We’re at the start of a season, so here’s a quick reminder of how these work. While watching the episode, I write down my thoughts, impressions, connections, and theories — half-baked or otherwise. Then we record the podcast. Eventually, I will publish one of these. Usually, it’s pretty quick, but I still owe you one each from Seasons 1 and 2. Simultaneously published at Stars End: A Foundation Podcast.

Watching Foundation S3E01

“If you live long enough, time can be a weapon.”  All hail exponential growth.

It’s 152 years after Season 2.  The Foundation controls the entire outer reach.  I want a clearer idea of what that means.  Controlling the suburbs all the way around the galaxy doesn’t seem feasible in a century and a half.

But the way they’re talking about the Middle Band makes it sound that way. Three concentric circles all around the supermassive black hole.

Kalgan

And Kalgan is the lynch pin of the middle band.

We get a taste of what the visi-sonor sounds like.  It makes me glad that the books, as I was reading them, were silent.

Barely a couple of minutes in, and presumably, we meet the Mule.  Too abrupt.

“I have a very large appetite, one only a galaxy can satisfy.”  Too big, too fast.

Just get some soap, damnit.  Gross.

Planetary conquest in four minutes.  Horrifically violent.  This needed a build-up.

This sure seems like actual mind control rather than emotional pushing.

Also, I’m not buying this guy as the Mule.  Magnifico must be calling the shots from somewhere else.  Could it really be an Asimov story without the important action taking place off-screen?

And all that before the intro.

Skydance Television.  Now merged with Paramount.  I hope their business model includes spending lots of money on things just because they’re good. That’s not just for Foundation but for Star Trek, too.

Executive producer: Roxanne Dawson.  Awesome!

But crap.  That’s a really long list of executive producers.

Somewhere in Space

Hober Mallow’s deal with the Spacers had real long-term consequences. 

“After the Empire lost control of the Spacers during the Second Crisis, they’ve been forced to use jump gates to travel across the galaxy, slowing their sphere of influence and accelerating their decline.”

If they had to return to using obsolete tech that had been replaced by the Spacers, the Empire would be at a huge disadvantage.

I suppose if the Empire were slowed enough and spacer-travel were fast enough, the Foundation ringing the entire galaxy might make sense.

However, this provides us with three paradigms for FTL travel, whereas the source material had only one.  That’s too complicated.

And in season four, do we get the Infinite Improbability Drive or the Bloat Drive?  Or, God forbid, the drive that turned Paris and Janeway into rutting lizards?

There’s a Galactic Council now?  I don’t remember any hint of one.  The narration treats it as if it’s something that always existed.  Change a few words, and you have something that better indicates that the Cleons are waning in power and influence.

Now I’m wondering how Demerzel‘s Prime Radiant, or any of them really, updates itself.  There must be more data for the program to decide that the entire timeline is going to glitch like that.  So, how does that work?

“We proceed as planned.  There’s nothing else we can do.”  This nicely reminds me of the Bel Riose story in Foundation and Empire. All hail the forces of history.

The narration confirms that the Galactic Council has been around as long as the Empire.  And yet in 12,000(?) years of time and space, it never occurred to them to bring in a couple of chairs.

We get a picture of the galaxy with two splotches that may or may not be political units, but aren’t concentric circles.

But “resizing to a sustainable 6342 worlds” sounds a lot like restructuring to get out of bankruptcy.

And the Foundation is comparatively only about 800 worlds.  No way it encircles the entire galaxy.

I’m assuming this “when crops die, people die” claim is political posturing.  This Dawn is not the credulous kid of seasons one and two.  He seems to be a savvy political operator.  He talks about funding the Merchant Princes within the Foundation, and I decide that this is all a big mash-up of the end of the first book and lots of the second book, well stirred.

My gut tells me that the scale of using any number of planets to feed the galaxy is way off, especially with intragalactic travel slowed way down! With the possible exception of Trantor, if you don’t have agriculture, you starve.

“We hath brought for thee these bananas, Your Majesty!  Sorry, they turned black and icky!  Thou shalt therefore be presented with the glory of banana bread!“

Dawn is 10 days short of Daybreak.

Sometime later on Trantor

Dusk watches each of his predecessors get vaporized.  That’s a maudlin way to pass your rapidly diminishing lifespan.

The Mule is just barely on their radar.

Dawn and Dusk watch a previous brother Darkness try to escape his ascension.  Demerzel casually and efficiently shoves him into his demise.  “Most of us are as obedient as trash headed to the incinerator.“

New Terminus

We get a time lapse of the Foundation’s growth since settling on the new planet; it’s reminiscent of the similar sequence in season 1.

Professor Elbling Mis approaches the vault.  The land directly below the Vault looks scorched and smoldering.  This seems less harmless than the null field’s previous behavior.

Ebling has “nulled the null field,”  and the smoldering stops.  That gets a smile out of Vault Hari.  

Ebling tells Hari that he is descended from Xylas, the prosecutor from S1E01.  I suppose it’s nice to have an explanation for why they both look like Alexander Siddig.  Did you ever see Dragnet?  Every bartender looks like Bobby Troup.  Like they kept them all on a shelf.  So, not necessary but nice.  Now that I think about it, I would be fine with a different descendant in every season, a la Brent Spiner.

But he is thrilled to meet Hari.  “Seldon, man, myth, legend.”  “You have the myth at least,“ he is told.  “The man is elsewhere.”

Inside the vault, Ebling gawks and acts like a tourist.

We get an overview of Mayor Indbur. He’s reminiscent of Indbur III from the books.     

The Foundation, at this point, is indolent and flaccid.

Hari’s his usual charming self.  Ebling wants an explanation for why Hari gave a prime radiant to the Empire only to be unceremoniously ejected from the Vault.

And he didn’t even exclaim “ga-LAX-y!”

Haven

This is the Traders’ stronghold.  It’s tidally locked, so it always keeps one face toward the sun. The other side is in perpetual darkness.  Asimov calls these ribbon worlds.  The teevee show could have done a much better job of giving us that information. (I saw a website claim that these worlds don’t rotate. That’s nonsense. The planet’s year and its day have to sync up so the planet always keeps the same side to the sun, like our moon, where one side always faces the Earth.)

It seems the show is conflating two planets from Foundation and Empire.  These are Haven, the Trader world where Bayta and Toran settle, and Radole, the ribbon world where the Trader Assembly meets.

The Empire is dropping weapons for the traders on the Sunside.  In-universe, Sunside seems like a bad choice. Wouldn’t technology be more susceptible to melting than to freezing?  But then we couldn’t have the exciting chase scene where the four characters ride their big phallic symbols and try to stay within the moon’s shadow.  Nobody has to burst into flames if the chase happens on the dark side.

I’m guessing the male Foundationer is Han Pritcher since someone called him “Pritch.”

New Terminus

We see Mayor Indbur for the first time, and he seems to be wearing a Star Trek TNG (TM) communicator pin.

Yup.  Pritcher.  He is the information officer. Check!  And he understands the threat of the Mule. Check!  Not a diplomat by any way, shape, or form.

As expected, Indbur is an officious jackass.  Pritcher, in return, is justifiably and righteously rude.  Not nearly as professional as I would’ve expected from the character in the book.  Also, he steals the mayor’s ship.  The first name “Han” carries a different kind of weight post-1977.

Also, disambiguation pages rule!  A robot named Han is coming soon to a concierge desk near you. Three Laws probably not included.

Trantor

Demerzel has invited one of the Luminist Zephyrs to Trantor to take her confession.  Her memory of the confession will be wiped afterwards. “ I know there are protocols, but I can be trusted with secrets.”  “Not this one.”

The two visit a tree that has been refreshed by the blood of robots.  Its fruit is gold and poisonous to humans.  It’ll take a while to peel away all the layers there.

We finally get the Three Laws without any contrivances.  

Obeisance?

And the Zeroth Law! Giskard is mentioned, though not by name.

“So you imagine there was such a thing as the greater good?”  You would hope a religious leader would accept that as an axiom.  Also, the use of the past tense is somewhat disturbing. Demerzel just replies, “Isn’t there?”

Demerzel tells us that different factions of robots went to war with each other because they had different ideas about keeping humankind from harm. This has always been my head canon.

Eventually, Demerzel is reprogrammed to serve only Cleon.

And so we get to Demerzel’s crisis of faith.  The Prime Radiant shows her that the end of the Cleonic Dynasty is inevitable.  Who will she be if she outlives her programming?

Cut to a diplomatic dinner that includes the Foundation ambassador.  It’s confirmed that the Zephyr will remain on Trantor. Word of the fall of Kalgan reaches the Foundation ambassador.

It’s surprising that we haven’t seen Day yet, especially given that a lot of people tune into the show just to see Lee Pace.

When we see him, he’s communing with a camel and inventing Vogon poetry.

Jon is calling him Brother Dude, and there is no better alternative.

Dude has a consort with him, and she’s named “Song.”  Now I have to ponder the episode title. Dammit.  From Mycogen, and yet her pate is covered with hair. Also, there’s agriculture on Trantor.

Are they still just using yeast to make bread?  Or are the producers just dodging the question of how Trantor feeds itself?

Dusk needs Dude to come to the Palace.  “Six months is long enough for your drug dealer to live off our generosity.”

First time I’ve laughed during the episode: “You’re a sad clown of a clone.  And your problem is you think you’re the center of the galaxy.” 

The Imperial Palace

Dude refers to Demerzel as “It.”  She shows them the discontinuity from the Prime Radiant.  The Dynasty falls, and “the darkness there represents the end of civilization… perhaps even the extinction of your species.  Four months from now.”

And if that wasn’t a dramatic enough ending point, Gaal wakes up.  “The Mule is here and we’re out of time.”

Review:

This is a good, though not spectacular start. We seem to have reverted to the tone of Season 1. I preferred the somewhat more lighthearted Season 2.

All Images from Foundation on Apple TV+.