General / Off-Topic Asimov’s Foundation

Arioch

Arioch
I’ve just watched the third episode (and I think it’s great so far) and there was a little bit that set my Elite feelies all tingling - Hugo the startrader was talking about what he’d been up to at the various planets he’d visited: “dropped off medicine, picked up fruit…”

I know the Foundation books were an influence on the Traveller RPG (specifically “The Merchant Princes” chapters) which in turn influenced the original Elite, though I wouldn’t be surprised if Asimov’s books were a direct inspiration for Braben & Bell as well.

The series is definitely more of a reimagined version of the books, but I think it’s all the better for it - the books, while enjoyable, are very much of their time. I’m watching it via my Quest 2 and I’ve got to say the series looks spectacular on the (virtual) cinema screen - it’s doing a very good job at tiding me over until Dune gets released in the UK later this month 😁
 

Rubbernuke

Rubbernuke
I think its....okay. I like the clone emperor aspect but the rest just feels very laboured so far and is not grabbing me.
 

Arioch

Arioch
I think the Emperor is very well done - far too often the bad guys are just evil villains doing evil stuff because they’re evil, but Cleon is doing what he thinks is right to safeguard the Empire even if it means doing terrible things.

Nice to have an antagonist that isn’t a moustache twirling type character for a change.
 

Rubbernuke

Rubbernuke
Arioch said:
I think the Emperor is very well done - far too often the bad guys are just evil villains doing evil stuff because they’re evil, but Cleon is doing what he thinks is right to safeguard the Empire even if it means doing terrible things.

Nice to have an antagonist that isn’t a moustache twirling type character for a change.
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Its difficult in a way because the villain is not really one person, its time, and people / groups not responding to problems or adapting to change.

I think my root problem is that Foundation is (just like a lot of my other fav books) its more concept and events driven rather than via characters. For books thats not a problem but for TV it is.
 

Arioch

Arioch
Rubbernuke said:
Its difficult in a way because the villain is not really one person, its time, and people / groups not responding to problems or adapting to change.

I think my root problem is that Foundation is (just like a lot of my other fav books) its more concept and events driven rather than via characters. For books thats not a problem but for TV it is.
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Probably not feel much of a connection to the characters if the entire cast was changing every 50 minutes 😁

I’m guessing next episode will be the first Seldon Crisis, and I’m intrigued as to how far this series will go with the story.

As an aside, I think it’s very clever of Apple to give away the first episode as a freebie - it got me to sign up for a free month trial of AppleTV and I’ll happily shell out for the month or two to finish off the series.
 

Robin of Spiritwood

Robin of Spiritwood
Foundation was a cerebral series, about civilization itself rather than individuals as a character arc. Really hard to do as a visual medium, but so far it's good.

Asimov wrote the first book at 21. So it was a bit roughly executed, choppy, and human characters were too disposable. But it gave a great comeback line that you can't ever use.

"God has a Plan."
"Like Hari Seldon?"

Strictly speaking, no. Hari Seldon never concieved the fate of a droplet of water when calculating rise and fall of oceans. So he had no Plan for You, though he seems to be pretty good at calculating probabilities for individual outcomes for trials and such.

It has coins, newspapers, and cigarettes aplenty in the book, now tying it irretrievably to our past. What future readers make of that dichotomy will be interesting, but none of those anachronisms survived to the show.
 

Wotthe Dickens

Wotthe Dickens
I’m pleased I spotted this thread- I didn’t know about the series! +1!
I’ve often thought about psychohistory, and it’s science has come about now with machine learning... the modeling of human behavior has been used in earnest during the pandemic / elections.
 

SpaceIsHuge

SpaceIsHuge
Awesome series.

I wished to see some great movies and tv series based on books from Arkady and Boris Strugatsky too. One of the best books Ive read in my life. Apart from overhyped Stalker.
 
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TiberiusDuval

T
Okay, seen the first episode. Besides modern politically correct bovine excrement, only parts common with REAL Asimov's foundation are person and place names. It is utter TRASH.
 

Manticore

Manticore
Great books which I haven't read in decades. I don't have a streaming subscription for the show so it will have to wait for some DVD action.

I don't think, in the real world, we need Hari Seldon to tell us we're doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooomed!

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TiberiusDuval

T
Change about every main characters gender and race, okay that may, just may be acceptable, but then change whole story and lots and lots of details. Even those details that have been in later books. Bah its butchery...
 

tolm

tolm
They’ve definitely messed with the characters way more than I would have liked - especially Eto Demerzel who is hugely important in the wider Asimov universe and - in that wider identity - possibly my favourite Asimov character.

I do like the three Emperor clones, though. Yes, it’s a change from the books but it works very well and the actors are playing it with ambiguity and threat in equal measure.

The overall style is very cool, too - especially the jump engine mechanics.

So, for the time being, I’m suspending any notion of it actually being “Asimov’s Foundation” and largely enjoying it for what it is,
 

TiberiusDuval

T
tolm said:
They’ve definitely messed with the characters way more than I would have liked - especially Eto Demerzel who is hugely important in the wider Asimov universe and - in that wider identity - possibly my favourite Asimov character.

I do like the three Emperor clones, though. Yes, it’s a change from the books but it works very well and the actors are playing it with ambiguity and threat in equal measure.

The overall style is very cool, too - especially the jump engine mechanics.

So, for the time being, I’m suspending any notion of it actually being “Asimov’s Foundation” and largely enjoying it for what it is,
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I actively hate that Emperor clones idea....
 
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