I guess the title says it all. Why do space documentaries have to be so bad? Of all the ones ever made, I can only think of a few that are anything but irritating. I was there, I remember. And the music! God who writes this stuff? This particular attempt fails on every level. It fails as history, it fails as nostalgia, it fails as entertainment. The filmmaking technique is amateurish - poor film to video transfer, poor editing, poor choice of material. But the main thing is that it is somehow viscerally irritating. Of the list of things that do not need any window dressing, the Space Race must be on top. So one wonders how, again and again and again, documentary filmmakers manage to get it so wrong. Don't waste time on this turkey - see "In the Shadow of the Moon" and its companion pieces about the engineering effort, "Moon Machines".
-drl