Neil Armstrong

Neil Armstrong is a retired American astronaut born on August 5th, 1930 in Wapakoneta, Ohio. Armstrong is best known for being one of the three-man crew to pilot the Apollo 11 space shuttle for an historic journey to the moon on July 20th, 1969. As the first human being to ever set foot on the surface of the moon, Neil Armstrong is known for two famous quotes, which has since become part of popular culture. Before exiting the Apollo 11, Armstrong radioed back to mission control in Houston, "The Eagle has landed. As he took his first steps onto the surface, Neil intoned, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind".

Doctor Who
The lunar landing of 1969 played a key role in "The Silence" story-arc that ran through series 5 of the 2005 Doctor Who relaunch series and culiminated in the two-part season premiere of series 6. The story involved a subversive alien race called the Silence, who had infiltrated human society during the 1960s and were able to effectively manipulate the course of human events through subliminal suggestion. Because of this, Earth's populace were unaware that the Silence even existed among them. The Eleventh Doctor traveled to the US in 1969 and initiated a plan to permanently implant the knowledge of the Silence's existence into the public consciousness. As the moon landing was watched by literally billions of people, the Doctor was able to splice footage of the Silence in between frames of the lunar landing. Repeated exposure to the images, prevented humanity from forgetting about them and overrode the post-hypnotic suggestion. (Doctor Who: Day of the Moon)

Transformers
In the 2011 feature film Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the true nature of the Apollo 11 mission takes on more clandestine overtones. Having detected the presence of a downed alien craft on the moon as early as 1961, then-President John F. Kennedy initiated an aggressive campaign to put a man on the moon before the Russians. Nine years later, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins were recruited for a top-secret mission to the Dark Side of the Moon to survey and analyze the debris of the ship and report their findings back to Earth. In the film, Neil Armstrong was played by Don Jeanes. Archival footage of the real Armstrong's historic moonwalk was incorporated into the film as well.

Notes & Trivia

 * Jeffrey Nordling played Neil Armstrong in the 1995 Apollo 11 telemovie.


 * Mark Wheeler played Neil Armstrong in the 1996 film Apollo 13.


 * In the 2009 drama Moonshot, which chronicled the events of the 1969 lunar landing, Neil Armstrong was played by Daniel Lapaine.


 * British comedian Eddie Izzard poked fun at Neil Armstrong's famous line, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind", suggesting that it was scripted and that Neil's actual first words upon stepping onto the lunar surface were more like, "It's all sticky!"