Abhiroop Das
Co-created by Ronald D. Moore, Ben Nedivi, and Matt Wolpert, Apple TV’s ‘Star City’ expands on the world of ‘For All Mankind’ by flipping the mirror and revealing the Soviet dimension of the story. Going back in time, the science fiction drama series retraces the emergence of the global space race and the Soviet advancements that made them a dominant force. However, on the ground level, things are not nearly as romanticized as cosmonauts, scientists, and operatives alike have to go through hell and back to uphold a system they are perpetually unsure about.
When all of these myriad personalities come together in a specialized, secret settlement known as Star City, innovation and paranoia go hand in hand. Though Cosmonauts are expected to train by day and return to their families by night, they are still constantly put under the spotlight, as the search for an elusive mole in the system rages on. Star City, as such, is quite literally synonymous with the fabric of this show and speaks through the minutest of its details.
Star City is an Alt-History Take on a Real-Life Soviet Settlement For Cosmonauts
Star City, the main setting of the show, is a dramatized version of the real-life Star City located in Moscow Oblast, Russia. Known as Zvyozdny gorodok in the original Russian, the region has been identified through various names over its long history, including Shchyolkovo-14 and “closed military townlet No. 1.” As the name suggests, Star City was formerly a military settlement that specialized in space research and training, particularly through its famous Cosmonaut Training Research and Testing Center, which was founded in 1960, nine years before the events of the ‘For All Mankind’ spinoff series. From the 1960s to the present, Star City has been the home to various cosmonaut training corps and thus carries a rich history within.
Reportedly, in the early decades of its operation, the exact location of Star City was kept secret, with heavy reinforcements and specialized security guarding the settlement’s perimeters at all times. Entry and exit were severely restricted, with cosmonauts, researchers, and intelligence operatives alike often settling in the region with their families. The training center was reportedly placed separately from the residential areas, which had their own high school, post office, movie theater, and other recreational spaces. In many ways, the place was reminiscent of similar large-scale and specialized settlements in the US, such as the Los Alamos settlement in New Mexico, which became the birthplace of the atomic bomb during World War II’s Manhattan Project.
The Real-Life Star City Became a Civilian Settlement at the Turn of the Century
At the height of the Soviet space program, virtually all cosmonauts received their formal training in the center, and that detail marks the background for all plot beats in the show. While it brings back some familiar faces, such as Irina Morozova and Sergei Nikulov, they have been fitted into this fictionalized world with new roles, filling in the gaps in past and perspective that remain in ‘For All Mankind.’ In real-life, Star City’s nature began to gradually shift after the fall of the Soviet Union, as in 1996, the region’s jurisdiction fell under the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Roscosmos, Russia’s space corporation. In 2008, Roscosmos gained complete control over the region, and it was soon transformed from a military to a civil and urban-type settlement, complete with regular elections.
While much of how Star City is presented in the show is likely the result of the writing team’s in-depth research into the Soviet space program, the fact remains that most of the descriptions have been fictionalized for a dramatic effect. The show’s version of the settlement, as such, is not filmed next to Moscow, but in Lithuania’s capital city, Vilnius, which adds a layer of creative alteration. Though the show recreates many of the period’s sociopolitical details and anxieties, by its very nature, it’s an alternate history narrative. Co-creator Ronald D. Moore told Collider that the show is an attempt to open up fans of ‘For All Mankind’ to the Soviet side of the space race, which explains why the writing team chose to add their own spin to an iconic part and setting of the real-life Soviet space program.
Read More: Where Was Apple TV’s Star City Filmed?
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