The second season of MARS starts Sunday at 20:00 on National Geographic (DStv 181 / StarSat 220 / Cell C black 261) with a much bigger and better emphasis on the story and dramatic events - including a big disaster - at the first colony on Mars than the space experts talking and weighing in in-between.
Filmed in Budapest last year and executive produced by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, the 6-episode second season with new showrunner Dee Johnson is set a few years after the first season.
It is now 2042 and overall deals with a private company, the Lukrum corporation, arriving on Mars to mine and exploit its natural resources, creating conflict with the existing and expanding scientific colony of scientists of the International Mars Science Foundation (IMSF) already on the red planet in their Olympus Town.
The second season produced by Imagine Entertainment and RadicalMedia has a much bigger focus on the scripted narrative part, with less interjecting by real-world experts.
As the private sector starts to intrude on MARS, similar to what the world is doing with the Arctic, tensions arise between the scientists and the miners.
The story this season tackles pregnancy, break ups, new romances, the outbreak of a mysterious disease, breakdowns, power outages and an impending solar flare, injuries, exercise, mealtimes, socializing and a dramatic disaster. And get ready for multiple deaths.
Multiple cast members from the first season are back, with Jihae Kim, Jeff Hephner from Chicago Med and Esai Morales who have joined for the second season.
Some space experts and entrepreneurs appear again, although this time much less, to give their thoughts, including Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO; Ellen Stofan, former NASA chief; Michio Kaku, theoretical physicist and futurist; Casey Dreier, director of space policy at the Planetary Society; Antonia Juhasz, leading oil and energy expert; and climate change author Naomi Klein.
"Last season, we envisioned getting to Mars, so now, we're shifting the conversation to what will happen once we're on a planet where everything is alien and extraordinary," says showrunner Dee Johnson.
"Mars is a pressure cooker - there's a constant push-pull between science and industry, and as a result, emotions run high. Although conflicting, their agendas are not mutually exclusive; with the advancement of science and exploration also comes industry and money making."
Justin Wilkes, co-creator and executive producer at RadicalMedia, says "The series underscores how human nature doesn't change when we become Martians, but navigating how we harness our instincts, emotions and behaviours on Mars is uncharted territory".
"MARS delves into how we'll cope with heartbreak, mental health, illness, contamination, death, the first pregnancy and first baby on Mars, natural disasters and the quest for the planet's natural resources, like water, which we often take for granted on Earth."
