The smiling face of space-bound humans that are nowhere near a red shirt. That is also the only Star Trek reference I’ll make in this review. Phot0 courtesy of Trek.com . Ehem.
We’ll get this out of the way right now, no one likes Jeff Bezos. However, in Amazon’s short but sweet documentary on William Shatner’s joyride above the Kármán line with fellow explorers Audrey Powers, Glen de Vries, and Chris Boshuizen, you do see something that resembles likeability but let’s not focus on Jeff per se but on some old guy and a few rich kids that got to experience what millions have dreamed of, space, in all its dark heavenly grandeur, even if only for a few fleeting moments.
The documentary of course starts with Bill meeting Jeff for the first time where we get a glimpse into both men’s love of space travel/exploration/innovation and how Jeff was able to wrangle Bill into going up in the New Shepard NS-18. We also get to meet the whole crew, learn a bit about them as real people rather than just their bank accounts, and go into the briefing room where everyone is brought up to speed on how the days leading up to the launch will run, and what they can expect before, during, and after launch. The excitement is tangible, the information compelling, and the overall mood is positive without any kind of unnecessary personal drama that can find itself injected into anything involving people and cameras. When launch day rolls around and things get delayed, the crew is understandably disappointed but when their day comes, it’s something to behold.
A changed man and…a robot. Photo courtesy of the NYTimes. com
Controversy surrounds and even engulfs every aspect of the new space race we are witnessing, but it always has, and justifiably so. With all of the problems here on Earth that need real solutions, fast, shooting Billionaires into space seems trivial and a waste of precious resources yet folded into these carnivals of private space flight lay research and technology that just may save humanity from itself, and that is simply an investment we cannot afford to abstain from.
Official Shatner In Space teaser trailer can be seen here, while the documentary can be streamed right here