If you've ever reflected on just how big of an achievement it was for humans to develop the technology to do this, then this series is for you. The show doesn't get too technical for the average viewer that it goes right over your head if you don't have a physics degree, but it doesn't focus solely on human drama either. What this show does well is bring to light what went on behind the scenes. When the astronauts left the lunar module and bounced around the moon, kicking up dust and sometimes even falling over, few would think about the fact that the creators of the spacesuit were cringing in fear, and hoping that they would simply climb back in before an accident happened.
Nearly everything involved in the space mission was new, or was being made smaller and more efficient. The lunar rover, for example, not only needed special wheels to deal with the lunar soil, but it also needed to fit in a space not much larger than an average car trunk. The navigation computer was almost arbitrarily given a space limit of one cubic foot, and subsequently engineers had to scramble to figure out how to fit a computer into that space with the technology of the day. One thing that might have made this show even better would be to point out the technology that we've gained from the space missions and that we use in our everyday lives. Another issue that is not often touched on in this series is budget constraints. These issues, however, are probably worthy of a series of their own.
Even when the engineers or scientists were a bit camera shy, the creators of the show worked around it by interviewing co-workers and building a story around them. But everyone, whether they loved the camera or not, was treated with equal respect. One of the most moving scenes is when the engineers recall the deadly fire that occurred in the Apollo 1 command module. Each of them explains how they felt responsible, and how it haunts them to this day. Throughout the DVD, the weight of the responsibility for these men and women is apparent, but this event brings home just how big it is.
There seemed to be an effort to walk the line between being upbeat and simply reveling in the accomplishment and being somber and remembering the tragedies and setbacks. You might be watching and anticipating a longer amount of time dedicated to the Apollo 13 mission, with its near catastrophe, but it's given relatively less screen time than you would imagine. The narrator does, however, manage to say "it had to perform perfectly" so many times throughout the series that you could make a drinking game out of it. But at least it was true. So much of the missions relied on perfect performance, sometimes with components that were impossible to test before launch.
Moon Machines is an inspiring view of the mission to the moon and the difficulties overcome. Nearly everyone has viewed just a select few video clips of astronauts walking on the moon and this DVD shows a side that is not often seen. It's light enough fare to sit back and watch, but detailed enough so that the average viewer will learn something new. Six episodes on the disc cover the Saturn V Rocket, the Command Module, the Navigation Computer, the Lunar Module, the Space Suit, and the Lunar Rover. Missing are bonus features and extra content, but this set of episodes provides a lot of great content for the space buff.
