The Best Suited Historical Story

No matter how complicated anybody tries to make it, there are only a few elements that are

needed to create a dramatic story: a goal and stakes. Those are the basics, the two-ingredient bread, if

you will. But of course, nobody wants that: there’s no flavor. If you want to spice things up, add a

time limit. Throw in some main characters. Take your goal and split it into two: the immediate, and

the outcome. Still feeling flavorless? Pepper some recurring side characters in. Maybe a ghost or a

tragedy hangs over the goal. Your two-sided goal? At this point it should have political, social, and

scientific sides of it, and they should sometimes work against each other. The time limit is

approaching. There’s an internal and external enemy. The side characters are taking the forefront and

the stakes are getting higher as more people watch. Now you have a good, spicy story.

The problem with creating documentaries is that the story is already there, and you might not

have all those elements. But there is one story that is perfectly suited to fit these roles more so than

any other part of history, and that is the moon landing. 

A clear cut goal: get man to the moon and back. Stakes: failure means defeat in the eyes of the

Russians. Simple enough and it still works. But we’re not happy with that. Time limit? By the end of the decade of the 1960s. Main characters? Three astronauts, who’ve already been tested on their

personality. Your goal now has to satisfy the immediate one of every new problem that arises in building and flying the aircraft, but also has to put an end to the Space Race with a victory for the

United States. Recurring characters? You can go to the other astronauts, stray to mission control, or

go even further to Walter Cronkite and the press. Some ghost hanging over the program? We’ve got

plenty! The goal was made by a dead president, executed at a space center named for him. The years

were plagued by political assassinations that shook the nation to its core, making it beg over and over

for a victory. And if those don’t hit close enough to home: the program opened with a tragedy that

made the association question if it was even possible, and the memory of Gus Grissom, Ed White,

and Roger Chaffee was in the minds of everybody who took part in even a seemingly safe test later

on. The politics are closing in, the war is escalating, the civil rights movement is getting fed up and

people are wondering why we’re still playing with rockets. The scientists question if this can be done

at all, let alone by the end of the decade. The Russians claim to be getting close to a moon landing of

their own. Side characters from before, say, Mike Collins of Apollo 8 CapCom fame is now waving

to the crowd in the spotlight. Everyone in the world grips their sweaty palms together as they watch

on television.

Welcome to our good, spicy story.