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The only source of suspense in the Schirra episode is a worry over the winds on the day of lift-off. Surely, if three men are going to sit on a skyscraper-size tube of rocket fuel and then be sent into space for 11 days, there must be more exciting matters to dwell on. In general, the mini-series fails to give the viewer a good sense of the purposes and risks of the missions. That's not surprising, since scientific information is so hard to convey in a drama. The result, though, is that we don't appreciate the challenges NASA faced or the ingenious ways it met them. In view of this flaw and the failure to bring individuals really alive, one wonders if a documentary approach would have been preferable to a dramatization. It would have provided more clarity and very possibly more emotion. As Ken Burns has demonstrated, a documentary need not be dry.
There are other problems--the flat, earnest tone, the lack of any bad guys, the by-now familiar re-creation of Mission Control. Ultimately, though, From the Earth to the Moon suffers from a fundamental problem that its creators could do nothing about: the moon missions were a disappointment. They were thrilling while they took place, but that effect dissipated quickly in the 1970s, as NASA lost its way. Mankind's giant leap never seemed to take us beyond rocks and golf shots. Hanks may want to restore NASA's glory, but on the evidence so far, he hasn't succeeded. Like its subject, From the Earth to the Moon is, contrary to all expectations, a bit of a dud.