Review of 'Foundation' 3.1-3.2

At last, in Foundation 3.1, up on Apple TV+ last week, an episode worthy of the greatest science fiction trilogy ever written -- the one by Isaac Asimov. To be sure, the story on the screen continues to be very different than the one of the page, but this beginning of third season of Foundation on streaming TV has recognizable characters and pieces doing what they're supposed to do, none more so than The Mule.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

First, it was also very satisfying to hear Demerzel tell us she is a positronic robot, and recite the Three Laws of Robotics, plus the Zeroth Law, so clearly. Given all the current concern about AI being so dangerous for humanity, it's good to hear that first law cited at the outset of this promising season.

It was also good to see another crucial trilogy character up on the screen. Ebling Mis not only has a great name, but has always been one of my favorite characters in the series. He does look a lot younger than Mis in the original trilogy, but that's ok. It was also good to see Pritcher in evidence, given his importance in the ascension of The Mule.

Whose takeover of Kalgan on the screen was done just perfectly, bringing into play all the sadistic sway of The Mule. Indeed, though this Mule looks much better than the mutant described by Asimov, he has all the frightening flash and power of Asimov's pivotal character, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this all plays out in the TV series.

And speaking of what characters look like, it was refreshing to see how the latest versions of the Empire's ruling triumvirate look. Unlike the trilogy, which did not have the clonal trio, there now are four players on the screen, vying for control of the galaxy: the First and the Second Foundations, the Mule, and Empire.

***

Well, as I said about the first episode of this third season of Foundation on Apple TV+, the second episode is a much leaner, tauter, truer telling than the first two seasons of Isaac Asimov's indelible, incredible trilogy, and thus, though it still is markedly different from the trilogy in all kinds of ways, it's much more fun, at least for me, to see.

I couldn't help but chuckle when Hari Seldon, not quite alive, but much more alive than Seldon as hologram in the trilogy, remarks to Gaal that, other than the Mule, Gaal and Hari brought the evolution of the galaxy pretty much back on track after it had veered far off course. And whose fault was that, that humankind had gone so far astray? Well, not Hari's and not the Mule's, not any character in the narrative on the screen. No, the blame resides with the writers and people who dreamed up this retelling of the Foundation story on television.

But now they're working hard to get it straight. A significant part of Asimov's story of The Mule and The Second Foundation's attempt to stop him -- in Asimov's telling of his story -- concerns the planet Tazenda, which name sounds like Star's End, where rumor has it that the Second Foundation is headquartered, wherever exactly that may really be. The Mule, misled into thinking he's wiping out the Second Foundation, blasts the planet Tazenda out of existence with his fleet. That Star's End business was so important, there's even a superb podcast with that name, where I was fortunate to be a guest some two years ago. And if I remember correctly, someone wrote a piece in some academic journal decades ago which argued that Asimov was immoral to have his Second Foundation set up an innocent planet to be destroyed in its fight against the Mule. But I'm mentioning the destruction of a whole planet in this review of Foundation 3.2 because one of its most significant elements has Empire Dusk planning on giving Dawn a way to erase a planet, a weapon to use in his battle with Foundation (and as Dawn in beginning to recognize, The Mule).

The Dawn-Day-Dusk triumvirate has been the best part of the first two seasons of Foundation on TV, and its good to see their story continuing so well as the rest of the galaxy veers ever more significantly back to the story Asimov and Hari wanted to tell. Including, I would add, hearing the name Bayta!