Apple TV's sci-fi series For All Mankind starts with a tantalizing alt-history premise: What if Soviet space pioneer Sergei Korolev hadn’t died prematurely in 1966, but instead helped bring his country’s space program into full bloom, extending the space race indefinitely?

If America and the world had been forced to continue the space program, our past (and present) would look quite different—at least according to this show, which jumps across decades to imagine how that might have unfolded in an alternate past. (By the current fifth season, set in alt-2012, some humans are living off-planet in a Martian habitat.)

For All Mankind is both a great, generally hopeful alt-history narrative and a grounded, compelling science fiction show. As the penultimate season races toward its conclusion on Apple TV, here are 10 other ambitious shows that follow similarly winding paths.

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The Man in the High Castle (2015 – 2019)

From the novel by Philip K. Dick (whose work has been the basis for Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, among many others), The Man in the High Castle is a political thriller set (mostly) in an alternate 1960s in which the Axis powers have won World War II, and in which the United States is split down the middle, with Japan governing the west and Germany overseeing the east. The title’s "man in the high castle" is a propaganda film (or is it?) that offers an alternate view that looks more like our our history books. As the show progresses through its four seasons, the parallels to our increasingly fascist-friendly world only grow. Stream The Man in the High Castle on Prime Video and Netflix.

The Man in the High Castle (2015 – 2019)

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The Right Stuff (2020)

A second stab at adapting the 1979 Tom Wolfe book, this series isn't about space exploration exactly, but about the weird, winding road it took to get there. The show starts in 1959 with the selection of the seven pilots best suited for America's fledgling space program, individuals who brought sterling qualifications along with the butch and photogenic vibe needed to sell a multi-billion dollar program to 1960s Americans. With impeccable period style, it's at least as much about the building of a mythology as it is about the space race itself. Buy The Right Stuff from Prime Video.

The Right Stuff (2020)

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From the Earth to the Moon (1998)

Call this the alt-history to the alt-history of For All Mankind (OK, that's just "history"). This prestige miniseries dramatizes the real events of the space program, starting roughly with the Freedom 7 Mercury flight in 1961 and rocketing along to humanity's most recent moon landing with Apollo 17, just over a decade later. Largely an anthology, this docu-drama intersperses personal stories (the penultimate episode follows the wives and families of several astronauts) with more traditional mission drama. Executive producer Tom Hanks introduces most of the episodes, leading an all-star 1990s cast. Stream From the Earth to the Moon on HBO Max.

From the Earth to the Moon (1998)

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Battlestar Galactica (2003 – 2009)

Not a perfect match for For All Mankind in either vibe or setting, there's nevertheless an intellectual and philosophical depth between that show and this one (worth noting that both share a creator in Ronald D. Moore). The Cylons, intelligent machines who have rebelled against their human masters, are inspired by their growing religious convictions to violently break free from their creators. Humanity is reduced to a population of just tens of thousands, and while the show dives into existential questions with surprising depth, we’re never allowed to forget that we’re seeing humankind more than decimated, surviving on a handful of rickety spaceships in search of a legendary world called "Earth." The oppressed become the oppressors, and while we mostly follow the human characters, the series never takes a hard stand on either side's moral superiority. Buy Battlestar Galactica from Prime Video or stream it on Pluto TV and Paramount+ starting May 1.

Battlestar Galactica (2003 – 2009)

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1983 (2018)

Sure, we've all wondered what would have happened if we hadn't slow-walked our way through the space program following the moon landing, but the real alt-history question is, what if the communist Polish People’s Republic had never fallen? This political thriller is largely set in 2003, twenty years after a series of bombings ended the hope for an end to the Cold War, which still continues behind an extant Iron Curtain. In this vision of Poland, digital surveillance is ever-present; art is censored; and personal behavior and sexual morality are restricted both legally and by means of a

10 Shows Like 'For All Mankind' You Should Watch Next