Foundation trailer

Fretwired

Apple is coming .. with Foundation .. God knows how you turn this work into a TV series, but it looks good.

Jalapeno

As in Asimov ? [Just seen that it is]  Wonder if it will have the really bad S&M sex ?

Cirrus

I WANTS IT

Fretwired

Jalapeno said:

As in Asimov ? [Just seen that it is]  Wonder if it will have the really bad S&M sex ?

Yes, Asimov ... the production company is sticking closely to the books and have spent an eye-watering amount of Apple's money. Whether people will understand it is another matter.

AustrianJohn

I'm amazed that the Foundation series hasn't already been used as the basis for a TV series or film. Looking forward to this very much, and hopefully many follow-on episodes covering the other books in the series.

Fretwired

AustrianJohn said:

I'm amazed that the Foundation series hasn't already been used as the basis for a TV series or film. Looking forward to this very much, and hopefully many follow-on episodes covering the other books in the series.

Apparently people have been trying for 50 years. Star Wars was heavily influenced by Foundation. I guess Apple hopes it will be the new Game of Thrones.

Philly_Q

Much like Dune, I read the books decades ago but can't remember much - if anything - about them.  My dad was a big Asimov fan at one point, I still have all his books stored away in a box somewhere.  But I don't have Apple TV so I won't be seeing this.

fields5069

Hmm. Are they going to go in the order they were published I wonder. I didn't read extensively around the foundation series, but you could expand this as much as you want. Where to start?

AustrianJohn

fields5069 said:

Hmm. Are they going to go in the order they were published I wonder. I didn't read extensively around the foundation series, but you could expand this as much as you want. Where to start?

Probably best to start with the original three books then go back and fill in the pre-story.

Or if you want to do it all in order I'd suggest that you could start with the Caves of Steel (the first book in which R Daneel Olivaw appears). But there's an argument that other Robot books or the earlier Empire books are also part of the landscape.

PolarityMan

I imagine that they would need to start with Foundation in order to have Hari Seldon and psychohistory explained as a concept, that would then let them flash back through the alter novels after his death rather than have his concepts / work explained by other characters etc.

fields5069

It makes more sense to start with Foundation, yes agreed. I should go back and read these. I was mightily impressed when I was a teen but it would be interesting to see what I think of the style now.

PolarityMan

A bit like Dune, hugely influential though. The whole death of knowledge thing is pretty much a trope now. 

Steffo

I love the Foundation series. If this is anywhere near as good I am sold!

WezV

It's out on Apple TV now


I watched the first 10 minutes and it's both promising and infuriating already.   Quite happy with Gender swaps since Asmiov was poor at writing women.  Not so sure about the addition of alien life, but if does enrich the environments.

They have definitely pushed the Sci Fi Game of Thrones angle with the intro theme.

I suspect Bicentennial Man will remain the only faithful interpretation of Asimov's work.

Grangousier

I thought the trailer looked amazing, but (similar to The Eternals) they let themselves down by trying to explain what it was about - if you can't do it in a sentence, best to show people a bunch of things they might find intriguing and hope their curiosity brings them in. 

Also, I wondered whether anyone wanted an SF epic featuring Jeremy Corbyn, but that might just be me. 

Will watch it, though. 

Axe_meister

Has anybody seen this yet? Is it worth paying for a month of AppleTV.
An looking forward to the wheel of time and the last season of the expanse.

octatonic

Axe_meister said:

Has anybody seen this yet? Is it worth paying for a month of AppleTV.
An looking forward to the wheel of time and the last season of the expanse.

So far is is OK but not brilliant.
I'm a bit disappointed but Foundation was always going to be difficult to do well.

Grumpyrocker

I'm enjoying it. I was a fan of the books but I don't think they'd make great TV. So I like the changes they've made. Visually stunning. And I think Lee Pace is fantastic as Day. 

Chuffola

Agree visually superb but my God it’s slow. I’m 4 episodes in and not sure I’ll go back to it.

Grumpyrocker

The official podcast is very good. Some interesting insight into the story and character development. 

TheBigDipper

I haven't read (or remembered) the original three books since I was a kid. My vague recollection is that it was a bit old-fashioned and plodding compared to the sci-fi I preferred. I enjoyed the robot-oriented books as the entertainments they were written to be, but remember Foundation as being a bit wordy without any ideas that grabbed my imagination. 

So I tried this, and quite like the way they've put it together. Pretty to watch and I'm not really comparing it to the books - coz I don't remember much of the detail. I'll be in much more trouble when I go to see the new Dune film (and I hated the old one). 

FWIW, I had a free year of AppleTV+ when I changed my AppleTV box. I wouldn't pay for a proper subscription because there's not enough content I want to watch. However, I enjoyed series one of The Morning Show and I'm currently subscribed purely because I wanted to watch series two of Ted Lasso. Getting Foundation is a byproduct of that.