Strife On Mars

Will some new arrivals see the red planet ruined by human greed?

The first series of Mars followed a group of intrepid astronauts in 2033 as they overcame freezing temperatures, fatalities and a lack of oxygen to set up the first human colony on the red planet.

This week, as the docudrama returns to National Geographic, the action has jumped forward nine years. The astronauts have successfully established a colony called Olympus Town and, with the help of other settlers, are busy ‘terraforming’ Mars into a less hostile landscape.

‘It’s become a real city, a real civilisation,’ says Clémentine Poidatz, who plays surgeon Dr Amelie Durand. ‘There’s even a bar where the colonists can socialise.’