‘Star City’ Only Exists Because of ‘For All Mankind,’ but Would Apple’s First Big Spinoff Be Better on Its Own?

Anastasia Belikova (Alice Englert) is destined to be the first woman to walk on the moon. The year is 1969. The Soviet Union has already won the space race against America, landing cosmonaut Alexei Leonov on the lunar surface, and now they’re about to beat us again. To become a hero the world over, Anastasia just has to follow Alexei’s one small step.

But before she can walk, she has to fly. During a routine excursion outside the ship, a malfunction causes Anastasia’s suit to fill with carbon dioxide. Her vision gets blurry, her movements weaken. There’s not enough time to return to the command module or lurch forward into the landing module. Back in Star City, the control room brainstorms solutions, but Anastasia keeps losing her grip. At any second, she could drift off and be gone.

It’s a tense scene, befitting the premiere of Apple TV‘s nervy new science-fiction series, “Star City.” Director Nick Murphy alternates between wide shots of the cosmonaut’s diminutive body floating on the edge of the enormous ship, the glowing gray moon looming beautifully in the background, and claustrophobic framings of Anastasia’s face inside her helmet, trapped with voices from a control room already busy assigning guilt for her death. Much like “Star City” balances humanity’s extraordinary ingenuity against our chilling disregard for clemency, Anastasia’s perilous space walk uses extravagant imagery to depict the politically motivated risks that may cost a would-be icon her fame, her job, and her life.

Except… if you’ve seen “For All Mankind,” “Star City’s” sister series, then you know what happens. Anastasia’s fate is unveiled in the first episode of the original series, and its butterfly effect is still making waves in Season 5 (which warps May 29, the same day “Star City” premieres). Seen sans context, Anastasia’s space walk keeps you on the edge of your seat. Seen with context, it’s, well, context.

Being the first franchise extension of “For All Mankind” — and the first spinoff of an Apple TV original series ever (give or take a “Side Quest”) — serves as a strange limitation on “Star City.” While most TV spinoffs are prequels or sequels, taking place before or after the events of the first series, this one is set over the same timeframe as its predecessor. How closely it matches the chronology of what came before remains to be seen (will each season jump a decade ahead?), but even if it lines up exactly, inviting those comparisons is what spinoffs are supposed to do, right? They rely on viewers’ appreciation of the original to amplify character beats and plot twists in the new one. Easter eggs, cameos, and references are all considered assets.

But so far, I’m unconvinced existing in the dark side of “For All Mankind’s” moon is more helpful than harmful to “Star City.” Knowing allusions to what’s going on out West don’t make up for a hard cap on world-building. Even more crucially, the opening episodes’ slow-and-steady simmer turn into a transfixing fire by Season 1’s midway mark, but knowing the pitfalls it faces ahead — pitfalls inherited specifically from “For All Mankind” — make it harder to invest in an exciting start.

Set at the Soviet space program from which the heavily guarded surrounding compound gets its name, “Star City” primarily focuses on two departments. One, of course, is the branch with all the cosmonauts. The Chief Designer (played by Rhys Ifans) isn’t even given an actual name; he’s only identified by his title, in case anyone questioned his commitment to space exploration. Still, he’s not a dictator. Chief Designer (CD for short) has great compassion for his comrades.

Not like the State, as embodied by the head of the KGB’s surveillance unit, Lyudmilla Raskova (Anna Maxwell Martin). She commands a long room full of desk-bound spies, who spend their days listening to transmitters planted in high-profile individuals’ homes and typing up reports on their behaviors, beliefs, and intentions. All these spies are meant to protect state secrets, sure, but they also work to ensure absolute compliance with the “Marxist-Leninist way.”

‘Star City’Courtesy of Apple TV

Filled with clever sound design, “Star City” crackles to life over these covert radio waves, particularly with Irina Morozova (Agnes O’Casey), a recent addition to the faux-secretarial pool whose curiosity and ambition clash with her desire to protect the innocent. Anastasia’s circumstances are nearly as compelling, and Lyudmilla makes for an imposing pseudo-antagonist primed for further unpacking. (Did I mention her nickname is the Night Witch? Hell yes!) Yes, the majority of the main characters are women, and yes, just like in “For All Mankind,” the few men hanging around prove far less dynamic.

There are other issues: Things start a bit slow, look a bit bleak, and the general mood bounces between anxious and dour — there’s no hint of the random goofiness that helps make “For All Mankind” memorable, for better (like Tracy and Gordo’s duct-tape space suits) or worse (like this season’s flash-mob birthday massacre). The closest “Star City” gets to goofiness is its choice of language: Despite reading newspapers written in Russian and chatting with foreigners sporting location-appropriate accents, all these Soviets speak English. There’s not even a Russian inflection to their dialogue, or a “Valkyrie”-esque fade from one lanuage to another. They just always speak English.

OK! Sure! The choice doesn’t bother me — not in an alternate-history, science-fiction series — but it’s bound to bother some people, and “Star City” doesn’t need any more barriers to entry. Not when it’s already going to contend with the ghosts of “For All Mankind’s” past — a show which also started slow before turning on the gas, but could never sustain momentum, let alone consistent quality.

Part of the problem is a simple, if nagging, design flaw.

When you’re taking advantage of the television medium to tell an epic story spanning many decades, it’s difficult to also take advantage of another advantage unique to TV: spending year after year, season after season, with the same characters. “For All Mankind” struggled to balance retaining cast members with replacing them, a problem infamously embodied by Ed Baldwin (played admirably by Joel Kinnaman). Arguably the face of the series from the start, Ed stuck around for four-plus seasons, wearing increasingly awkward make-up to ensure he looked his age. At times, it was ridiculous. But his familiar face (and gruff baritone) could also be a comfort, especially when the next generation of characters didn’t live up to their parents (figuratively and literally).

Another issue is even broader. Part of the appeal of an alternate history series is the imagination required to tell it. Changes big and small can drastically impact what happens next, which makes following every cause-and-effect pattern part of the thrill — like watching a massive row of toppling dominoes without knowing what path will start falling next. One of the best parts in “For All Mankind” is when each new season begins with a recap of world events, and all the twists to the historical timeline accumulate into a brain-breaking thrill. (Bill and Hillary Clinton got divorced? John Lennon performed at the Super Bowl? Michael Jordan played for the Mariners? And made the playoffs?!)

“Star City” won’t have that, or if it does, it will be constrained by the decisions already made in “For All Mankind.” The two shows share a history, including a few lead characters in “Star City,” whose fates have already been sealed in “For All Mankind” (when they were played by different actors). Linking the two shows limits a genre that’s meant to be unlimited. In speculative fiction, isn’t boundless imagination part of the primary draw? Don’t we want to play out the thought experiments as far as they can go? Shouldn’t “Star City” get to map out its own constellations, this season and however many more we get?

All together, these challenges set an even higher bar for the new series to clear. Not only does “Star City” have to satisfy “For All Mankind” fans, it also has to stand on its own while following in its forbear’s footsteps — flawed, constricting, and familiar as they may be. Maybe it can. Maybe co-creators Ben Nedivi, Matt Wolpert, and Ronald D. Moore — the same trio who first launched “For All Mankind” — have a plan to address all of this. To “Star City’s” credit, when I watched Anastasia Belikova’s perilous space walk in the opening episode, I knew how it was going to end — and I was still on the edge of my seat.

The question then becomes: How long can it keep me there?

“Star City” premieres Friday, May 29 on Apple TV with two episodes. New episodes will be released weekly through the finale on July 10.