For All Mankind Season 5's Alternate Timeline Kills The Streaming Era Before It Even Begins

Mild spoilers ahead for the "For All Mankind" season 5 premiere.

"For All Mankind" is one of the best sci-fi shows on Apple TV, which is saying something because the streamer has many of the best sci-fi series currently airing. It's a spectacular show about an alternate timeline where the Soviet Union made it to Earth's moon before the U.S. This created a ripple effect that changed history as we know it — for the better. In a way, "For All Mankind" imagines what it would've looked like if our reality were more like that of the "Star Trek" franchise (minus the eugenics and nuclear wars that precede its hopeful vision of the future).

A big part of the fun of watching "For All Mankind" comes from the little nuggets of information that reveal how the timeline of the series diverges from our own. For instance, the "Star Trek" property charted a very different course in the "For All Mankind" universe. Similarly, the show's season 5 premiere includes news reels about historical events that happened in the decade since season 4, like the Space Shuttle Challenger being decommissioned after being used for decades and definitely not exploding.

The best one, however, is all about Blockbuster.

At the start of season 5, we get a blink-and-you-miss-it glimpse at a newspaper article explaining that Blockbuster is opening its first branch on Earth's moon in 2007. Most importantly, its CEO (a Martian tech billionaire and founder of a "holo-entertainment" platform) has announced that Blockbuster will be producing original media available exclusively at Blockbuster locations. Its first TV show? One rumored to be set in the world of U.S. politics.

That's right: Blockbuster essentially made "House of Cards" in the "For All Mankind" universe. Forget Netflix; Blockbuster ended the streaming era before it even began.

Obviously, the newspaper article mentioning Blockbuster making a series about U.S. politics is a decidedly unsubtle reference to Netflix's first show, "House of Cards." Indeed, if Blockbuster had started producing original programming in the late 2000s and come out of the gate with an equally acclaimed show, it would have forever altered the course of streaming.

Just imagine a world where Blockbuster, rather than Netflix, lured in filmmakers with the promise of creative freedom — specifically, on projects distributed solely on home video at Blockbuster outlets. Sure, some things probably would have stayed the same, like Blockbuster being reluctant to release its original movies in theaters the way Netflix is in our reality. At the same time, Blockbuster's focus on home video and physical discs you rent means physical media is likely doing far better in the "For All Mankind" universe.

Without Netflix, though, do other companies try to build their own Blockbuster-killers? Does Disney start producing movies and shows exclusively available at Disney stores worldwide?

It's also worth recalling that the internet developed very differently in the "For All Mankind" universe. As of 2003 (when season 4 takes place), there's only a private internet network that's used by military and government officials. So, not only is there no streaming, but Netflix's original online DVD rental service wouldn't have been available. The upside to this, of course, is that there isn't social media in this timeline. No social media means no Mark Zuckerberg, a very different Elon Musk, and so on.

Ultimately, this is further proof of just how important time jumps are to "For All Mankind." Who knows how the show's world will look in the 2020s?

"For All Mankind" is streaming on Apple TV.