Isaac Asimov's Foundation series were among the first books I read as a teenager. As each new book came out, I would read and learn what happened next -- how that universe merged together with the Empire and Robots series. And TV/movie producers have stayed away from this epic for decades, until now. Apple TV+ presents the very first attempt.
The issue -- the whole series is just -- smart. The main concept is that super-genius Hari Seldon has created psychohistory -- a system of mathematics mixed with human behavior to predict the future based on patterns from the past. Hari predicts that the Galactic Empire will fall within a century, and that the galaxy would remain in darkness for 30,000 years. However, if the Empire embraces Hari's plan, it would bring the number down to 1,000 years.
Eventually, the Empire agrees begrudgingly. They exile Hari Seldon to Terminus, a resource-poor planet on the edge of the universe, and tell him to have at it. The catch -- Hari had predicted the Empire would do exactly this, and it turns out that Terminus really is the best place to build a Foundation -- a way to maintain knowledge, so that when the 1,000 years of darkness are over, the new Galactic Empire can rise up again without having to start from scratch.
What comes next is like a series of short stories from certain periods along the 1,000 years. So -- yeah -- kind of hard to capture this in a TV show -- lots of politics -- lots of smart witty discussions -- lots of smart twists -- and a very large and rich world. So, how do you capture all of this on TV?
By the way, some trivia about myself -- it was ultimately these books that inspired me to become an actuary in real life. Using patterns from the past to predict the future? Count me in! Of course, the math comes nowhere near psychohistory, but we're trying. I predict that most actuaries would love this show.
When I watched the first episode of this series, I was a little concerned. On the most part, that episode accurately captures the first vignette in the book. Hari Seldon picks up Gaal Dornick, a rising mathematical genius, and tells her: "My math predicts that we will be arrested tomorrow." We also get to see Hari's adoptive son, Raych. Ultimately, Gaal joins the expedition that later becomes the Foundation.
The first thing that concerned me was that the producers decided to make the Emperor clones of Cleon I (from the Foundation prequels). The original book trilogy doesn't really dive into who the emperors are and what their personalities are -- they're more like pieces on a chessboard -- you know they exist, but they aren't really part of the main story. Yet, the first TV episode seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time on the emperors, of which there are three. Brother Day is the "current" middle-aged emperor. Brother Dawn is the "in-training" adolescent emperor. And Brother Dusk is the "former" end-of-life emperor.
In other words: this stuff wasn't in the book, so why bring it in? And the answer -- it actually works! Using this tactic has several advantages. For one -- they can go 50 years into the future and still use the same actors, providing a sense of continuity throughout the show. Kind of convenient? But wait -- it also brings in the new idea that one man has decided to inflict the entire galaxy to HIMSELF for 400 years. Can you imagine the ego? And yet, each emperor is slightly different. I'm now 4 episodes in -- and I have to be honest -- I'm seriously enjoying this new addition. Watching these emperors react to different situations has actually been thought-provoking, and I believe it adds another level of richness to the story. We already know that the Empire is going to ultimately fail, so we're all waiting to see who will be the last, and how they go down. Or will they somehow continue the cloning over the next entire 1,000 years?
I was also concerned with a couple of snafus, such as an underground city counting levels from the bottom up instead of from the top down as in most sci-fi stories; the convenient artificial gravity; talking about making a trip thousands of light years away in a non-jump ship in less than a decade. But you know what? It doesn't really matter in the end. I'm already used to those distractions and can turn that part off. If I can enjoy Star Trek, I'm not going to let this ruin my Foundation watching. I'm at least excited that they used black holes to drive the jump ships! That was just cool.
Another concern was adding a convenient action scene in the first episode -- I suppose something exciting to get people to continue watching. To me it seemed to be too much of a coincidence (no way for Hari to predict it), but the writers used it effectively in the expanding plot. So -- I'll let them have it. Ultimately, it's the price that must be paid to help make the transition to the TV screen possible. It requires a lot of expansion of the original story -- but you know what -- keep going.
Overall, the original plot is preserved incredibly well (Episode 5 proves to be exciting). I may know what happens next, but I don't know how any of the subplots will develop.
My wife, who doesn't normally watch sci-fi (except for the fact that she's married to me), is happily captured by this presentation. She says that it catches her attention much more than the sporadic Star Trek: Discovery we recently watched. She appreciates that it's being written by just one writer -- which means much more consistent writing. We're both going crazy waiting for Episode 5 this week, when we might actually get past page 100.
At the rate the series is progressing -- yes -- it will take years to get through the whole story. And I'm likely to enjoy it all. The next Game of Thrones in space!
So -- check it out. It's available on Apple TV+, but nowhere else. I think it's worth the $5 a month. Plus -- I may try out some of these other shows. We'll see ...
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