Sci and fi make an intriguing blend

Science and fiction have always had a cozy relationship. Magnify the facts a tad and you have wild whimsy.
That’s clear in “Constellation,” an Apple TV+ eight-parter that has its first three episodes Wednesday (Feb. 21).
This is a blend, producer-director Michelle MacLaren told the Television Critics Association, with parts “drama, thriller, horror.” Still, she said, “we wanted it to be based in reality.”
The story clearly sounds like fantasy/horror. Having barely survived in space, an astronaut returns to what doesn’t feel like her world. “Her gut feeling,” said Noomi Rapace, who plays her, “is saying. ‘This is not my baby, (shown here), but she looks like my baby.’”
That sounds like wild fantasy, but writer Peter Harness said he’s fascinated by “these odd little, spooky stories about what astronauts go through in space. You know, they do hear dogs barking and sometimes they see weird things outside the capsules.”
Some changes are emotional – the sheer awe of seeing Earth from a distance. Others, he said, are physical. “A thing that they don’t often discuss is that astronauts usually have a significant degeneration in their eyesight after they come back. There are strange physical changes that take place – not just the kind of muscle wastage …. You age at a different rate on the Earth than space.”
The show’s technical advisor, ex-astronaut Scott Kelly, happened to be at the center of fact and fiction involving the effects of space.
Scientists studied Kelly’s body before and after he spent a year on the International Space Station. They also compared it to that of his identical twin Mark Kelly (then an astronaut and now a U.S. senator). Then a press-release left the impression that Scott’s DNA had actually been altered in space.
Word of that spread quickly, before NASA corrected itself. The DNA was unchanged; the change was to the length of Scott Kelly’s telomeres, which help fight cancer and boost longevity. His telomeres had actually lengthened (improved) in space … but mostly returned to normal on Earth.
The brief fuss stirred interest in the effects of space. Meanwhile, Scott Kelly’s “Constellation” job was to advise on the everyday specifics of space. In an exact replica of the space station, actors portrayed working in zero-gravity.
“He would tell us all the time: ‘Less is more, less is more,’” said Will Catlett, who plays an astronaut named Paul. “’If you push too hard (in the space station) on this side of the wall, it will send you 30 miles an hour down the other way.’”
Worse things can happen in space. We learn that in “Constellation.”