Warning: This writing assumes that you have read the entire
series, and therefore does not avoid spoilers.
The recent announcement that HBO had bought the right to
make a Foundation series, based on the Asimov books, raised some issues. On the
one hand, if there’s any company that knows how to treat a book franchise
seriously and produce a quality television show, it’s HBO (the disaster that is Will Smith's I, Robot still stings). On the other hand, the Foundation series has some
liabilities as the basis of a mini-series or multi-year series. Asimov’s
stories are heavy on dialogue and short on action. Although a television show
can tolerate talking more than a movie, there must be some action, a feature
which is conspicuously lacking in the Foundation series. Furthermore, a key
component of psychohistory in the Foundation series is that the actions of
individuals do not matter; what matters is the mass socio-economic movement.
One might note that this lack of individual impact is the exact opposite, the 'Star’s End' as it were, of what audiences seek in movies and dramas. The
collapse of an Empire is a messy affair, and there are many action sequences
from which to draw, but would they hold an audience as tightly when the premise
of the series is that they will not only fail, but fail to have any impact
whatsoever?
Hari Seldon himself is a rebuttal to the notion of
psychohistory – it’s hard to imagine more of a personal impact than shaving
more than 90% off the Galactic dark ages. The Mule, everybody’s favorite
mutant, derails the Seldon Plan, and only the efforts of the Second Foundation reestablish
its proper course. Arkady Darell, the plucky escapee from a Heinlein juvenile,
not only turns out to be special, but is even a descendant of one of the earlier
protagonists, Hober Mallow. It must be admitted that Terminus was settled by a
very small founding population, but the idea that one family produces many
descendants who have an impact on the history of the Galaxy is redolent of a
different, more fantasy-oriented, franchise. Certainly, young Miss Darell would not appear soon in a
Foundation series, but if it were successful, there is not a chance that the
series would not cover the Mule.
If it is not possible to look to the (First) Foundation for
individual actions with consequences, perhaps the Second Foundation is a font
of drama. Yet the Second Foundation is not a league of assassins, but a
secretive order that nudges the masses when they unwittingly seek to thwart the
Seldon Plan. It is hard to imagine something more anticlimactic on screen than
a mental push (not even spoken) that causes the individual’s grand plan to
fail. Its dramatic success in the Foundation stories is predicated on the
ability to treat telepathic communication as vividly as oral communication.
There are some positive aspects to a Foundation series. The
key one for HBO, of course, is that it is a true classic science fiction universe
which antedates Lucas’ pastiche of ‘40s entertainment. Galactic empires are
not, of course unique to Asimov, but the Foundation series possesses elements
present in the Star Wars universe that can draw in fans of that franchise while
avoiding copyright lawsuits on the part of the Mouse. Trantor, Terminus, and
the other one-biome planets are a familiar element to audiences; their distance
from Earth mostly prevents the problems of the march of science that John
Carter presented during his adventures on Mars. The lack of physical
description in Asimov’s stories facilitates casting – although it would be
interesting to cast an Asimov look-alike for the part of Seldon. Much of the
visuals come from the book covers – at least those which bear any relevance to
the contents! The names of Galactic planets are based on classical or pseudo-classical
names, providing both ease of pronunciation and coding the nature of the planet.
Asimovian nomenclature is mercifully free of the meaningless apostrophes of
some science fiction universes, and no debilitating dependence on the ‘exotic’
letters of the English alphabet separates the Foundation universe from Game of
Thrones. Even the common language, a frequent stumbling block but necessary
evil of the fantasy and science fiction genre, is justified in the Foundation
series since the Galactic Empire is a stand-in for the Roman Empire and the
common language for Latin. The lack of aliens in the Foundation universe distinguishes
this universe from all the other currently active science fiction franchises
that operate on a galactic scale.
Being an Asimov fan in the impending arrival of the
Foundation series is much like being a citizen of Terminus under the Seldon
Plan: you have no control over the many elements coming together, but at least
you don’t have to put up with 30,000 years of development hell.
