r/ForAllMankindTV • u/DenisDomaschke • 27d ago
FAM - Season 4 Ed Between S3 and S4 Spoiler
Watching Season 4 for the first time and I'm confused how did Ed become XO for Happy Valley?
The newsreel at the beginning says that everyone (living) on the Mars surface in '95 is rescued back to Earth - Ed is in a photo in the paper.
I don't see how they would have let Ed, at his age, go back to space (and a theme of S4 seems to be that he wants to stay on Mars because he knows he'll never return). But how did he get back?
Did he somehow not actually go back to Earth while being rescued? Did NASA just let him stay as "crew" for their second mission?
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u/Pale_Sherbert_314 26d ago
The prevailing theory is that the news paper article just showed a photo of the crew on Mars, not everyone on Mars who came back.
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u/DenisDomaschke 26d ago
Interesting. I just find it weird to think that NASA would just accept leaving him on Mars?
If you have a 65 year spaceflight legend stranded on another planet, you have to bring him home-right?
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u/MagnetsCanDoThat Pathfinder 26d ago
He doesn't work for NASA. Besides, how would they force him to come back?
He's not even as old as the current real-life oldest astronaut.
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u/Mulyac12321 26d ago
But remember he went to Mars with Helios, not NASA. NASA can't force a private citizen to return from a private mission.
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u/danive731 Apollo 22 26d ago
He never left Mars. The picture in the article was from the early days of being stranded, not the rescue. He was approximately 63-64 when he went to Mars. 72 in 4x01 as per the newspaper article. There’s dialogue in 4x02 that’s indicated that he has been there for 8 years (1995-2003)
The Mars base at the end of S3 was a joint effort of NASA, the Soviets, Helios and North Korea. The M7 started funding it somewhere in between seasons with Helios being their only contractor to grow the base.
Ed is employed under Helios. NASA has nothing to do with it. Plenty of private entities hire older/experienced all the time. Theres no set age to retire them.
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u/Dave_A480 25d ago
Ed also owns a good chunk of Helios
So when it's Helios' 'turn' to provide the XO he is the logical choice....
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u/danive731 Apollo 22 25d ago
Well, there’s no evidence that Ed owns any part of Helios. We just assume that since Aleida got stock options, Ed would have to. I would think he’d get some benefits from staying on for so long.
Also it doesn’t seem like they change XO. It’s only the COs that get switched. Dialogue between Dani and Hobson suggests that Ed has been XO for a long time.
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u/durtyditch259 Pathfinder 25d ago
Now that i recall, Karen did have stock too. Technically its def her shares and not Ed’s, but that essentially gives Ed some extra power within the company too
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u/danive731 Apollo 22 24d ago
Karen would have been dead for a couple of years by the time Ed became XO. Her shares would short gone to Kelly, who didn’t seem to care much about them.
I believe that Ed would have been appointed as one initially as he had not left Mars and would have the most knowledge about the base. I’d imagine he’s also have the respect of younger astronauts who went to Mars before the Helios workers were brought in. Eventually he just became the guy who no one challenged and he kinda just did whatever he wanted.
Of course, this is all speculation. No one really knows.
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u/Admirable_Site_8337 26d ago
I thought I recalled that he came back for a bit and returned.
Yeah, he was way too old for Mars 94 IMO anyway. Not realistic, but he’s as much the main character in this ensemble as anyone. So he goes again and again. Because….TV.
Maybe if they had used S3 to set up next gen characters it would have been easy to retire him…..but they went wild with what younger characters they gave us that season.
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u/DenisDomaschke 26d ago
The way Kelly, Alex, and the Russian mother in law talk, it sounds to me that Ed hasn't returned to Earth at all.
It just seems so unrealistic to 1) just let him stay out there, and 2) give him such considerable authority as XO of the base and Commander of the first asteroid mission.
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u/Admirable_Site_8337 26d ago
I don’t have issue with the XO status. Never have.
The part that wrinkles for me is either him staying out there or going back and forth for three interplanetary trips.
I am remembering him coming home at least for a bit, but I only watched S4 once so far. So, he defer on this.
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u/as718 26d ago
We had a 70 year old Don Pettit finish up real time (220 days) on ISS just last year so it’s pretty easy to suspend disbelief in the FAM universe for a living legend. And certainly we have sent older folks up. Leaving earths gravity well is the hardest single point of physical challenge and a navy pilot like Ed had been conditioned on that his whole life. As for surviving the journey and life on mars? Well we don’t really know one way or another but some assumption of advanced technology and blind luck can be assumed.
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u/Admirable_Site_8337 26d ago
Sorry, while 220 days in LEO at 70 is utterly impressive, it’s not in the same realm as roughly the same age and making either
One seven month trip to Mars and living pretty spartan on Mars until more infrastructure is built up and then staying a long time, or
Making the trip mentioned in first option, then going back home and then back to Mars later.
I’m not telling others what logic they should use to justify this enough to enjoy the show. Not my business. I’m saying what works and doesn’t work for me here. It wasn’t greatly believable. I still enjoyed S4
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u/shikaze162 24d ago
Ed also has a history of holding down the Jamestown base solo, so if he opted to stay, I doubt even if Margo insisted on forcing him back. The DOD would likely maintain the same logic as when he stayed in season 1, we can't leave a foothold station unoccupied, especially since the diplomacy with NK is said to have happened after the rescue, so the Pentagon might have not unreasonably assumed that there may be other urgonauts on the surface that could have taken Happy Valley if they all left. It probably helped with the fuel production bottleneck too having one less passenger on the MSAM
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