'Foundation' space advisor on keeping Asimov's fictional galaxy realistic | Hacker News Reader

'Foundation' space advisor on keeping Asimov's fictional galaxy realistic

space.com

20 pointsbelter15 comments

> Hand (the space advisor) did his homework thoroughly and even went back and read the "Foundation" books as part of the ramp-up for this ambitious production a number of years ago.

I've nothing against either 'Foundation' or Hand...but that sure suggests that Hollywood's standard Scale of Adaption Fidelity for SciFi books is "Low | Lower(default) | Lowest | None", doesn't it?

It's just a fact that a lot of writing doesn't translate into very watchable TV if you take it too literally. Asimov especially usually wrote weak characters that aren't interesting, only the grander structure is. That doesn't work for a TV adoptation.

Foundation ironically is getting the most praise for the storyline that is not based on the books but deals with a subject that is thematically a good fit for an Asimov book (the "genetic dynasty"), because they managed to keep characters (and actors) around as their archetypes, not as the literal same character.

For the storyline more closely related to the book, they had to have three characters "cheat death" into a 150 year time jump to enable any kind of character building.

Honestly, I think they could have made the foundation plot line an anthology of a rising empire while tracking the genetic dynasty as the empire fell apart.

I get so annoyed when I tune into an episode and it focuses on the foundation characters. Lee Pace is amazing as empire.

Everything about Trantor shines in the show. The sense of scale, the epic space elevator disaster, the intrigue and plotting vis a vis the genetic dynasty, Lee Pace, etc. I don’t even mind that the world building has been rather weak when compared to a show like Altered Carbon, Trantor is just great.

I also liked the atmosphere and world building on Synnax but the rest of the show is so bad once you get past the art direction and photography that I suspect someone will eventually make a fan recut where they remove every scene that isn’t absolutely necessary to make sense of the Empire plot.

The Mule storyline better deliver one of the best seasons in scifi history or all this build up will be for nothing.

</opinionated rant>

There is a reason most adaptations are terrible, for hollywood and tv producers it mostly a name/brand, nothing more. They most often don't bother reading/playing it, let alone making sure they like and/or understand it.

And books are not even the sorry chaps here they're actually much better treated than video games, there are a ton of "prime for massive tv/movie success" video games brand that have been ruined by people who clearly didn't know what they were about.

We got Halo AND Last of US at roughly the same time, both being massive brand from either side of the Microsoft/Sony, one (LoU) was done by the original game director and got beloved by fans of the games and newcomers, the other could not even respect one thing about its licence and then got surprised fans of the game hated it (Halo).

I haven't seen the TV show but does anybody actually think that the Halo games have a good storyline? The worst part of the games is the story- it's no wonder they changed it and I can't imagine them making it any worse.

I liked the first season of Foundation so much, I thought it was a great interpretation of Asimov's work.

Agree. It is not the books, perfectly, and Asimov left so much out that any adaptation would need to fill in substantially. I think they’ve done great. Hope it serves to introduce Asimov to a wide audience.

I like that the second season can be free from having to set the scene and can focus more on the characters and plot movement. It feels a little faster. More things are happening in each episode.

I couldn't get through the first season. The Empire stuff was good, but I thought they really butchered Seldon. In the show, Seldon is portrayed as a warrior with a mystical connection to the vault. In the book, the whole point of Seldon is that he's a regular but smart person who leverages his opponents' beliefs in mysticism against them.

Season 2 has more seldon but is pretty awesome. You just have to let go of the books and let the show stand on its own otherwise some of the stuff will bother you especially until the shows additions changes and explanations make the thing that you saw seem reasonable.

Oops, I meant mayor Hardin, not Seldon.

Season one was great, season two seems to be falling into the stereotypical sci-fi focusing on the soap opera and drama with less focus on the science and grandeur of the universe.

I want more psychohistory.

I want people in cliodynamics designing far-out visualisations.

I want plausible mathematical notation, and the odd bit of conversation about the details.

A number of years ago, I saw a presentation funded by the Deep State and the programmers had called their software "Seldon". It took me a minute to remember the connection. But they were definitely of the type who wanted to predict and probably control the social parts of society. In other words, they aspired to be the Foundation. So in my mind, the books are already real.

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