A Girl and an Astronaut – Season 1 Episode 1 Recap & Review

The 30+ Year Love Triangle

Episode 1 of A Girl and an Astronaut starts with us in 2052. The faint murmur of a heartbeat sees us arrive onboard a spaceship where a man in cryogenic sleep suddenly regains consciousness. He breaks free from his binds and deactivates the stealth protocol masking his ship. The capsule was floating above Earth, which is then detected by the authorities on the ground.

This vessel, Niko-One, initially went missing 30 years back and now it’s heading back for Earth. Onboard happens to be Polish astronaut, Captain Nikodem Borowski. He was working on complete radar invisibility but something went wrong. The official report claimed that the orbiter exploded but in reality, it was actually up there all along. Did the authorities know about this? Did they cover everything up? That’s something we’re likely to find out over the course of the season.

The capsule crash-lands back to Earth, where we’re introduced to Martha, a woman who looks fondly over photos of her and Niko together. They had a life together once, which our morning expository AI device (Homie) informs us. The AI bounces off the walls, worried about Martha’s health. She’s not sleeping well and she’s struggling. However, she’s distracted by the news of Niko returning to Earth. Martha meets with her husband, Bogdan, and condemns him for lying about the capsule.

We then jump back to 2022. Niko and Bogdan were both pilots together, auditioning for the next Top Gun movie it seems! Niko ends up acting erratically and butts heads with Bogdan, a man who has his head screwed on and looks at things far more rationally than his hotheaded counterpart. We see this play out during a card game… but the winner is not disclosed when the Madame Minister, Rewicz, shows up. Rewicz points out that she’s signed an agreement with a company called SkyCom who want a Polish pilot to helm their ship and head into space.

Naturally, this sets up a healthy competition between the boys as they each compete to try and get out into space – and for the affection of our wild-child protagonist, Marta. She toasts with her girlfriend Karolina in the wake of starting a new life out of the UK, and at the club she ends up meeting Bogdan Rosa. After the pair dance together for a bit, Niko jumps in too, wanting a piece of the action.

That night, Marta shows her fearlessness by diving backwards off a bridge and awaiting her Prince Charming jumping in to save her. It’s Niko who dives first, as the pair look upon one another and embrace.

Back in 2052, the officials at SkyCom meet and discuss the return of their pilot, as we see Niko is being kept under close watch and happens to be unconscious.

The Episode Review

A Girl and an Astronaut has an interesting premise but its back and forth cutaways – jumping between 2022 and 2052 – betray the love triangle this one’s trying to build. Given we know exactly who Marta ends up choosing (she’s with Bogdan but also chose Niko before then given the pictures) there’s really not much in the way of tension here.

The introduction to our characters is fine and it’ll be interesting to learn more about SkyCom and whether there’s a secret agenda around them or not. Beyond that though, this looks like a repurposed and repackaged love triangle drama and there needs to be a lot more drama here for it to even think about competing with the better romances in this field. A Girl and an Astronaut has some promise so hopefully the episodes ahead pick up after such a tepid start.