Woolgathering Conservators of Extraterrestrial Memoirs,

Apart from my three favourites - Apollo 13, The Truman Show and Independence Day - I hate filums; they’re too long and I lack the patience and attention span that’s required. I like The Truman Show not because I’m particularly interested in the story of Truman Burbank, but more so because the plot challenges the concept of reality; The Truman Show makes me fantasise whether planet Earth could ever be part of its own “The Truman Show”, a rock inhabited by billions of insignificant creatures purely for the voyeuristic needs of higher beings. Independence Day is a rare film in that it’s good; I especially like the crazy abductee Russell Casse. Though, in general, I can’t muster the enthusiasm to watch more filums in the hope I might see one as good as these three. I believe that behind most filums, there’s a better book; a prime example of this is the screenplay of my favourite book, Catch-22, which is in essence an edited highlights montage that lacks continuity and as such the plot is addled.

I finally managed to acquire a copy of the book - an old stained and smelly paperback that cost £1.25 over EvilBay – that my absolute favourite filum is based on, Apollo 13 or Lost Moon (as it was originally titled) which was written by Apollo 13 Commander Jim Lovell with Jeffrey Kluger. Although the book is written by Jim Lovell, the story of the failed Apollo 13 mission is told in the third person and this often made me forget that I was reading a work of non-fiction but it was the correct choice for the book. As explained in the notes, there are many more aspects to the extraordinary events that took place and although the abundance of different people in different jobs is sometimes confusing, what I sensed most was Jim Lovell’s gratefulness to the hundreds of people in Mission Control who guided his sick spacecraft back to Earth. The book, like Moondust, is very well researched, the authors carried out interviews with all the members of mission control mentioned and Jim Lovell’s family and friends and the high esteem Jim Lovell holds everyone in is very clear from the detail and respect with which their roles are described. As well as the interviews, the authors have used recordings and transcriptions of all the conversations that took place at Mission Control, Houston during the Apollo 13 mission to ensure the book is factually accurate.

Lost Moon is a captivating read and for people, like me, who have a fascination with but not an encyclopaedic knowledge of space and are interested in what happened aboard Apollo 13 or enjoyed the Ron Howard’s Apollo 13, I’d highly recommend acquiring a copy.

Amazingly, I still have respect for the screenplay after reading the book, Ron Howard has changed certain elements of Lost Moon but on the whole it remains loyal to the book. Whilst Mission Control Flight Director, Gene Kranz, played by Ed Harris, was undoubtedly central to saving the lives of the Apollo 13 crew, it was only through reading the book that I learned that there were 3 other Flight Directors on rotation with Gene Kranz during Apollo 13. Ron Howard sold the some of events leading up to Jim Lovell’s Apollo 8 mission as the sequence of events leading up to Apollo 13. Interestingly, the filum portrays Ken Mattingly, the astronaut who was controversially grounded because he wasn’t immune to the case of rubella, as the hero whose individual work in the simulator was the key to the rescue of his former crew-mates but in reality, fellow Apollo 13 back-up crew members, John Young and Charlie Duke also worked the simulator with him. Ron Howard also uses his artistic license to create tension and resentment between the Apollo 13 prime crew members, Lovell and Haise, and Ken Mattingly’s replacement, Jack Swigert; there was no such tension between the actual crew-mates on the mission and Lovell writes admiringly of the talents of Jack Swigert.

I love both the filum and the book, and I’ll still be able to watch the filum and when watching with company, use my well-worn joke that works on almost negligible levels. When Jim Lovell gazes out the window of the spacecraft towards Earth, the director cuts to Marilyn Lovell moving towards the kitchen window where she stares at the night sky, I whisper, “She can see him.”

Houston, we’ve had a problem here.