Arriving to a hero's welcome His experience of the changes, narrated by his colleague Anatoli Artsebarski, differ somewhat from those on the ground. The cosmonauts engage themselves with their work, which often seems to be on the level of mundane household tasks in a messy bachelor pad. The space station is a surprising mixture of rough and ready technology and the plainly domestic. It's a far cry from the gleaming corridors of the USS Enterprise. The bizarre normality of this life is contrasted with footage of riots in Moscow, as the Soviet Union crumbles.
Tanks roll onto the streets and shots are fired.
However, to the cosmonauts the world looks the same, and whilst they are fully informed about events below, they are totally removed from and bewildered by the processes which are unfolding beneath them. When Krikalev is asked by a journalist from ground control which of the changes he finds most impressive, he pauses and says he does not understand the question. The question is repeated, and after mumbling a few vague phrases, he opts for the fact that it has just turned light. Domestics made difficult The team's distance from the political turmoil is emphasised by the slow, elegiac sequences of docking procedures and the earth's geographical features, portrayed in what can only be described as hallucinogenic detail. Clouds, ice sheets, coral reefs and rivers snaking through barren desserts come under the telephoto lens of the station's camera and make the world seem like it is, or at least should be, a tranquil place.