What's the story?
Missions.
Branson? Bezos? Musk?
None of the above, thankfully. We are talking proper sci-fi adventures rather than billionaires blasting themselves skywards for no apparent reason.
Tell me more.
Missions, which first aired on BBC Four in 2018, is a gripping French drama series set in the near future. It centres on Ulysses 1, a European mission bound for Mars. However, it soon transpires someone – or something – has got there first.
Branson? Bezos? Musk?
Nope. Far scarier than a bunch of super-rich man-children playing with rockets.
What then?
After 10 months travelling through space, the Ulysses 1 crew learn that they will not be the first to land on Mars. They have been overtaken by a US mission in a faster vessel.
After a chaotic arrival, they are perplexed to discover the only sign of life from the Americans is an alarming video. The European astronauts then encounter something even more puzzling: Soviet test pilot and cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov.
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But that doesn't make sense. Komarov famously became the first human to die during a space flight when a parachute failure caused his Soyuz capsule to crash upon re-entry to Earth in 1967.
When can I watch?
All episodes of Missions series two begin streaming on BBC iPlayer on Wednesday. Series one is available now.
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