I recently viewed this exceptional HBO miniseries and enjoyed it immensely, except for its treatment of astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
In one of the episodes, the miniseries recreates a pre-launch interview of the three Apollo 11 astronauts. Buzz is depicted as exceedingly anxious compared to unflappable Armstrong and Collins. More than anxious, he comes across as a bit, well, quirky, even weird. It’s hard to describe, but he looks like he’s crawling out of his skin, which doesn’t sound NASA-like.
I’ve read Aldrin’s autobiography, in which he details his post-flight depression, alcoholism, and biopolar disorder. That said, is there anything to indicate this miniseries character profile–as described above–is accurate, or can this be chalked up to the imperatives of “docudramas”?
[MODERATORS: I realize this is a Cafe Society-type question, but I’m hoping for a more respondents.]
Unfortunately, I didn’t see the episode, so I can’t comment on what you saw. I did see other episodes, and I just don’t buy most of what I saw. I think the series was mostly docudrama. Oh well.
Still, Aldrin was different than most astronauts. Most accounts I’ve read say that at the time, the other astronauts found him nice enough, but often he acted arrogant or superior. If anything, he was less nervous than most. I think the docudrama took his later realization of bipolar and fitted it back on his astronaut days, when it may not have been apparent to anyone including himself.
Aldrin was really one of the most amazing astronauts we have. He had a PhD in orbital mechanics from MIT, making him the only astronaut who as as qualified to do “rocket science” as the NASA scientists. The only other astronaut who rivas his technical abilities is geologist Harrison Schmidt, and Schmidt was just barely a pilot.
Aldrin may have saved the space program. He flew in the last Gemini mission, which was our final chance to “prove” that astronauts could do technical tasks in space. Gemini was the proving ground for moon-related tasks, including rendezvous, duration, and most importantly, ability to do work in vacuum and low gravity. The astronauts needed this last skill not only for lunar exploration, but also for emergency backup. If they were unable to dock the command module to the LEM, they’d have to transfer by going outside the spacecraft.
Ed White was the first American to “walk in space,” and he had little problem, but his was a short, controlled test. The other Gemini astronauts who tried it ran into many problems. Mostly it was a case of assuming gravity. At least one astronaut (whose name escapes me at the moment) nearly killed himself.
Aldrin understood that a different way of working was required. He used slow, gentle movements to do his work, and worked patiently. As a result he did his test work brilliantly and convinced mission planners that rendezvous was safe.
Col. Dave Scott was technical adviser on From The Earth To The Moon, and Cpt. Jim Lovell consulted quite a bit as well. And Tom Hanks is quite possibly the #1 NASA Space Geek in America. It is their allegation that the series is accurate where the facts are known and verifiable, and true-to-life* where they are not, and that the characterizations are also as accurate as recollection, biographical accounts, and in-depth interviews with the surviving Mercury/Gemini/Apollo astronauts permit.
This is not meant to denigrate or in any way detract from Col. “Buzz” Aldrin’s contributions or accomplishments.
I like the fact that this series is not a documentary.
I find the portrayal of Edwin Aldrin in the dramatization to be open to ridicule.
I suspect that someone had an axe to grind. I do not know why. Perhaps more likely is that the script writer and/or actor decided that the story needed an anti-hero, and decided to characterize Aldrin as that persona-- for dramatic effect but one which departs from reality.
Compare for yourself the dramatization with this series of the real pre-flight press conference: http://youtu.be/NWjNqCtUe4s is the first one, but all three are fun to watch.
In that first video, there is some comic relief as we watch the obvious dread of being asked to respond to a questions-- none of them want to be there, but Armstrong warms up to it more quickly-- and of course gets most of the questions. I particular enjoyed watching Michael Collins working to remove or replace a staple on the papers before him, and later playing with a pen (while Aldrin folds and refolds papers). Collins already knew he was not likely to be the focus of many of the questions. Not the “polish” we expect today, but these men are not most people.
Rather than playing with staples, when I am bored, I read technical documents and some of those I have read had been written by Buzz Aldrin.
The man is brilliant in a way that few us will grasp. Many of these men were. I had a family member with that kind of intelligence. If someone has an IQ as high above average as an average IQ is above a dog, we can begin to see what life is like for them.
They are uncomfortable and bored. They have other things on their minds and are ready for the press conference to end so they can get back to doing what they are good at-- and away from people who do not know what that is. There is not a fool on that stage as is apparent by their responses-- least of all, Buzz Aldrin.
If there is a fool involved at all, it is the person who thought the portrayal of Aldrin in From Earth to the Moon was even remotely believable.
This is how Aldrin comes across in James Hansen’s biography of Neil Armstrong, “First Man.”
IIRC, he was also apparently miffed that he didn’t get to step out of the LM first, even after his father, a high-ranking Air Force officer, tried pulling some strings.
Slight quibble - Aldrin’s doctorate was a doctor of science (Sc.D.), which is even more impressive, and underscores your overall point - Buzz is brilliant.
The person who bumped this thread is probably a flyby on a hyperbolic trajectory, and, unlike some people who resurrect threads, his bump added nothing to what was already known: Buzz is brilliant, and the movie portrayal was artistic license.
Well, yeah, Aldrin was all that, but he was still a human being. And one thing that is true is that he was the first of the NASA astronauts to essentially admit to not being a superman. The book he wrote soon after the Moon landings were over, Return to Earth, documenting his personal disillusionment with all the fame, and his psychological issues in general, well, let’s just say that fighter jock test pilots aren’t big on even admitting they *have *any ‘feelings’ other than gung-ho enthusiasm. And here was Aldrin *publishing *all his personal flaws for everyone to read. It didn’t endear him to his fellow astronauts or the NASA brass either.
Bryan Cranston wasn’t famous when he appeared in the miniseries but I think, like everything he’s done since, his performance was excellent. In particular his handling of Aldrin’s obviously strong desire to be first out of the LM, and his taking communion after landing without making him seem like some kind of religious yahoo.
As the person who bumped this thread, it seems to me that adding a discussion of comparing the actual press-conference (which was not on the Internet back when the discussion began) to the portrayal was quite relevant and added an objective component to the discussion.
Better my flyby than your spelunking, don’t you think?
As for “bumping,” I do much research on the Internet, and stumbled in here because it matched my, then current, search criteria. Why you felt the need to voice a problem with that is rather low, as trajectories go.
I think it’s because message board threads are, essentially, ephemeral and temporary things based on the knowledge of the moment, compared to other resources like Wikipedia articles and websites devoted to a particular topic and attempting to compile as much knowledge about it as possible.
So when someone drops in, revives a thread that has been long-forgotten-about for several years and in which (very often) a large percentage of the original posters are no longer here, and then that poster doesn’t seem to hang around at all, the productiveness of the effort seems potentially wasted.
(Plus, it didn’t help that your final statement was a veiled swipe at the intelligence of anyone who accepted the portrayal of Aldrin. That was a tad uncalled for in this forum.)
I’m a bit disappointed on how this thread is going. When I first started reading it today, I reached over to my dresser to grab my copy of Andrew Chaikin’s “A Man On The Moon”, which was THE major reference source for the mini-series. And then the thread peters out to pretty much what I was going to add to it.
Except this: Aldin’s Gemini XII spacewalk worked because in training for it, NASA finally got around to building a Neutral Boyancy Tank (a deep swimming pool) for the spacewalker to practice in. And they finally added enough hand holds and foot holds to the spacecraft that all the previous spacewalkers had bitched about not having in their post-flight debriefings.
Aldrin, according to Chaiken’s book, was a bit awkward in social situations. Chaiken related a story when Aldrin was invited over to another astronaut’s home for dinner. For some reason, the astronaut was unable to make the dinner, so Aldrin spent the evening talking with the astronauts wife about orbital mechanics and rendezvous techniques. All. Evening.
As for his Return To Earth , Aldrin opened up about something that probably was an issue with all the Apollo crews. You start in your early 20’s training to be a pilot. You work your way up the ziggurat of manned aviation and end up in NASA. There you obsessively train and compete against men just like you and you finally reach the ultimate goal, you’re* A True Brother of The Right Stuff*** at the peak of the pyramid and you’re adored by billions of people around the world.
Okay, then what do you do? Go back to the Air Force as a Colonel and fly a desk as the commander of a flight training center? Get back on the waiting list and MAYBE get one more flight, this time as a Apollo Command Pilot, and orbit the moon while the other guys are making the landing? This sort of thing probably hit all of the pilots to some degree. There’s probably some point I’m trying to make here and I don’t remember what it is. Anyway, discuss if you care to.
The best moment in this series, which I desperately hope is true:
Everybody figured Armstrong, a plan-ahead guy by nature, was thinking about what to say when he first stepped onto the moon, but Armstrong was holding his cards close to his chest and wouldn’t tell anyone.
Possibly annoyed about this, Michael Collins quipped:
“If you had any balls, you’d say ‘Oh, my God, what is that thing?’ then scream and cut your mike.”
It would have been the greatest practical joke of all time.
Neil and Buzz’s solemnity at least gave the Apollo 12 crew a chance to relax. Pete Conrad’s words upon becoming the third person to set foot on the moon were a rather eloquent “whoopee!”
Yeah, I loved that too. I think it was Cary Elwes who played Collins (from* Princess Bride* & Men in Tights) and his subtle comic sensibilities served him well.