'Star City' TV spin-off explores the space race from the Soviet side

New television drama "Star City" goes behind the Iron Curtain to look at the Soviet perspective of the Cold War space race.

The eight-part series, ​premiering on Friday on Apple TV, is a spin-off of U.S. ‌sci-fi show "For All Mankind", which over five seasons has explored an alternate retelling of space history in which the Soviet Union put a man on the moon first.

The spin-off ​stars "House of the Dragon" actor Rhys Ifans as the chief designer, ​who heads the engineers and cosmonauts in Star City, the formerly ⁠secret training base for astronauts outside Moscow, and "Motherland" actor Anna Maxwell Martin ​as the head of KGB surveillance overlooking their every move.

"What I wanted to ​portray was a man who sees very clearly that space changes people, that when people come back, they more often than not come back better people," Ifans told Reuters.

Kicking off ​in 1969, the series, also starring actors Ruby Ashbourne Serkis, Agnes O'Casey, ​Josef Davies and Priya Kansara, follows the astronauts, engineers, intelligence officers and their family members ‌as ⁠they all take various risks while working on the Soviet space programme, with much of the danger on the ground and not just in space.

"In this world ... behind the Iron Curtain ... I think for a lot of people, they're ​unaware of a lot ​of these details. ⁠And so, in the spy thriller part of it as well, the more authentic it feels, the more dangerous ​it feels," show co-creator Matt Wolpert said.

"That's why the way ​we ⁠shot it, the way we use sound, the performances of the actors ... almost nobody wore any makeup ... So on every level, we tried to keep it as ⁠authentic as ​possible."

"Star City" hits screens following NASA's Artemis II ​lunar mission, which has renewed public enthusiasm for space exploration.

"It's really hot topic at the minute," Davies, ​who plays a young engineer, said.