Have you seen the third season of The Crown? The episode “Moondust” is one of my favorite episodes out of all the TV shows I have watched. It is set in the time when the Queen and King of England meet the Apollo 11 astronauts after they return from the moon.
The moon landing was one of the most exhilarating events in human history, and the excitement surrounding it was palpable around the globe. Televisions flickered in living rooms across the globe, families huddled together, eyes glued to the grainy images from the moon. For the first time, humanity was going to set foot on another celestial body, and the future seemed full of endless possibilities. Even children caught the excitement, playing astronauts in backyards and dreaming of someday walking on the moon themselves. The moon landing ignited a passion for space exploration in a generation, and and reach for the unknown.
The Royal Family was very excited for the moon landing, but non was asPhilip was obsessed. He binge-watches the exploits of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins for hours on end, which triggers an all-consuming mid life crisis with his life. Philip attends a group meeting with the new in-house bishop, Dean Robin Woods hoping to find a way to get over his mid life crisis. Philip’s feelings of failure are exacerbated when Dean announcing his plans to create a religious retreat for burnt-out clergymen. Dean then quotes T.S. Eliot, “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” and then says, “We stand at the dawn of a new age of space exploration. The promise of space has never felt more real… ” then Philip interrupts and mocks Dean’s plans by calling the program a “concentration camp for spiritual defectives. Do I need to show symptoms of despair? Should I sigh and moan dramatically. One does like to fit in.” Philip believes that the burnt-out clergymen and those struggling with a sense of directionlessness need to follow the path of the space program. He also makes a point of saying how certain he is that the Apollo 11 astronauts are “at one with the world” because they’ve achieved something “spectacular.” Even going so far as to presume that they’re “at one with God — and happy.” Philip calls their thoughts “pretentious self-pity nonsense” and states the best thing to do is to enter the world and make a mark “just like those astronauts did”. He immediately walks out on the shocked group of priests.
It’s the 16th of July 1969. The Royal Family watch the launch together. Philip is mesmerized by the rocket launch, hushing those around him so he can concentrate on the television, his gaze never leaving the screen. The room erupts when the message from the astronauts is heard “Houston,” Armstrong said. “Tranquility base here. The Eagle has landed.”
Philips stays up late in the night watching the footage and starts to tear up to show his pride in the moon landing. Later in an effort to cheer up Philip, the Queen sets up a private 15 minute discussion with the three astronauts. Philip is thrived to meet them.
Philip tries to engage with the astronauts as he was expecting them to be deep thinkers, profound philosophers. He starts with talking about an evaluation of his own life and confessing he hasn’t achieved what he would like to do. He praises the astronauts for their achievement, then he asks the questions: “what were your thoughts out there?” and “What were your perspectives and observations?”. You can tell with the responses he got from the men that it was not at all what he expected. Philip is disappointed. It’s not that the astronauts lacked intelligence – heck, you had to have a keen understanding of physics, aeronautics, math, and keeping a level head under pressure to be an astronaut. The issue is that they didn’t have time to consider the philosophical, spiritual, or personal implications of what it meant to travel through space and land on the moon. They were focused on their mission, not dying getting back home. They delivered as successful astronauts but they are disappointing human beings.
The private discussion was anti-climatic as Philip expected them to be giants or gods, but he felt they were three little men with pale faces and colds. The Queen notes in response that the qualities that make one a good astronaut: their sense of duty, reliability, modesty and level-headed are the same qualities that make someone interesting.
After the meeting, Philip realized that putting other people’s achievements on a pedestal can cause an internal vicious cycle that is immeasurable. He understood that his mid-life crisis didn’t resolve after meeting the astronauts. Wonderfully, the entire episode seems to fulfill the T.S. Eliot quote from Dean Woods’ sermon. “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” After meeting the astronauts and trying to find meaning in the space race, he finally comes back to the priests and admits that he’s been lost since his mother’s death; he is coming back to where he started and now knows himself better.
This episode explores the contrast of the men in space and the king of England and the similar feeling within the faith walk of Christianity. As an almost thirty male who’s gone to church my whole life, I sometimes find myself detached and uninspired as I tend to associate spiritual wellbeing with religious metrics such as church attendance and hours clocked reading my Bible. Sometimes our disinterest in the Bible is rooted in the fact that other things in our lives have new features, advancements, or discoveries that are either more stimulating than the scriptures. Our prayer life can lose its sincerity and awe over time and become a laundry list of duties and desires for our needs. Either that, or we just become so rote and routine when we pray that we go on autopilot.
Take some time and reflect on how you feel like Philip and need to reset on your faith journey.
Max Murphy 