The Farthest

Great docu-movie. The amount of enthusiasm that the scientists and engineers still have after all these years is amazing. Well worth watching about the men and women who were part of the of the Voyager spacecraft program.

I still remember the exact moment I began to develop an interest in space. It was in 2012 when I first read about the Voyager 1 space craft leaving the heliosphere. It was so mindblowing to me that it sparked my fascination with it. And since then I've felt very connected to the topic. So, seeing this documentary was very emotional for me. I admit I cried. Just because I realised how important the Voyager space crafts are still for me. It's a wholesome documentary. I recommend it to anyone who's slightly interested in space and the vastness of it.

Really well produced documentary we were surprised by. there was a 20-30 minute period near the end that i found a bit slow, but i learned a lot

Rosy hindsight for the technical crew behind the design, launch, analysis and direction of America's twin Voyager space probes in the late twentieth century. As with most real-life space sagas, it's a rich blend of tough math, contagious enthusiasm, absurd scale and one or two doses of high-pressure existential crisis.

The scientists and optical specialists chosen for these interviews aren't polished speakers. They might stumble over a word or change their phrasing mid-sentence, but that makes them more relatable, more essentially human, which reinforces the sense of achievement that's so important to the whole picture. Their stories are still fascinating; their passion for the project (and their role in it) still boundless. Those excited recollections, plus the requisite space porn that the dual spacecraft zapped back to Earth, make for a great pair. It's when this documentary is at its best. Less so, the occasional insertion of odd stock video clips and dreamy narration. Seems like somebody watched the well-known YouTube clip of Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" speech and tried to polish it up.

The film's obsession over the famous golden LPs that stowed away on each craft, endlessly circling back to revisit their production, also seems excessive. Especially as the interviewees specifically deride the mass media fixation surrounding both objects. The central story of long-term adventure and tireless exploration should have been fantastic enough on its own.

One of the most beautifully shot space documentaries I've seen, and it's a fascinating story.