Let’s get this out of the way right now: Not only is Miles from Tomorrowland, currently in its third season, intelligent and entertaining, but it has one of the most impressive supporting casts in animation today. Regular characters are provided by Mark Hamill, LeVar Burton, George Takei, Bill Nye, Alton Brown, and Wil Wheaton!
Despite the name, the show isn’t directly connected to the Disneyland/Magic Kingdom land (or the 2015 Tomorrowland film). However, they do all share a common thread, which can be traced back to Walt Disney himself: an optimistic belief in a hopeful, brighter future for mankind.
For example? An upcoming episode, “The Space Station Situation” (premiering Monday, May 7 on Disney Junior), made history when it debuted to astronauts on board the International Space Station. That’s right—the show premiered in space!
The episode features an exact replica of the ISS using NASA’s original designs and centers on Miles and his friends as they travel back in time to prevent the ISS from getting stuck in the future. Voicing themselves are NASA astronauts Scott Kelly, Jeanette Epps, and Yvonne Cagle, Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, NASA space station flight director Holly Ridings, and Randii Wessen, Diana Trujillo, Bobak Ferdowsi, and Kevin Hand from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
But that’s not all! Bill Nye recurs as Professor Rubicon, and the episode features music from Grammy Award-winning banjo player Bela Fleck. I told you this show has an impressive pedigree.
Series creator Sascha Paladino is obviously over the moon (see what I did there?) about the landmark episode. “It all started when I heard that the ISS crew watched The Martian on the space station,” he told Nerdist. “It felt like the kind of thing that our show should be doing. We’ve always looked for ways to reach beyond the screen and bring our stories into the real world. We recorded in three countries and were in continual contact with NASA as we developed it. Once Scott Kelly agreed to lend his voice, he gave us a lot of great feedback on our designs and on the dialogue, helping us to make it more realistic.”
The show’s writers routinely work with consultants to make sure they get all the science right, and the script for this particular episode went through experts at NASA, the Space Tourism Society, and Google. Over the course of three seasons on Miles from Tomorrowland, Paladino has developed a habit of making the impossible look easy.
“This was the hardest single episode of any show I’ve ever made, but it was worth it,” Paladino said. “The experience proved to me again that if you can dream it, you can do it, which to me is a big part of what the ISS is all about. It’s always amazing when we hear that kids got interested in science as a result of watching our show. If we can light a fuse that will lead to a love of science, our mission will truly be accomplished.”
Images: Disney
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