Foundation: Crucifying A Masterwork

[00:00] A couple years ago, I made a video about

[00:01] Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, where

[00:03] I said I'd love to see an adaptation of

[00:05] the material, but that I didn't really

[00:06] think it was going to happen. Now, that

[00:08] was kind of a um bold thing to say,

[00:11] seeing as Apple had already green-lit a

[00:13] TV show, uh but I thought that either it

[00:15] was going to get canceled or that the

[00:17] final product would be so different from

[00:19] the spirit and ideas of the book that

[00:21] calling it an adaptation would be a bit

[00:23] of a stretch.

[00:25] Seldon said, he said

[00:26] an entire galaxy can pivot around the

[00:28] actions of an individual.

[00:30] So, then you are one of those

[00:31] individuals right?

[00:33] And so, while I definitely

[00:34] underestimated the entire industry's

[00:37] aching desire to make uh the next Game

[00:39] of Thrones and Apple's willingness to

[00:40] pump millions of dollars into a show

[00:42] they immediately hid from the homepage

[00:44] on their website on launch days, the

[00:46] show they made is

[00:48] well, it's a little more J.J. Abrams

[00:50] than it is Gene Roddenberry. But, saying

[00:52] this thing is different from its source

[00:53] material is not necessarily the same as

[00:55] saying this thing is bad.

[00:57] For that, we're going to have to do a

[00:59] little bit of work.

[01:07] To recap a little, Foundation is a

[01:09] seven-novel series by science-fiction

[01:11] writer Isaac Asimov. The story is about

[01:13] a mathematician named Hari Seldon who

[01:15] invents a type of math called

[01:17] psychohistory. This allows him to make

[01:19] predictions on what large populations

[01:21] will do over time, and using this, he

[01:23] realizes that the Galactic Empire is

[01:26] going to fall. Stopping the fall is

[01:28] impossible, but the following Dark Ages

[01:30] could be shortened from 12,000 years to

[01:32] just 1,000 years if his plan is

[01:34] followed. This involves a group of

[01:36] scientists making a small settlement on

[01:38] the edge of the galaxy called the

[01:40] Foundation that will eventually start

[01:42] the Second Galactic Empire. The first

[01:44] three novels are actually a collection

[01:46] of nine short stories and novellas,

[01:49] each of which is set decades or

[01:50] centuries after the previous one,

[01:52] meaning very few of the characters are

[01:54] in more than one story. The characters

[01:56] themselves are mostly just plot devices

[01:58] with little in the way of personality or

[01:59] growth, but the charm of the series is

[02:02] that it gives an insight into the larger

[02:04] forces at work in society, political,

[02:06] economic, or social realities. In each

[02:08] story, the Foundation is at risk of

[02:10] being conquered or destroyed, the main

[02:12] characters struggle to save it, but in

[02:14] the end their individual efforts matter

[02:17] a whole lot less than those broader

[02:19] trends at play. Seldon doesn't pin the

[02:22] success of Foundation on any one person

[02:24] heroically battling to the death to save

[02:26] it.

[02:27] Harry said, he said,

[02:28] "An entire galaxy can pivot around the

[02:30] actions of an individual."

[02:32] But on the assumption that groups of

[02:33] people are pretty much the same, and

[02:35] that they're motivated by the same

[02:36] things, and that so long as the people

[02:38] who want to conquer the Foundation are

[02:40] incentivized to leave it alone, they

[02:43] will. So, every story has a sort of

[02:45] anticlimax when it comes to capital A

[02:48] action. There aren't big space battles

[02:50] to read about, but instead the final

[02:52] chapter of any Foundation story is just

[02:54] as thrilling as a Sherlock Holmes

[02:57] revealing a mystery. One of the

[02:58] characters will stand up and explain why

[03:00] things happened the way they did, and

[03:01] the reader slaps their head and says,

[03:03] "Of course." I read these books when I

[03:04] was a teenager, and they were a

[03:06] formative experience for me. Nothing

[03:08] else I read taught me how to look at the

[03:10] world this way, to step outside of the

[03:12] individual or the easy narrative of good

[03:14] versus evil, and look at the desires

[03:17] that motivated society. I honestly do

[03:19] think it is one of the best ways to

[03:21] learn to appreciate systemic issues in

[03:23] our society. And really, if there's

[03:25] anything that I wanted out of an

[03:26] adaptation of this material, it's that

[03:28] it retains this core idea. The exact

[03:30] plots or characters themselves aren't

[03:33] important, so long as the writers come

[03:34] up with new ways to show how societies

[03:36] can behave predictably, and new insights

[03:38] into what motivates those behaviors. So,

[03:41] what did the show do?

[03:43] Well it

[03:45] it's a mixed bag.

[03:49] The pilot episode of the show is really

[03:52] good, Except for the first five minutes,

[03:54] which are really confusing. Rather than

[03:56] organically building the story, the show

[03:58] tries to introduce us to everything

[03:59] everywhere all at once. So, we have our

[04:01] ostensible protagonist, Gaal, giving a

[04:04] voiceover about stuff that doesn't

[04:05] really matter and is sometimes even just

[04:08] incorrect.

[04:09] But I never reached Terminus.

[04:12] Straddling the farthest reaches of

[04:13] civilization.

[04:15] Unsettled by man.

[04:18] This scene on Terminus is here to build

[04:20] up the mystery about what this weird

[04:21] floating vault thing is that people

[04:24] can't seem to get close to, except for

[04:26] this character, Salvor Hardin. It's a

[04:28] literal mystery box, you guys. And then

[04:31] it cuts to 35 years earlier on a

[04:33] different planet, Trantor, and we get

[04:35] exposition on why this guy, Hari Seldon,

[04:37] is so important. And on top of this, the

[04:39] voiceover starts name-dropping

[04:41] characters that do not appear on this

[04:43] season of the show.

[04:44] Hober Mallow.

[04:46] The Mule.

[04:47] I would learn these names one day.

[04:49] These are characters from plotlines that

[04:50] will take entire seasons to fully

[04:52] introduce. So, from the perspective of a

[04:54] new viewer, it's too much information

[04:56] that they'll never remember. And from

[04:58] the perspective of a book reader, it's a

[04:59] huge overcommitment and distracting from

[05:02] the main plot. It's only after all of

[05:03] this that we meet our actual protagonist

[05:05] on a planet called Synnax, and I really

[05:08] wish they started the show here or even

[05:10] earlier. There's a later episode that

[05:12] has a half-hour-long flashback to Gaal's

[05:15] life on this planet that I wish was just

[05:17] the start of the show. In the pilot, we

[05:19] literally only we see her saying goodbye

[05:21] to her parents as she boards a spaceship

[05:22] to go to the capital. But in the

[05:23] flashback episode, we get to see what

[05:25] life is like on her theocratic homeworld

[05:28] that's been ravaged by climate change,

[05:30] how her people are violently opposed to

[05:31] science, how she admires Hari Seldon as

[05:34] a mathematician from afar. There's a

[05:36] whole story surrounding her choice to

[05:38] remove her prayer stones, secretly

[05:40] entering a math competition that will

[05:41] get her off of the planet, how she's

[05:43] motivated to leave so that she can find

[05:45] a solution to her planet's flooding.

[05:47] There's conflict with her religious

[05:48] father, and then finally her leaving her

[05:50] family. That is some really good science

[05:53] fiction character-based drama. This

[05:55] would have made for a great first act of

[05:56] the show, and I secretly believe it may

[05:58] have even originally been written as the

[06:01] introduction, but then the story got

[06:03] rearranged later out of fear that it was

[06:05] too slow of a start. As we'll see with

[06:06] the rest of the show, the writers are

[06:08] very interested in fleshing out the

[06:09] characters of this story, which is

[06:12] excellent. As I said in my last video on

[06:14] Asimov, his characters are the weakest

[06:16] part of his writing. They are

[06:18] one-dimensional. Sometimes they can be

[06:20] quippy and fun, but we don't see them

[06:23] lead interesting emotional lives. It's

[06:25] not what the stories are about.

[06:26] Injecting more of that into the story is

[06:28] great and pretty necessary when it comes

[06:30] to the realities of what gets made into

[06:32] television today. I just wish that they

[06:34] had led with that here rather than a

[06:36] jumbled start of three or four different

[06:38] plot lines. This mysterious scene on

[06:40] Terminus is fine as a cold open, but it

[06:42] doesn't really need the voiceover. And

[06:44] why show us Hari Seldon now when our

[06:46] main character is going to meet him

[06:47] later on, and we're going to have to

[06:49] reintroduce him anyway? Despite all

[06:51] this, the jumbled start, the unnecessary

[06:53] voiceover, the rush to get Gaal off the

[06:55] planet, the rest of the episode is quite

[06:57] good. It's the closest the show comes to

[06:59] directly adapting anything from the

[07:01] books themselves, as this is, with a few

[07:03] additions, a direct adaptation of the

[07:05] first story in the Foundation series,

[07:07] The Psychohistorians. On one side of the

[07:09] plot, we watch Gaal meet Hari Seldon and

[07:11] learn about his discovery that the

[07:12] Empire will fall.

[07:13] The Empire will fall. Interstellar wars

[07:16] will be endless. 10,000

[07:19] worlds reduced to radioactive cinders.

[07:23] The Empire doesn't like that he's been

[07:24] saying this and is worried that it will

[07:26] cause people to lose confidence in the

[07:27] regime, so they have him and Gaal

[07:29] arrested. Hari is tried, and Gaal is

[07:32] pressured into testifying against him.

[07:34] In the end, they both manage to get

[07:35] themselves released because the Empire

[07:37] fears the political backlash of

[07:39] silencing a popular critic. The other

[07:41] half of the episode focuses on the

[07:43] Emperors themselves. That's Emperors

[07:45] plural as there are three of them, all

[07:47] clones of Emperor Cleon from 400 years

[07:50] earlier, but made at different ages.

[07:52] There's Brother Dawn, who is the heir to

[07:54] the throne, Brother Day, who is the

[07:55] ruling Emperor, and Brother Dusk, the

[07:57] former Emperor who is now supposed to

[07:59] act as an advisor.

[08:01] And also add to this giant moving mural

[08:03] of the Empire's history. The Imperial

[08:06] hierarchy is entirely unique to the show

[08:08] and I love this idea so much. First of

[08:11] all, I think it's really funny that the

[08:12] idea probably happened because David

[08:14] Goyer mistyped Emperor Cleon as Emperor

[08:16] Clone and thought, "Hey, that's an

[08:19] idea." Second, because it's a practical

[08:21] way to keep Lee Pace on the show and

[08:23] while I have had words to say about The

[08:25] Hobbit franchise, he was unquestionably

[08:28] the best part of it. And I'm glad to see

[08:29] my favorite man crush have a role where

[08:31] he wasn't covered in obscene amounts of

[08:32] makeup. What was I saying? Um

[08:34] Oh, yeah, third, I like the genetic

[08:36] dynasty as a concept because it

[08:38] perfectly articulates why Hari Seldon is

[08:41] right that the Empire is in trouble. His

[08:44] entire point is that the Empire is

[08:45] stagnant and the Empire is literally run

[08:48] by clones. Their leadership never

[08:50] changes. The Empire cannot adapt with

[08:53] the times and is going to get run over

[08:55] soon.

[08:56] You offer nothing new, just a younger

[08:59] grape

[09:02] from the same vine, destined for the

[09:04] same old bottle.

[09:06] Oof, like damn, that line is perfect.

[09:09] During their half of the pilot, Brother

[09:10] Day is overseeing a dispute between two

[09:12] border regions, Anacreon and Thespis,

[09:15] who have long hated each other. Later,

[09:17] there's a huge terrorist attack on the

[09:19] Star Bridge, this giant elevator that

[09:22] takes people up into space. The attack

[09:24] is immediately blamed on these two

[09:26] factions. The attack is what convinces

[09:27] the Emperor to let Hari start the

[09:29] Foundation at the farthest fringe of the

[09:31] Empire. After episode 1, I felt pretty

[09:34] good about the direction of the show.

[09:36] The main plot has been set up. The

[09:38] explanation for psychohistory is

[09:40] consistent with what the concept is in

[09:41] the books. It feels like an Asimov

[09:44] story. And it looks phenomenal.

[09:47] Seriously, I'm talking mostly about the

[09:48] writing decisions in this video cuz, you

[09:50] know, that's that's my name. But the

[09:52] visual effects are outstanding. The

[09:54] composition direction cinematography

[09:56] it's all top-notch. And it's stunning to

[09:58] get that kind of attention to an Asimov

[10:00] story. An author whose adaptations have

[10:02] typically suffered from being

[10:03] underfunded. So, despite a few issues

[10:05] that are easy to dismiss, this episode

[10:08] was a promising start for the series.

[10:09] Unfortunately, episode two feels like

[10:11] we've built up all this speed and then

[10:13] drove it directly into a wall.

[10:18] Given the more or less direct adaptation

[10:20] of the psychohistorians in episode one,

[10:22] I expected that the show would spend the

[10:23] rest of the season over on Terminus,

[10:26] showing us some version of the first

[10:27] crisis from the second short story, The

[10:30] Encyclopedists.

[10:31] The Encyclopedists. That is what happens

[10:34] after this episode. So, episode two

[10:36] feels more like an extended pilot. But

[10:39] it feels like the pilot episode for a

[10:41] completely different series. At least as

[10:43] far as everything that happens on the

[10:45] ship bound for Terminus is concerned.

[10:47] We're introduced to a bunch of new

[10:49] supporting characters and there are a

[10:50] ton of little side plots about Gaal

[10:53] preparing for life on Terminus. We get a

[10:55] scene where they run a simulation to

[10:57] test their ability to fight off the

[10:58] local wildlife. Her friend Lowry is

[11:00] pregnant and has to decide what to do

[11:02] with the baby since being on the ship

[11:03] with all of this radiation will

[11:05] potentially lead to mutations, while

[11:07] raising a baby on an ice-cold

[11:09] uninhabited Terminus isn't exactly ideal

[11:11] either. Gaal sits in on a budget meeting

[11:13] in Hari's place and gives this big

[11:14] speech about how the Encyclopedia

[11:16] project the Foundation is working on has

[11:18] this enormous responsibility since it's

[11:20] going to choose what gets remembered by

[11:22] the next civilization and that we should

[11:23] be critical of our assumptions about

[11:25] what is important. Hari gives this big

[11:27] speech about how everyone on this

[11:28] project, even the laundry workers, will

[11:30] be memorialized. There's a romance plot

[11:32] line with Gail and Rache falling in

[11:34] love, and Rache is mad at Harry for

[11:36] reasons that we don't know yet. Did uh

[11:38] Did that just sound like a bunch of

[11:40] disconnected stuff? Well, that's what it

[11:41] felt like in the episode, too. There's

[11:43] so many little buds of subplots, so many

[11:46] little half starts, and then

[11:52] Yeah.

[11:54] We spend an entire episode setting up

[11:55] the world of the ship, all of its

[11:57] characters, and then it goes

[11:59] uh pretty much nowhere, at least for

[12:01] Gail. Now, I understand that a lot of

[12:02] this is set up for later stories, but

[12:04] for Gail, it's all just a false start.

[12:07] It feels like an episode of Star Trek

[12:09] where we're setting up all of these

[12:11] inter-crew issues that are going to be

[12:13] the foundation of later episodes, and

[12:16] then it's just not. It's all over much

[12:19] too quickly. She gets put into a cryo

[12:21] pod and shot out of the ship and spends

[12:23] the rest of the season off on her own

[12:25] detour of an adventure. It's here that I

[12:27] really started feeling the influence of

[12:29] Game of Thrones on the plot. You know,

[12:30] as if the creators believed killing this

[12:32] character this way would generate enough

[12:34] mystery and buzz for the show that it

[12:36] would draw in a dedicated audience. But,

[12:39] I think it does the opposite. I think it

[12:41] alienates the audience. This isn't the

[12:43] resolution to a character arc. It's

[12:45] played entirely as a mystery here.

[12:47] There's an earlier scene where Harry is

[12:49] portrayed as insensitive while Rache is

[12:51] tense and resentful that we're meant to

[12:53] take as Rache's motivation for the

[12:54] killing.

[12:55] You probably don't remember the first

[12:57] meal that you and I had together, do

[12:59] you?

[13:01] No,

[13:02] I can't say I do.

[13:04] But, this is all a red herring. The

[13:05] scene hints at a few details from the

[13:07] prequel novels where their relationship

[13:10] is a focus of the story, but here it's

[13:12] just sort of nodded at without being

[13:14] explored. We haven't gotten enough of

[13:16] their dynamic to be invested in what

[13:18] happens here. It's too early for that.

[13:20] The choice seems to me like an effort to

[13:22] throw readers of the books off the

[13:24] scent. A statement of intent that this

[13:26] is a different story than the one we're

[13:28] familiar with, but I don't think it

[13:30] works for either audience. For book

[13:32] readers, it's not surprising or shocking

[13:34] enough to be interesting since we

[13:36] already know the story is going to go

[13:37] far beyond the life of Harry Seldon. And

[13:40] for new viewers, it's just confusing.

[13:43] So, along with all the non-starter

[13:44] subplots, the whole episode feels like

[13:46] wasted time. What isn't wasted time is

[13:48] all of the bonus content I have over on

[13:51] my Patreon. Video about The Batman, all

[13:53] my thumbnail art is HD wallpaper ready

[13:55] JPEGs, a recommended reading list. Some

[13:58] people wanted it. More stuff coming

[14:00] soon. I swear that Clone Wars video is

[14:02] close, I promise. But more than that,

[14:03] you guys have been so phenomenal at

[14:05] supporting the channel recently that we

[14:06] are rapidly approaching our next goal,

[14:09] at which point I'm going to have uh some

[14:11] very simple fun and get all of my Marvel

[14:13] Phase 4 opinions out in one go on a live

[14:15] stream so that I never talk about them

[14:17] again. It'll be the first live stream

[14:18] I've ever made here, so it'll also be a

[14:20] sort of ask me anything stream. If we

[14:22] hit the goal after that, I am also

[14:24] planning on making a video called All My

[14:26] Guilty Pleasures. Ooh, what could that

[14:28] be about? Sounds juicy. Anyway, thanks

[14:30] for supporting the channel. Double thank

[14:31] you if you support the channel on

[14:33] Patreon at patreon.com/justright.

[14:36] Okay, back to complaining about

[14:37] Foundation. The Emperor's plotline in

[14:40] this episode fares better as he takes

[14:42] revenge for the Star Bridge attack by

[14:43] bombing both an Acrion and Thespis to

[14:46] smithereens. This moment really works as

[14:49] it's clear how much of an overreaction

[14:51] this is and how much it is motivated not

[14:53] by truth or justice, but by the selfish

[14:56] preservation of power. And we can see

[14:58] why if they keep making decisions like

[14:59] this, the Empire is going to degrade as

[15:02] people resist their tyrannical control.

[15:05] The other major revelation on this

[15:07] episode is that Demerzel, who we've seen

[15:10] as a loyal servant of the three

[15:11] Emperors, is actually a robot. And wow,

[15:15] is this ever a choice. Demerzel has

[15:18] probably the most interesting history in

[15:19] Asimov's canon. In the books, he's coded

[15:21] male, so I'll call him he there and she

[15:24] here, just so we're clear. The books he

[15:26] originally appears in are sci-fi murder

[15:28] mysteries, where the main character is

[15:29] assisted by a crime-solving robot. Yes,

[15:32] crime-solving robot. I'm just tickled by

[15:34] that, named Daneel Olivaw. So, Daneel is

[15:37] just like the Watson in a sci-fi

[15:39] Sherlock story, but he ends up becoming

[15:41] the lynchpin by which Asimov ties all of

[15:44] his ongoing series into a single mega

[15:46] series with a single timeline. It's kind

[15:49] of insane, cuz he wrote most of the

[15:51] original books in the '50s and didn't

[15:53] even think about tying them together

[15:54] until the '80s. And Daneel's

[15:56] introduction into the Foundation series,

[15:58] which is the moment the two become one,

[16:00] is the coolest thing ever written, cuz

[16:02] the character goes on a galaxy-wide

[16:04] journey to find the radioactive remains

[16:06] of Earth and then finds a robot on the

[16:08] moon, finds Daneel Olivaw on the moon, a

[16:11] crime-solving robot on the moon who

[16:12] explains the secrets of the universe and

[16:14] how he has guided all of humanity for

[16:16] millennia. It's wild stuff. And then and

[16:18] then in the prequels, which are set back

[16:21] on Trantor before the Foundation starts,

[16:23] we meet this guy named Demerzel, who's

[16:25] the advisor to the emperor and it's only

[16:27] at the end that we get the revelation

[16:29] that Demerzel is a robot and that he is

[16:31] Daneel Olivaw thousands of years after

[16:33] we last saw him in the robot series.

[16:35] It's just a very satisfying reveal after

[16:38] How many novels did I read for this

[16:39] video? All of that is to say there's a

[16:41] lot of mystery and history connected to

[16:44] this character, which means it's

[16:46] honestly perplexing when the show is

[16:48] just like, "Oh yeah, here's Demerzel,

[16:49] she's a robot." But Demerzel's early

[16:51] reveal as a robot sets up another issue

[16:54] that I have with the show and that pops

[16:56] up a lot later on, which I'm going to

[16:58] call

[16:58] Sci-fi concept overload.

[17:02] It's not a really snazzy name, but it's

[17:03] the best I got. See, Asimov's writing is

[17:05] very deliberate and focused. His stories

[17:08] typically dealt with a single idea or a

[17:11] single piece of new technology and

[17:12] really considered all of the

[17:14] ramifications of that technology across

[17:16] the entire plot. He is incredibly

[17:19] meticulous and thorough with this and

[17:21] spends so much attention to the details

[17:24] of his ideas. It's what makes the

[17:25] Foundation book series charmingly

[17:27] anachronistic. It's about a galactic

[17:30] empire, but they still write on paper

[17:32] and smoke cigars like it's the 50s.

[17:34] Because Foundation isn't about

[17:35] technology, it's about sociology. Even

[17:37] though he could have had robots in the

[17:39] series throughout and other kinds of

[17:40] science fiction technology, he only

[17:43] introduces them in a small and measured

[17:45] way when it becomes thematically

[17:47] relevant to the ideas that he's

[17:48] exploring. The TV show, on the other

[17:50] hand, is, by comparison, absolutely

[17:53] reckless with the number of science

[17:55] fiction premises it's just throwing at

[17:57] you all at once. Because, okay, so not

[17:59] only is the story about math so advanced

[18:01] can predict the future with extreme

[18:03] accuracy, but it's also about clones and

[18:06] robots and about people with

[18:07] precognition and the ability to insert

[18:09] memories into other people's minds and

[18:11] force fields that can knock you out and

[18:13] technology that allows you to dump your

[18:15] mind into a computer and about medical

[18:17] technology that can create skin and it's

[18:19] about living holograms. I mean, in this

[18:22] show, the fact that the empire has

[18:23] sci-fi tech that forms skin-tight metal

[18:26] restraints is

[18:27] just like a thing that they have. Asimov

[18:29] could have written an entire short story

[18:31] just about that. Now, granted, a lot of

[18:34] the stuff that I just mentioned was

[18:35] eventually part of Foundation. Like,

[18:38] they're not just pulling all of it out

[18:39] of thin air, but it's all just

[18:41] haphazardly thrown into the story at the

[18:43] start rather than carefully built up

[18:46] over the course of episodes or seasons.

[18:48] The effect of this is that it draws

[18:50] attention away from the main science

[18:52] fiction idea that this series has,

[18:54] psychohistory. I wouldn't be surprised

[18:56] if a new viewer completely forgot that

[18:58] this show was supposed to be about

[19:00] psychohistory because it gets sidelined

[19:02] by so many other science fiction ideas.

[19:04] These other kinds of technology could

[19:06] work in this story,

[19:08] but what I would like to see them do is

[19:09] at least spend some attention on how it

[19:11] might affect psychohistory. If a person

[19:13] can go into cryosleep and affect a

[19:15] society hundreds of years in the future,

[19:17] how does that affect Hari's predictions?

[19:19] What about clones or artificial

[19:21] intelligence? Does he know about

[19:23] Demerzel? It sort of dilutes the idea

[19:25] that populations can be predictable when

[19:27] there are all of these factors adding

[19:29] unpredictability to the equation,

[19:31] especially since most of them are there

[19:32] so that the cast doesn't have to be

[19:34] recycled out every story. Like most of

[19:35] these technologies are different ways to

[19:38] cheat death. So, where episode 1 rather

[19:40] cleanly set up the main plot, the second

[19:42] episode is split into two halves that

[19:44] each have huge problems. One feels like

[19:47] it moves forward an inch while clouding

[19:49] everything in meaningless mystery, while

[19:52] the other made my brain short-circuit.

[19:57] From here on out, the show splits up

[19:59] into four major plot lines. So, I think

[20:01] the best way to tackle them is one by

[20:03] one rather than episodically. These four

[20:05] plot lines are of vastly different

[20:07] quality, and each seemingly has a

[20:09] completely different approach on how it

[20:11] adapts or rather doesn't adapt Asimov,

[20:13] which is at least promising because I

[20:15] think a lot of the problems we'll

[20:16] encounter in some plot lines have

[20:18] solutions that can be found in others.

[20:21] Let's start with Gaal. The Gaal Dornick

[20:23] plot line. The shortest subplot is

[20:25] perhaps also its most consequential if

[20:27] the show doesn't get canceled after a

[20:28] second season. After getting blasted out

[20:30] of the ship in a cryopod, Gaal Dornick

[20:32] arrives at a space station that has no

[20:34] one else on it. The computer will only

[20:36] give her basic access to its systems

[20:39] since the entire station was made for

[20:40] Raych. He was supposed to come in the

[20:42] cryopod, but Gaal witnessing the murder

[20:44] changed things. He sent her instead and

[20:46] was then arrested and executed by the

[20:48] Foundation. Using her super-duper math

[20:50] powers, Gaal figures out where in the

[20:52] galaxy she is and where the ship is

[20:54] going before discovering that the

[20:56] station is controlled by

[20:59] Um hold on a second. Uh

[21:02] an artificially intelligent hologram of

[21:04] Hari Seldon that has all of his thoughts

[21:07] and memories because apparently Harry

[21:09] was able to dump his entire

[21:10] consciousness into a little earbud

[21:12] before his death, which was then put

[21:15] into the knife that killed him,

[21:18] which was then the key to the ship that

[21:22] Gaal is now on allowing him to live

[21:24] again as a hologram on board the

[21:27] spaceship.

[21:28] So, uh the mechanics of this plot line

[21:32] are the most convoluted thing I've ever

[21:34] seen.

[21:35] Like, why is the knife also the key?

[21:37] Like, from a screenwriting perspective,

[21:39] I get why this makes sense. It makes the

[21:40] plot more efficient. You only have one

[21:42] object to deal with instead of two, but

[21:44] it just seems like an illogical choice.

[21:46] Like, like Raych could have just also

[21:48] have had a key and the earbud and given

[21:50] it to her instead of a knife. Like,

[21:52] what's the problem? Now, what matters is

[21:54] what this is all in service of and

[21:56] mainly it's in service of getting Jared

[21:57] Harris's big beautiful face back on the

[21:59] screen because by the time he shows up

[22:01] again, it's been four whole episodes

[22:02] without him. And let me tell you, his

[22:04] presence has been missed. Hologram Harry

[22:06] then provides multiple reasons for why

[22:08] he decided to have Raych kill him.

[22:10] The Foundation needs more than a man to

[22:12] inspire it. It needs a myth that can

[22:15] endure for centuries.

[22:20] And it worked.

[22:21] Do you remember what our mortality

[22:23] projections had been for Terminus?

[22:27] 34.2%.

[22:29] The actual rate was nearly half that.

[22:32] My death galvanized the Foundation.

[22:35] And besides, he also had a super

[22:37] convenient illness that would have

[22:39] caused steep cognitive decline and then

[22:42] everyone would chalk up psychohistory as

[22:44] the ravings of a madman.

[22:47] I don't buy it.

[22:49] I mean, you're egotistical, but I can't

[22:52] see you sacrificing your life just to

[22:54] turn yourself into this. Why not just

[22:56] wait

[22:57] Lethe Syndrome.

[22:58] I think it's a bit of a cop-out to

[23:00] provide two completely different

[23:01] rationales for something like this. In

[23:03] real life, people may have more than one

[23:04] motivation, but in stories, it just

[23:07] weakens what the story is about.

[23:08] Once the symptoms manifest, the

[23:10] cognitive decline is steep. Think it

[23:12] through.

[23:13] We reached Terminus, face famine in the

[23:15] elements, but I'm no longer the hand of

[23:17] our salvation, but the crackpot who

[23:19] dragged everyone through a frigid rock.

[23:21] Here, I feel like the decision comes

[23:23] from a place of insecurity over whether

[23:25] the audience would buy the first

[23:27] explanation. The idea that he was

[23:29] deliberately murdering himself is at

[23:31] least a philosophical statement that the

[23:33] story could then explore. But, it's

[23:34] waved away by Harry immediately

[23:36] conceding the point to Gaal and saying,

[23:37] "Well, anyway, I had to do it because of

[23:39] the super specific disease that I had

[23:41] that justifies all of my shitty

[23:42] behavior." The theme is confused here

[23:45] because the writers felt the need to

[23:46] provide an airtight logic to the actions

[23:48] of the characters rather than letting

[23:50] the beliefs of the characters guide

[23:51] their actions. On top of this, there's a

[23:53] whole other rationale for why Raych had

[23:56] to be the one to kill Harry, which is

[23:58] also pretty jarring. Harry did it this

[24:01] way so that Raych would be forced to

[24:03] flee the ship, separating him from Gaal

[24:05] because Gaal is needed on Terminus to

[24:08] lead the Foundation through its first

[24:10] crisis.

[24:11] You were meant to stay on Terminus to

[24:13] lead Terminus.

[24:14] Exactly.

[24:15] And it's right here, right this very

[24:17] second, where book reader Sage gets a

[24:19] little prickly because again, I am ready

[24:22] to embrace a plot line that is different

[24:24] from the book, but what I wanted to see

[24:26] maintained was that central idea of

[24:27] psychohistory, and here it is blasted

[24:30] out of the airlock. The notion that

[24:32] Harry felt a singular specific person

[24:35] needed to be in a singular specific

[24:37] place in order for the Foundation to

[24:39] survive the crisis goes against the very

[24:42] core of what psychohistory implies. Book

[24:44] Seldon's plan is to put the Foundation

[24:46] in a series of scenarios where the

[24:48] Foundation is always at the point of

[24:50] collapse, but where they actually have

[24:52] some sort of social, diplomatic,

[24:54] economic, or religious advantage that

[24:56] isn't totally apparent at the beginning

[24:58] of the story, but which someone, anyone,

[25:01] could figure out. And then, by the

[25:03] inevitability of those forces, the

[25:05] Foundation is kept alive, not through

[25:07] individual heroics. His whole thing is

[25:10] that there's a near statistical

[25:11] certainty that someone will figure the

[25:14] problem out. It's not, "Well, Gaal is

[25:16] really smart, so we need her

[25:18] specifically to be on Terminus."

[25:20] No. And yeah, his plan does go to hell

[25:23] right from the start, and someone else

[25:25] does handle the crisis, but we'll get to

[25:27] that in a minute. And second, it's the

[25:29] idea that Seldon in this scene thinks

[25:32] this that's the problem. I cannot stress

[25:34] this enough that this exact pivot is the

[25:36] precise reason I was so skeptical about

[25:39] an adaptation of Foundation, because

[25:41] Hollywood doesn't know how to tell

[25:42] stories about systems and social

[25:43] politics. It only knows how to tell

[25:46] stories about gun-toting heroes. There's

[25:48] a few more major beats in Gaal's

[25:49] storyline, and and just each just is

[25:52] just like a whole thing. Hari reveals

[25:54] that there isn't going to just be one

[25:55] Foundation, but two. The spaceship

[25:58] they're on is going to his homeworld of

[26:00] Helicon to start the Second Foundation,

[26:02] but it needs Gaal's help. Around this

[26:04] time, Gaal also comes to realize that

[26:06] many of the events in her past can be

[26:08] explained by the fact that she has

[26:10] supernatural powers.

[26:11] What was going to happen before it did.

[26:14] Not through math, not through

[26:16] calculations.

[26:19] I think I can feel the future.

[26:21] There's a lot that's being hinted at

[26:23] here from later installments, but like

[26:25] Demerzel being a robot, it's not really

[26:27] relevant to this story. It's just

[26:29] teasing something that'll be a big deal

[26:30] in a future season. This plotline ends

[26:32] with Gaal saying she wants no more part

[26:34] of Hari's plans, and then she just

[26:37] leaves. Like, she straight-up just

[26:39] ditches this whole thing and goes back

[26:41] home, making this the second main plot

[26:44] that Gaal has been ejected out of, which

[26:46] is really the main problem here. Gaal is

[26:48] one of the main protagonists of the

[26:50] story, but the writers are only

[26:52] interested in using her presence as a

[26:54] way to establish other plot lines and

[26:56] elements of the world rather than

[26:58] telling us a story about Gaal. She's

[27:01] used to set up a bunch of subplots on

[27:03] the first spaceship, and here she's used

[27:04] so that Harry can point to a handful of

[27:06] mystery boxes on the second spaceship.

[27:08] Few sequences in modern television feel

[27:10] like they have done more wheel spinning

[27:12] than this one. Makes me feel like I'm

[27:14] the one in cryosleep. It makes me feel

[27:18] like I'm the one in cryosleep. It makes

[27:21] me feel like I'm the one Thankfully,

[27:23] there is at least one good plot line on

[27:25] this show,

[27:26] but it's back on Trantor.

[27:31] In a strange way, the part of the show

[27:32] that most captures Asimov's core ideas

[27:35] behind psychohistory is the one that has

[27:37] the least to do with psychohistory. And

[27:39] even more strangely, the plot line that

[27:41] is most concerned with religion is the

[27:43] most interesting sociological story on

[27:45] this show, even though religion is not

[27:47] something Asimov's writing is terribly

[27:49] concerned with. Asimov himself was an

[27:51] atheist, and the Foundation series very

[27:52] infrequently touches on religion. There

[27:54] is a section in Prelude to Foundation

[27:56] where Harry takes refuge in a very

[27:58] religious sector of Trantor while being

[28:00] hunted by the emperor. And a great deal

[28:02] of world building is spent establishing

[28:03] the practices of this group, but it's

[28:05] mostly just background flavor to the

[28:06] setting rather than anything central to

[28:08] the plot or themes of that book. What's

[28:10] unique about them is that they are

[28:11] pretty much the only characters that are

[28:13] true believers in the series. The only

[28:15] other instance of religion is in one of

[28:17] the early stories of Foundation, but

[28:19] it's mostly about the political utility

[28:21] of religion, not about belief itself.

[28:23] Here's what I mean. In one story, Hardin

[28:25] realizes that if they give advanced

[28:27] technology to each of the four

[28:28] surrounding kingdoms, then none of the

[28:30] four will allow any of the others to

[28:32] conquer the Foundation. The technology

[28:34] is too valuable. This creates a balance

[28:36] of power that leaves the Foundation

[28:37] independent. Decades pass, and

[28:40] eventually the people of the Foundation

[28:41] begin to become revered by the

[28:43] surrounding regions because of their

[28:45] mastery of technology. They are treated

[28:47] as gods. The scientists of nuclear power

[28:49] plants become priests, and the

[28:51] Foundation is very careful to never

[28:53] explain how any of the technology works

[28:55] to the people from the kingdoms so that

[28:57] they can maintain their political power.

[28:59] When Anacreon becomes powerful enough to

[29:01] conquer the Foundation without fearing

[29:02] the other three kingdoms, its plans are

[29:04] spoiled because the people of Anacreon

[29:06] see the Foundation as the capital of

[29:08] their religion. There are mass protests

[29:10] against the invasion, and the Foundation

[29:12] is spared again. So, religion plays a

[29:14] major part in those first two stories,

[29:16] but again, only politically. It's a

[29:19] religion run by people who explicitly do

[29:21] not believe in it. It's a really

[29:23] pessimistic and cynical presentation of

[29:25] religion, and the story does not even

[29:27] make characters out of any of the people

[29:29] that truly believe in this religion. We

[29:30] only ever hear of them as crowds in the

[29:32] background. In fact, across nearly all

[29:35] of Asimov's writing, religion does not

[29:36] play an extremely important part at all.

[29:38] Probably the most prominent exploration

[29:40] of religion is his work in the short

[29:42] story Nightfall, which was later

[29:43] expanded into a novel and adapted

[29:46] horribly twice. Once more though,

[29:48] religion is only ever presented as

[29:49] something that other people do. The main

[29:51] characters are scientists who live on a

[29:53] planet that has six suns and as a result

[29:55] has never had a single moment of

[29:57] darkness. But, thanks to their

[29:58] calculations, they believe that they are

[30:00] going to experience a day of night soon.

[30:02] Religious people see this as the end of

[30:04] days and have all sorts of unfounded

[30:06] beliefs about the coming of night and

[30:08] what happened on dark days like this

[30:10] thousands of years prior. The scientists

[30:12] treat all of their beliefs as merely

[30:14] hearsay. But, Asimov, the author,

[30:15] doesn't take their side completely. The

[30:18] point of the story is to show that while

[30:19] the scientists think they're being

[30:21] rational and objective about their

[30:23] observations, they are ignorant about

[30:25] some of their own assumptions and are

[30:27] thus very wrong about what happens when

[30:29] night comes. The religious people may be

[30:31] basing their beliefs off of nothing, but

[30:33] the scientists are also wrong. So, he

[30:36] has critiques of science, but he

[30:38] definitely portrays religious people as

[30:40] unintelligent, unserious, and dangerous.

[30:43] That's just the way he sees things. In

[30:46] contrast to that, the TV adaptation

[30:48] treats it as more than just a tool, but

[30:50] as something that is actually believed

[30:52] in by people at all levels of the

[30:54] system. Religious language seeps into

[30:57] every one of the show's plot lines.

[30:59] Like, this is a show where even the

[31:02] robot character is a true believer. So,

[31:05] that brings us to the plot line for

[31:06] Brother Day. Way back in the pilot, Hari

[31:08] warned that among other things, one of

[31:10] the galaxy's major religions would come

[31:12] out against the genetic dynasty. This

[31:15] happens when a contender to become the

[31:16] new Proxima, basically the Pope of the

[31:19] Luminist religion, claims that clones

[31:21] don't have souls. Day sees this as a

[31:23] threat to his power and fears that

[31:25] Seldon was right, so he takes this super

[31:28] seriously, traveling to the center of

[31:29] the faith and influencing who will

[31:31] become the next Proxima. His opponent is

[31:34] Zephyr Halima, who he tries to negotiate

[31:37] with, but he finds that she actually

[31:38] believes what she says and isn't after

[31:40] something else. She can't be bargained

[31:43] with. So, he decides on a riskier course

[31:45] of action to somehow prove that he has a

[31:47] soul, and he does this by undertaking a

[31:50] sacred pilgrimage, a 170-km trek through

[31:53] the spirals of the desert, where you are

[31:55] not allowed to fall on your knees once.

[31:58] A lot of people die doing this, but Day

[31:59] doesn't want to leave anything to chance

[32:01] and risks the pilgrimage, and mhm

[32:04] leap ace.

[32:06] What was I saying? Okay, so the hottest

[32:07] man in the world manages to survive the

[32:09] hottest place in the universe and gets

[32:11] to the end of the cave, where apparently

[32:13] people with souls see a vision of some

[32:15] kind. He sees nothing, so he lies about

[32:18] it, and it's enough to trick the

[32:19] Luminists into confirming his soul

[32:22] havingness, which puts the threat they

[32:24] pose to the empire at rest. Halima's

[32:26] political chances are ruined and Day

[32:28] succeeds completely. There's a lot to

[32:30] like about this plot line. From a

[32:31] sociological perspective, it's the one

[32:33] that gets the closest to what

[32:35] psychohistory is talking about. We have

[32:37] a conflict here that is ideological and

[32:39] political. We have factions that are

[32:41] each making understandable decisions in

[32:43] the pursuit of their individual goals,

[32:45] and we see how each of the players in

[32:47] this conflict are responding to the

[32:49] differing incentives in the institutions

[32:51] and cultural norms that surround them.

[32:53] There's also some ambiguity built around

[32:54] the motivations of the characters.

[32:56] Halima might be a true believer, or she

[32:58] might have just seen a political

[33:00] opportunity to criticize the Empire and

[33:02] gain popularity with the faithful. Then

[33:04] we have the Emperor himself who would

[33:05] not have done anything about this if he

[33:07] hadn't heard Seldon predict that this

[33:09] was a problem. Dusk was originally going

[33:11] to be the one sent to handle this, and

[33:12] given that only surviving this arduous

[33:15] trek allowed Day to solve the problem,

[33:17] it is fair to assume that Dusk would

[33:19] have failed. So we can see how the

[33:20] strategy of the Emperors is changing

[33:22] because of Seldon's predictions, which

[33:24] may in turn give the Emperor a longer

[33:26] lease on life. Everything in this

[33:28] plotline feels motivated and meaningful.

[33:31] It's an effective demonstration in the

[33:32] ways that organized religion and

[33:34] political power can support each other's

[33:36] hegemony or not. I like it. At the same

[33:38] time though, it does feel strange at

[33:40] least to take an author who was an

[33:42] atheist and adapt his work in such an

[33:45] explicitly religious way. Like if I

[33:47] squint, I can kind of see how they got

[33:49] here. The math of psychohistory is said

[33:51] to be so complicated that only a small

[33:53] number of people are even able to

[33:55] understand it. So when Harry Seldon

[33:57] predicts the Empire's fall, for most

[33:59] people they just have to take it on

[34:01] faith, believing in a prophet. It's like

[34:03] a religion. So let's just take that take

[34:06] and make it the whole point of the show.

[34:08] In my I, Robot video, I talked about how

[34:10] Asimov adaptations each resemble the

[34:12] work of the main people involved much

[34:15] more than they resemble each other. Like

[34:17] I, Robot feels nothing like Bicentennial

[34:19] Man, but Bicentennial Man feels a lot

[34:21] like a Robin Williams movie. That's

[34:22] going to be the case with any writer to

[34:24] some degree, but I think it's more

[34:25] pronounced with Asimov because there's

[34:27] this huge gap in his writing since he

[34:30] doesn't put a lot of attention into

[34:31] character or emotion. And that's where

[34:33] an adapter is going to want to leave

[34:35] their mark. In the case of Foundation,

[34:36] the lead creative force is showrunner

[34:38] David Goyer. And the previous piece of

[34:40] media that he worked on that feels most

[34:42] like Foundation is

[34:50] When you think way too long about these

[34:51] things as I have, you can kind of see

[34:53] how the Foundation TV show is cribbing a

[34:55] lot of notes from Superman stories and

[34:58] Man of Steel in particular. So, we have

[35:00] the same conflict of a corrupt society

[35:02] that relies on eugenics and that is

[35:03] crumbling because it didn't listen to

[35:05] the advice of scientists. But right

[35:06] before they fall, a brilliant scientist

[35:08] makes a risky gambit to send some or one

[35:11] of their own to the other side of the

[35:12] galaxy. People who will act as a sort of

[35:14] spiritual redemption for the failures of

[35:17] their original society. That person or

[35:20] people must then contend with the

[35:21] conflicts that plagued their old society

[35:24] and overcome them to establish something

[35:26] new. Language about inspiring hope,

[35:28] becoming a martyr or savior abounds in

[35:31] both stories. I mean, the most obvious

[35:33] statement of the year is that Man of

[35:34] Steel kind of has a lot of religious

[35:36] imagery in it. But just generally, the

[35:38] movie has this kind of reverence for

[35:41] well,

[35:42] reverence.

[35:43] You will give the people of Earth an

[35:45] ideal to strive towards.

[35:47] A pure love for belief itself. It's the

[35:50] whole thrust of that film. And while

[35:52] David Goyer wasn't the only person

[35:54] working on that film or the only person

[35:56] making this show, I find the general

[35:57] ethos of Man of Steel to be the closest

[35:59] example for how this story views belief.

[36:02] It always seems to hit this note of

[36:04] isn't it pretty to believe in something?

[36:06] Don't people need something to believe

[36:08] in? Like it's taken for granted in both

[36:10] pieces of media that the answer to that

[36:12] question is yes. Like obviously. While

[36:14] the emperor gets away with fooling the

[36:16] faithful for the time being, the story

[36:18] condemns him for being basically an

[36:21] atheist.

[36:22] I would not wish that emptiness on

[36:24] anyone.

[36:24] We're meant to pity him because he

[36:26] doesn't have something larger to believe

[36:28] in. Something that is only tragic if

[36:30] you're already bought into the premise

[36:32] that people need something to believe

[36:33] in. Meanwhile, the main characters are

[36:35] admirable because they find something to

[36:37] believe in. And while that's very much a

[36:39] your mileage with this will vary kind of

[36:41] approach, but for me this feels very

[36:43] much beside the point of what this story

[36:44] could be about. It wants to make this

[36:46] claim that Seldon is like a god prophet

[36:48] and psychohistory is like a prophecy

[36:51] religion. So, it can draw this false

[36:53] equivalence between believing in science

[36:55] and believing in religion. Sometimes

[36:57] when I'm watching the show, I feel like

[36:58] I'm arguing with Mac from Always Sunny.

[37:00] Science

[37:01] is a liar sometimes.

[37:03] Oh boy.

[37:04] I find it very eye-rolling whenever it

[37:06] wants to make this comparison because

[37:07] obviously science is not a religion.

[37:10] Like, it's science.

[37:12] You know, science.

[37:13] I didn't even think about the fossil

[37:14] records. I guess I'll concede. Oh, wait.

[37:16] One more thing before I do, Mr.

[37:17] Reynolds.

[37:18] Have you seen these fossil records?

[37:21] Have I seen

[37:23] Huh?

[37:23] Religion as a subject matter works in

[37:25] this plot line because it's one element

[37:27] of a larger political game. But

[37:29] everywhere else, it's paplum. Moving on

[37:32] cuz that point took too long.

[37:37] Dovetailing with the Brother Day

[37:38] religious pilgrimage is the story back

[37:40] on Trantor about the heir to the throne,

[37:42] Brother Dawn, and his growing alienation

[37:45] from the Imperial hierarchy. While not

[37:47] quite as interesting as what Lee Pace is

[37:48] up to, this one still has some points in

[37:50] its favor and is marred only by an

[37:52] over-reliance on contrivance and plot

[37:54] twists. The idea is that Brother Dawn is

[37:56] suicidal because he realizes that he is

[37:58] an imperfect clone. Unlike his brothers,

[38:01] he is colorblind. And he's also noticed

[38:03] that there are many other ways that he

[38:04] is out of sync with the other clones.

[38:06] Proxima Opal has passed, Empire.

[38:09] Our condolences.

[38:10] Condolences.

[38:11] Because the genetic dynasty demands that

[38:13] only perfect clones take the throne,

[38:16] Brother Dawn knows that he will be

[38:17] executed if his {quote} deformity is

[38:21] discovered. And the show has to contrive

[38:23] quite a bit of sci-fi technology to make

[38:25] this make sense. See, apparently the

[38:27] Empire has technology that allows them

[38:28] to transfer memories from one person to

[38:31] another, and they also have backup

[38:33] clones that are asleep in their vats

[38:35] with the memories of their counterparts

[38:37] uploaded into their minds. This makes

[38:39] the individual bodies of the Emperors

[38:41] completely disposable. If anything goes

[38:43] wrong with any of them, whether that's a

[38:45] biological deviation or an accident or

[38:48] an assassination, they just crack open a

[38:50] new clone who is perfectly up to speed

[38:53] on the last Emperor's life, and they

[38:55] continue on like nothing happened. It's

[38:56] contrived in the sense that it's just a

[38:58] little too perfect to make this specific

[39:00] plot line work. Cuz if the Empire didn't

[39:02] have cloning tech and memory upload

[39:04] tech, there wouldn't be any threat to

[39:06] Brother Dawn, because they wouldn't be

[39:07] able to kill him over something so minor

[39:09] as color blindness. And it also kind of

[39:11] asks the question that if they have the

[39:12] memory tech, why do they have the three

[39:14] clones? Like, why not just have one and

[39:16] upload his memory into the new one? But

[39:18] that aside, the setup asks some

[39:20] interesting questions about identity.

[39:22] Does Brother Dawn have an individual

[39:24] identity, or is he just another clone?

[39:26] How meaningful can your life be if

[39:28] someone else can just take your place

[39:30] with all of your memories? Like, this is

[39:32] a story where the ruling power is

[39:34] utterly obsessed with eugenics. It has

[39:36] something to say. But the plot gets a

[39:38] little lost in its own plot twists. So,

[39:40] while feeling suicidal because of all of

[39:42] these problems, Brother Dawn starts to

[39:44] fall in love with a woman who works at

[39:46] the palace. They conspire to run away

[39:47] together, but twist, she's actually part

[39:50] of the resistance. And her entire

[39:52] purpose at the palace was to seduce him

[39:54] so that she could lure him out of the

[39:56] palace, because another twist, decades

[39:58] ago the rebels contaminated the genetic

[40:00] code of the Emperor so that Brother Dawn

[40:02] would grow up with these biological

[40:04] differences that would prompt the very

[40:06] crisis he is dealing with now. And

[40:07] there's another twist, the rebels used

[40:09] the original genetic code to breed their

[40:11] own Emperor who is going to steal the

[40:14] real Brother Dawn's nanobots. Yeah, he's

[40:16] got nanobots in his bloodstream to

[40:18] confirm that he's who he says he is and

[40:20] to keep track of him because

[40:22] Sci-fi concept overload.

[40:25] How could you do this to me?

[40:27] But twist, Brother Dusk was onto this

[40:29] the whole time and sends his secret

[40:31] police to take down the whole

[40:32] resistance. It's just a whole lot of

[40:34] back and forth for a plot line that

[40:35] ultimately ends with Brother Dawn

[40:37] getting unceremoniously executed by his

[40:39] robot mom.

[40:41] No!

[40:45] It's a bit of a shame because again, it

[40:46] feels like the setup for this plot line

[40:47] is pretty unique. It's asking some

[40:49] interesting philosophical questions, but

[40:51] then it just goes down the road of

[40:53] twisty spy thriller rather than sticking

[40:55] with the characters themselves and

[40:56] exploring how they're feeling about

[40:58] these situations.

[41:03] Up until this point, while I've had my

[41:04] gripes with each plot line, I don't

[41:06] think any of them are terrible. Until

[41:08] now. The plot line that actually takes

[41:10] place on the Foundation and the most

[41:13] amount of its runtime is easily the

[41:15] worst, schlockiest, most convoluted of

[41:18] the bunch. It bears little resemblance

[41:20] to anything found in the pages of Asimov

[41:22] both in terms of its general plot and

[41:24] more importantly in terms of its

[41:25] thematic ideas, of which it is lacking.

[41:27] It's unnecessarily long while at the

[41:29] same time being so boneheadedly simple

[41:32] it's boring. If the Brother Day plot

[41:34] line was a good episode of Game of

[41:35] Thrones, this one is a bad season of 24.

[41:38] Okay, enough venom. What's it about?

[41:40] This is the only one of the main four

[41:41] plot lines that is actually adapting

[41:43] material from Asimov. It takes

[41:45] inspiration from the second and third

[41:47] short stories in the first Foundation

[41:49] book, The Encyclopedists and The Mayors,

[41:51] but resembles those stories only at the

[41:53] level of the basic conflict and in the

[41:55] names of some of the characters. So in

[41:57] short, 35 years after the Foundation

[42:00] settles on the planet Terminus, it faces

[42:02] its first crisis. A crisis predicted by

[42:05] Hari Seldon. They're getting invaded by

[42:06] the nearby planet of Anacreon. Remember

[42:08] them? One of the planets that Lee Pace

[42:10] bombed? Well, they're back and they're

[42:12] angry, and they are heavy air quotes

[42:15] barbarians. One of the episodes is even

[42:17] called Barbarians at the Gate. The main

[42:19] character is Salvor Hardin, who is

[42:21] basically in charge of security, but is

[42:23] ostracized by the people in power for

[42:24] reasons that are annoyingly vague. But,

[42:26] it is up to them to stop the Anacreons.

[42:29] But, then we learn that the Anacreons

[42:30] actually have no interest in conquering

[42:32] the Foundation as they did in the book,

[42:33] but they just want to invade so that

[42:35] they can And wait, let me see if I can

[42:37] get this straight. One, take over a

[42:38] communications buoy they can send a

[42:40] distress signal to the Empire so that

[42:42] two, the Empire will send a ship to

[42:44] investigate, then three, take over the

[42:46] Foundation so that they can shoot this

[42:48] ship out of the sky so that they can

[42:50] four, arrest the captain of the ships so

[42:52] that they can five, fly up to a separate

[42:54] ship called the Invictus, which has been

[42:56] uncontrollably hyperspace jumping, and

[42:58] use the captain's nanobots to gain

[43:00] access to the ship so that they can six,

[43:03] fly the ship into Trantor as revenge for

[43:05] the bombing of Anacreon. Did Did I get

[43:07] everything? My biggest problem with all

[43:08] of this is that well,

[43:11] it's action schlock.

[43:15] It's a nonsensical series of standoffs,

[43:18] captures shootouts fistfights and

[43:20] escapes with little to nothing to say

[43:22] about the broader social forces a

[43:24] Foundation story is typically about.

[43:26] Anything remotely sci-fi the series

[43:28] could be saying gets buried under the

[43:30] most generic kind of revenge plot. And,

[43:32] it's just a ridiculously plotted story

[43:35] riddled with leaps of logic that I am

[43:37] now going to indulge in pointing out for

[43:40] fun. So, this whole plot hinges on the

[43:42] Anacreons commandeering the Invictus

[43:44] they can use it to kamikaze the Empire.

[43:46] But, according to Farrah, the Invictus

[43:48] has only just appeared two weeks prior,

[43:50] and they have no idea how long it's

[43:51] going to stay in place before jumping to

[43:53] another part of the galaxy. So,

[43:54] everything they do, from the planning to

[43:56] the execution to the invasion of the

[43:58] Foundation, has to be done as quick as

[43:59] possible with no guarantee that the ship

[44:01] won't just disappear in the meantime.

[44:03] Meaning, everything the Anacreons do is

[44:05] extremely risky and time-sensitive. But,

[44:07] okay, they're mad as hell at the Empire,

[44:09] so they're willing to do whatever to get

[44:10] back at them. So, even if there's only a

[44:12] small chance of success, they're going

[44:14] to do it. So, they land outside

[44:15] Terminus. And even though Salvor had

[44:17] foreknowledge that they were coming, and

[44:19] even though Terminus has a force field

[44:21] fence that the Anacreons can't cross,

[44:23] Salvor still goes outside of the city

[44:25] because they're having visions. But

[44:28] that's okay, because it shows how much

[44:30] unraveling the mystery of these visions

[44:32] means to Salvor. But the Anacreons had

[44:34] no idea Salvor was going to be here, and

[44:36] their entire plan hinges on having

[44:37] someone let them through the force

[44:39] field. So, is their plan to just sit

[44:40] around in this wreck until somebody came

[44:42] by, even though the mission is extremely

[44:44] time sensitive? So, Salvor lets Phara

[44:46] through the field, then manages to get

[44:47] the upper hand on her and has her

[44:49] arrested. But wait, that was actually

[44:50] part of Phara's plan all along. Haha,

[44:52] Batman, I'm the Joker, baby.

[44:56] So, the idea is that Phara knows that

[44:58] she'll get captured, and that she'll be

[45:00] brought to a specific tower in Terminus.

[45:02] And her plan is to use an

[45:03] electromagnetic bomb that she's hidden

[45:06] in an artificial eye, like a GI Joe

[45:09] villain, to blow the thing up, which

[45:11] will then cause the thing to fail so

[45:13] that all the people can take over

[45:14] Terminus in a big

[45:17] action battle sequence. I'd like to take

[45:20] this moment to point out that there is

[45:21] never a battle in the entirety of the

[45:23] Foundation series. Just leaving this

[45:25] here as we mindlessly watch people shoot

[45:27] the guns and shoot more guns and shoot

[45:30] more guns. Steve Jobs died for this.

[45:33] Okay, so why is Phara doing all of this?

[45:36] Well, we learn that she needs two things

[45:38] to commandeer the Invictus. First, she

[45:40] needs someone with Imperial nanobots in

[45:42] their bloodstream to open the doors so

[45:44] they can access the ship. And second,

[45:46] they need people with advanced

[45:47] engineering knowledge to pilot the ship

[45:49] for them. The second reason is why they

[45:51] are invading the Foundation. They're not

[45:53] taking it over, they're just kidnapping

[45:54] three people who are going to help them

[45:56] fly the thing. But everything fails if

[45:58] they don't have the Imperial nanobots as

[46:00] well, which is why they knocked out a

[46:02] communications buoy, prompting the

[46:03] Empire to send a ship to investigate,

[46:06] which they then

[46:07] blast out of the [ __ ] sky. And the

[46:10] it's only after they shoot it out of the

[46:11] sky that we're told that the Anacreons

[46:13] need the Imperial leader, which leads to

[46:16] a comical scene where they are searching

[46:18] through the wreckage to find him. And

[46:20] oh, lucky, there he is. Lucky he didn't

[46:23] freaking die in the explosion. During

[46:24] all of this, Salvor is captured by the

[46:26] Anacreons, but they don't kill them

[46:28] because they might have information they

[46:30] need. And this is where things really

[46:32] start to feel stretched out. Salvor is

[46:34] captured at the end of episode five. At

[46:36] the start of six, she is rescued by some

[46:38] kids, then goes on a mission with her

[46:39] dad and her boyfriend to destroy the

[46:41] Anacreonian ships, cutting off their

[46:43] retreat. Her dad dies on this mission,

[46:45] and then she gets captured by the

[46:47] Anacreonians again. Two back-to-back

[46:50] episodes where the cliffhanger is that

[46:52] Salvor has been captured. But once more,

[46:54] we contrive a rationale to keep Salvor

[46:56] alive. Now that the Anacreons have lost

[46:58] their ships, they need Hugo to get up to

[47:01] the Invictus, but Hugo makes it so that

[47:03] the ship will only work if Salvor is on

[47:05] board. But Salvor doesn't know how to

[47:08] fly the ship, and neither do the

[47:09] Anacreons, so they need Hugo, too. This

[47:12] is so convoluted. Like they've written

[47:15] it so that the Anacreons came for two

[47:17] things: scientists and a guy with

[47:19] Imperial nanobots. And then they

[47:20] realized that they need to contrive a

[47:22] reason for the Anacreons to also need

[47:24] two characters, Salvor and Hugo. So, you

[47:27] know, why not make these two people have

[47:29] these two things? Like make Salvor the

[47:31] scientist they kidnap, and make Hugo the

[47:33] one with the nanobots, or vice versa.

[47:35] You know,

[47:36] instead of this big knot of stupid. So,

[47:38] we cut to the next episode, and despite

[47:40] establishing that the Anacreons need

[47:42] both of these characters alive to pilot

[47:44] Hugo's ship, their only way back down to

[47:46] the planet if A, their extremely risky

[47:48] mission fails, or B, not all of them are

[47:51] needed to go on the suicide run, the

[47:53] Anacreonians decide to bring both of

[47:55] them along on the mission itself to

[47:57] commandeer the Evictus. And there's no

[47:59] reason to bring them. The Anacreons only

[48:01] need the Imperial Commander and the

[48:03] engineers, but they come along anyway.

[48:05] They just spent all of this time

[48:07] dramatizing why who has to go where, and

[48:10] then the next episode they just forget

[48:11] all that. It's so jarring. And it's at

[48:14] this point that if my comparisons to

[48:15] Abrams Trek weren't apt enough, we even

[48:17] have a scene that apes Star Trek Into

[48:19] Darkness's best action scene, even

[48:21] though it's not as good because it's a

[48:22] TV show. Blam blam blam, turns are

[48:24] shooting at them now. They got to get

[48:26] into the ship to escape them. So they

[48:28] get the Imperial Commander to open the

[48:29] door, and then Pharah shoots him

[48:30] immediately.

[48:33] She claims she doesn't need him anymore,

[48:35] so she kills him. This is what Pharah

[48:37] does with people when she no longer has

[48:38] a purpose for them. She shoots them

[48:40] dead. She kills you when you stop being

[48:43] useful to her. Now, luckily for Pharah,

[48:45] this is the last door that requires the

[48:47] Imperial manobots to get through, so she

[48:50] really actually doesn't need him

[48:52] anymore, so she's fine. But there's no

[48:53] way like she could have done that. Like

[48:56] what if there was a second door like 5

[48:58] minutes later where she needs nanobots,

[49:00] and she's like,

[49:01] "Um whoops." As the show cuts to his

[49:05] lifeless body floating in space. What if

[49:08] what if there was like a vegetable?

[49:10] Hilariously, a couple scenes later they

[49:12] do face an obstacle, and lucky enough

[49:14] for them Salvar gets them through. Oh,

[49:16] good thing they brought her. That's you

[49:18] know, they came for the reason for

[49:20] Salvar to be there. Shortly after this

[49:22] though, Salvar tries to escape killing

[49:24] one of Pharah's people. But Pharah is

[49:26] convinced not to kill her because

[49:29] No Pharah.

[49:31] We still need her.

[49:34] There might be more barriers, security

[49:35] protocols to override.

[49:40] There might be other obstacles. So

[49:44] Pharah keeps Salvar alive out of

[49:45] caution, but not the Imperial? No,

[49:48] because he's not a main character in

[49:49] this plot line. Aren't you paying

[49:50] attention? We can kill him, but we

[49:52] cannot kill them. At this point the

[49:53] Dungeon Master got a little bored and

[49:55] recycled some of the monsters that he

[49:56] had previously used and has the

[49:58] characters fight another turret. Salvor

[49:59] gets them past the turret and then

[50:01] immediately tries to escape again. But

[50:03] it's like, you know, good thing the

[50:04] turret was there because if it wasn't

[50:06] there then they would have had no reason

[50:08] to to keep her and then she did exactly

[50:10] what she was definitely going to do,

[50:12] which is escape and work against them.

[50:14] To recap at this point, the Anacreons'

[50:15] plan involves a series of extremely

[50:17] risky moves including having their own

[50:19] commander captured and shooting down the

[50:21] ship that contains someone they need

[50:23] alive and a bunch of contrived

[50:24] decision-making that keeps the main

[50:25] characters involved in the plot. In this

[50:28] plot line, the problem isn't even that

[50:30] what's happening is illogical, it's that

[50:32] it's all in service of schlock action,

[50:35] of knife fights between a hero and a

[50:36] villain we've seen a thousand times, of

[50:38] a dungeon crawl against automated

[50:40] weapons, of laser fights over who

[50:42] controls a Death Star. Even if the plot

[50:45] line did make a lick of sense and was

[50:47] like a good Die Hard, it would still be

[50:50] infuriatingly simple-minded. The story

[50:52] is just a terrorist revenge plot line.

[50:55] The Empire bombed Anacreon, now Anacreon

[50:58] wants to bomb the Empire.

[51:00] Wow.

[51:01] Cool. What defined Asimov's Foundation

[51:04] stories were clever insights into how

[51:06] different relationships of power worked.

[51:09] They might set up a conflict just like

[51:10] this one but then use it to reveal some

[51:12] clever insight into how different

[51:14] institutions functioned. Someone would

[51:15] have an aha moment and find a way

[51:18] through what seemed like an intractable

[51:19] problem. And whatever epiphany they had

[51:22] wouldn't just be an epiphany about the

[51:23] situation at hand but be a realization

[51:25] about like the fundamental laws that

[51:27] govern human relations. That's how it

[51:30] feels to read a Foundation story. This

[51:32] conflict lacks any of that because every

[51:34] decision seems like it was reverse

[51:36] engineered from the need to have a

[51:37] certain number of action scenes across a

[51:39] designated number of episodes. It is

[51:43] vapid.

[51:47] Now, the invasion plot line is the

[51:48] external conflict on Terminus, but I

[51:50] could forgive it being bad if the main

[51:52] character went on a compelling emotional

[51:55] journey. Unfortunately, this character

[51:57] is cynically saddled with the most trite

[51:59] cliches. Cliche number one is that she's

[52:01] Mad Max. I mean, just look at this shot.

[52:04] In the books, Salvor is just like a

[52:06] politician. He's got a little bit of a

[52:08] wit about him, but we learn almost

[52:09] nothing about his personal life. He's

[52:11] just a dude with a job. But his one

[52:13] definable character trait is his motto,

[52:15] which becomes a guiding philosophy for

[52:17] the Foundation afterwards. Violence is

[52:19] the last refuge of the incompetent. He

[52:22] solves the first two crises that the

[52:24] Foundation faces with clever politicking

[52:26] and diplomacy, never with guns. TV show

[52:29] Salvor on the other hand,

[52:31] Where are you going?

[52:33] To check out the armory.

[52:36] The Anacreons come knocking before the

[52:37] Empire. I'd like to know what kind of

[52:39] violence we can muster.

[52:40] She's characterized as the only one who

[52:43] is good at fighting in the entirety of

[52:45] the Foundation. Everyone else is a big

[52:47] dumb idiot who only knows about science,

[52:49] but none of them know how to use a

[52:50] sniper rifle. It's the weirdest choice

[52:53] for a Foundation story just right off

[52:55] the bat. On top of that, there are so

[52:57] many decisions made to bring her more in

[52:59] line with the archetype of a big budget

[53:02] mythological protagonist. Salvor has

[53:05] special powers, for instance, a slight

[53:07] ability to read the future. She can also

[53:09] read people's emotions extremely

[53:11] accurately and intuit their memories.

[53:12] This sets her apart from everyone else

[53:14] in the Foundation in a way that feels

[53:15] very young adult protagonist. She just

[53:18] has that kind of angst. She also has a

[53:21] special relationship with an unknown

[53:23] entity. You know the movie where a young

[53:24] kid has like a space dog or something

[53:26] that they love and have to protect, like

[53:28] Okja or Bumblebee or ET? Salvor has

[53:31] that, but instead of a cute animal, it's

[53:33] a big inanimate object. It's this big

[53:35] diamond thing that is confusingly called

[53:37] the Vault. Salvor thinks that it's

[53:38] giving her visions and spends the whole

[53:40] story trying to intuit what the message

[53:42] is.

[53:43] All these years thinking

[53:45] the ghost was talking to me.

[53:47] But the final nail in the coffin of

[53:49] Mandanity is making them a Star Wars

[53:51] protagonist, because it's not enough

[53:53] that they have special powers, they have

[53:55] to have an important lineage. At the end

[53:57] of the show we learn that she is Gale

[53:59] and Rasha's daughter. It's a decision

[54:00] that I don't think is wrong so much as

[54:02] it is just uninteresting because I've

[54:04] seen this beat stand in place for real

[54:06] drama so many times before. And that's

[54:09] definitely the case here because it

[54:11] happens basically in the epilogue of the

[54:13] story where the character is told she's

[54:15] related to people that she really

[54:16] doesn't even know or have any context

[54:19] for. So who cares that they're related?

[54:21] Why does it matter? Why does every

[54:22] franchise have to reduce itself to the

[54:24] most basic idea of it's about family

[54:26] when there are so many other stories to

[54:28] tell. And on top of all of that is that

[54:30] Salvor sorry is very much focused on the

[54:33] idea that they are some sort of chosen

[54:35] one, that they are special. Everyone in

[54:38] Salvor's personal life believes in their

[54:40] innate specialness and their story is

[54:42] like so many chosen one narratives about

[54:44] just accepting that they are special.

[54:47] And I started to believe

[54:49] that I actually was

[54:52] special.

[54:54] Harrow is guiding you to keep the plan

[54:55] on course.

[54:58] Because I'm what?

[55:00] Special?

[55:01] You are special, Salvor.

[55:03] Which is what takes us away from making

[55:05] this a story about broader social

[55:06] forces. Those don't matter. What matters

[55:09] is the hero with a thousand faces going

[55:11] on a personal journey to discover their

[55:13] own lineage and the source of their

[55:14] supernatural powers. To be clear,

[55:16] there's nothing implicitly wrong with

[55:18] any of these archetypes, with the Mad

[55:20] Max outsider, the young adult

[55:21] protagonist, the boy and his horse

[55:23] story, or the chosen one narrative. The

[55:25] problem with Salvor is the sheer number

[55:27] of archetypes the story heavily relies

[55:29] on and incoherently patches together to

[55:32] form her character that it always feels

[55:34] like the story is trying to ape

[55:35] something else rather than tell a story

[55:37] that is organic to Salvor herself.

[55:43] But by far my biggest problem with this

[55:45] plotline are the implications of its

[55:47] conclusion. So in the first handful of

[55:49] stories in the Foundation series there

[55:51] was a common structure. The Foundation

[55:53] would be faced with an existential

[55:54] threat, someone figures out how to solve

[55:56] it, and then once the conflict was over

[55:58] the characters would all gather and

[55:59] watch a pre-recorded hologram of Hari

[56:01] Seldon who would explain the solution in

[56:03] detail. Sometimes the character who

[56:05] solved the problem would be the one to

[56:06] give the speech. Sometimes it's Hari,

[56:08] but the common element is this, Hari

[56:10] doesn't solve the problem. Hari only

[56:13] explains the solution after the fact. In

[56:15] the show things are quite different.

[56:18] Everything revolves around Hari who both

[56:20] creates and solves all of the problems

[56:23] to the detriment of the rest of the

[56:24] characters. So here's the scene. The

[56:26] Vault has this field that can knock

[56:29] people unconscious and it's knocked

[56:30] everyone unconscious, but then Salvor

[56:32] figures out how to turn it off, but it

[56:35] also activates the Vault which is kind

[56:37] of Hari's casket, like a sci-fi casket

[56:41] that remakes his mind into a hologram.

[56:44] As per my mortality directive, my casket

[56:46] was jettisoned out into space.

[56:49] Those machines began breaking down my

[56:51] body tissue into all its constituent

[56:54] elements.

[56:55] Then those machines recycled those

[56:57] elements scooping up more material. Ice,

[56:59] micro

[56:59] In the meantime though all of the

[57:01] factions of the story converge on each

[57:02] other and have a standoff. You've got

[57:05] Salvor, you've got Farrah, you've got

[57:06] the Foundation, you've got the

[57:08] Anacreons, and you've got the Thespians

[57:10] who show up as well. Farrah shows up

[57:12] last and in an effort to de-escalate the

[57:14] situation Salvor comes up with a

[57:16] solution. The three factions could share

[57:18] the possession of the Invictus and with

[57:20] the help of the Foundation's

[57:21] technological knowledge they could build

[57:23] a fleet that could stand up against the

[57:25] Empire. This is all good, but the thing

[57:27] is Salvor is wrong. Some parts of what

[57:30] they propose are followed through with,

[57:32] but it's Harry who has the real solution

[57:34] here. So, into this huge standoff walked

[57:37] Harry, who delivers a big long monologue

[57:39] about what everyone needs to do going

[57:41] forward. And this is where the show's

[57:42] emphasis on action and irrelevant lore

[57:45] comes back to bite it because there's

[57:47] just way too much to handle at the end

[57:48] here that wasn't set up. Harry starts

[57:50] telling us about the history of Anacreon

[57:52] and Thespis, how the two started to hate

[57:55] one another after the queen of one

[57:56] country married the king of the other,

[57:59] but then died under mysterious

[58:00] circumstances, and each side has their

[58:02] own narrative over what happened, and

[58:04] the incident led to a long history of

[58:05] violence between them. But, Harry

[58:07] reveals that the murderer was actually

[58:09] the reigning Cleon at the time, and that

[58:12] the empire has always been their true

[58:14] enemy. During this entire speech, I I

[58:17] was wondering why this wasn't ever

[58:19] talked about earlier. Like, there's an

[58:20] interesting idea here about how people

[58:22] can be pitted against one another by the

[58:24] powerful, and that the common people

[58:25] need to see through these falsehoods and

[58:27] recognize that despite their grievances,

[58:30] they are class allies. There could have

[58:31] been a mystery that Salvor could have

[58:33] solved here and then used to unite the

[58:36] factions. Like, Salvor could have been

[58:38] the one to uncover this whole murder of

[58:40] the queen plot. Like, remember that

[58:42] whole dungeon crawl on the Invictus?

[58:44] Well, at the end of it, Salvor finds

[58:45] that the crew has been killed, and it's

[58:46] hinted that it's because of aliens. You

[58:48] know,

[58:49] Bye-bye. Concept overload.

[58:50] Thank you. And the placement of this at

[58:52] the climax of the story is so inelegant.

[58:55] Salvor has finally battled her way to

[58:57] the cockpit, where she can control the

[58:59] ship at last, and where the audience is

[59:01] expecting her to discover something

[59:03] important. And what she discovers is

[59:06] another non sequitur teasing at stuff

[59:08] that will happen in future seasons. When

[59:10] it could have been something that tied

[59:11] back to the main players in this story.

[59:14] Like, you know when critics call a story

[59:15] elegant? Like, they do that because each

[59:17] part is accomplishing two or three

[59:20] things at once. Like, this is the

[59:22] opposite of that. Everything only serves

[59:23] one function, and there's plenty of

[59:25] wasted opportunities all over the place.

[59:27] Instead, the whole origins of Anacreon

[59:29] and Thespis' rivalry is both introduced

[59:31] and solved in one scene by Harry. On top

[59:34] of that, it's a pretty tall order on

[59:36] Harry's part to think that the two

[59:37] warring kingdoms will unite after

[59:39] hearing this little tidbit of historical

[59:41] truth. Like this is at least attempting

[59:44] to make a claim on behalf of

[59:45] psychohistory. Harry's prediction is

[59:47] that two groups of people will put aside

[59:49] their differences once their conflict is

[59:51] rationally explained to them as being

[59:52] based on a lie. But I'm pretty skeptical

[59:54] of that claim the story is making, and I

[59:56] think virtually the opposite claim would

[59:59] have been made in the books. There's a

[1:00:01] strain of cynicism to the way Asimov

[1:00:03] viewed humanity, where everyone is

[1:00:06] ultimately pretty selfish. By that, I

[1:00:08] mean I can very easily imagine the book

[1:00:11] version of Harry Seldon explaining that

[1:00:13] there's only like a 2% chance or

[1:00:15] whatever that these two factions would

[1:00:17] forget their entire history with one

[1:00:19] another and unite against the Empire.

[1:00:21] And that actually they would keep

[1:00:23] fighting each other even if the original

[1:00:25] conflict was fabricated. But that's more

[1:00:27] of a philosophical difference that I

[1:00:28] have with the claims being made by the

[1:00:30] story. But then again, the story itself

[1:00:32] seems to admit how improbable it all is.

[1:00:34] Salvor's mother says of it all that

[1:00:35] Salvor succeeded against all odds.

[1:00:39] We survived.

[1:00:42] Against all odds.

[1:00:43] In contrast, here's how Seldon describes

[1:00:45] the solution to the first crisis in the

[1:00:48] books. If you are not here, then the

[1:00:50] second crisis has been too much for you.

[1:00:52] He smiled engagingly. I doubt that,

[1:00:53] however, for my figures show a 98.4%

[1:00:57] probability that there is to be no

[1:00:58] significant deviation from the plan in

[1:01:00] the first 80 years.

[1:01:02] Against all odds.

[1:01:03] 98.4%.

[1:01:05] Against all odds.

[1:01:06] There's just a very different effect

[1:01:08] that the show is going for with this

[1:01:09] idea. It wants to inspire. It wants the

[1:01:12] audience to be awed and comforted by the

[1:01:14] idea that warring people will unite

[1:01:16] against the greater danger. It means

[1:01:18] deemphasizing the core idea of

[1:01:20] psychohistory, that people will respond

[1:01:22] naturally to the incentives around them.

[1:01:24] Not that a spaceman will walk out of a

[1:01:26] deus ex machina, lecture people about

[1:01:28] their own political aims, and then have

[1:01:29] that work out. And that is the end of

[1:01:32] the first season of Foundation. A story

[1:01:34] of two halves. One where it's completely

[1:01:36] invented plot lines more effectively

[1:01:38] capture the philosophical nature of its

[1:01:40] source material, but where the stories

[1:01:41] based on his actual work throw out

[1:01:43] everything that made them interesting in

[1:01:45] favor of either mystery boxing parts of

[1:01:47] the world or devolving into nonsensical

[1:01:49] action. But not all hope is lost. This

[1:01:52] show is getting a second season, and

[1:01:53] David Goyer is on record saying he wants

[1:01:55] to have eight seasons to tell the

[1:01:57] complete Foundation saga. Given the

[1:01:59] viewership numbers of the first season,

[1:02:00] I feel like that's probably unlikely,

[1:02:03] but hey, I thought they never managed to

[1:02:05] make a first season, so what do I know?

[1:02:06] Well, here's what I believe. The show

[1:02:08] won't last if it only aspires to be a

[1:02:10] generic space blockbuster. Action scenes

[1:02:12] will not save this franchise, and

[1:02:14] dropping in oblique references to later

[1:02:16] installments will not set the Reddit

[1:02:18] hive mind alive the way it did for Game

[1:02:20] of Thrones. But telling clearly defined,

[1:02:23] philosophically coherent science fiction

[1:02:25] stories, that's what can make a show

[1:02:27] like this something that people could

[1:02:28] conceivably recommend. I don't know who

[1:02:30] this show was supposed to be for right

[1:02:32] now, but I know that it could find an

[1:02:34] audience if it told the best sci-fi

[1:02:36] stories on television. Foundation is

[1:02:38] capable of that because the series

[1:02:40] approaches science fiction from a

[1:02:42] perspective that no other series really

[1:02:44] does. The formula in the books is a

[1:02:46] recipe to make interesting and

[1:02:48] compelling observations about how

[1:02:50] systems work, how they fail, how they

[1:02:52] are challenged, how they are eroded, and

[1:02:55] how they are saved. In a world where

[1:02:56] seemingly all of our institutions are in

[1:02:59] constant crisis, isn't a story that says

[1:03:02] something about that more interesting

[1:03:04] than telling yet another oh no terrorist

[1:03:06] plot line? But while I was making this

[1:03:08] video, I thought to myself that I

[1:03:10] couldn't just complain about how not to

[1:03:13] do an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's work.

[1:03:15] It'd be better if I could find an

[1:03:16] example of someone, somewhere, who

[1:03:19] figured out how to do it well. So,

[1:03:21] that's what I did. I watched every movie

[1:03:23] based on Asimov's work, and I read every

[1:03:26] short story and novel that they were

[1:03:27] based on. Now, most of that journey I

[1:03:29] cataloged in my previous video on I,

[1:03:31] Robot and a whole bunch of other stuff.

[1:03:33] But, there's one movie that I didn't

[1:03:35] talk about in that video or in this one

[1:03:38] yet, and it's the one that did it right.

[1:03:40] No American has figured out how to adapt

[1:03:42] Asimov, but someone in his country of

[1:03:45] origin did because in 1987 in the Soviet

[1:03:48] Union, they made Marvel's Loki season 1.

[1:03:53] Yes, you know the Marvel show that was

[1:03:55] arguably the most unique and

[1:03:56] consistently good part of Marvel's phase

[1:03:57] 4? Well,

[1:03:59] it turns out they totally ripped off the

[1:04:01] end of eternity. Check this out. Loki is

[1:04:03] about a guy named Loki who works for a

[1:04:06] supernatural bureaucracy that has

[1:04:08] control over time travel. But, when Loki

[1:04:10] falls in love with a woman that doesn't

[1:04:11] fit in with the bureaucracy's plans, he

[1:04:13] rebels against the system leading to the

[1:04:15] fall of the organization and the

[1:04:17] creation of a new reality. The end of

[1:04:19] eternity is about a guy named Harlan who

[1:04:21] works for a supernatural bureaucracy

[1:04:22] that has control over time travel. But,

[1:04:24] when Harlan falls in love with a woman

[1:04:25] that doesn't fit into the bureaucracy's

[1:04:27] plans, he rebels against the system

[1:04:29] leading to the fall of the organization

[1:04:31] and the creation of a new reality. Don't

[1:04:34] get mad at me for saying Loki is

[1:04:35] derivative. Everything is a little

[1:04:37] derivative. This is just a useful way

[1:04:38] for me to explain End of Eternity.

[1:04:40] Though, Loki's existence does sort of

[1:04:41] mean that this, the second easiest

[1:04:43] Asimov book to adapt behind Caves of

[1:04:44] Steel, will likely never get a big

[1:04:46] American adaptation and that kind of

[1:04:47] sucks. It's possible this movie is the

[1:04:49] most obscure piece of media that I've

[1:04:51] ever covered on this channel. I had a

[1:04:53] ton of trouble even finding it to watch

[1:04:55] and was dreading watching it. But, in a

[1:04:56] miraculous coincidence, after I found

[1:04:59] it, there's this other channel called

[1:05:00] Not Just Right that uploaded it onto

[1:05:02] Dailymotion. How strange. The movie is

[1:05:04] based on Asimov's book of the same name

[1:05:06] from 1955. It's a TV movie which aired

[1:05:09] as two-hour long episodes and is a

[1:05:12] mostly faithful recreation of the story

[1:05:14] except for the ending because

[1:05:16] oh, the ending. What I was most

[1:05:18] pleasantly surprised by with this movie

[1:05:20] was its atmosphere and tone. The world

[1:05:23] of Eternity, this giant machine that

[1:05:25] controls time, is such an oppressive

[1:05:28] setting. The set design really sells

[1:05:30] this as does Oleg Vavilov as Andrew

[1:05:32] Harlan, whose stony-faced lack of

[1:05:34] expression covers up an internal turmoil

[1:05:36] that increases over the course of the

[1:05:37] story in a really compelling way. This

[1:05:39] is the hardest of sci-fi's with the

[1:05:42] hardest of sci-fi soundtracks.

[1:05:52] From its first beats, it's clear that no

[1:05:54] other country in the world could have

[1:05:55] made this movie in quite this way.

[1:05:57] Granted, as someone who was raised in

[1:05:58] the West, I don't have a great eye for

[1:06:00] the nuances of Soviet Russian '80s

[1:06:02] culture, but when your dystopian sci-fi

[1:06:05] movie opens with a central planning

[1:06:06] committee, it feels pretty Soviet. The

[1:06:08] institution of Eternity itself is a

[1:06:10] send-up of socialist institutions.

[1:06:12] Eternity is a place where the worker

[1:06:13] must sacrifice his individual identity

[1:06:16] to the noble cause of improving mankind

[1:06:18] as a whole. They aren't allowed to have

[1:06:20] relationships and they have to do

[1:06:22] whatever the all-powerful committee

[1:06:23] tells them to do. I imagine all of this

[1:06:25] is what probably attracted Russian

[1:06:26] filmmakers to the project in the first

[1:06:28] place compared to any of Asimov's other

[1:06:30] work. The protagonist is someone who

[1:06:32] begins the movie utterly loyal to the

[1:06:33] cause of Eternity, but then he falls in

[1:06:35] love, which breaks the rules of the

[1:06:37] organization. Later, he learns that in a

[1:06:39] new update to the timeline, the woman he

[1:06:41] loves, Noys, is going to be written out

[1:06:43] of existence. And so, he decides to

[1:06:45] rebel against the system, hiding her in

[1:06:47] the hidden centuries, a stretch of time

[1:06:49] that Eternity has been unable to reach.

[1:06:52] But then, of course, he finds out that

[1:06:53] even his rebellion against the system

[1:06:54] was planned by Eternity. It's a real

[1:06:57] Matrix Reloaded Architect kind of moment

[1:06:59] because the story we're watching is part

[1:07:01] of a time loop that is necessary for

[1:07:03] Eternity to exist at all. Harlan is

[1:07:06] supposed to be training this guy who

[1:07:07] will eventually go back in time and

[1:07:09] invent the technology that all of this

[1:07:11] relies on. So, everything has to play

[1:07:12] out this way even though Harlan has to

[1:07:14] break the rules. I mention all of that

[1:07:16] because it sets up the story's final

[1:07:18] choice. And here is where the novel and

[1:07:20] the movie wildly diverge in the most

[1:07:22] interesting way possible. In both

[1:07:23] stories, Harlan goes back in time to our

[1:07:26] time and gets to decide the fate of

[1:07:28] eternity. In both, he destroys eternity,

[1:07:30] but for different reasons and to

[1:07:32] different results. In the book, Harlan

[1:07:34] goes back to the present day with Noys

[1:07:36] and learns that she's from the hidden

[1:07:37] centuries. She explains that the

[1:07:39] timeline eternity presided over is just

[1:07:41] one in a multiverse of other

[1:07:43] possibilities. She's really like, "Oh,

[1:07:44] you're a time lord? That's cute. I'm a

[1:07:46] multiversal god." She believes that

[1:07:48] eternity needs to end because humanity

[1:07:50] has stopped evolving under eternity's

[1:07:52] control. All of the decisions eternity

[1:07:54] makes has been about avoiding harm to

[1:07:56] humanity, but as a result, Noys argues

[1:07:58] that they've deprived humanity of

[1:08:00] triumphs as well, which means that both

[1:08:01] biologically and socially, humanity has

[1:08:04] stopped needing to grow or change.

[1:08:06] They've become stagnant. Stagnancy is a

[1:08:09] theme that comes up constantly across

[1:08:11] Asimov's work. The unchanging nature of

[1:08:14] a society built on the backs of robots

[1:08:16] is a huge theme in the robot series. And

[1:08:18] like in this book, it is ultimately

[1:08:20] decided that humanity needs adversity

[1:08:22] and hardship to grow across the galaxy.

[1:08:24] It's also the climax of the Foundation

[1:08:26] series that humanity needs to evolve

[1:08:28] into a new life form, in that case, a

[1:08:31] weird hippie hive mind. Just because

[1:08:33] someone says, "Hey, maybe there might be

[1:08:35] aliens out there and it'd be better if

[1:08:36] we were a stronger, more united species

[1:08:38] when that happened, even though that

[1:08:40] means sacrificing all privacy." The

[1:08:42] general logic of adversity creating

[1:08:45] hardships which spur innovations and

[1:08:47] change is totally unquestioned in his

[1:08:49] work. Even though it's not, you know,

[1:08:52] necessarily true. And like I think it's

[1:08:54] just as plausible to say that a society

[1:08:56] which faces less adversity can grow and

[1:08:59] innovate more because it's not being

[1:09:00] disrupted. And even if Asimov is right

[1:09:02] about it, there is a more nuanced

[1:09:04] philosophical debate to be had for

[1:09:06] whether or not it's worth it to build a

[1:09:08] society around this constant fear. Like,

[1:09:11] I get that aliens are a threat, but does

[1:09:12] that mean my stepmother needs to hear my

[1:09:14] every waking thought? When I see him

[1:09:16] propose this idea again and again at the

[1:09:18] climax of his stories, it feels colored

[1:09:20] by a certain kind of free market

[1:09:22] capitalistic thinking that has bled into

[1:09:24] all other aspects of life. Throughout

[1:09:27] this video, I've been praising his

[1:09:28] ability to tell stories about broader

[1:09:30] systemic and social forces, but even

[1:09:32] there, the way he does so is often in

[1:09:34] the language of capitalism. The people

[1:09:36] in his stories without fault respond

[1:09:38] rationally to incentives. Foundation is,

[1:09:41] in many ways, a capitalistic fantasy of

[1:09:44] how history plays out, where everyone

[1:09:46] is, for lack of a better word, a robot.

[1:09:49] It's for all of these reasons that the

[1:09:50] Soviets changed the ending. In the

[1:09:53] movie, Harlan is shocked to learn that

[1:09:55] Noys is from the Hidden Centuries, and

[1:09:57] freaks out that she's been lying to him

[1:09:58] about this. They break up, and then in

[1:10:00] his rage, he destroys Eternity,

[1:10:02] preventing it from ever having existed

[1:10:04] in the first place. Once again, he

[1:10:05] thinks he has successfully rebelled

[1:10:07] against the system. But in the final,

[1:10:09] brilliant, wordless ending, he's walking

[1:10:12] through 1980s West Germany, and he sees

[1:10:14] a couple of bougie guys get out of a

[1:10:16] Rolls-Royce and walk into a corporate

[1:10:18] headquarters. Except, no wait, those

[1:10:20] aren't just random guys. That's Harlan's

[1:10:22] two superiors from Eternity who, in this

[1:10:25] new eternity-less universe, have become

[1:10:28] the bourgeoisie.

[1:10:35] I love this ending. This ending is so

[1:10:38] loaded, because there's a lot of

[1:10:39] potential implications here. It seems to

[1:10:41] say, "Yes, sure, this central planning

[1:10:43] socialist bureaucracy kind of sucks, and

[1:10:45] you have to sacrifice too much of

[1:10:46] yourself for it. But even if you rebel

[1:10:49] against it, the guys at the top are just

[1:10:51] going to anamorphed into bougie

[1:10:52] capitalists the moment you win, and

[1:10:53] you'll be left on the street worse off

[1:10:55] than if you just played along with the

[1:10:56] regime. It's an idea that is highly

[1:10:58] prescient of what happened to Russia in

[1:11:00] the years after this movie released. Or

[1:11:02] perhaps everything Harlan did was just

[1:11:04] part of the plan all along and they

[1:11:06] manipulated him again for their own

[1:11:08] gain. Like they wanted to be transformed

[1:11:10] into Rolls-Royce owning CEOs. There's

[1:11:13] ambiguity here because the movie ends

[1:11:14] with him seeing this and then walking

[1:11:16] down a highway exhausted and demoralized

[1:11:19] by every aspect of his existence. Oh,

[1:11:21] Harlan, I know how you feel. Unlike all

[1:11:23] of the other major Asimov adaptations

[1:11:25] that I've talked about, the 1987 version

[1:11:27] of The End of Eternity is hard sci-fi.

[1:11:30] It takes his ideas and grapples with

[1:11:32] them seriously, but comes to a

[1:11:33] completely different and essentially

[1:11:35] socialist conclusion. So, once more, we

[1:11:37] have an Asimov adaptation where his

[1:11:39] stories are twisted to the purposes of

[1:11:41] the adapters. Where Foundation tries to

[1:11:43] make his story a religious allegory, End

[1:11:45] of Eternity makes it socialist

[1:11:46] propaganda. The difference is ultimately

[1:11:48] one of focus. End of Eternity's final

[1:11:51] minute left turn is clear and

[1:11:53] purposeful. Foundation grasps that

[1:11:55] meaning in a hundred different

[1:11:56] directions, but to use a math phrase,

[1:11:59] the whole is less than the sum of its

[1:12:01] parts.

[1:12:03] Asimov's stories cover entire planets,

[1:12:05] galaxies, and universes with thousands

[1:12:08] of characters and relationships that

[1:12:10] were probably pretty difficult to keep

[1:12:12] track of. Not that that ever slowed him

[1:12:13] down.

[1:12:15] If you're like me and you enjoy creating

[1:12:16] worlds for novels, tabletop RPGs, or

[1:12:19] some other creative project, then you've

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[1:12:25] you focus on the fun of world building.

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[1:13:03] Write. 40% off? Wowee, thanks, Sage. No,

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[1:13:16] Thanks for watching, everybody, and a

[1:13:18] big thank you to my patrons for

[1:13:19] supporting me on Patreon, including Mike

[1:13:21] Moss and Doug Best Dog. If you want to

[1:13:24] support the show and get your name in

[1:13:25] the credits, just go to

[1:13:26] patreon.com/justwrite.

[1:13:28] Keep writing, everyone.