30 Year Grind

cover art by Wayne Barlowe

 In the November 1991 issue of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 80 pages of Asimov's story Forward the Foundation was published as a novella, just five months before his death. The complete novel was finally published in 1993, but I like to imagine that Forward the Foundation was essentially completed before Asimov's death in 1992. However, it was heartbreaking that Asimov did not live to write any sequels to Foundation and Earth.

Dead but not Forgotten. Here we are, 30 years later, and Asimov's fans are struggling to accommodate themselves to Apple TV's Foundation series. As described previously, I recently watched Season One of the TV show and I was provoked to look back at the million and a half words that Asimov wrote in telling his story of the Foundation Saga. Also, I've looked back at my older blog posts about the seven novels that came to embody the Foundation Saga.

cover art by Gary Freeman

Here in this blog post, I'm going to reflect on my own fan-fiction extension of Asimov's Foundation Saga. While trying to imagine how Asimov might have continued writing more Foundation novels that would extend the Foundation Saga past the events depicted in Foundation and Earth, I was driven to develop my own science fiction story writing  project that I call the Exode Saga. The Exode Saga can be viewed as fan-fiction, having been inspired by Asimov's fictional universe of positronic robots and galactic empires.

Expanding the Foundation. My favorite Asimov novel is The End of Eternity. The Exode Saga is actually a sequel to both Foundation and Earth and The End of Eternity. It was Asimov himself who suggested a possible link between his positronic robots and time travel, and idea which I happily adopted.

cover art by Jim Burns

When I first read Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, I did not really understand that it originated as a series of short stories that had been published in Astounding magazine in the 1940s. In a way, serial publication of the Foundation short stories and novellas was a perfect medium for telling the saga of a galactic empire slowly collapsing over the course of centuries.

 After buying and reading the three novels in the original Foundation Trilogy, I threw away the first book and only kept the final two (Avon editions, printed in 1972). I felt that Asimov's story did not really become interesting until the telepathic Mule and Second Foundationers came onto the stage. Later, when Asimov extended the saga in 1982 with Foundations Edge, I was not impressed. Only with Foundation and Earth and the revelation that Daneel was part of the Foundation Fictional Universe did I achieve any real interest in the sequel novels.

genetically engineered Spacers

If Asimov could explicitly link his positronic robot stories to the Foundation Saga, then why not also bring time travel and aliens into the mix as two great Sci Fi plot elements that Asimov had included in some of his other science fiction stories? In Foundation and Earth, Asimov introduced the idea that a hermaphroditic human variant with telepathic abilities had evolved on the planet Solaria. The Solarians had been genetically engineered so as to have "transducer lobes" in their brains which they used so as to maintain a kind of telepathic control of their robots. I was impressed by the freaky Spacers that got included in Apple TV's Foundation series and I'll assume that they were inspired by the Solarians in Foundation and Earth.

cover art by Stephen Youll

 And Gaia, too. In Foundation's Edge, Asimov introduced the planet Gaia and the idea that its people had been genetically modified so as to link them into a telepathic group mind. Daneel's ultimate goal was to craft Galaxia, a galaxy-spanning group mind.

More telepaths. In addition to telepathic Gaians and Solarians, Asimov also included the telepathic Mule, the telepathic Second Foundationers and telepathic positronic robots like Daneel. I have the feeling that Asimov wrote himself into a corner with Foundation and Earth. Trevize expresses unhappiness with the idea that Humanity's fate is Galaxia and I suspect Asimov himself felt the same way. Since Asimov's death, I've tried to imagine a way to continue the Foundation saga beyond the ending of Foundation and Earth, and the method I arrived at involves a Reality Change. I also include many telepathic human variants in the Exode Saga.

Noÿs/Skaña/Trysta (image source)

 Earth's Reality Chain. As unhappy as I was that Asimov never wrote past Foundation and Earth, I've long been even more eager to craft a fan-fiction sequel to The End of Eternity. In some sense, The End of Eternity is a perfect novel that should not be messed with, but the concept of Reality Changes and the character Noÿs, a woman from millions of years in our future, are just too good to leave alone. 

For the Exode Saga, I like to imagine that Noÿs originated as an Asterothrope named Skaña. While working to create a Reality Change that would end the Mallansohn Reality, she used the name Noÿs (as depicted by Asimov in The End of Eternity). I like to imagine that later, in the Foundation Reality, she began using the name Trysta Iwedon.

Reality Chain

 Deep Time. The Exode Saga encompasses all of Deep Time, from the invention of time travel in the First Reality and on through a series of intermediary Realities all the way to the Final Reality. I like to imagine that a Final Reality could be brought into existence by the alien Huaoshy who used their advanced technology to alter the Dimensional Structure of the Universe, making further time travel impossible.

Isaac Asimov was very interested in history. When crafting the Foundation Saga, Asimov used plot and character ideas from The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. In The End of Eternity, Asimov introduced the idea of keeping records of past Realities within a library system of Eternity. Since I love the idea of having access to records of past Realities, for the Exode Saga I imagine that the Eternity space-time bubble was never actually destroyed.

 The Big and the Little. In the early 1940s, Asimov began writing stories about an enormous Galactic Empire, but he was also concerned with the very small. Back in the 1930s, the first efforts were underway to map genes on chromosomes and as a chemistry student, it may have been obvious to Asimov that information could be stored in the structure of atoms and chemical bonds inside chromosomes (this idea became increasing popular after publication of Erwin Schrödinger's book What is Life? in 1944). Before anyone had figured out how to make electronic digital computers, Asimov imagined a fictional "postronic brain" that could be used to hold the thinking mind of a human-like robot.

In 1959, Richard Feynman gave a lecture called "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" which pointed towards the near future when nano-scale transistors would allow for the efficient storage of large amounts of data in a small space. In the 1960s, the genetic code was deciphered and in the 1970s restriction enzymes became available for cutting DNA at specific sites. By 1977, Hal Clement was encouraging science fiction story tellers to make use of genetic engineering in their stories.

So, by the time when Asimov began publishing new Foundation Saga stories in 1982, the scientific fields of biology and computing had undergone major revolutions since the early 1940s. Asimov included in Foundation's Edge a new computer-controlled spaceship navigation system and genetically engineered Solarians.

small devices

I like how Apple TV's Foundation series is not afraid to make use of advanced technologies that Asimov never imagined, particularly nanotechnology such as nanobots (I prefer the term nanites). For the Exode Saga, I take nanotechnology to the next level by imagining that there are as-yet-unknown fundamental particles able to assemble like atoms, but using bonds that are much shorter than for electrons in covalent bonds. Specifically, hierions can form useful structures that are 1000 times smaller than nanites (I call them femtobots).

nanites are made of hadrons, femtobots are composed of M-hierions, zeptites use array sedrons

positronic brain (source)

 Positronic Brains. Asimov never explained the physical basis of positronics. For the Exode Saga, I imagine that the bumpha Many Sails made some M-hierions available to human scientists at Observer Base who were forbidden by the pek from developing electronics. The human scientists used the M-hierions to develop positronic circuits instead of electronic circuits. Asimov wrote several stories in which accidents with positronic brains resulted in telepathic robots. For the Exode Saga, I assume that positronic circuits are intrinsically sensitive to twitinos, a type of hierion particle that can carry information through time.

 Seldon's Plan or Daneel's Plan? Asimov did provide his readers with a sketch of how Seldon's 1000 year plan for the creation of a new Galactic Empire would play out. Eventually, the "psychologists" of the Second Foundation would have to merge with the First Foundation which specialized in physical science and was technology-oriented. 

Gaia

However, as depicted in Foundation and Earth, only half way through the 1,000 year Seldon Plan, Daneel unveils the existence of Gaia, a world with genetically-engineered humans who have the equivalent of the Laws of Robotics built into them. Also revealed is the idea of a future Galaxia, where the entire population of the galaxy would be organized as a telepathic group mind.

In the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art: Michael Whelan
and Fred Gambino.

 The Magic of Telepathy. There were multiple times during his Foundation Saga when Asimov rather abruptly pulled telepathy out of the box of Sci Fi plot elements:
1) The origin of telepathic positronic robots was "explained" as having been a chance occurrence.
2) The telepaths of the Second Foundation, starting with Wanda, just showed up on the stage of the crumbling Empire.
3) Gaia was a 20,000 year project by Daneel to create a society of telepathic humans, only revealed at the end of the project.
4) The Solarians were revealed after thousands of years their own project of genetic engineering and development of technology-assisted telepathy. 

Not being comfortable with magic in a science fiction story, I'd prefer to describe a logical way to use imaginary future technology so as to make possible human and robot telepathy.

aliens

 Revise with Trevize. I like the idea that Seldon's Plan was really a technology development project. Daneel needed a way to telepathically link the 25,000,000 worlds of Galaxia across vast trans-galactic distances. However, at the end of Foundation and Earth, Asimov left readers (and Trevize) adrift in a cloud of doubt concerning the alien force that threatened Humanity. For the Exode Saga, I depict the positronic robots of Earth as being locked in a struggle against ancient aliens called Huaoshy. The Huaoshy planned to replace humans with a primate variant called the Prelands, a species that could eventually transcend to the Sedron Domain. However, programmed to protect Humanity, the positronic robots of Earth resist the efforts of the Huaoshy.

In the Exode Saga, the positronic robots of Earth win a chance for Humanity to spread among the stars, but the specter of how Humanity can adjust to the existence of telepathy still hangs over the Final Reality. 

twitinos and telepathy

 Twitinos. Was most of Asimov's telepathy in the Foundation Reality twitino-based and not possible in the Final Reality, or was some Such as Solarian technology-based? Asimov made a big deal out of detecting electrical signals from brains, but how did mentalic mind control work?

  Bimanoid Interface. For telepathy in the FInal Reality of the Exode Saga, I make use of what was originally a Temporal Momentum system but it was later adapted for technology-assisted telepathy.

 Socio-history. What are the social implications of telepathy? I make use of the idea that the Neanderthals has a weak form of telepathy that aided in social cohesion. I imagine that later advancements for technology-assisted telepathy made use of human brain regions related to inter-personal relationships and that means that telepathic mind control can't be imposed on anyone against their will. In the Final Reality, telepathy requires empathy and resonance.

image made using "April" by karlwikman
available under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Endosymbionts. Further, all Final Reality telepathy is technology-assisted and requires not only certain neronal networks on the brain but also endosymbionts, sub-nanoscale devices of alien origin that exist within human brains.

For "The Cythyrya Investigation", I'm exploring how information from the future can reach Eddy and help make it possible for humans to develop a culture that includes telepathy. Eddy wants to find out if teleportation and FTL travel are still possible in the Final Reality.

Rylla's attempt to bring back useful nanites from the AR Simulator fails. The teleportation control nanites that work inside the simulator do not work at the Eternity teleporter of the Final Reality. Can information from the future of the Final Reality be used to solve this problem?

Next: Part 3 of "The Cythyrya Investigation" 

Visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers

Foundation Season One

Demerzel kills the emperor (1 of 3).

 This is the third of three blog posts about the first season of Apple TV's Foundation series. Previously, I commented on each of the show's ten episodes (episodes 1-5, episodes 6-10). Here, on this page, I'll be reflecting on the overall story arc and assessing if Apple TV's Foundation series is capturing the essence of Isaac Asimov's original Foundation Saga. I seldom watch television and I did not subscribe to Apple TV until April of 2022, half a year after the show was released. Will I bother to watch Season Two?

 Robots. The original Foundation stories that Asimov wrote in the 1940s did not include robots. During that decade, Asimov also wrote and published many short stories about positronic robots. 

cover art by Michael Whelan

Eventually, Asimov suspected that he would be remembered most for his robot stories. Starting in 1986 with his novel Foundation and Earth, Asimov introduced positronic robots into his Foundation Saga. In my opinion, that was a triumphant addition to the Foundation Saga and I'm very pleased that Apple TV's Foundation series has been making the robot Demerzel an important part of the television show right from the very first episode. ✅

 Telepathy. However, the Demerzel robot in Apple TV's Foundation series is very different than Asimov's Demerzel. Two major features of Asimov's robots were 1) they were programmed with the Laws of Robotics and 2) the fact that robots could be endowed with telepathic abilities. Neither of these features of Asimov's robots were explicitly included in Season One of Apple TV's Foundation series. 😞

1942 interior art by Charles Schneeman

Instead, Apple TV's Demerzel was portrayed as having religious faith. There was explicit discussion in Season One of Apple TV's Foundation series of the question: does Demerzel have a soul?

 Religion. Back in 1942, Asimov imagined how the early Foundation on Terminus could make use of religious faith to control the militaristic "barbarian" peoples who lived on planets at the rim of the galaxy when the Galactic Empire began to crumble. So far, in Apple TV's Foundation series, several different religions have been depicted as existing in the Galactic Empire. Before I had seen a single episode of this TV show, I was puzzled by the big role for religion that had been included and I wondered if this would be part of transforming Asimov's science fiction story into a magical fantasy tale.

A vision in the Salt Pool.

 Cloned Cleons. One of the big changes made to Asimov's Foundation Saga was the insertion of the cloned Emperors. This leads to discussion of whether a cloned human has a soul. This issue gets tied up with the idea that the Emperor can't rule the Empire unless trillions of people believe that the Emperor has a soul. In Apple TV's Foundation, we are asked to wonder: will the Pope Proxima support the Emperor? The idea of collaboration being needed between religious "authorities" and politicians was raised by Asimov in his 1942 story "Bridle and Saddle".

psychohistory

So, it is not a surprise to see this issue included as part of Apple TV's Foundation series. However, it was strange to see this subject shifted over into the the context of the Emperor and the problems he faces during the decline of the Galactic Empire.

 Is it science fiction? Asimov's story of the falling Empire focused on psychohistorical forces such as scientific and technological stagnation. For Apple TV's Foundation series, the issue of stagnation was focused on the the person of the Emperor and the idea that a series of cloned emperors might contribute to the destruction of the Empire. However, if the true cause of the collapse of the Galactic Empire is Demerzel, then does it matter if there are cloned emperors who behaviorally stagnate? 

For me, it does matter because Asimov's explanation for the collapse of the Galactic Empire concerns an interesting mechanism that falls in the domain of science and technology. 

Halima the soul authority

In contrast, Apple TV's Foundation series goes off into fantasy religion and involves religious authorities who believe they are "soul detectors". This is one of my biggest problems with Apple TV's Foundation series: it seems to be morphing into a magical fantasy 🧙🧚 story rather than trying to stay within the bounds of Asimovian-style science fiction. 🤖

 Long Distance and Deep Time. Show runner Doyer has commented that Time is like a character in the Foundation Saga. Hollywood story tellers have always struggled to deal with complex stories that unfold across vast distances and long periods of time. In the previous century, science fiction story tellers like Asimov invented ways to tell complex stories like the Foundation Saga and their fans loved it. Apple TV's Foundation series has failed to capture the spatial immensity of the Galactic Empire. 😠

interior art by Charles Schneeman

As I explained previously, the way that people are moved around the galaxy by Goyer makes no sense. This is a constant distraction and a major failure in science fiction story telling. However, if you are doing fantasy, nothing matters... you can move people around your galactic stage on broom-sticks if you want to. 👻

 Psychohistory. A central science fiction element in the Foundation Saga is the fictional science of psychohistory. Asimov had fun with an audacious analogy in which human populations are treated like collections of molecules. Asimov noted that chemists can use statistical analyses to predict the properties of gasses, so let's imagine a science of psychohistory that can predict the future of civilizations. Due to the butterfly effect, I never took psychohistory very seriously and I like the idea that psychohistory was a smoke-screen for Daneel and his positronic robots who were secretly guiding Humanity into the future. 

cover art by Ed Valigursky

The only way that Asimov's Foundation Saga makes sense to me is if the Galactic Empire has had technological stagnation for many thousands of years. The explanation for that stagnation is that Daneel was at work, trying to prevent humans from disrupting his plans which involve first Gaia and then Galaxia. I like to think that Daneel did not want humans doing genetic engineering and altering "human nature". Psychohistory was fragile, and could not deal with changes in human nature. More importantly, Daneel needed a stable concept of "human" against which he could lean his programming of the Laws of Robotics.

I like the way Apple TV's Foundation series has gone ahead and equipped the Galactic Empire with technologies that Asimov could not imagine in the 1940s. However, they also show technology research and development continuing, even as the Empire if starting to collapse. Maybe Apple TV's Foundation series is going to blame the collapse of the Empire entirely on the Cleon Clones.

Daneel

I like to believe that the true power behind Daneel and positronic robots was based on telepathy and time travel technology. After Season One of Apple TV's Foundation series, we have only a fuzzy view of where things are going with the "mentalic" powers of Gaal and Salvor. However, I'm intrigued that there are suggestions of a "mentalic" ability to "look" forwards and backwards through time. How Apple TV's Foundation will merge these "mentalic" abilities with the science of psychohistory remains to be seen.

It may be that psychohistory was only good enough to predict the fall of the Empire; in Apple TV's Foundation series the predictions of psychohistory were quickly derailed by Gaal. In one interpretation, Gaal is playing the role of the Mule and she derailed the Seldon Plan right at the start of the Apple TV Foundation series.

✅ In terms of the entire Foundation story arc, at the end of Season One, Apple TV's Foundation series is basically where Isaac Asimov was after the first two Seldon Crises. 

Will he join the Church
of the Galactic Spirit?

 Towards Season 2. Terminus and the nearby planets of the galactic rim can now form the core of a new civilization based on advanced technology while the old Galactic Empire continues to crumble. However, Apple TV's Foundation series has shown that Seldon's plans for the future were quickly derailed by Gaal's unexpected mentalic powers. In Asimov's original story, The Plan™ was still on track at this point. As a fan of Asimov's Foundation Saga, this divergence by Apple TV's Foundation series does not offend me. I've always felt that psychohistory was used as a ruse by Daneel to hide the true means by which the future could be foreseen. It is interesting that Apple TV's Foundation series has introduced an alternative way to see the future: Gaal and Sal can perceive "visions" that even allow Sal to predict the outcome of a coin flip. However, Apple TV's Foundation series is science fiction then they show runner should explain to viewers how the strange visions of Salvor are based on some future technology.

New in Season Two: who is Yanna Seldon?

I want to know how this type of "mentailic ability" will be developed in coming episodes of the show. However, I don't like all the blood and violence in Apple TV's Foundation series and I doubt if the show runner even cares if there is a science-based explanation for Salvor's unique abilities. It is much easier for Goyer to simply make mindless comicbook fantasy rather than good science fiction in the Asimov style.

Let me out!

 Major Disapointment. Apple TV's Foundation series does not match my tastes in science fiction (I prefer hard science fiction). Every episode of this TV show abandons its opportunities to exploit reason and logic and instead glorifies comicbook-style fantasy adventure. It is painful for me to watch this show; the number one annoyance is the way people like Gaal are magically moved around the galaxy.

Will I watch Season Two? I doubt it. I wonder if Apple TV will hire someone to do a novel based on the series; I'd prefer to read the story and avoid the visual depiction of blood, death and violence that is in the TV series. Of course, I'd also need to find a way to protect my mind from Apple TV's mind-sapping "null field" of unexplained technobabble such as...

DNA repair nanobots

 Nanoparticle Regimen. When is a clone not a clone? In episode 10, the emperor announces that the rebels hid the secret message inside a droid un-cloned Brother Dawn by "corrupting his nanoparticle regimen". In this disjointed comicbook plot, if you don't want to explain something to the audience then just drop some technobabble into the simmering pot of nonsense. As a nerdy Sci Fi fan, I must take the flying technobabble as a challenge; is there some way to make sense of this? Maybe there are DNA detecting medical scanners that are able to look into the bodies of the clones and find random somatic mutations. Then the medical repair nanobots of the Galactic Empire can venture into cells and repair the altered DNA sequences. How the rebels could interfere in this "genetic cleansing" process remains a mystery.

the end of Terminus

 Can't Let Go. My guess is that the producers of Apple TV's Foundation were hoping that after Season One the viewers might have stuck in their mind some bit of eye candy from the show that would make it likely for them to return and pay to see Season Two. In my case, the lingering mental image is that of computer-generated extras, the population of Terminus, standing around in the volcanic tundra of Iceland watching Hari's reincarnation. The scene is so absurdly contrived that is seems like a joke. The risen Hari explains how the rebels of the Foundation can hide from the Evil™ Empire: "Take the Invictus to the far side of your star, activate the quantum drive, but maintain your position in subspace… the energy signature would read as a mega-flare." Sure, that'll work. 😏

Viewers are also explicitly told: "The Empire comprises tens of thousands of worlds." Never mind that in Asimov's imagined Galactic Empire there were 25,000,000 inhabited worlds and Asimov worried even that many would be too few for psychohistory to work. Hollywood story tellers can't deal with big distances, long time spans or a saga that sprawls across millions of worlds, so rather than tell Asimov's story, Apple TV's Foundation goes in another direction. For fans of Asimov, this is a source of annoyance.

Nullifying the Foundation.

 One Pill Makes you Reincarnate. Hari also "explains" the magical Vault™: "I swallowed a pill containing millions of self-replicating molecular machines. Those machines began breaking down my body tissue into all its constituent elements. Then those machines recycled those elements, scooping up more material, ice, micrometeoroids, et cetera, assembling the Vault..." ...while also crafting the magical null field which allows the story writers and viewers to turn off their brains and not question all the comicbook nonsense in Apple TV's Foundation. Science fiction is not about turning off your brain, but Hollywood is the land of the dumb blonde.

Related Reading: "The Problem with Apple TV's Foundation" by James Guild

Next: science fiction from 1962 and beyond

Seldon Crisis

cover art: Michael Whelan

Here on this blog page I comment on the second half of Season One of Apple TV's Foundation. Previously, in discussing episodes 1-5 of the series, I struggled to accommodate myself the the many changes that were made in the process of adapting Asimov's original Foundation Saga (which was crafted in printed stories published in the previous millennium) to the visual format of this new made-for-television version. However, giving Apple TV the benefit of the doubt, I want to see if this television version eventually covers the same ground as Asimov's original saga.

Ghost from the Vault. If you are not familiar with Asimov's original version of the story, I encourage you to read the seven novels that hold the entire Foundation Saga. An alternative strategy is to make use of online resources such as the Seldon Crisis Podcast. In the image to the right on this page is Michael Whelan's portrait of Hari Seldon. In Asimov's original Foundation Saga, holographic recordings of Seldon were stored inside a vault on Terminus. The first of Seldon's recorded messages was timed to be displayed 50 years after the Encyclopedists reached Terminus, at the time of the first "Seldon Crisis".

How I imagine Terminus, near
Anacreon, at the edge of the galaxy,
and the Four Kingdoms.

 Power Shift. In Asimov's Foundation Saga, the first mayor of Terminus City (Salvor Hardin) was able to play off against each other the four nearby Kingdoms of the galactic periphery. That political maneuvering by Hardin gave the First Foundation a chance to avoid being absorbed into the Kingdom of Anacreon. It also marked a shift in power from the Encyclopedists to the mayors.

Cliff Hanger.  Episode 5 of Apple TV's Foundation was presented to viewers so as to make it appear that the Encyclopedia Foundation was in imminent danger of being destroyed by "barbarian" Anacreons. However, rumor has it that show runner David Goyer hopes to be allowed to tell his Foundation story over the course of 80 episodes so nobody watching Season One of the show should fearfully fret, "Is this the end of the Foundation?" 

absurd Hollywood asteroids

 Null Field. Moving on to episode 6, we must discover how Goyer and his blaster-wielding Hardin, she of the spooky visions, will pull the Foundation's bacon out of the fire. Goyer has brought into the Foundation story many technological marvels that are being deployed in ways never imagined by Asimov. Asimov wrote his early Foundation stories before the Atomic Era and before there were digital computers and before DNA was recognized as the genetic molecule of inheritance. However, Goyer and his writers deploy DNA-detecting force fields, human cloning, a mysterious cognition-disrupting "null" field and nanotechnology.

In Asimov's Foundation Saga, atomic power was a key futuristic technology that had to be transferred from the crumbling Galactic Empire to the fledgling Foundation on Terminus. In Apple TVland, Dorwin, a spaceship commander from the Empire, holds in his body the Imperial nanotechnology that can allow access to the mysterious "ghost ship" Invictus. 

Goyer: "Gunna clone me a Cleon!"

  Empire, the White Dude. What is the amazing technology (or technologies) that will allow Apple TV's Foundation to become the most powerful force in the periphery of the galaxy? And is Goyer brewing up a lurking Second Foundation that will deploy "mentalic" powers, possibly on Seldon's home world of Helicon? I also must ask: why has Apple TV's Foundation made such a big deal out of the emperor and turned Cleon into a family of clones? I admit that Asimov never really successfully depicted the Empire as a galaxy-spanning civilization of the future. But must Hollywood punt and turn a vast assemblage of 25,000,000 planets into a single man is called "empire"? And will Pelleas Anthor magically emerge from Apple TV's Anthor Belt?

This is the "teaser" for Isaac Asimov's 1942 story that introduces the idea of Anacreons finding a "ghost ship". 

Foundation cover art: Hubert Rogers

With the world at war in 1942, Asimov was writing the adventures of Salvor Hardin, a shrewd politician and first mayor of Terminus City who managed to keep the fledgling First Foundation safe from its bellicose neighbors. Did Asimov write warfare into his science fiction story? No. In Asimov's Foundation Saga, the Encyclopedists created a scientifically literate culture on Terminus that allowed the Foundation to flourish among the petty kingdoms of the galactic periphery which had reverted to low-technology barbarism. During the second Seldon Crisis, Asimov's Hardin is over 60 years old and is not going to be having fist fights with the military commander of Anacreon. Apple TV's Salvor has a brawl with the Grand Huntress inside the Invictus. Asimov's Salvor used his control over advanced technologies to out-fox the military barbarians of Anacreon. 

interior art by Charles Schneeman

In Asimov's story, the Foundation not only repairs an old derelict Empire spaceship, but provides the worlds of the Four Kingdoms with much needed infrastructure support for hospitals, power plants and factories. But what does Apple TV's Foundation emphasize? Obviously, the old warship, because Goyer is producing Star Wars or Dune or some other blast 'em all plot line that has previously made money on the screen and can be sold to Apple TV executives, but not Asimov's story. Goyer and Apple TV are in love with violence. They can't even imagine telling Asimov's story about Hardin in which alternatives to violence are found. Apple TV's Foundation is what must be expected from the Hollywood sausage making machine and this TV show is a strange set piece that glaringly clashes with Asimov's literary legacy. Apparently the argument was made that it would be too boring for short attention span TV viewers to deal with scenes like that shown to the left, situations where rational people calmly talk to each other. Yes, Hollywood has come so very far since the pulp magazines of the 1940s. 😝

"Blood? I don't remember any blood."

 Please Sir, I want More Blood. Must Apple TV's Foundation provide television viewers with an endless stream of sickening violence? Murder an artist for reading a book, kill Seldon with a knife in the belly, murder Dorwin with a shot to the head, hang innocent diplomats, shoot a scientist's spouse in the leg, bombard innocent civilians from orbit, kill a 100,000,000 people in a terrorists attack, shoot arrows through people's necks, use your clanking robot to snap a boy's neck, etc etc etc etc.

I can't really blame Goyer for the horrific obsession over violence that exists in Hollywood. Like me, if you were to ask people about all the blood in Apple TV's Foundation, you'd be likely to hear, responses like, "Blood? What blood?" Television viewers don't even notice the violence and blood in this show because they've been completely desensitized to violence by Hollywood and have seen far worse on other shows.

Hollywood's Death Wish.

 Irony. I'd be willing to make an effort to live with the blood and violence in Apple TV's Foundation if it was actually needed in order to tell this story. However, in my opinion, going for the gore was a choice made by a few misguided folks in TV-land, a bad choice that was not needed. I'm not surprised that television viewing is in decline. What if Hollywood is like the Galactic Empire and can't see that their industry is going to collapse unless they change their ways? I suppose it is a lesson of capitalism... some folks relentlessly rode the horse and carriage industry all the way to the bottom.

mystery device behind the ear

 An Alternative. During the show, Gaal chastises Hari for breaking up her relationship with her lover and getting Raych killed. Hari reminds Gaal that she was involved in the sequence of events leading to this unexpected outcome; she made the choice to go to Trantor, knowing it would endanger her family on Synnax and Gaal told the emperor that if the emperor executed Hari then the Galactic Empire would fall quicker. There is always more than one way to look at things. Similarly, I'd like to offer my rebuttal to the idea that Apple TV's Foundation needed to include this much violence in order to keep an audience. I have to ask: why not try making an interesting science fiction story (in this case, just use Asimov's story) and in that way earn an audience? The main problem seems to be that the people in charge Apple TV's Foundation like comic book violence and don't know any other way to tell a story. It is sad. As a science fiction fan, I'd like to hear about the consciousness recording device that Raych took off of Hari's body, but instead all I got was a bunch of blood.

Episode 6.

Comic book adventure.

 Master of Cliffhangers. I suppose Goyer learned a lot from Star Wars. If your absurd plot requires that your hero make an impossible escape from a hopeless situation, sometimes you are better off not trying to put it on screen, lest your audience laugh at your show. So, after the Anacreon soldiers take control of Terminus City and throw Sal into a dungeon, viewers didn't get to see how two children break Salvor out of jail.

Then, having been sprung from jail, Sal, the peace-maker, has to destroy the Anacreon spaceships, because... plot. I thought the voice-over was saying, "Use the Force, Luke," as Sal dodged 1000 bullets while shooting down an army of Anacreon soldiers. 

spaceship fall down go boom

Conveniently, the Anacreons have stacked explosives next to their ships so that Sal's dad can walk up, detonate the explosives and destroy the Anacreon fleet. For Apple TV's Foundation nothing in the story line needs to make sense; all that counts is having a satisfying explosion or other "exciting TV moment" every 5 minutes. Sigh. One of the joys of reading science fiction stories by Asimov is seeing a logical progression of events that lead to a reasoned conclusion. Apple TV's Foundation has other goals.

Let's Examine Empire

 Prescience. Who knows what is going on with Sal in this story? Just show more bloody head shots and explosions and hope nobody notices that the "plot" makes no sense. Something makes Sal get woozy at the critical moment so that dear old dad will die and not Sal. Anyhow, we are off to find the Death Star ghost ship, Invictus. 

Nudity. One big surprise in episode 6 is that Apple TV's nudity taboo developed a small crack. We got a one second glimpse of a woman's buttocks. We also learned that the young Cleon is a natural born hunter, which may tell us something profound about Mr. Empire. But what?

How shall we define "human"?

 Reincarnation. For me, another big surprise from Apple TV's Foundation producers that arrived in episode 6 was the idea that Demerzel the robot is a devout Luminist. A key tenet of Luminism is reincarnation. One of the more amusing robot stories that Asimov wrote was called "Reason". In "Reason", a clever robot invents a new religion.  In Asimov's Foundation Saga, Daneel the positronic robot is 20,000 years old and for a short time he publicly plays the role of Demerzel. In Apple TV's Foundation, we are told that the Luminism religion is 15,000 years old. Could it be that Luminism was begun by Demerzel? Again, just like the Star Bridge, is Luminism something that can be created and controlled by Demerzel and used to contribute to the fall of the Galactic Empire? 

The other part of the reincarnation thread in Apple TV's Foundation is the ability of Salvor to experience "visions" of things that Gaal previously saw during her (Gaal's) life. Is Salvor in some sense a reincarnation of Gaal? 

Robot having a bad day.

 What would Daneel Do? In one of Asimov's positronic robot novels, Daneel has a conversation with the first telepathic robot, Giskard, in which Giskard admits to having thought of Daneel as being a human being. Also, Asimov's robots such as Daneel struggled with their programming and how to decide when they should follow either the First or the Zeroth Law of Robotics. Even if Demerzel in Apple TV's Foundation is a millenniums-old mastermind who is secretly guiding Humanity into the future, there is room for indecision and conflict in Demerzel's inner thinking and actions. 

 WWDD. What would Asimov's Daneel Do? What will Apple's Demerzel do? Stay tuned...

Kept in the dark.
Apple Spacer

 Spacers. I'm struggling to accommodate myself to the "Spacers" that have been included in Apple TV's Foundation. In Asimov's fictional universe, Spacers did not play a role in hyper-jump spaceship travel. The idea of a special creature that makes space travel possible seems to have been lifted out of Dune. Many scenes in Apple TV's Foundation don't look realistic, so one solution is to turn down the light level. Asimov's gene-modified Spacers were hermaphroditic human variants, and I wonder if he might have told us more about them had he found a way to continue his Foundation Saga beyond Foundation and Earth.

"They Said Foundation Couldn't Be Filmed, and It Still Hasn't Been" source

hey, barbarians, don't mess with Hari... get the point?

 Apple Fails Science. Foundation should be science fiction, but Doyer turned it into comic book fantasy and, sadly, Apple TV's Foundation does not make sense. This is probably Apple TV's biggest insult to Isaac Asimov, who as a scientist took pains to create science fiction stories, not comic books. So, we are told that the the Anacreons don't have faster-than-light spaceships. Now, Anacreon is 26 light years away from Terminus. We are told that Phara was a young girl on Anacreon 40 years ago when the empire blasted the planet. She grows up and becomes the commander of Anacreon's military forces. 

is Shadow Master Obrecht a robot?

 Mega Flare. Then the Grand Huntress must have packed up a bunch of arrows, gotten in her spaceship and traveled (Goyer says at half light speed) to the Terminus star system where, with her boiling anger at the emperor, she waited patiently for the Invictus to randomly jump in from across the universe. The Anthor Belt must be in the Terminus star system because within 2 weeks of the Invictus "randomly" appearing in the Anthor Belt, Phara tried to board Invictus and failed, destroyed the Imperial communications system linking Terminus to Trantor, landed her army on Terminus, captured Dorwin (who had been sent by the Emperor to investigate the communications breakdown) and used his nanobots to get into Invictus. And we still have not learned how the Vault™ got to Terminus before the Deliverance. Previously, I marveled about how the sub-lightpeed Deliverence traveled 50,000 light-years in five years. 

All the emperor's girls

So, Doyer and Apple TV fail physics and it has implications for the bogus biology of the story. The emperor has a magic force shield that somehow prevents a human body from being damaged after falling ten stories and striking the ground. The emperor's brain, in addition to not having a soul, seems to magically have no momentum. More magical biology: Dorwin's spaceship explodes and disintegrates, but Dorwin magically survives and is found laying on the ground. Does he have a personal force shield like the emperor? No, this is apparently more Hollywood/comic book nonsense, but we can't rule out that Dawn and Dorwin have SuperDuper™ medical nanites that make them hard to kill.

Episode 6 provided some more insight into the emperor's family life. Demerzel is like a mother to the Cleon clones and there is a whole harem of women available for the sexual pleasure of the clones. 

explain the genetic engineering of the Spacers, please

 Golly Mr. Science. We are also given a future technology tidbit: the memories of the harem girls are erased after they spend time with Cleon. As a science fiction fan, I'd like to hear more about futuristic technologies such as this memory erasure process. Sadly, Apple TV can't seem to spare the screen time to explain such things to viewers. I've been bored with what is on the screen for so much of this series, I wish that they had actually tried to include topics that are of interest to science fiction fans.

 Episode 7.

the ghost of a Pokémon

The more I watch the interactions of Demerzel with the emperor, the more I suspect that Demerzel can control minds as depicted by Asimov with his positronic robots Daneel and Giskard. The emperor is upset because Demerzel bowed to a Luminist, and then a moment later he seems to have forgotten the matter. Were his memories altered?

 Blood Spatter. Meanwhile, off in another absurdly high-density Hollywood asteroid belt, Luke Sal approaches the Death Star ghost ship which, although the greatest killing machine of the Empire, it just happens to have crummy defenses that Luke Sal can penetrate. Is this another "gift" from Demerzel, a hyper-jump spaceship provided to the fledgling Foundation? Who knows? Maybe after 12,000 years of the Galactic Empire there are thousands of "ghost ships" bouncing around the galaxy like prized Pokémon.

consciousness recorder

 See the Future. I'll confess that Asimov's original Foundation Trilogy did not get up to full speed until the arrival of the Mule. In Asimov's Foundation Saga, the predictions of psychohistory were correct all the way through the first few Seldon Crises. For Apple TV's Foundation, Seldon's plan was apparently derailed sooner, by Gaal's ability to see the future. We still have not learned why Raych was supposed to go to Helicon, but episode 7 suggests the possibility that Gaal, with her magical ability to see the future, can replace Raych and play a role in establishing the Second Foundation.

The interesting science fiction element that is exposed in episode 7 is a futuristic means to "record a person's conscious experiences". We are told that Seldon's consciousness was recorded and off-loaded into a spaceship's computer system after his death. 

the immortal founder

 Immortality. Also, the clone emperors constantly record their experiences and transmit them to "backup clones" that can be "decanted" and replace a killed Cleon. Dorwin has a recorder in his brain that records everything that happens to him. This technology is what allows for the electronic "rebirth" of Seldon and it is even possible to make multiple copies of Seldon's "ghost".

There is a hint in episode 7 that this unexpected future, with a Gaal who can have visions of the future, is working out better than Seldon had anticipated. The copy of Seldon on the Raven reports that there have been fewer deaths among the Foundationers on Terminus than originally estimated. Having read commentaries on future episodes, this also involves Salvor Hardin and her "mentalic" abilities, apparently inherited from her parents. However, it has not been explained how "raven" Seldon on the Raven knows what is happening on Terminus. I suppose he read the script of the show.

medical nanites?

Only in episode 9 is it revealed that there is a second copy of Seldon's "ghost" on Terminus, inside the flying Vault™. I have to wonder if these two digital "ghosts" of Seldon can communicate with each other.

When Phara cuts open Dorwin's hand, is she revealing that he has Hi Tek™ nanotechnology in his body? If these nanobots can rapidly heal someone's body, then why not provide that technology to the Imperial soldiers who go with Dorwin to Terminus? Obviously, we are not supposed to ask such questions. More importantly, it is the nanobots that will get Phara inside the Invictus.

 Episode 8.

Hugo's space walk.

  The Vision Thingy. Spock said, "In every revolution there's one man with a vision." I'm getting the feeling that in the future of Apple TV's Galactic Empire, everyone, including the robot Demerzel gets to have a vision. Folks like Salvor are special only because she gets lots of them. It looks like Demerzel is in a struggle with the emperor, perhaps trying to control his fate and the collapse of the Empire, but also struggling against her own programming.

 Stars End. In episode 8, Seldon reveals to Gaal that he wants to have a Second Foundation on Helicon. The idea that a black hole is a "star's end" state is cute, but I'm not buying the idea that you could have a habitable planet in orbit around a black hole.

 Neural Interface. I think it was stated in episode 8 that about 700 years before Seldon, the Spacers were not yet available to guide hyperspace-jump ships through the jump. Also, apparently the more modern HiTek™ gizmos like the conscious experience transmitters used by the emperor (to keep the backup clones updated) must not have been available back when Invictus was built. So at the end of the episode, we see Salvor trying to physically link her brain into the control system of Invictus. And explosions and flying fists, just so you know it was exciting.

Magical Astroids, again. Every time the viewers must be reminded that Demerzel is a robot, she has a bad skin day. 

The Invictus light show.

Every time someone has to magically get somewhere in outer space, just send them through a SuperDense Hollywood Asteroid Field™. In Episode 8, Hari and Raven must penetrate the "debris field" to get to Helicon. Gaal argues with Hari and begins a century-long space cruise in her handy-dandy and always reliable escape pod. Will Gaal end up playing a Mule-like role, continuing to mess with Hari's plan? Hugo, on his floating journey through the Anthor Belt, arrives at a handy phone booth in space and calls in the Thespis fleet which apparently hangs out in the Belt waiting for such a call. 

a bloody mystery

Being there. Rushing in through the asteroids that were previously almost too closely packed to allow human bodies to slip through, the Thespis ships arrive at the Invictus just in time to accomplish nothing, but we got the number of union specified explosions for the episode! In episode 9, we learn that the Thespis fleet just needs to be there.

Magical Null Field. The magical null field of the Vault™ continues to expand, which might conveniently cause the Anacreon soldiers on Terminus to loose control of the perimeter barrier that they are using to hold the people of Terminus prisoner.

Hari's Resurrection

 Episode 9. Now the magical null field has grown larger, so as to incapacitate everyone on Terminus, but it is a nice warm day so nobody freezes to death while they lay on the ground unconscious.

The Crisis of Plot Absurdity. After Salvor spends several episodes "solving problems" with her fists and a blaster, we finally see her years before, as a child, learning from her father the idea that "violence is for incompetents". After killing the Grand Huntress, Sal can then magically get the people of Thepsis and Anacreon to end their centuries of conflict.

Everyone gather around the Prime Radiant and sing Kumbaya. Salvor uses the Prime Radiant like a magic wand to turn off the null field and then a copy of Hari pops out of the Vault™. With Hari resurrected, now Anacreon, Thespis and Terminus can unite to start a new civilization at the edge of the galaxy.

Miss Honeypot the gardener (Azura).

 Highly Contrived. The "plot" of this episode was so full of unbelievable/miraculous events that I suspect the null field scrambled the brain function of the writers and crew making Apple TV's Foundation. 

Comicbook Adventure. The whole Hugo magically spacewalking through the asteroids sequence is just as silly as Gaal bouncing around the universe in her cryopod. Episode 10 is called "The Leap", but that term seems to be the description of Hugo's magical ability to jump from place to place through the Anthor Belt.

When you need to magically make Hugo and the Beggar and the Thespian fleet arrive at Terminus, the writers introduce the idea that everything nearby the Invictus is simply sucked through hyperspace along with the jumping spaceship. 

I can't watch.
Please make it stop.

 Hollywood Logic. And yes, when traveling through hyperspace you can't survive unless you are carefully made unconscious, except for all the people who were not carefully made to be unconscious before this jump. None of this comicbook adventure makes any sense, but the folks at Apple TV think it makes great television. For me, as a science fiction fan who can't turn off my brain, it is painful to watch. All the talk in this episode about how people need to use logic and not emotions should have been applied to the creation of the show's plot.

More Clones Please, or Fighting Clones with Clones. The whole plot thread about Cleon Clones not being genetically identical because conspirators have been secretly altering the clone's genes seems absurd. The show previously introduced the fact that DNA scans can be made instantly, but now, because... plot... the genetic variations in the clones are never noticed. Is there some way to make sense of this Dawn-dates-Azura 💕 thread in the show? Maybe this is simply our way of finding out that Demerzel always had a long range plan for how to put an end to the clone dynasty, just at the right time, as the Galactic Empire was made to collapse. 

The Cleon art history project... may the Bird
of Paradise teach a valuable lesson to
the young grasshopper.

 Bad Choices. In Asimov's Foundation Saga, an unhappy palace gardener kills the emperor. I always felt that the assassination of the emperor was one of the more absurd and contrived parts of Asimov's Saga. Rather than avoid silly and contrived plot elements, the writers for Apple TV's Foundation seem to have made a big effort devise an even more absurdly contrived conspiracy to replace the emperor with a cloned copy who is a rebel trying to end the clone dynasty.

Speaking of contrived... In episode 9 we finally learn why Apple TV's Foundation has the elder clones endlessly painting the palace. That was all a teaser for using the palace paintings to trick Dawn into running away and leading Dusk to Azura's co-conspirators.

If we walk into the light will
we finally get out of Season One?

 Sciensy. Dawn has defective cones and color blindness. But he can correct the defect by wearing two magic brain prosthetics on his temples. I wish I could use this kind of technology to correct for the inability of Apple TV's Foundation writers to write a coherent science fiction plot.

There, there... it's almost over darling...
why not take a shower and get the bad
stink of Season One off of you?

 Mercifully Season One is almost over. Now we just need to find out how Sal got her magical powers and abilities from the Galactic Spirit. Having read a summary description of episode 10, I already know that Salvor is the daughter of Gaal and Raych. What other "big reveals" await in episode 10?

 Episode 10.
Demerzel ripping her skin off was a disgusting ending to Season One. I'm not sure that it does any good to think about how Asimov wrote the Demerzel character; the TV show seems to have taken robot technology off in its own direction.

After an emotional rant about how she hates being lied to, Sal's mom finally tells her daughter the truth: that her biological parents were Gaal and Raych. HiTek™ Terminus City in the background, ready to build jump ships.

 Second Foundation. Are Gaal and Salvor the beginnings of the Second Foundation? Will they fly the Beggar to Helicon and work with a copy of Hari to establish a Second Foundation composed of people with the magical mentalic ability to predict the future? Will we ever get an explanation of how Helicon can exist as an inhabited world in orbit around a black hole?

Sorry, but I'm not buying the whole Invictus can make a megaflare to hide us from the empire idea. But because Captain Hugo says it will work, we have to go along with it. 

Phara makes peace with Terminus.

In Asimov's Foundation Saga, because the Encyclopedia Foundation was a center for science and technology, the First Foundation not only had all the technology of the Galactic Empire, but was also able to start making new technological advances such as atomic power sources that were much smaller than what the old Galactic Empire had. According to Asimov, it was the lack of certain metals at the rim of the galaxy that led to the development of miniaturization of spaceship and shield technologies.

you call that an explanation?

 Poly Wants Some Answers. There's an amusing scene in episode 10 where after the adults are all done speaking, a couple of the dismayed kids on Terminus demand some answers. I suppose we will again see Poly, Keir, Gia and Laylo in Season Two.

In Apple TV's Foundation, just as soon as Terminus has the Invictus, they can start manufacturing new hyperspace jump-drive spaceships. 

how Hari used math to predict the location of the Invictus

There was some silliness in episode 10 about how Hari had been able to use mathematics to predict the "random" hyperspace jumps of the Invictus, so that's why the First Foundation had to be located on Terminus. We got no explanation of what the SuperSecret™ technology hidden inside hyper-jump spacecraft is, something that you can just look at and then you suddenly become able to build new jump ships. Never mind that up until this point, civilization on Terminus has been made to look like a bunch of people living in tents in the wastes of Iceland, their one sub-light speed spaceship having been decommissioned, now they can start cranking out new jump ships in their non-existent factories.

Hari's magic reincarnation pill.

 The Magic Pill. We have to wait to find out what two electronic Hari copies will be doing in their spare time. Apparently it is a mistake to assume that the two ghosts of Hari were made in the same way. Hari1 on Helicon is an electronic artificial intelligence. In episode 10, viewers are told that just before dying, Hari swallowed a magic nanobot pill that during the voyage of Hari's coffin to Terminus transformed his coffin into the magical Vault™ and reconstituted Hari's mind into a new artificial body that we see walking around on Terminus. We were fed some mumbo-jumbo about how the artificial Hari consciousness took 50 years to be reconstituted inside the Vault™. 

Gaal returns home.

 Water World. In all of Season One, we still got no explanation of how the Vault™ generates the magical null field. 

Meanwhile, on Synnax, I was expecting Gaal to return home and be proclaimed the mystical "Seer" who has awakened. Sadly, it appears that human civilization on Synnax has been destroyed by catastrophic sea level rise. 

We must boldly move on-wards to Season Two, but I fear none of the nonsense of Season One will ever be explained and new travesties of technological implausibility await us. 😞

Next: my conclusions about Season One; is Apple TV's Foundation successfully capturing the essence of Isaac Asimov's Foundation Saga?