives of the second group of astronauts and their fates; my 13 year old son, as you can imagine, would have preferred hearing more about Duke, Young, and Mattingly on the moon. The only episode I thought truly did not work was the last....so the series kind of fizzles to an end, just like the Apollo program, I guess!A gift This was sent to my son for a christmas gift. He called and told me it came in excellant condition and was received promptly. He has enjoyed it very much. Can't beat it. Picked this up for about $15 here at Amazon. I'm sure it cost me more to rent from Netflix one disc at a time a few years ago. You can't go wrong with this.
