Point of Divergence (PoD) is a specific event in the background story of an alternate history that occurred differently than it did in real life. It is the point, the history diverges from reality, with more or less dramatic consequences for the future storylines.
PoD of For All Mankind[]
Official PoD[]
In the story of the Apple TV show For All Mankind, the Point of Divergence happened on January 14, 1966. In reality, on that date, Sergei Korolev, the father of the Soviet Space Program, died during surgery. This did not happen in the alternative history of For All Mankind and marks the point the real and the show's timeline start drifting apart, as confirmed by the creator of the show, Ronald D. Moore.[1] The survival of Korolev then led to the Soviets landing first on the Moon in 1969 and all the following divergency.
Visible PoD[]
However, only after the Soviet Moon landing, the differences start to be observable, and from that point on, the divergence is constantly growing.
Other PoD[]
Beside the fact that most main characters are fictional and therefore never were NASA astronauts, there are certain things that obviously diverged from reality before the "official" PoD:
- In episode 1x05, Ed Baldwin mentions that he and Gordo were together on Gemini 7. Gemini 7 happened in December 1965, 6 weeks before the PoD.
- In episode 1x08, astronaut W. Pendle mentions that he flew two Gemini missions. The Gemini missions took place between 1964 and 1966, with most missions happening before 1966. There was no astronaut with name "Pendle" involved in the project.
- During season 1, Deke Slayton is NASA's Chief astronaut. Slayton actually created that position, although it was called "Coordinator of Astronaut Activities" at the beginning. However, he resigned from that position in July 1964 already and was succeeded by Alan Shepard, who became the first official Chief astronaut.[2] Slayton still being in the position in 1969 is another divergence that happened before the official PoD.
- The NASA meatball and worm insignias look different. The meatball has the vector pointing left instead of right and is partially hidden by the "meatball" alongside a different arrangement of stars. The worm logo has a horizontal line at the bottom of the two "A"s, making them look like incomplete triangles.
Terms[]
- OTL Original Timeline
- ATL Alternative Timeline
External links[]
Sergei Korolev on Wikipedia- Alternate history on Wikipedia
References
- ↑ collider.com: Ronald D. Moore interview (April 2021)(archived 2022-10-18)
- ↑ Chief of the Astronaut Office on Wikipedia
