Science fiction is a crowded genre, and some of its greatest titles are buried under layers of remakes, reboots, and homages. These days, it’s hard to think of two sci-fi series bigger than Star Trek and Star Wars, but when those franchises started, they were both paying homage to Foundation by Isaac Asimov. Now things have come full circle, as Foundation is in the middle of a bold adaptation on Apple TV. It’s the perfect binge-watch for fans of Star Trek, Star Wars, and other popular sci-fi, as you can simultaneously see the roots of many core ideas for the genre in Foundation, while also seeing the modern influence imposed on it now.
Asimov’s Foundation was first published as a serial from 1942 to 1950, with later novels following throughout the rest of the author’s life. Asimov was inspired by the historical view of the fall of the Roman Empire, and he applied that to an imagined galaxy-wide empire in his books. This clearly inspired other writers, creators, and filmmakers over the years, yet Foundation itself was not adapted to the screen until this decade. Apple TV’s Foundation premiered in 2021. There are now three seasons available, with a fourth on the way.
‘Foundation’ Set The Standard For Space-Faring Sci-Fi
When reading Asimov’s Foundation novels, it’s hard to miss some of the concepts that clearly inspired later works. Even for modern audiences that are familiar with these ideas, the way Asimov describes them stands out, as his target audience had never seen them rendered on screen before. His descriptions of faster-than-light travel, interplanetary communication, and space warfare were major influences on later works like Star Trek. As for Star Wars, the most striking influence is Asimov’s “Second Foundation,” which is an organization of telepaths who have mastered the full potential of their brains through rigorous study, mediation, and mutation — not unlike Jedi.
Once a writer puts a broad concept out there, others inevitably put their own spin on it — and often come up with something more enduring. This is true across genres, mediums, and time periods, and Asimov is no exception. At the end of the day, many sci-fi fans prefer Frank Herbert’s depiction of a galactic empire in Dune over Asimov’s in Foundation, yet the former could not exist without the latter. This becomes even more complicated when compared to TV shows and movies, which took Asimov’s ideas into the visual medium and remixed them with other sci-fi concepts.
Now, a modern Hollywood is finally adapting Asimov’s story directly, making for one of the most unique final products possible. The story, characters, and settings are some of the oldest in the genre, yet the people bringing them to life have been influenced by Star Trek, Star Wars, and others. Fans can’t help but compare Foundation‘s planet Trantor to Star Wars‘ planet Coruscant, whether they know which one came first or not. It’s an endlessly fascinating nexus of ideas and execution.
‘Foundation’ Has Been Built Without Compromise
The legacy of the sci-fi genre aside, Foundation is an excellent show on its own merits, and a worthwhile binge-watch for any fan of the genre. The series benefits from Apple TV’s approach of letting shows build gradually and find their audience, rather than expecting them all to become overnight successes. The result is that if you’re not onboard yet, you have a treasure trove of 30 episodes to enjoy before the next season premieres.
Foundation centers around the mathematical genius Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) who has discovered a means of predicting the sociological future of humanity based on numbers alone. The field is known as “Psychohistory.” Seldon predicts that the galactic empire will soon fall, plunging humanity into a “dark age” of social and scientific degradation lasting 30,000 years. He creates the “Foundation” in order to combat that backslide through targeted actions over the course of centuries.
The show stars Lou Llobell as Gaal Dornick, a psychohistorian unraveling Seldon’s instructions throughout the centuries. Meanwhile, the show depicts the fall of the empire from inside through the perspective of its cloned emperors. Three versions of the emperor are alive at any given time — a young man called Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton), an adult man named Brother Day (Lee Pace), and an older man named Brother Dusk (Terrence Mann). They are counseled by a mysterious woman named Demerzel (Laura Birn). Other stars cycle in and out of the story as the centuries go on.
The Foundation TV series has greatly expanded on its source material while bringing it up to speed with some of the great sci-fi productions the books inspired. The best may be yet to come, as the show still hasn’t even gotten to some of the most fantastical ideas in Asimov’s novels. Three seasons are streaming now on Apple TV, and the fourth should be finished filming any day now, though it’s not clear when it will premiere. All six of Asimov’s Foundation novels are available in print, digital, and audiobook formats.
- Release Date
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September 23, 2021
- Network
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Apple TV+
- Showrunner
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David S. Goyer
- Directors
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Alex Graves, Roxann Dawson, Jennifer Phang, Mark Tonderai, Andrew Bernstein
- Writers
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Jane Espenson, Leigh Dana Jackson, Liz Phang, Eric Carrasco, David Kob, Addie Manis, Marcus Gardley, Lauren Bello, Olivia Purnell
