And Sunday's last two hours are both a grand finale and a reminder of the unique and innovative approach that has made this series such a spellbinding success. Some of these women got left behind, when their men came home. Or didn't come home at all. The final hour is Le Voyage Dans La Lune, a filmmakers' fantasy from a script written by Hanks. It's a self-indulgent and perhaps pretentious fancy, but it does remind us of how the mysteries of this universe have always fascinated humankind.
Man goes to the moon in two different universes here.
Inter-cut with that backdrop, Apollo 17 is about to launch man's last trip. They stayed three days on one of the most interesting missions since, three years earlier, Neil Armstrong set first foot on the moon. If you missed this week's two hours, HBO offers another chance at 5 p.m. today. America's first astronaut, Alan Shepard, flies again after years of being grounded with an inner-ear disorder, and his Apollo 14 brings us the TV vision of golf in space. Then, this series once again goes prospecting in new territory and comes up a gold mine.