A clumsy Foundation tries to clear space for new stories
The bad guys get the best parts in this choppy reflection on legacy.
TV Reviews Foundation
“The Mathematicians’ Ghost” is a table-setting episode, and not a particularly elegant one. The pensive voice-over narration on the painful persistence of memory can’t drown out the clunky scraping of furniture as the stage is rearranged for future storylines.
Instead of exploring the aftermath of Raych assassinating Hari, the show instead returns focus to Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey) on Terminus, and more interestingly, a deeper exploration of The Empire’s genetic legacy. Gaal’s only presence in the episode is providing the voice-over that ostensibly acts as the glue holding the various time jumps together. But it ends up performing the worst qualities of a voice-over; neither strengthening the episode’s deeper themes with a metaphorical rumination on ghosts, nor clarifying the storyline.
The episode title suggests there’s going to be a reckoning of Hari’s legacy, but very little of that occurs. While there is some interesting dialogue alluding to a generational shift in adherence to Hari’s Plan, that’s mostly relegated to asides. Instead, the central rift is an almost Reagan-era trope of Salvor as an aggro soldier preparing for action versus the anemic, sit-and-wait brainiacs of her parent’s generation. It’s not significant on its own, but alongside the faith vs. science through-line of the previous episode, it displays a troublesome trend for the show, putting reductive dichotomies front and center, while reserving its depth and shaded character moments to the periphery.
All this has the strange effect of making our protagonists less nuanced than the trio of the emperor’s genetic source who are continuously birthed to maintain a stranglehold on the galaxy. Nearly the entire first half of the episode is dedicated to exploring the legacy of The Empire, and it is easily the more provocative half.
We briefly visit 400 years in the past, where Cleon, first of his name and lord of the Galactic Empire, faces his own mortality. The android Dermezel (Laura Birn) is by his side, and he confides in her that he wishes he could see the newly under-construction Space Bridge completed before he dies. Nineteen years after the bombing of the Space Bridge, we see Father Dusk preparing for his own death.
Day, who ordered the bombing of Anacreon and Thespan, is now aged into Dusk, though if he has developed any of the humility and self-reflection his predecessor had earned, we do not see it. The brothers take Dusk into orbit so he can look on the wreckage of the space bridge still orbiting Trantor before it is destroyed. In assuring Dusk that greater things are still ahead for the empire, Day declares, “We are the great dream of Cleon the First.”
But what is meant as an assertion of the brothers’ importance to The Empire instead demonstrates how the galaxy is shrinking and becoming more insular. Like every action The Empire has taken so far, it is a display of weakness disguised as strength. Back on the surface, Dusk meets his replacement. Only after the newest clone is christened Dawn, is Dusk granted the hidden title Brother Darkness. Dusk is frightened by his own pre-ordained end, of course. But he has also become patient and thoughtful in a way that would likely be valuable to The Empire at this uncertain crossroads. Sadly, it doesn’t matter. After being disintegrated, Darkness’ ashes are spread on baby Dawn in a baptism of genetic purity.
Onward to Terminus, where we learn more about Salvor, the woman who demonstrated a connection with The Vault. The show works to demonstrate the parallels between Salvor and Gaal. Both are unique in some way, gifted with abilities or connections we don’t yet understand. Due to their uniqueness, both exist at the periphery of their communities.
In Salvor’s case, this is also literal, as her role is warden—the person responsible for scouting, maintenance and defense of the outpost’s perimeter. Neither Salvor nor Gaal share the belief of their parents. While Salvor isn’t as hostile to her parent’s faith in Hari Seldon and their all-consuming pursuit of his plan, she doesn’t particularly believe it, either. It’s an interesting exploration of both generational change and the difficulty in keeping knowledge alive. Only one generation in, the clarity of Hari Seldon’s plan and purpose falter. Just as faith no longer held any importance for Gaal, the Plan doesn’t feel relevant to Salvor. But again, sadly, this theme is buried under a strange split between Salvor as an aggressive problem solver and the older generation of settlers as dopes.
The most concerning device Foundation falls back on is a lazy application of archetypes to distinguish characters without a deeper study of our various contradictions. The Encyclopedists, as they’re known, are shown to be fussy and passive. But it seems a person could only be so nebbish spending 34 years fighting every day for survival among the “windswept plains of frozen loon shit,” as Salvor’s space trader lover Hugo puts it. When three Anacreon warships are spotted heading for the planet, an Encyclopedist suggests calling The Empire for help, despite being an outpost of traitors that only live so as not to create a martyr of their leader. Only Saldor moves to check the armory and prepare for battle. What, if any connection the arrivals have to do with the discovery Salvor has made that the Vault’s nul-shield is expanding remains to be seen.
“The Mathematician’s Ghost” is the weakest episode so far. There’s still plenty of opportunity for the series to pick back up, especially given the transitional nature of this episode. But it’s troubling that the series demonstrates it knows how to be smart and nuanced, but chooses instead to pursue the easiest schisms between characters.
Stray Observations
- The one unwavering quality of the show is that it’s gorgeous. Both aesthetically and thematically, I enjoy how much of it is shot with saturated hues of orange, purple, or cool blues. They’re the colors of sunset and dusk, and a diminishing kingdom.
- Look, it wouldn’t matter how badly I want to appear like a grown-up to the cool space courier, if I’m living on a barren, backwater planet and my only food comes from a fifty-year-old shipping container and someone tosses me a brick of chocolate, I’d be so happy about it.
- “We are not a cult!,” Salvor’s mother bristles against the accusation. Though her vehemence ignores such instances as Salvor’s father declaring “What in Seldon’s name is that?” upon seeing the Vault for the first time.
- I love the finality of piloting the ship straight into the surface of Terminus and immediately dismantling it for parts. Also, I could watch a whole episode that was just a time lapse of the colony being built.
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Does anybody like this show? I was thinking about getting Apple TV just for this but now I’m not so sure.
I do.
It is very nice to look at. Whether the story will match that is ‘outlook cloudy but not so good’.
I don’t know that there’s another example of a show where the impressiveness of the looks (cinematography, special effects, sets and costumes) was so out of proportion to the quality of everything else. The casting (post Jarred Harris death) is as cheap as it could be. The writing and storyline criss-crossing is sloppy. Is there a soundtrack? I don’t remember, that’s how good it is. I will say, Lee Pace is phenomenal, he is carrying the show on his back. But he is a beacon of light in a sea of acting mediocrity. I think the reason it’s so unusual is that the visuals are the most expensive and difficult thing to get right. When we see a show this gorgeous, we are conditioned to expect it to be premium-tier in all of its other facets. Because how could you possibly have the budget and talent to nail the visuals, but not be able to get a lead actor (Gall) with a single credit to her name? I want to like this show, I am enamoured with its looks, I love a good sci-fi genre premise. But the objective part of me is coming to terms with the fact that acting and writing is not up to par, and on balance this is not a very good show.Give me the Lee Pace cut, just the scenes with Lee Pace, and this would be Emmy material.
I dunno. I see a lot of parallels with Game of Thrones (not least in the filming locations)GOT’s only real big name in season 1 was Sean Bean and we all know what happened to him. Lena Headey had a bit of recognition from Terminator Sarah Connor Chronicles but she wasn’t exactly A-list. Out of the core cast, everyone else were young newcomers or fairly unknown actors up to that point.That seems to be the same here. Jared Harris, Lee Pace and Clarke Peters are your big names but if this show takes off*, the younger cast won’t be unknown for long and I’d imagine more established actors would join the ranks as well.*That’s a big ‘if’ mind you. Not many people have Apple TV+ and while I’m enjoying the show and absolutely love the visuals, I still haven’t got the faintest idea what the fuck is going on. At all.
That’s a pretty good comparison, I must admit. It’s my hindsight bias that all the actors are famous now, but a good number of them have elevated to A- or B-list exclusively because of Game of Thrones. Emelia Clarke’s and Kit Harrington’s resumes were quite scant, on par with the actress who plays Gaal, and those were two of the most central roles (especially in the long term arc of the series). It’s also worth observing that their performances were kind of an anchor onto the series, they were both pretty underwhelming, and had trouble rising to big moments.I do still think GoT was a tier above what we’re getting in Foundation; star lead Sean Bean lasted a whole season, rather than a single episode, and I think there were more credible actors in the supporting cast, and also more actors whose performances were objectively great, even if they weren’t A-listers. Peter Dinklage, Lena Headley and Nikolaj Cost-Waldau were stellar in their roles, at least in my opinion. Smaller role players like Gwendoline Christie (Brienne), Liam Cunningham (Davos), Conleth Hill (Varys), Aiden Gillen (Baelish), and Jerome Flynn (Bronn) were all really good, and Maisie Williams was exceptional as far as child actors go. We had like 10 Lee Paces instead of just one. And in terms of the writing, it’s another parallel that they’re both adaptations from genre books. I do think GoT was much better written, plotted and paced, at least in its early seasons, then what we’re seeing so far from Foundation. There was never a stretch of GoT as brutally painfully dull as the 20 minutes in the middle of episode 2 of Foundation that revolved around Gaal’s romance with douche face. The original score in GoT was also outlandishly good.
I love it.
I’m enjoying it quite a bit. I only read the first book and am fine with the changes so far. An adaptation is in essence an interpretation and, imo, should be taken as a separate work both from the writer and audience perspective.
We are 3 episodes in to a planned 8 season story, and the third is definitely the weakest for the reasons this review outlines, but it’s also just the third episode. If you are worried about Apple TV+ and spending money you’ll regret, I might suggest waiting for the whole season to be out, or maybe half of it and starting then? We’ll have a better sense of where the show is trying to go and how successful it is by that point. That said, is it great so far? Not really. Does it still have potential to be? I would say it does.
Its very pretty, atmosphere is great, and any scene with Lee Pace is great. Worth watching just for that, I tune out when they turn to awful romance subplots.
It is a very slow burn, though it is infinitely faster than the books.
Eight seasons is the plan. Does it get better is the question? All that time jumping is gonna be confusing and/or disjointed.
Instead of exploring the aftermath of Raych assassinating Hari I sincerely hope that I am not the only person who has actually read the books whose immediate reaction to that clause was “WT actual F”?
I had that reaction to several of the plot points mentioned here.
This show has the biggest discrepancy between gorgeous visuals and miserably bad writing that I’ve seen in quite a while. Every time there’s a choice between nuance and complexity and cheap drama they pick the drama.
Absolutely. On the other hand it’s shown me a universe where Lee Pace is eternal, so I’ll take the good with the bad.
THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.
You’re not. I read that and was like “….eh?”I have not seen any of this yet, but I do find it amusing that the things the author of this review finds fascinating and intriguing are things that make me annoyed and the things the author finds annoying are what make me the happiest. Yes, the Encyclopedists absolutely should be that clueless and lacking in street smarts! It heartens me to hear that some of the themes of Asimov’s books aren’t lost in translation after all. Never underestimate the ability of humans to be willfully ignorant of all that surrounds them.(Also yes I’m unashamedly a huge Asimov nerd and I do wish the show could hew a bit closer to his writings, as much as I know it doesn’t fit the modern storytelling style or ethos…)
That is some crazy shit, right?
You were not alone. After binging the first two episodes, I was gobsmacked.I’m still here for this, however, curious to see where they are going.Having more insight into how the Empire falls is a strong element, so they’ve got one fan.
Yep that was my reaction to it entirely.I’m really enjoying this show so far. Interested to see where it’s going.
It was a WTF cliffhanger (still disappointingly hanging), but it’s not like the book series don’t have stranger things than that happening. To be honest, I’m afraid all the psychic stuff is at risk of looking ridiculous on screen, and the SPOILER! Second Foundation twist is kind of wild and a bit cheap, narrative-wise.
Preem Palver fucking owns, yo.
Not having seen the series, nor (as you can probably tell from my comments) am I likely to, I cannot help wondering – if Hari Seldon was exiled to Terminus, how exactly do they plan to handle the Big Reveal of where the Second Foundation was located? Or is it their intention for it to turn out that Arkady Darrell was right after all?
Wait until they get to The Mule. He’ll either be a eight foot tall superbeast or an actual mule (probably CGI, but who knows). If you’re gonna adapt a book, it helps to, you know, actually read the fucking book.
“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.”Fuck this show
“Only the incompetent wait until the last extremity to use force, and by then, it is usually too late to use anything, even prayer.” H. Beam Piper.
Where the hell did you get that quote from? Not from the spoken dialogue of this episode, I can assure you.
It’s an often quoted phrase in the book that Salvor Hardin is famous for. That it hasn’t been used in the TV series is somewhat telling.
Remember that part in the book where Hardin killed the foppish guy from Anacreon and stuck his head on a pike to warn the other Kingdoms not to fuck with the fucking Foundation? Why couldn’t that be adapted?
Your confused. Hardin never did those things. Rather, it’s from a scene where he was telling Yohan Lee about a show he saw last night on the televisor.
It’s Salvor Hardin’s most famous quote in the books. He was a political genius who kept the four kingdoms at bay without a shot fired. Probably why they changed everything for TV, not enough “pew pew” space battles.
Exactly! Salvor Hardin picking up a gun? Never. A fat cigar certainly
I think you’re in the wrong review, mate.
That’s literally a direct quote of the book, LMAO!
Well, this answers my questions about how they’ll handle the time jumps and the anthological nature of the series and whether things will descend into flashbacks and flash forwards.Pretty much going to be an eight season long mess with constant cast refreshes, I suppose.
If that’s the case, I’m not sure they will get to make many seasons.FWIW, I’m enjoying the show so far, and I even think it’s visually more interesting than Dune (I live in Europe and have already watched it). But if there aren’t any characters I can become emotionally invested in, I don’t think I would stick it out for the long run.
The longer this goes on the more it feels like someone had a pitch for a scifi show they couldn’t sell, then somehow got the rights to Foundation, sold a show that was ostensibly based on that, then made the show they couldn’t sell using the names of the Foundation charters. I felt the same way about that Discworld show.
What Discworld show? What’s that? No, it didn’t happen. NOPE, I CAN’T HEAR YOU!
Makes me glad that Culture series never came to fruition.
Yep. I think that several Culture novels are probably unfilmable. I doubt that the Minds discourse would work on screen. Some of the more planetbound ones like Matter or Use of Weapons could be adapted. Maybe aspects of Excession, but see above. Outside of that the budget/CGI would spiral.
Personally I would love to have seen a Culture series using the money Amazon is throwing at that LOTR crap instead.
I personally would like to see culture on series format. Perhaps that Use of Weapons (my personal favourite). Also I think Player of Games would translate nicely.
I’m sure that’s how 90% of shows/movies hve been made for a while. Joker was a sophomoric social commentary movie that had the Joker and Batman jammed into it, Person of Interest and Lucifer had to have procedural elements jammed into them to sell a hard sci-fi show and supernatural soap opera respectfully and the upcoming Eidos Guardians of the Galaxy game looks like the visually stunning sci-fi RPG we’ve been hoping for since the fiasco that was Mass Effect Andromeda but with the Guardians jammed into it.
Theory (with possible spoilers):—————————————–Gaal is inside the vault. In the books, Hari makes recordings of himself to be played at various pivotal points in The Foundation’s future history, to help keep their faith in The Plan and point them in the right direction of what decisions they should make. I think that in the show, instead of just recording himself, Hari had Gaal cryogenically frozen since she is the only person besides him who can read the Psychohistory Cube Thingy. She’ll be unfrozen so she can remind the Foundation that this was all part of the plan, and help them figure out what to do next. Raych was angry at Hari because he knew that this was Hari’s plan, and that Hari had set Gaal up for this all along without her consent.
That tracks with it being there before the ship and with Salvor’s resistance to it seeing as she seems to be in touch with psychohistory in a way the other colonists are not.
And why did Raych toss the bloody knife into Gaal’s cryo-tube? To preserve a sample of Hari’s DNA? For possible cloning at a later date?I assume there is absolutely no cloning tech on Terminus now, but perhaps that could change.
“I assume there is absolutely no cloning tech on Terminus now”It has occurred to me that with the introduction of the Cleon-Clone-Club a part of Cleon’s hedge should be that he parks a clone of himself in the Vault for future use.
Jared Harris is still billed as a main character, so odds are there will be the hologram thing (on top of possible flashbacks, maybe even from Prelude, although that should be a younger Seldon that would require a different actor, I guess).Also, I’m not sure Raych really went rogue. He seemed to play a part he wasn’t happy with. Also also, wasn’t Gaal ejected on a pod when they were still years away from Terminus? Doesn’t look like a way to have her appear frozen inside the Vault. Unless a space math wizard did it.
Of course Raych was in on the plan, he’s the one who froze Gaal.In the first episode they went out of their way to talk about how the colony ship they were going to use had slower engines than most interstellar ships. Seldon could have arranged to have Gaal taken to Terminus by something faster. Just a theory.
I don’t think freezing Gaal was part of the plan. Killing Hari was, but Raych clearly panics when he sees Gaal.
Leading her to a cryo tube and freezing her and shooting her into space while saying “I love you” doesn’t really seem like panic.
I think it was part of Hari’s plan but he didn’t let Raych in on it. Gaal has been frozen and sent off to establish the Second Foundation, not necessarily in the current timeline(s). Her voice-over at the beginning mentioned the Mule and it wouldn’t make sense that she would know about him unless she’s frozen until much later.I’m curious about the bloody knife. Could they be setting up for the cloning and return of Hari Seldon himself? You don’t hire Jared Harris and then just trot him out as a hologram every few episodes.
Raych said “You aren’t supposed to be here.” Part of what Raych did was improvised, but I’m with you in that Hari set something up.
Could be, but I’m hoping not; Gaal being able to read the math and verify that things are on track isn’t nearly as cool as a recording of a dead man saying “Welp, just about now some Anacreonean ships should be headed your way”. But then, this show is not being made for my sensibility.
But how did Gaal arrive there earlier on her bio-tube/escape pod? Was the Vault waiting for her?
They went out of their way to mention that the ship they’re on is slower than typical interstellar ships. Maybe it was arranged for someone (like the Second Foundation, which I don’t think has been mentioned yet) to pick up her pod and take it to Terminus.
It was fun to seen Hugo played by Daniel McPherson who made his name on Australian TV nearly 25 years ago on Neighbours playing Joel, the surfer dude with a nipple piercing.
Mildly obsessed…ha-ha with the original Foundation books, essentially
all Isaac Asimov’s Foundation related books, but this made for TV series
even though visually appealing is no Foundation. Grrr
I love the show so far, especially this “ghosts” episode with some small reservations. The character(s) of the emperor are beautifully written and performed, as is everything regarding that storyline. Every romantic scene seems forced and completely unnecessary, which is about the most Asimov thing ever. This series is set up to be a slow burn. If you’re not satisfied with quick answers, I have a feeling we’ll get them in time. IMO, this is (so far) better than I could have hoped.
I will pick up what you’re putting down, especially in regards to the romance. This episode made it abundantly clear that it was going to be a slow burn, since it completely ignored the baffling cliffhanger ending of the previous ep. I’m ok with that personally, but I fear that it will infuriate many other viewers. :-/
Apparently the writers have no faith in the diction of the actors. Why else are people from Anacreon called Anacreons instead of Anacreonians (as Asimov called them) or Anacreonites or some other sensible appellation?
Wait until the Santanniolians come into play.
The thing that’s bugging me the most about this episode is the aging rate of the clone emperors. Brother Darkness is Cleon 11. Which means there have been 9 Brother Darknesses before him over the course of 400 years. That gives the clones a life span of less than 40 years, but that’s clearly not the case if in 19 years pre-teen Dawn ages to Lee Pace, Lee Pace Day ages to Terrence Mann Dusk, and Terrence Man Dusk ages to old age makeup Terrence Mann Darkness.If we fudge it and says its 20 years between each stage, so its Baby->20 years->Lee Pace->20 years->Terrence Mann->20 years->Old Terrence Man->Disintegration, that’s a 60 year life span. Which is still short, especially with far future presumably magic seeming medical technology. But there would still have to be ~200 more years to get to Cleon 11.
Yep. I found this bit illogical. Infant Dawn + 19 years = Lee Pace (who’s 42 IRL).
Your math is off because it assumes that Cleon 11 starts when Cleon 10 dies. But that’s not how it works in the genetic dynasty. Each Cleon is only ~20 years separated from each other (with the exception of the first clone, who was only born when Cleon 1 died).Year 0 – Cleon 1 dies, Cleon 2 is bornYear 20 – Cleon 2 is 20, Cleon 3 is bornYear 40 – Cleon 2 is 40 (Dusk), Cleon 3 is 20 (Day), Cleon 4 is born (Dawn)Year 60 – Cleon 2 dies, Cleon 3 is 40 (Dusk), Cleon 4 is 20 (Day), Cleon 5 is born (Dawn)Every time an old Cleon dies and a new one is born, the baby is three titles further along.
Yeah, my mistake.
Charting it out it looks like 35 years between decantings gets to the death of Cleon XI and decanting of Cleon XIV 420 years after Cleon II was decanted, which tracks if we say that the first episode was almost exactly 400 years into the Genetic Dynasty, and the Trantor part of this episode is 19 years later. This also gives the clones a lifespan of ~105 years, which seems reasonable (though also seems like it would be considered ‘short’ with the presumably super advanced life extending medical technology that the Emperor would have available to him).Also this would mean that Dawn was 16 years old in the first episode, which he very clearly was not.
Well, in the fourth episode Cleon XIII, now Brother Day, says he was only 7 when Cleon XII destroyed Anacreon and Thespis. Assuming a 35 year average between transitions, that would make Day 42 in the second episode (as you say Pace’s actual age) and Dusk 77. By the third episode (19 years later), ascending Day is 26, new dusk is 61, and Darkness is 96. By the fourth episode, Dawn is 17, Day is 43, and Dusk is 78.There evidently is some flexibility in the timing of transitions, which makes sense because the system would have to allow for unexpected death or illness, and other events. It isn’t clear what triggers a transition in normal circumstances, whether the decision of Brother Dusk to ascend or the decision of Brother Day to retire. Given the nature of the dynasty, maybe it is a consensus among the three. Perhaps the Dawn we see in Episode 1 is unusually young for some reason, that in Episode 4 unusually old, or maybe the reigns of the Genetic Dynasty just expand and contract significantly with the needs of the times.
So far I’m really enjoying this (I haven’t read the books and do not plan to based on what I’ve read about them) I’m a huge scifi fan and it’s refreshing to see such hard work put into the world building. Some shots are truly stunning. This episode was a little on the slow side though and set up even more questions. But I went back and watched the trailer and realized that most of what they showed was from the first two episodes. ie. We don’t know when Gaal will make her return etc. I like the diversity and the ideas and that’s been more than enough to hook me in- my only complaint is that it’s lacking some humor. I feel like prestige dramas nowadays don’t think that comedy has a place in their shows – but it’s so important. And I’m not talking slapstick – just inside jokes between characters even
I’ve only seen the first 2 episodes since that was all I was able to see since I don’t have Apple TV… but the biggest problem with this series I saw was something inescapable. Asimovs Foundation books were such a bedrock… ahem… foundational… set of ideas that it influenced everything that came after. Dune, Star Wars, Star Trek, all of it. I could probably find a way to draw a line from Foundation to Dr Who somehow if I concentrated. Heck, once the Second Foundation and the Mule show up I can bring in the X-Men. And so the problem with this series is built into the very subject matter – it feels kinda derivative of all those other things. It feels like Dun, Star Wars and Game of Thrones were tossed into a blender and what we got might taste okay but it’s a taste we’ve had before.I’m not sure they can get away from that and still stay true to the books. So they are succeeding in adapting the books but failing in making something unique.
The bad guys ALWAYS get the best parts. Every actor will tell you that it’s always more fun to play the villain, or the anti-hero.
As a fan of the books, this show is really starting to piss me off. The solution to the first crisis is clever and would easily work on TV and even in the context of the first two episodes. Why in the hell are they doing this? Are they really going to make a character whose most famous line in the books is “Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent” lead a violent fight?
I also cannot stand this whole notion that Seldon was this one person alone creating the plan. He had an entire organization of psychohistorians on Trantor when the trial happened. What are these writers doing to this story?!?