Apple TV’s shaky Foundation For all the fabricated backstories and new character arcs, it is still a little difficult to root for the characters because the show takes itself so seriously
One of sci-fi’s most influential works has finally been adapted for the screen. The series may be opulent and epic, but it lacks the intellectual heft of Asimov’s books.
In 1998, having already spent $1.5-million, New Line Cinema abandoned its attempt at a film adaption of Foundation, Isaac Asimov’s celebrated science fiction novel series. They went on to tackle Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings instead, figuring that the fantasy tome would be easier. And they were right.
If you take on Foundation, you are either impressively bold or very, very rich. There is little need to clarify which description is more apt of Apple TV+, which has produced a 10-episode series with the hope of seven more seasons still to come.
Adapting beloved literature for the screen is often tricky, with the added pressure from fans of the source material to do the book justice. But the challenges of adapting Foundation go beyond that. First, there’s the scope of it – the events of the books span an entire galaxy over millennia, in a fictional, futuristic universe with extensive lore. Condensing a saga of this magnitude into hourlong episodes is not easy.
There’s also the problem of continuity. Asimov wrote the Foundation books over decades, and, although they’re all based in the same universe and on the same overarching premise, the plotlines of each story don’t interact much.
Finally, there’s the intellectual gravitas of the writing. Asimov wrote hard science fiction, which is characterised by scientific accuracy and rigorous logic. He was concerned with physics, ethics and the existential consequences of their interplay. Such subjects are difficult to broach in an accessible way on-screen.
Writer and executive producer David S Goyer circumvents these obstacles by making risky and drastic changes to the source material, with mixed results.
Original details exaggerate
Asimov’s world-building, and
Apple has spared no expense in creating spectacular sets.
The early hours of the series are devoted to inspiring awe.
There are myriad colourful planetscapes, vast, bold and magnificent. Frigid white wastelands, subterranean city planets and floating villages on water worlds.
Led by a powerful cast of accomplished actors such as Lee
Pace and Jared Harris, as well as promising newcomers such as Lou Llobell and Leah Harvey, the show takes a more personal, character-driven approach than the books. This is common for TV series, which bank on an audience’s emotional investment, but it shrinks the cosmic scale of space opera closer to gossip.
For all the fabricated backstories, gender swaps and new character arcs, it is still a little difficult to root for the characters because the show takes itself so seriously and has almost no time for humour or joy.
Although it is occasionally difficult to follow, the most basic elements of the plot remain the same: renowned mathematician Professor Hari Seldon (Harris) has developed a complex new field of psychology and science known as psychohistory, which equates all possible eventualities in large societies to mathematical probabilities, allowing for the prediction of large-scale events.
He has discovered the impending decline of the human empire that rules the galaxy, so he and his protégé, Gaal, set about creating an Encyclopedia Galactica – a Noah’s Ark of information. His intention is to soften the fall of the empire and create a repository of knowledge so that “the coming generations will have something to build upon – a foundation”.
Rather than delve into the gritty logistics of probability theory, as the books do, the show treats psychohistory almost like a superpower, comparable to Peter Parker’s precognitive “spidey sense”.
Hard sci-fi writers tend to disparage the use of flimsy science as a veil for the supernatural and Asimov might have been mortified at psychohistory being reduced to science fantasy. “The most advanced math is like a sixth sense,” narrates Gaal.
The writing in the show cultivates engagement with familiar sociopolitical issues, but only superficially. It would never be possible to comprehensively do justice to a work so iconic as Foundation in a different medium, and in that sense it was destined for failure.
A visual adaptation requires an immense budget to capture scale and spectacle. A big budget requires a huge audience, and to achieve that, you have to sacrifice much of what makes Asimov’s writing so brilliant.
Apple’s opulent adaptation of Foundation is accessible and dazzling, but its comparative immaturity to the source material may leave hard sci-fi fans disappointed. The series is best enjoyed as a light TV-curated spinoff that exists loosely within the framework of Asimov’s books.
Foundation is available on Apple TV+. Contact This Week We’re Watching on tevya@ dailymaverick.co.za.