Foundation pairs a weak flashback with a strong move forward
The show has decided If you can't be smart, you may as well be fun
TV Reviews Foundation
There’s no reason why this mysterious ghost ship wouldn’t allow Gaal to access all of the information she requested. No reason to keep everything a mystery that she must use her amazing math powers to deduce from the information she can access. If it was a matter of security and Raych didn’t want just any old space junkers who might come along to be able to hijack the ship, it would have been a simple matter to restrict access to Gaal.
Perhaps it’s a mental test devised to keep Gaal sharp after floating through space for 35 years in a tube of goo. But the most likely answer is just that the scene demanded a mystery. It’s a performative bit of intelligence designed to show a character solving a problem with her brain instead of her fists, and to create a more dynamic tableau for the viewer than a computer-voiced exposition dump. Which is all fine. It was indeed more interesting to watch Gaal unfurl the mystery of her destination through the applied use of astrophysics.
But it also explicitly establishes something that the show has feinted at for most of this season. Intelligence is just window dressing. The application of ideas provides a different form of catharsis than the explosions, but both serve the same purpose—entertainment. That reads like an accusation, and I promise, it’s not. Well, not entirely. I have no desire to treat the idea of fun as a contemptuous, lowbrow pursuit, lest I embody one of my favorite Onion headlines. But it is a legitimate reason for some viewers to disengage from the series. It’s pure space adventure and perfectly happy to shove heady, contemplative discourse into the locker.
Knowing that, there are things “Upon Awakening” does well and things it doesn’t. The more engaging sections are Gaal’s silly pretending to be smart spaceship mystery and the ongoing crisis on Terminus. Less successful is the extended backstory given to Gaal’s time on her home world, which doesn’t tell us anything that wasn’t easily deduced from our introduction to her character in the first episode. Worse, it takes that initial delicate sketch of a young woman at odds with her people and makes it significantly dumber.
We learn that Gaal wasn’t just from a religious people, but was herself an elevated member of the church known as an acolyte. We learn that her people weren’t just suspicious of science, but have shuttered down all places of learning and outlawed all books. And the Book of Folding—that intricate three-dimensional text containing the elaborate mathematical poem that Gaal solved in order to win the contest that sent her to Trantor—was the first and only book she ever read. Everything is made explicit to the point of being cartoonish.
What was it about this one encounter that caused a true believer to doubt everything she was born to believe? When Gaal dove underwater to retrieve the book from the dead man’s ankles, she swam past numerous other victims of her church to find him. It was a chilling detail, but if he was just one of many, what made his sin ignite Gaal’s curiosity? The speech he gave in the abandoned university about knowledge and progress was a miniature version of Hari Seldon’s own monologue about psychohistory, and reiterated the show’s science vs. faith stance.
Apparently that was enough to immediately tear Gaal away from everything she was raised to believe. She was allowed to relinquish her stones and leave the church. Why was that an option only available to her and not the man she sentenced to death? Like the emotional tear between Raych and Hari in the second episode, Gaal’s origin story occurred over such an abbreviated timeline that it felt like inauthentic narrative device instead of a thoughtful exploration of one person’s growth. It diminished her story and the show would have been better not including this piece at all.
Over on Terminus, things aren’t looking so great for our pals. While Salvor may have successfully captured Phara, the town is still surrounded by the Anacreons and their giant cannon. To every resident of Terminus’ surprise, an Imperial ship arrives in orbit to save the outpost. But what makes one a Grand Huntress, if not cunning in capturing one’s prey? Phara is led into the Terminus central tower just as she hoped, in order to yank out an EMP bomb from her (hopefully prosthetic?) eyeball, causing a detonation that lays out the town’s protective shield.
The Anacreons immediately attack the town. Back inside, Salvor has a delightful stand-off with Phara, where she shrugs off the huntress holding her mother hostage, deadpanning that it means nothing and she’s just getting in the way of negotiations. It was the finest performance Leah Harvey has delivered yet. This is followed up by a delightful hallway brawl that managed to pack the short distance the two fighters traversed with a borderline comical array of improvised weapons, even making space for a callback to that most humble of equipment, the sundial.
With Phara victorious, she admits that she has no greater reason for coming to Terminus than revenge. She blames the chaos that emerged in the wake of Hari Seldon’s proclamation as the catalyst that led to her planet’s bombing and now wants to destroy his project in return. Her final act of triumph is blowing the imperial warship out of the sky, where it explodes in spectacular fashion against Terminus soil.
The non-mystery map portion of Gaal’s space flight helps expand on what we know of Raych’s decision to kill Hari. It’s made explicit that his decision was part of a predetermined plan, one that included his own execution for murder. Before being blown out the airlock, he faces the camera and addresses a message to Gaal, assuring her she can solve the mystery that didn’t actually need to be a mystery. Gaal now knows she’s headed to Hari’s home world, where she’s certain only punishment awaits her for her supposed part in his death. These are two good cliffhangers to end the episode on, and I have to admit, despite my reservations, I’m fully engaged into seeing how these kids get out of their respective messes.
Stray observations
- Gaal listens to the official report of Hari’s death given by the dude with the distractedly limp, wavy hair. He mentions that Hari was launched into space in a casket of his own design, which I’m sure is the last time that fun fact will come up.
- This is the first episode without The Empire. Man, I hope those guys are okay!
- The flashback was dumb, but tying books to the rocks that drown you is good poetic punishment.
- Drowning heretics in the water brought on by the environmental devastation of the planet, which was brought on and now ignored by the faithful is some real subtle allegory.
60 Comments
It seems to me the ship was made for Raych well in advance. He was caught by surprised when Gaal found him mid-killing (if it was a killing; holo-Seldon opens up a lot of questions, as does the ship having “classic” projected holograms and not floating-sand displays), and, it seems, shoved her into the escape pod (complete with the knife/key to access the ship) in his place, rather than risk her being seen as an accomplice and being executed after he escaped. Even if the second ship was built after Gaal joined their little crew, it’s entirely possible that it’s computers were set to be strictly need-to-know and would only respond to commands by the intended passenger.I liked the flashbacks to Gaal’s childhood, if only for getting a better idea of why her father was so distant, and the priest’s psychotically gleeful little barely-contained smirk during the execution. You can definitely see why she got into the religious life.
I agree. The show has made it a point to bring up multiple times that Harry can’t predict the actions of individuals and he appeared concerned that Gaal and Raych were having a relationship. So more than likely the ship was meant for Raych. However, I have to agree with the author’s take on the opening flashback that it was unnecessary.
Yes the ship was meant for Raych. Gaal was not supposed to be involved at all. Nobody was supposed to be executed. Also Hari’s coffin is a life support/cryo/ship like the one Gaal arrived in. Hari’s “death” was staged to make him a martyr. But it sure looks like he’s still alive.
He’s still alive? How did you reach that conclusion? Is it in the novels?
No, nothing in this episode is in the novel. In fact, I would characterize this episode as antithetical to the novel.
“Is it in the novels?” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHASon, this show has NOTHING to do with the novels. This is another “I, Robot” of Asimov adaptions.
Son, this show has NOTHING to do with the novels. This is another “I, Robot” of Asimov adaptions.Incorrect. The core plot of the first episode recapitulates the story of “The Psychohistorians”.Also, it is impossible to believe that Asimov was not picturing Jared Harris when he invented Hari Seldon.
He showed up at the end of the episode.
Nah, the extended flashback was unnecessary. I expected her to figure out that Hari/Raych’s blood on the dagger would have DNA that could be used to bypass the computer’s restrictions. Or, why does the dagger flash every time we see it on the door controls?
Everything with Gaal in this episode was so clearly inspired by “We’re stretching about half of the first book into an entire season; we need to kill some time.” One of the later chapters of the first book involves the Foundation trying to establish trade relations with a planet run by a rigid theocracy that rejects technology, so I’m guessing Gaal’s home planet will reappear if we get another season. But even so, the flashback added nothing. And the whole “the ocean’s are rising but people aren’t stopping it because they reject science” bit was so on the nose, they might as well have been looking directly into the camera.
“It’s an inconvenient truth, Gaal!”
I’m a little surprised about the pacing of the show, but given all the time jumps in the first book, and how sparse the material is in general (not to mention the complete lack of female characters — I believe “wives and children” are mentioned once in the first book), I guess they felt it necessary to limit most of the time jumps to between seasons.The genetic dynasty was a very clever idea by the writers to help maintain some level of continuity across time jumps and seasons.
I agree that the clone emperors are a good idea. We should have spent more time with them instead of filling in Gaal’s back story with stuff we already knew.
We still got 5 more episodes, at nearly a hour each there plenty of time for them. Episode 6 seems to concentrate heavily on one emperor sorting out the new leader of that religion.
I signed up for Apple TV+ to watch, but I’m so far not really enjoying it. I do see more how they’ve adapted the story, which I guess is fine, but gal-axy! the style is boring. It’s like watching an hour-long commercial for an expensive perfume. “Psychohistory. By Seldon.”
Not sure where you got the idea that the Book of Folding was the first one Gaal had ever read, or even that she’d been deep in the church her whole life. The teacher she runs into talks about the time that he’d spent with her family when she was younger and before her family had become deeply entangled with the Church of the Sleeper, and how smart Gaal was.
The impression I got was that the radical anti-science movement was fairly recent, and that Gaal’s father became fully radicalized, her mother somewhat less so (she’s the one who taught Gaal about black holes, after all), and Gaal was forced to play along but was never a full-bore True Believer (which is why she didn’t immediately call for the other acolytes when they were sweeping the ruins of the university and Gaal was the one who found the teacher first).
The teacher she runs into talks about the time that he’d spent with her family when she was youngerI mean, just the fact that he was her teacher should communicate pretty inequivocably that she had a scientific education. Pretty sure that guy didn’t teach her prayers to the drowned god who waits dreaming, or whatever the hell they worship.
Agreed with all that. Although, I think in the first episode the show had implied that the radical anti-science movement was older. It suggested that Gaal was born into a culture that had executed all the mathematicians and scientists.
Presumably the seeds of the movement existed for a long time and (as revealed in this episode) only recently became so dominant they could start killing people. But the vibe from the first episode was that they’d been the dominant social paradigm for a lot longer.
The Church of the Sleeper itself is older, and more widespread. Gaal even goes to speak to a seer on Trantor. These specific church leaders are kooks but have managed to take over all of Synnax in the wake of their environmental disaster.
I don’t find this show particularly enjoyable, but I eagerly watch every episode because of how much it fascinates me as a case study in what distinguishes good TV from bad TV. The show is a remarkable mix of things done exceptionally well (most noticeably, the special effects, set design and cinematography) with things done exceptionally badly (some combination of the writing, acting and editing, though I haven’t figured out where the bulk of the blame belongs).Something maybe emblematic of this is the scene where Gaal is apparently preparing to attempt suicide, then summersaults in ultra slow motion for… some reason (they explain later that it was because of sudden deceleration, but the slow-mo cinematic flourish comes out of the blue). The emotional arc around that sequence was sloppily constructed: I haven’t been given the faintest reason to give a shit about Raych’s execution (if anything, I was thrilled to see him go) and I’ve barely been given any reason to care about Gaal (she is positioned narratively as a protagonist, but is almost completely devoid of agency, being dragged around from place to place, often in tears, and even when she does make her own decisions — like abandoning religion to become a math whiz — the motivations are so indecipherable that it still doesn’t feel like her choice). It was particularly confusing because the lead-in to that shower scene (i.e., Raych breaking the fourth wall to tell Gaal to finish solving the puzzle) seemed like it should have been an “ah hah”, call to action moment for Gaal, and instead she goes storming off in tears to cut herself. We as viewers recognize that she was meant to arrive on this ship as part of an elaborate plan, yet Gaal seems clueless. A TV show should never let its viewers be a step of ahead of its protagonist, unless they want the protagonist to seem stupid (the classic mechanism to make a Sherlock or a Columbo seem smart is to have them be a step ahead). But my goodness was that slow-mo summersault in the shower a stunning spectacle.Whereas the second episode made me feel like the issue was a deficit of acting ability by everyone not named Jarred Harris or Lee Pace, I’m increasingly thinking that the issues are more specifically limited to Gaal and Raych (again, some combination of writing, acting and editing). Every scene involving either of them has felt twice as long as it needed to be. Whereas when Salvor stepped in as the surrogate protagonist while Gaal was in stasis, I found her to be instantly engaging. I think it’s a stark whiplash alternating between Gaal and Salvor in this episode, because Salvor is just so much more compelling.
I agree with all your points, although I suspect I’m enjoying the show more than you (I’m fully mentally disengaged from the show’s Asimov origin at this point. It’s just a space show), and I don’t dislike Lou Llobell’s acting, I thought she was extremely effective this episode in showing emotional pain turning into physical pain.This said, man, the entire mystery ship thing was dumb. I thought the challenge was to take control of a ship she wasn’t authorized to control because she wasn’t meant to be there (something the reviewer didn’t get, apparently). Instead, it was just about finding the current destination, which, so what? How knowing where she’s going beforehand is going to help her? She’s still trapped. And why did the ship change route, anyway? At the precise, most convenient moment, no less.Also, the ship’s computer requires authorization before disclosing any kind of information, but not to open the freaking external door? So so dumb.
And why did the ship change route, anyway? At the precise, most convenientmoment, no less.It didn’t change course, it started slowing down, because it was getting to where it was going.
“Computer, did the ship just conduct a trajectory correction maneuver?” “Affirmative.”It didn’t just slow down. It changed trajectory, and then slowed down (the follow up question). It’s the change of trajectory in that precise moment that “saved” her from cutting her own wrists. What were the odds?
Space ships generally have to turn 180% in order to slow down so they can use their main engine. The ship changed its orientation, not its direction of travel.
About the same as anything in film that stop our lead character from doing something stupid. It drama after all.
The ship didn’t change course, it maintained the same heading but flipped 180 degrees in order to fire the main engines to slow it down.As for not restricting access to the external door, the restrictions were aimed at preventing Gaal from finding out where the ship was heading and stopping her from diverting its course. Presumably, they didn’t think suicide was a serious concern (incorrectly as it turned out), and they believed there was no way to interfere with the ship’s mission during an EVA.
preventing Gaal from finding outOnce again, Gaal’s presence on the ship is accidental. She shouldn’t be authorized to do anything, not as a way to prevent her from finding out information, but because she has no reason to be there. Finding information would actually be much less problematic if she had no way to use that information in any way to endanger the mission. Instead, she’s apparently able to force the ship perform potentially dangerous operations, like opening the airlock.The ship’s programming appears nonsensical this way, all to set up a “mystery” for the viewer. The ships’ prime directive should be reaching the destination, followed by the safety of her occupants. Certainly not setting up mysteries to solve, like in an escape room. Like, “I won’t tell you where we’re going, but I’ll give you puzzle pieces to figure out.” C’mon. What about just don’t tell her anything at all, instead, don’t even respond to her inputs, and just stop her if she’s trying to do anything dangerous?
It likely you can open the airlock manually as part of it safety systems. You wouldn’t want computer malfunctioning to stop you from exiting the ship. And this is a world that fought a AI war.
Gaal’s initial behaviour on the ship is perfectly consistent with the situation. From her perspective it has been only a few minutes since she has seen Raych kill Hari. She is still in a state of mental shock.
I never said her behaviour was inconsistent with her situation, my point is that she lacks the agency necessary to make her a compelling protagonist. She’s like a helpless ragdoll being dragged from place to place, and with only rare exceptions is clueless to what’s going on. Her map puzzle solving was a nice flash of initiative, though was somewhat undermined by the revelation of a destination that means nothing to us. Let’s take John Wick as a comparison. The titular Wick had very good reason to be in mental shock after the early tragedy in the movie. In fact, it is barely believable that he didn’t drown in a puddle of tears for weeks on end. But instead he calmly and cleverly devised, then deftly executed, a revenge plot. I don’t think it’s a hot take that John Wick is a compelling protagonist.
She was never suppose to be on that ship. It was suppose to be for Raych and possibly for harry, after making it look like Raych killed him. And that why sheldon was worried about Raych and Gaal relationship, he was worried raych wouldn’t leave her and his babies. Instead he sacrifice his life for hers. She clueless because she clueless because she has never been told the plan.
When I say her being on the ship was part of a “plan”, I’m more specifically referring to the fact that Raych certainly wanted her on the ship, he gives her that dagger that we’re shown multiple times is working like a key, and he turns to camera to talk to her mid-execution. You’re probably right she was an improvised replacement to him being on the ship, there are several indications of that.
The show is a remarkable mix of things done exceptionally well (most noticeably, the special effects, set design and cinematography)You left out costume design. The costumes are spectacular.
It seems obvious to me (next week might prove me wrong) that the ship is headed towards a black hole. If that is true than the cliffhanger means Seldon’s murder was a deliberate attempt to get the Empire off his trail and he will resurrect as time runs backwards or reverses near black holes (supposedly). Overall the episode was a lot of fireworks and little story. Gaal is a fascinating star and gorgeous to look at. A lot of dazzling images, sci-fi shine and set pieces. But nothing engaging to really think about.On the flashback to Gaal’s origin story – again gorgeous, but on the nose. Too complex to deal with in such a short flashback. That’s comic book style.
I don’t understand how most of the acting in this is worse than any given episode of TNG was 35 years ago.Part of it is that I’m still not sure how many of these characters will actually become important, and who will be dead within an episode or two, or maybe we’ll just abandon this whole setting and jump forward a century?But none of the performances really jump out and make the episode, the way a good gueststar would have on ye olde tv.
None. The whole point of Foundation is individuals aren’t important.
In an episode that included surviving in goo for 35 years and eyeball bombs, the least believable thing was that those wood and paper scrolls were impressively waterproof.
Wood with waterproof coating has existed on Earth since millennia. And they are a water-based culture, they have literally water everywhere they go, of course they make sure everything paper (if that was paper, it might have been something more durable) would be protected. Plus, the container remained in water for just a few hours.Objection overruled.
You can render paper waterproof with a bit of wax.
The parts where Gaal “sciences the shit” out of her location were fun and very Asimov. However, we’re supposed to believe she is this mega ultra math genius with zero official math education?
She does have math education. We just met her math teacher. The religion thing was forced on her more recently, in some sort of theocratic takeover.On the other hand, I’m not sure what she did with the navigational information actually made sense (and she shouldn’t have education in that field that we know of, though maybe she took some course on Trantor while they were putting the ship and funding together). She called specific coordinates, don’t know how she would come up with those. It sounded like a lot of science babble, to be honest.
What Gaal did was roughly the equivalent of the sextant from Apollo 13. She used angle measurements between known objects to fix her location. She used redshift to determine her velocity vector. She extrapolated her deceleration along that course to find likely destinations.
It just trigonometry and navigating by stars. We know she had knowledge of space because of her mum. She knew about blackholes and they clearly still taught their kids about space because they kept in contact and churches off world.
“it would have been a simple matter to restrict access to Gaal”
Raych would need to know that it would be Gaal and not Raych showing up. Gaal surprised Raych and he had to improvise sending her off and he didn’t have any opportunity to change anything before he was executed.
“And the Book of Folding—that intricate three-dimensional text containing the elaborate mathematical poem that Gaal solved in order to win the contest that sent her to Trantor—was the first and only book she ever read.”
Nothing in the show claims this. Gaal had previously been a student of Professor Sorn. It may possibly have been the first time she had read the Book of Folding, but it was not her first book.
I definitely got the impression that the anti-science change happened during her lifetime. She was a gifted math student, the purge happened and her family redirected her to become part of the church for her safety and to make money. Yes, it would have made a little more sense if she was 5 years older, but it’s a minor sin compared to other parts of the show.
Lou Llobell is about the same age as Ramanujan when he went to Cambridge, and his educational background is arguably even more spotty.
As a person who has in fact read the books (multiple times for the original series), I have to stop reading these reviews – they are making my brain hurt. (Worse than The End of Eternity, and I hadn’t thought that such a thing was possible)
If you’re a fan of the books (as you and I appear to be), the show so far is an absolute travesty. I’m almost to the point of starting a review blog that just rips into how badly this show is doing at adapting the books.
I’m really enjoying this show. Maybe it helps I’ve never read the books. And that I’m captivated by how freaking good this show looks. I also don’t mind stuff like the mystery ship – as another commenter said, Gaal’s sciencing the shit out of her predicament was worth the price of admission alone. Makes perfect sense that a ship meant specifically for Raych in furtherance of some super-secret plan to fake Seldon’s death would restrict access to its course and destination. That being said, I agree the Synnax backstory was weak. (Never a good idea to explain what people have already explained to themselves through a few good lines of dialogue. Origin stories always backfire). The Synnax flashback would have made much more sense if the professor had secretly helped Gaal apply to the contest, and then he went to his death refusing to reveal Gaal’s identity as the one he’d helped. Gaal as true believer just doesn’t work. Also, seeing the professor standing at the water’s edge, rocks tied to his body . . . I had flashbacks to that awful scene in the movie Amistad. Ugh.
I found this episode to be horrifically boring – which considering the ingredients is astounding – An acolyte in a cult of Waterworld luddites helps ritually murder a professor, has a crisis of faith, becomes a mathematician of unprecedented talent, smuggles a message off world, rejects her family and faith and is taken off world. Yet in all that time there’s no emotional beat to any of it. The remnants of a planet decimated in a nuclear genocide invade an isolated seat of learning to take their revenge on the hated empire, attempting to destroy the only thing that might stave off the encroaching darkness. With an outcast with a gift of always being right but always being ignored by everyone around her, who still couldn’t use the first five seconds of a phone call to shout “it’s a trap” The mathematician, now a space mathematician, instead of a waterworld mathematician is frozen in time, after being framed for the murder of the hope of a civilisation, only to be resurrected on a mysterious ship, haunted by the digital ghost of the hope of a civilisation and has to discover a plot that would have been more interesting if she had just woken up on seldon’s home planet and skipped all the terrible, terrible breathless acting. ughhhhh. IT WAS SO BAD. Will keep watching in the hope that somehow the rest of the series is Jared Haris and Lee Pace trying to out ham each other and all the other characters die immediately and are never mentioned again.
And the Book of Folding—that intricate three-dimensional text containing the elaborate mathematical poem that Gaal solved in order to win the contest that sent her to Trantor—was the first and only book she ever read. Everything is made explicit to the point of being cartoonish.Um…Jesus christ, guy. Where in the show was this ever established, or even so much as remotely implied? Can The AV Club maybe please get some reviewers who actually pay attention to the damn show, please?
On a side-note, has anyone read the r/Asimov subreddit recently since this show premiered? Pretty much a cesspool now of a shitty, toxic fandom full of misogyny and casual racism that makes the post-The Last Jedi SW-fandom positively pale in comparison.
The throwback was not that necessary, but added some depth to Gaals past. However the knife-key-thing was rather silly.Also why can’t even have perhaps less baddies and more professional ones instead. This bloody Stromtrooper-like behaviour from soldiers bums me out every time.
I read the original trilogy years ago — college, probably — was never my favorite of Asimov’s works (and was never an Asimov fan girl). But I was aware of Foundation’s importance to the entirety of the field of sci fi, and Asimov’s status there was well. (This was so long ago, Asimov was still very much alive.)That said, I have a hard time seeing how any of this has the slightest thing to do with Asimov OR this trilogy. “Only the names remain the same”; the plot is almost completely different and the characters either invented or retconned beyond all recognition. The most I can say is it reminds me of how they took so many of Philip K. Dick’s wonderful novels and paid for the rights, then turned them into unrecognizable stories. All I can conclude is that A. Hollywood is no longer capable of writing decent original material at all and B. they only paid for the rights here, in order to slap a veneer of respectability and fan awe on the project, while having no intention of remotely telling this story. I can’t even tell WHAT story they are going for, as it feels like a muddle of Star Wars and Game of Thrones, and far from Asimov’s cerebral approach.
As an adaption it is absolutely terrible. It is breaking all kinds of “rules” from the books that are going to make the adaptions of the second book nearly impossible (for example, the entire personal force field technology goes counter to the ENTIRE path that the Foundation was set on by Seldon – a hugely important part of Foundation and Empire). Either the writing staff has complete disdain for the books or they don’t understand where they need to go in season 2+ when The Foundation and the Empire clash.
What can I say? I gave this show five episodes, and now I’m done, mostly because of the sheer stupidity involved in all the science parts.Just a few of these:1) In the book, the Foundation – along with 100 thousand people – left for Terminus on a normal ship with the Empire’s full blessing. On the show, the Foundation was “punished” by being sent on a “slow ship” (in order to string out the murder/Raych BS) to Terminus, which is described as being 50,000 parsecs (same as the book) away from Trantor. Yet this “slow ship” is still traveling faster than light as it only takes four years to get to Terminus.2) Synnax, in the book, is a completely unremarkable planet. In the show, the global flooding is blamed on “over mining the volcano vents,” which is beyond ridiculous. Also not quite sure how these folks in a flooded world with no trees manage to regularly start fires for all their ceremonies.3) The ignorant savages on Synnax keep talking about starving and going on long journeys out to sea (Gaal’s father) because the “algae mats” are disappearing, yet there are gigantic fish creatures swimming around UNDERNEATH their houses that look tasty to eat, yet are untouched.4) As the reviewer mentioned, Gaal somehow became a math genius after reading one book. But orienting yourself in space is part of astronomy, a completely different discipline. I guess she’s a super triple genius (except in the love department).5) In the book, Terminus is a city of one million people almost right from the beginning. The planet’s only downside is that it has virtually no metal, but there’s plenty of farmland (that the Anacreons later covet). On the show, it’s portrayed as an icy wasteland without a single tree growing, bird in the sky, or animal to be seen, and yet everyone looks very well-fed and wearing animal skins.Sorry, but if you can’t get at least a TINY part of the science right, you have no business being science fiction. Try making a medieval show if all you care about is people running around in raggedy “homemade” clothes.
Just because they look tasty doesn’t mean they are. This is a as a alien world they could be incredibly toxic to humans. The reviewer is wrong the guy they executed was her teacher an he taught her maths. Her mum taught her about space. The church even had off world churches, so some it members were taught about that like the two guys that control the communication channels.
Orientating yourself in space is all just maths an knowing stars an a bit of science about light.
We have seen birds on terminus.
The very first scenes of Gaal performing her religion duties shows she wasn’t passionate about them at all. They didn’t have any choice about allowing her to leave after she won the math competition because by then it was by order of the emperor. An he sent on of his top agents to monitor her journey. I guess if anyone had tried to harm her or stop her journey it wouldn’t have ended well for them or the. Aa soon as she won the competition she was part of the game between the emperor and sheldon.