The Netflix satirical comedy series “Space Force” stars Steve Carell as four-star General Mark Naird of the Space Force and John Malkovich as his chief scientist, Dr. Adrian Mallory. It follows Naird, who is conflicted between whether he will command an appropriate response to re-establish American territory on the moon or save his family. However, when the American Flag is threatened by the presence of the country’s arch-rival China on the Moon, Naird is pressured to make a decision without wasting any more time. In these difficult times, it is his wife, Maggie (played by Lisa Kudrow), who keeps him stable and helps him make rational decisions while asking him to commit to an open marriage.
In real life, President Donald Trump stood among his military soldiers, defying societal norms, holding a banner with the name Space Force, a team working on a “super-duper missile,” a fast weapon, and seemed to have forgotten its real name. This event happened in the year 2020, during his presidency. Steve Carell and Greg Daniels, the series’s creators, used this real-life incident to build this series. Let us look over General Naird’s space entourage without further ado.
Season 1: Plot Summary
General Mark Laird has been promoted to four stars and now serves as the Joint Chief of Staff with his arch-rival, Air Force Commander Kick Grabaston. Even though the other joint chiefs of staff look down on the Space Force, General Naird has acquired enough respect to carry out his duties. When the Chinese put his tolerance and kindness to the test, he passed it with flying colors.
After receiving four stars, General Naird unexpectedly relocates his family to the state of Colorado to lead the Space Force in the desert city of Wild Horse. According to the President’s instruction, a covert base has been established, and launches are scheduled regularly. The President’s weird tweets mentioned female body parts, almost implying that it should surely be a female astronaut or implying Steve’s more original sense of humor. Both of which were desperately needed throughout Donald Trump’s presidency. On the other hand, General Naird begins his quest to hire suits and spacemen or space women to take the launch seriously, enter the moon’s orbit, and land safely.
The first episode begins with General Naird having to do a launch immediately to legitimize the costs that the American government is shelling out. With immediate effect and much against his fellow scientists’ wishes, General Naird launches a satellite named Epsilon 6 into orbit. The launch is successful, and the satellite reaches outer space to begin orbiting. With General Baird’s wife Maggie (Lisa Kudrow) in jail, his daughter Erin is only beginning to experience life independently.
Following the successful launch of the Epsilon 6 satellite, Gen. Naird and Dr. Mallory notice a Chinese satellite methodically snipping off the satellite’s solar panels, effectively crippling the satellite. As a result of this catastrophe, Dr. Mallory and his team must collect all their efforts to find a solution to save the satellite. They decide to enlist the help of a chimp-astronaut named Marcus to repair the satellite, but the mission fails tragically, and the chimp is captured by the Chinese. Frustrated by these happenings, the crew tries yet again to find a solution that we don’t see, implying that nothing could come of it.
With a failed satellite rescue, Gen. Naird is now doubtful whether anything will work in the future. He diverts his attention to volunteering at a mock Lunar Habitat and helps the team that just lost a member, regain their footing, before returning home after 7 days.
Gen. Naird intends to pay a conjugal visit to Maggie in prison, but his plans are thwarted when India launches a rocket that seems to be based on stolen US technology. Mark organizes a hunt for suspected leaks within the Space Force. After concluding that Chan, Kelly, and Bobby are not spies, he suspects Dr. Mallory is the spy after discovering an encrypted email sent by him. Dr. Mallory had sent a video to Jerome, one of the lunar habitat participants, to convey his love, and Mark publicly decrypts the file to discover it. General Naird gets a call from the Secretary of Defense, who tells him that there was no spy and that India had made the technology on its own.
Gen. Naird rallies his trusted entourage to come up with the best set of astronauts to wear the title of “spacemen” and “space women” after testing fuel that promises to be pure and attempting to satisfy the President’s requirement of getting American boots on the ground by 2024. They finally take off and land on the moon, only to discover that the Chinese have already established a base and removed the Flag that Apollo 13 had raised. The American President becomes enraged and demands an adequate response, forcing Gen. Naird to take action.
‘Space Force’ Season 1: Ending Explained – Does The Naird Family Reunite?
China continues its draconian manner of seeking power by flying a shuttle over the American Flag that Apollo 13 had erected, infuriating the US. POTUS requires a suitable reaction right away, and Gen. Naird is suddenly under pressure to provide it. While Gen. Naird’s crew on the Space Shuttle is deciding what to do next, they learn that they have no weapons or ammunition to retaliate or defend themselves. Because the starship was never outfitted or constructed for any act of war or warfare, they had no choice but to stand down. Captain Angela Ali is told by Gen. Naird to disarm the armaments she discovers aboard the spaceship.
On the President’s orders, General Kick Grabaston captures Gen. Naird and begins speaking directly to the crew of the spaceship. He tells them to use whatever weapons they have to destroy the Chinese research base. Dr. Mallory is enraged with General Grabaston’s technique of seeking justice and threatens to put himself on fire while this is going on. Tony helps Dr. Mallory changes his mind and is eventually arrested, along with General Naird and Duncan Tabner, a soldier on the base who seems to share an affectionate connection with Erin, Gen. Naird’s daughter.
Erin makes a poor decision by going to a party with a group of guys just to steal a cigarette. When she arrives at the remote spot, she discovers that these folks only want to do drugs, so she uses her cell phone to call her father for assistance. While in custody, Gen. Naird learns that his daughter is in jeopardy and requests Dr. Mallory to burn the plastic zip tie in his pocket to open it.
Once his hands are free, Gen. Naird sets out on a helicopter to rescue Erin, and during the rescue, he finds out that his wife, Maggie, has fled prison with a guard named Louise, with whom she is also having an affair. Louise and Maggie climb into the helicopter with Naird and Erin in the front two seats, who look at them with complete astonishment. At the same moment, the American base on the moon is taken down by the Chinese, and the space crew finds themselves in a terrible predicament. Brad orders Gen. Naird to return to base as soon as possible.
‘Space Force’ Season 1 ends on a cliffhanger, leaving us to speculate how the team of Space Force will move forward, regardless of the circumstances.
See More: ‘Space Force’ Season 2: Summary & Review – General Naird Redeems Himself, Finally
Though “Space Force” is a satirical comedy that is entirely fictional, it is based on an entity that is similar to what this group is in real life, and its production of hypothetical future true-life scenarios adds an extra layer to the premise. Season 1 is currently streaming on Netflix.
