Palmer James

**Palmer James** is the director of Human Services for Helios Aerospace at Happy Valley in 2003, and the XO of the base after Ed Baldwin was relieved of his duties.

## History

In 1969, Palmer watched Ed Baldwin take the blame for losing the Moon. Due to this honorable action, Palmer began viewing Baldwin as a hero figure.

### Season 4

In 2003, he worked for Helios at Happy Valley, under base XO Ed Baldwin, whom he called "Old Man Mars".

Palmer welcomed the new group of Helios worker which included Miles Dale and Rich Waters in 2003. He gave them their first instructions, handed them their "SMIGI", the Standard Mars Initial Gear Issue, a yellow bag which contains everything they will need on the station, including a watch operating on Mars time. He then walked them to their quarters in the 3rd underground level of the base. Where he informed them that the North Korean module was out of bounds to all personnel. Before he left he told them he would be the man to see for any issues they may have during their two year contracts.

During a Ranger 2 training mission, Palmer noticed a tremor in Ed Baldwin's right hand, which he hesitantly reported to Danielle Poole.

### New XO of Happy Valley

After Ed's removal from flight status and outburst against Danielle, Palmer replaced Ed as XO of Happy Valley. He still needed to work with Ed though, passing him paperwork on bonuses and payscales to sign. Ed realised he could still maintain some power. Instead of simply signing the paperwork, he took them to "review" them. He uses the paperwork to incite unionisation among the Helios workers, leading to strike.

Palmer and the Happy Valley leaders met with the Helios union, telling them they were in breach of contract and could be terminated. But they were reminded that scabs could not be flown to Mars in time to capture Goldilocks.

Later, the M-7 members decided to work on the fuel generators themselves, but Palmer found that the Helios workers left all the spacesuits on the Martian surface. To access the cryo plant 700m away, he proposed using the grey water pipes. After crawling their way to the fuel generators, Palmer and his crew began working on restarting the generators. However, they learn a primary gas flow regulator was removed. ESA engineer Nick Jennings created a bypass against the complaints of Mike Bishop. This caused a major explosion. Jennings was killed in the blast, while Jennings received severe burns.

### Goldilocks capture mission

Due to tightened security after the cryo center incident, He shut down Mile's bar, citing the M-7 charter. Later, he and the other M-7 leaders discussed the removal of strike leader Samantha Massey from the Goldilocks capture mission. However, Dev Ayesa insisted Samantha stay on board due to her experience. In reality, Samantha was a key part of the theft of Goldilocks, which Dev was organizing. Ranger 2 mission commander Ravi Vaswani agreed with Dev. While Danielle said that her heart was in the right place, though ordered Palmer to watch her during the mission.

During the mission, Palmer began supervising Massey, however, she managed to sabotage the discriminator box neccessary for the theft. She then replaced the box with a tampered version.

As Goldilocks entered the burn window, the flight control received alerts that the airlock opened. The crew quickly discovered Samantha performing an EVA, in order to operate an override handle. By holding the handle up, *Ranger's* engines would burn longer than necessary, bringing the asteroid into Martian orbit. Palmer undertook his EVA to save the mission, while he was able to push her off the ship. She had managed to wind her now unattached tether around the handle, he began to cut through it, but she had found a handhold and after pulling on his tether, he was thrown behind the ship. Narrowly missing the exhaust from the plasma engines. Due to her actions, as well as the unknown actions of Margo Madison and Aleida Rosales on Earth. Goldilocks was brought into Martian orbit.

## Gallery

Palmer James welcomes the new workersThe SMIGIsPalmer James with Miles Dale in the elevatorKey personnel meetingPalmer aboard *Ranger*Palmer reporting to DaniellePalmer during strike negotiationsPalmer severely burned after cryo center explosionPalmer argues against Samantha Masseys inclusion on Goldilocks missionPalmer on *Ranger*Palmer fights with Samantha MasseyPalmer hanging behind *Ranger*
## Behind the Scenes

* In the credits for episode 4x07, "Crossing The Line", Myk Watford was incorrectly credited as "Palmer Jones" instead of "Palmer James".

## References

1. ↑ Season 4, Episode 5: "Goldilocks" → 7 years old in 1969
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 4, Episode 5: "Goldilocks"
3. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 4, Episode 2: "Have A Nice Sol"
4. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 4, Episode 6: "Leningrad"
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 4, Episode 7: "Crossing The Line"
6. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 4, Episode 8: "Legacy"
7. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 4, Episode 9: "Brazil"
8. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 4, Episode 10: "Perestroika"