If robots get more human, will people get more robotic?
A detailed look at Season 2 of Foundation
The Apple TV series Foundation ran its second season this past summer, created by David Goyer who again wrote the first and last episodes. Rob Bricken’s Season 1 review in Gizmodo criticizing divergence from Isaac Asimov’s original trilogy is even truer now: “so different that calling it ‘inspired by the works of Isaac Asimov’ still feels like a stretch.”
https://gizmodo.com/they-said-foundation-couldnt-be-filmed-and-it-still-ha-1847731204
Goyer specializes in blockbuster movies: he directed two Batman films plus the Blade trilogy. Most of the ways that his version diverges from Asimov’s books can be attributed to his affinity for heroic tales.
Asimov envisioned a galactic empire thousands of years in the future. One of his main characters, Hari Seldon, predicts the collapse of this empire based on his detection of long-term social patterns that he formulates mathematically as “psychohistory”. Asimov then explored the tension between individual action and societal shifts, expressing themes such as “power corrupts” and the incompleteness of mathematical theory.
However, Goyer downplays the predictability of large-scale behavior while repeatedly emphasizing the specialness of two other main characters (Salvor Hardin and Gaal Dornick) who have “unique” powers. The appeal of a TV series is strongly tied to character development and continuity to attract viewers week after week. In contrast, a film is plot-driven and leads to a conclusion at the end of one long viewing (perhaps with a sequel).
Goyer transformed Emperor Cleon II into a triumvirate of young, middle-aged, and old clones of the original Cleon who ruled centuries earlier: the recurring characters Brothers Dawn, Day, and Dusk. The cryosleep of Salvor and Gaal, plus the post-death holographic projection of Hari, provide other types of individual continuity across centuries ot time. Another main character is Eto Demerzel, a humanoid robot who has existed for millennia.
Set 138 years after the first season, Season 2 introduces new characters from the second book in the trilogy: Foundation and Empire. Some names are drawn from the book, but their roles diverge from it. S2 utilizes Asimov’s coinage “mentalic” to refer to a person who has psychic powers. However, his text only gave such characters the ability to read someone’s mind and control their will, not to foresee the future or move objects by telekinesis.
S2 starts slowly, partly because the team of screenwriters uses some trite techniques for expanding a TV episode’s plot to fill the allotted running time. For example, in Episode 2 the “digital” version of Hari repairs the spaceship’s software just before a huge wave hits: OMG, one thing wasn’t fixed! So Salvor has to heroically repair it manually at the last minute. This extra drama is totally unnecessary, and would probably be left on the cutting floor of a movie in order to compress the action into a tighter story.
E3 includes the overused image of “fast-roping” when Gaal descends from their hovering vehicle to rescue Hari on Oona’s World. Somehow he is no longer inside the cave, but now stranded on the palm of a giant statue.
In E4, we see the hackneyed “mission delayed due to confronting thieves” when a local mafia gets their hands on an extraction device that General Bel Riose and Glawen Curr seek before meeting an embedded informant.
E8 rehashes the deactivation conundrum: one switch will disarm a weapon and the other will cause it to detonate (or decapitate, in Constant’s case).
All of the above are simplistic ways for unimaginative writers to pad a plot by inserting action that is not necessary for the ongoing story. Striking screenwriters were right to worry that they might be replaced by AI and/or chatbots that can crank out formulaic scripts cheaper than they can.
Season 2 hits its stride in E5 when Salvor, Gaal, and newly re-embodied Hari arrive on the planet Ignis, a refuge for mentalics. While these three characters remain there in all subsequent episodes, the Trantor subplot becomes increasingly intriguing: Brother Day plans to oust his two co-rulers by marrying spoiled young Queen Sareth of Cloud Dominion to produce heirs via procreation instead of cloning.
Realistically, the success or failure of the TV series depends mostly on its appeal to viewers who aren’t familiar with Asimov’s written work. The TV version has been praised by various people within that market segment, and I concur that it is entertaining in its own right. It’s not Asimov, though.
In my review of Season 1, I noted how a lot of fans of the original stories (written in the 1940s) were shocked by Goyer’s obeisance to the DEI trinity of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion. However, replacing the white-male identity tag in some of Asimov’s characters (few of whom were illustrated) doesn’t contradict the text. It actually makes the story fit a galactic setting better.
https://martinschell.substack.com/p/can-a-solid-foundation-lead-to-a-weak-firststory
Bricken noted in his review that it’s a “must” nowadays to include significant female characters. This reflects a studio’s estimation that they can increase market share by attracting female viewers. Asimov himself added more women in his prequels and sequels, published between 1982 and 1993.
Diversity swaps can happen smoothly. Season 2 introduces an openly gay couple. General Riose is a traitor in Asimov’s second book, but he is a heroic leader in the TV series. When considering the impact of disobeying orders from the emperor, he is both confronted and supported by Glawen, a junior officer who is his lover.
Unfortunately, ideology creeps into some S2 episodes. Goyer portrays physical violence to move the plot toward multiple climaxes: Hari bludgeons Tellem Bond in E9; and Emperor Day has a fistfight with General Riose in E10. The descent into savagery unnecessarily includes brief scenes of young Hari being beaten by his father, a “big = dangerous” white man.
Another ideological bias involves downplaying the precision of the math in psychohistory, probably to appeal to humanities majors and other viewers who disdain objectivity. In S2, we meet Kalle, whose mathematical insights expressed in poetry were used by Gaal to win Hari’s galactic competition in S1. In real life, mathematicians routinely expressed equations as poems before algebraic notation became common 400 years ago (video is marked at 10m 38s):
It’s not surprising that Goyer transformed Asimov’s non-hero concept of psychohistory to fit the superhero genre that feeds us dreams of glory while our political power as voters actually declines. S1 has Salvor repeatedly told that she is special and we see similar flattery in S2: Gaal is told that her powers are unique; and Hari becomes deified.
The Ubermensch wave before WW2 included Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman. Decades later, comic book heroes not only fought villains but also began addressing social concerns. The expression of modern social justice in S2 includes characters insisting that individual lives should be considered in counterpoint to psychohistorical predictions about very large populations (similar to modern statistics in public health).
However, shoving this viewpoint into dialog sounds preachy. Screenwriters should adhere to the guideline Show, don’t tell. S2 has more emotional depth than S1: robot Demerzel gets it on; Gen. Riose cries when he sacrifices his lover; and Salvor smiles occasionally. The relationship between Gaal and her daughter Salvor is developed very well, which clearly shows us that individuals do matter.
S2 also has flaws related to cinematography. At the dawn of the 20th century, the relationship between magic and cinema was explored by the French director Georges Méliès, who utilized his earlier career as an illusionist. Even today, viewers often miss a director’s sleight of hand.
For example, the scene where Salvor sacrifices herself (start 34:41 of E10) shows her seated further from Gaal than the spot where the boy picks up the gun. She begins a dive to save Gaal and throws her knife after he pulls the trigger. And she moves almost parallel to the bullet. The camera shifts provide the director with enough sleight of hand to make all this believable. However, using a different seating arrangement would have been simpler.
In contrast to Asimov’s novels, the TV series includes clones, bilocation of the Prime Radiant, multiple copies of virtual Hari, and time travel (when Salvor seeks help from Hari in E8, he warns her not to “contaminate the math” with info he doesn’t know, but she mentions Hober Mallow anyway, causing the trickster’s name to appear written on the Vault in E2).
All of these cinematic devices are woven skillfully into the plot. However, overuse of these narrative techniques can confuse viewers who find it awkward to stop the flow of impressions and rewind (even if they use digital storage instead of streaming). In contrast, it is easy to turn back the pages of a book and reread a difficult passage.
The film Tenet is a good cautionary example: its time slippage is more complex and pervasive than what one sees in Inception, which probably explains why the latter is rated much higher even though both were written and directed by the talented Christopher Nolan.
Foundation runs a different risk by emphasizing the “can’t trust my own mind” meme in the scenes on Ignis, where mentalics have the power to implant illusions in another person’s mind. This is portrayed well when Loron mimics the appearance of Salvor’s dead lover Hugo Crast in order to stymie her actions while they fight.
Viewers are also cleverly tricked into thinking re-embodied Hari was drowned in E7. Gaal explains at the start of E10 that she used her own mentalic power to manipulate the guard into unshackling Hari. After the guard was killed, she created the illusion that his dead body was Hari’s.
As pioneered by Méliès, cinema easily accommodates optical illusion, in sharp contrast to the written word. However, overplaying this advantage will reduce the plot of a film or TV episode to a magic show.
Anticipating Season 3, I wonder whether Goyer’s expansion of the abilities of mentalics from Asimov’s mind-reading/manipulation to include telekinesis will diverge the story further from the original trilogy. Will we see even more battles where mentalics fight by turning a wrist or furrowing their eyebrows?
Despite Gaal’s explicit refusal to be treated as a goddess in E10, there is still an undercurrent that the TV series will turn into a superhero tale. The teaser at the end of E10 shows the Mule focusing solely on a prospective battle with Gaal rather than attacking an organization.
Asimov envisioned the Second Foundation as a subtler version of the First Foundation, established simultaneously but hidden. It secretly adapted the equations of psychohistory by combining mathematical talent with mentalic abilities. And he cleverly hid it on Trantor, the center of the galactic empire. Most readers (including me) were astonished when he finally revealed this at the end of his trilogy.
Goyer changes the origin, location, and purpose of the Second Foundation. In S1E8, hologram Hari tells Gaal that he is journeying to his home planet Helicon to establish the Second Foundation. When Salvor visits him in the vault during S2E8, he refers to it as a backup group, but then he realizes that he is the backup copy of the re-embodied Hari.
In the Season 2 finale, physical Hari and Gaal decide to develop the Ignis mentalics into the Second Foundation. However, more than a century has elapsed since the First Foundation began. Gaal refers to the mentalics as an “army” for the future confrontation with the Mule. Sophisticated math thus seems secondary to the development of psychic powers.
Meanwhile, the Trantor intrigue increasingly focuses on Demerzel, whose backstory gets extended coverage in E9. In E8, Brother Dusk’s old lover Rue Corintha noticed him mechanically repeating a phrase about the permanence of Demerzel. Finally, in E10, the robot decants an entirely new set of three clones, “editing” their memories to fit her vision of the dynasty.
The clones are thus revealed to be puppets of a robot, who in turn seems more human as S2 progresses — her tears in E9 and E10 look genuine.
Conversely, Goyer portrays overthinking when Constant and Hober finally consummate their romance in E8. Constant suggests sex as an activity that will fill their time while their ship evades the imperial fleet. She remarks that it is “more efficient” to undress rather than start with kissing, which sounds like the kind of logic one would apply to a mechanical process.
The couple’s awkwardness mirrors our present injunction to insist on step-by-step permission. The popular “Tea Consent” catechism is a set of guidelines to improve society as a whole, but it impairs the spontaneity of expressing affection — in other words, the behavior of a large population takes precedence over individual emotional ties.
In the movie I, Robot (also based on Asimov’s writings), the robotics expert Susan Calvin was portrayed as an aloof woman. Her stilted demeanor gave the impression that she was more comfortable relating to robots than to her fellow humans. In his story “Evidence”, Asimov has Dr. Calvin suggest that “A robot would make an ideal ruler.”
I think this is an important clue in regard to the role of Demerzel. While they are inside the Vault during E9, Hari challenges her to choose between power and longevity as the primary objective of an empire: “You can’t have both.” But she refuses to say which outcome she prefers.
After Day insists that his existence has proven clones can adapt, Hari denies that the emperor is an outlier and offers him the Prime Radiant. Day asserts, “The fate of humankind will be determined by those of us who are actually human.” When Day demands that Hari recant psychohistory, Hari addresses Demerzel first, urging her to “invent a better” future. Later on the flagship, she apologizes to Day for her failure to correct his shortcomings.
What’s going on? Recall how S1 kept returning to the mystery of Cleon’s DNA being “corrupted” via an intentional alteration. It seems to me that it was Demerzel who tweaked the DNA as an experiment in order to guide the dynasty through changing times. The Day shown in most of S2 is one of her experiments, which she finally realizes has ended in failure. In E10, she effectively reboots all three clones by controlling their decanting.
When Rue snoops around Demerzel’s quarters at the start of E8, we see the robot’s tool chest, which has an ornate pattern on its lid. Dusk brings Rue to a section of the mural that depicts the same pattern: 4 large outer planets and 4 small inner planets, matching our own solar system.
This pattern foreshadows Asimov’s sequels, which deal with the search for the mythic planet Earth, discovery of a force influencing the Seldon Plan more than the Second Foundation does, and eventually a mentalic robot.
The second half of Foundation and Empire is about the Mule, which Goyer indicated will be covered in Season 3. I hope S3 won’t devolve into the superhero vs supervillain motif that has become like bread-and-circuses. Showy telekinesis and precognition weren’t part of Asimov’s original trilogy.
Considering that S2 only covered the first half of the second book, Goyer seems to have plans beyond S3, covering not only the trilogy’s third book but possibly the sequels about Earth and Demerzel’s origin as well.
Frankly, I’m not keen on seeing a very long run where each book spawns two seasons of TV. Harry Potter and Game of Thrones both did 2-for-1, but only for the last installment in their respective series of novels.
In sum, I admire Apple TV’s move to become a streaming player, but I still feel their inventory isn’t full enough to warrant a monthly subscription. If you have an Apple ID, you can get a 7-day free subscription, like I did.
Goyer’s best innovation is his set of main characters who depict various viewpoints about the existential issues of identity, memory, and destiny: the clone triumvirate gropes for individuality while each fears physical death; the development of the Gaal-Salvor relationship into mother-daughter even though cryosleep made their ages almost the same; the disembodiment and re-embodiment of Hari; and finally the complex motives of Demerzel.
On the other hand, does Goyer understand Asimov’s distinction between the First and Second Foundations? And more generally, did he really need to start with Asimov’s tale to develop a compelling TV series? Why didn’t Apple TV just create an entirely new story with similar themes?
Comparisons with Dune
Frank Herbert openly acknowledged the influence of Asimov when he wrote the Dune novels. In his 1981 book about Herbert, Tim Reilly expressed the insight that Herbert made Asimov’s Mule into the hero (i.e., Paul Atreides is genetically unique and has psychic powers):
https://www.oreilly.com/tim/herbert/
Ironically, if not bizarrely, the TV version of Asimov’s story now imitates Herbert’s story in several ways. Most significant is the prominent display of superhuman abilities in the TV series. For example, Gaal’s “visions” that predict the future are the primary superpower of Paul in Dune.
In S2E8, Brother Dusk mentions “robot wars” when recounting ancient history. Such wars were not part of Asimov’s original trilogy (which retained his famous Three Laws of Robotics), but they were included in Herbert’s novels: the Butlerian Jihad against “thinking machines” that happened long before the events of Dune began.
Season 2 reveals Demerzel to be a kind of puppetmaster controlling the triumvirate and manipulating numerous events, sometimes with deceit. Although the Three Laws do not forbid a robot from lying, Goyer ramped up the intrigue (almost matching Game of Thrones) by creating a backstory in S2E9 to explain how Demerzel could kill Brother Dawn in Season 1’s finale.
In Asimov’s second prequel, Hari’s granddaughter Wanda is the one who sets up the Second Foundation. However, Goyer erases her: her mother dies in the womb when Hari’s wife is murdered. Instead, S2 develops Hari’s relationship with his de facto daughter-in-law Gaal (lover of his adopted son Raych), which mirrors writer/director Denis Villeneuve’s emphasis on the mother-son relationship (Jessica and Paul) in his 2021 Dune movie.
Foundation and Dune both remind us of the historical lesson of the French Revolution by showing (in book as well as TV/cinema) that those who overthrow a corrupt empire eventually become oppressors themselves. This is presented clearly in the second half of Foundation and Empire, which is the basis for S3 of the TV series. But will Goyer portray it?
Finally, it’s noteworthy that both epics preserve on screen an assumption that underlies the original written versions. Namely, people from Earth colonized most of the galaxy long before the story began. This assumption suggests that modern diversity forges a global culture but not a planetary one: an equitable civilization of self-defined “humans” who all originate from a single planet eventually dominates the entire galaxy.
In another blog entry, I list some sci-fi classics which do or do not support the presumption of “manifest destiny in outer space”:
https://martinschell.substack.com/p/mars-hoopla-manifest-destiny-in-outer-space