Now in the early 1990s, the Americans and Soviets are in a new race to be the first on Mars. The first space hotel has opened and hosts the wedding of Danny Stevens. Unfortunately, disaster soon hits.
Tropes:
- Alternate History: Like the opening to Season 2, the opening montage fills us in on news events during the Time Skip.
- Democrat Gary Hart wins the Presidency in 1984 and is reelected in 1988. His opponent in the latter election was Pat Robertson.
- Margaret Thatcher is assassinated by the IRA in the 1984 Brighton hotel bombing
. - Mikhail Gorbachev's new economic policies manage to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union. He also appears to take power a year later than he did in real life, suggesting that either Andropov or Chernenko remained in power slightly longer.
- Soviet influence appears to dominate Latin America, with Mexico joining the communist bloc.
- The Portland Trailblazers pick Michael Jordan in the 1986 draft.
- In the 1986 World Cup, Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" goal is declared invalid, allowing England to win their quarter-final match against Argentina and presumably the championship. It is thereby dubbed the "Foul of the Century.
- The Beatles go on a reunion tour in 1987.
- China gets an earlier start on their own space program, with plans for a lunar base as early as the late 1980s.
- The Wall Street Crash of 1987 appears to not take place, as the DOW reports a record week of 1200 points.
- North Korea abandons its ballistic missile program in favor of a space program.
- President Hart refuses to send US troops to Kuwait, averting The Gulf War.
- Artistic License – History: In the news montage, it is shown that the Soviet space program now shares the name of Russia's real-world agency Roscosmos, even though the Soviet Union had no official administrative body for their program. In addition, when it was founded in 1992, Roscosmos stood for "Russian Space Agency." While Russia was the largest and by far the most dominant member state of the USSR, it's unlikely that Soviet leaders would name their space agency for Russia alone and not the Soviet Union as a whole.
- Awful Wedded Life: Ed has remarried, but his marriage with Yvonne is not much better than his marriage to Karen.
- The Bus Came Back: Aleida's father Octavio is now living with her in the United States.
- Cassandra Truth: In the "1984" tie-in video, protesters try to push for a full release of events, claiming that a "second secret reactor" was the real cause of the meltdown at Jamestown.
- Centrifugal Gravity: The Polaris hotel generates artificial gravity this way. Unfortunately, a thruster is damaged by a piece of North Korean space debris, and it starts spinning faster until it is nearly torn apart.
- Chekhov's Gun: In her morning briefing, Margo is informed that a North Korean rocket exploded in orbit and they don't think its debris will be a major threat. A piece of debris ends up jamming a thruster on the Polaris and nearly destroys the hotel.
- Continuous Decompression: A realistic example where the windows in Ed's stateroom begin to shatter — with only a few small holes, the air is blown out slowly enough that Ed and his wife are able to escape without too much trouble aside from the higher gravity.
- Different World, Different Movies: A film called Love in the Skies, starring Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan, is released about the lives of Gordo and Tracy.
- Disney Death: Danny Stevens is struck by a flying cable and seemingly killed, only for the end of the episode to reveal that he was merely knocked off the station's hull without injury, with his tether still connected.
- Expy: The "1991" tie-in video features a broadcast from a right-leaning pundit on the "Eagle News Channel," which has a nearly identical logo to the Fox News Channel.
- Global Warming: Has been slowed, if not defeated, thanks to advances in nuclear fusion making fossil fuels all but obsolete.
- Honey Trap: Sergei is still being instructed by the KGB to use Margo as a target.
- Honorary Aunt: Aleida has gotten married and has a son, who calls Margo his "Tía."
- In Spite of a Nail:
- A news report shows that the AIDS epidemic is still prevalent.
- A presidential commission headed by William P. Rogers is still held, this time to investigate the meltdown at Jamestown rather than the Challenger disaster.
- Alex Trebek remains the host of Jeopardy!.
- As mentioned above, Mikhail Gorbachev still becomes the leader of the Soviet Union.
- Navy analyst Jonathan Pollard is still convicted of providing classified information to Israel.
- Aliens, Rain Man, and Short Circuit remain popular films of the late 1980s.
- Jessica McClure still falls down a well and is rescued in a media circus.
- The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Oakland Athletics in the 1988 World Series.
- While the Challenger disaster does not take place, there is an accident aboard the Pathfinder which kills five Marines.
- The "1992" tie-in video mentions that Al Gore is still vice president, albeit under Gary Hart's 1984-1992 term.
- Bill Clinton is still poised to be the Democratic frontrunner in the 1992 presidential election, with Ellen as his Republican opponent.
- As already alluded to in the previous season finale, Nirvana and grunge music as a whole still becomes big in the early 90s.
- Married at Sea: Danny and Amber get married at the Polaris hotel in the first wedding in space.
- Peace Conference: The news montage reports that Ronald Reagan and Yuri Andropov signed a peace treaty to effectively divide the moon in two between the two blocs.
- Rank Up:
- Bill Strausser has become flight director at JSC.
- Ellen has become a senator from Texas, and is poised to be the Republican nominee in the 1992 election.
- In the "1989" tie-in video, "Moonrine" Steven Lopez was promoted to lieutenant colonel before he was tragically killed in an accident aboard Pathfinder with four other marines.
- Red Shirt: Two spacewalkers attempt to fix the malfunctioning thruster, but are struck by a snapped-off cable and killed, and flung off into space for good measure.
- Sinking Ship Scenario: As Polaris begins to spin out of control, support cables snap off and tear through the hull, causing a loss of pressure in some compartments. By the time the order to evacuate is given, the elevators are unsafe to use (as poor Sam finds out too late) and the Centrifugal Gravity is too strong for most of the passengers to climb the emergency ladder. If Danny hadn't managed to climb outside and fix the thruster, Polaris would have torn itself apart.
- Skewed Priorities: When Polaris starts spinning out of control, Sam Cleveland is clearly more interested in his space hotel's reputation than in the safety of his guests and crew. He refuses to disclose the danger when it becomes apparent, instead insisting his repair crew can handle it, and by the time he realizes the danger it's far too late to safely evacuate most of the guests. His actions make sense from a business perspective, but it's clear that if a NASA commander were in his position, none of this would have happened.
- Take That!: In the news montage, Donald Trump is reported to be interested in building luxury condominiums in Moscow, a swipe at his controversial real world connections to Russia.
- Tempting Fate: Karen and Sam toasting how the space hotel is going to be a huge success...just before one piece of debris nearly leads it to be destroyed.
