Category: Watching Foundation

Watching Foundation: “Where The Stars are Scattered Thinly”

A quick programming note: This is the one-hundredth post on StarsEndPodcast.com. I have plans for a post or two to mark the occasion, but in the meantime, we’re deep into the second season of the teevee show and that’s why most of you are interested in this blog in the first place.

So, for now, let’s return to “Watching Foundation.” As always, Joseph’s initial reactions, wild theories, and a few digressions from watching the episode. One digression is more extensive than usual. You have been warned. Simultaneously published at ComicsTheUniverseAndEverything.net. Let’s go!

Watching Foundation S2E04

In the narration, “If your parents never met, you wouldn’t exist… everyone in the universe is the result of a unique set of pairings. And psychohistory doesn’t care about them at all.”

Kudos to saying the right thing about Psychohistory but on the larger point about whether or not you would exist this seems optimistic. I think if anything had even a minor effect on the circumstances of your conception you wouldn’t exist. I’m not going to research the probabilities involved here but my best guess is that if you’re lucky the resulting individual is as close to you as an identical twin. But it might be someone who’s as unlike you as any of your siblings. Or someone who doesn’t exist at all.

Constant and Poly are waking up on the Spirit. When we see Hober he’s still being played for comic relief.

According to a (very) quick internet search, constant sunlight wouldn’t be good for wine. This from Calwineries: “At the same time, too much direct sun exposure can burn the fruit and will lead to excessive sugar development. The result is unbalanced wines with a lack of acidity and too much alcohol.”

Now I’m pondering if a planet that’s tidally locked could support life.

Asimov wrote about a tidally locked planet in Foundation and Empire.

Radole was a small world – and, in military potential, perhaps the weakest of the twenty-seven. That, by the way, was another factor in the logic of the choice. It was a ribbon world – of which the Galaxy boasts sufficient, but among which, the inhabited variety is a rarity for the physical requirements are difficult to meet. It was a world, in other words, where the two halves face the monotonous extremes of heat and cold, while the region of possible life is the girdling ribbon of the twilight zone.

Such a world invariably sounds uninviting to those who have not tried it, but there exist spots, strategically placed – and Radole City was located in such a one. It spread along the soft slopes of the foothills before the hacked-out mountains that backed it along the rim of the cold hemisphere and held off the frightful ice.

The warm, dry air of the sun-half spilled over, and from the mountains was piped the water-and between the two, Radole City became a continuous garden, swimming in the eternal morning of an eternal June.

Isaac Asimov, in Foundation and Empire

What I really want is a science essay by Asimov that specifically discusses whether “ribbon worlds” could be habitable. I read “Time and Tide” from Asimov on Astronomy, which was pretty good, but it wasn’t what I was looking for. It might be more of a Clarke topic.

This website speculates that the exoplanet Gliese 581g could be habitable despite being tidally locked. It’s out of date though: the latest information is that Gliese_581g doesn’t even exist.

But I digress.

Constant and Hober have chemistry. These two are cute together.

They arrive on Terminus and head towards the Vault.

Trantor

We learn more about Queen Sereth’s motives: she wants the truth about what happened to her family; C-17’s denials clearly weren’t enough. “I know how to employ courtesan tricks.”

Surprisingly, it’s C-18 with whom she’s spending time. These two also have chemistry, a more casual and comfortable flavor than between Sereth and Brother Day.

That’s a great tree! Is it a Banyan?

Blunt as usual, Sereth brings up the assassination attempt. I know we’re supposed to be suspicious here, but was the timing really that suspicious? And she asks Dawn about whether Day had her family killed. This is less “courtesan tricks” and more “bull in a China shop.”

“I was a million steps from the throne” and “then one mysterious crash later, and suddenly there I am“ don’t mesh for me.

This Dawn claims he wouldn’t be capable of the assassination of Sereth’s family but “I am well prepared to think I could become capable of it.” That is an interesting admission.

It’s asymmetric but both of them are trying to play the other; the politics here is dense. Sereth ends with the notion that she and Dawn could have been paired. These two are certainly more age-appropriate for each other. The point of that seems obvious. Could there be something more subtle there? And is the kid always going to have problems stemming from romance?

Now a scene with Dusk and Rue. C-16 implies that dominion pigments are better than what the Empire usually has. Not sure if that changes anything from the gifting scene in the first episode.

They walk by a picture of the mural that has to be Demerzel. It must be her because the solar system motif from the jewelry box is behind the figure. It looks to me as though it depicts the positronic conflict from the last episode of season one. I’m sure we’ll be coming back to this.

They talk about their history together. “I thought I had lost count of my Cleons.“

“You might be the last Dusk, and the first grandfather Cleon” is pretty damn aggressive.

Then talk about how Rue doesn’t remember their time together because as we know, courtesans have their memories wiped. Allowing a courtesan to even know that there had been a liaison with one of the Cleons seems completely inconsistent with how those assholes conduct their business. It also seems like a dumb decision on their part that never would have happened except the writers wanted to go with this plot.

But memories and memory suppression are clearly recurring themes in this season.

Siwenna

“Love itself is inconsequential when measured against the scale of the Galaxy.” Gaal is quite the Ray of sunshine here. Is this her being an unreliable narrator?

Riose and his ship have arrived.

Boy, the transporters in this universe are really inefficient, and filled with unnecessary spectacle!

The first time through, I spent this sequence being sure that Glawin was going to die.

What’s with all these things that look like gigantic antlion sand pits?

This sequence doesn’t add much to the episode except Bel and Glawin are arguing at the end of it. Is that what Gaal was alluding to in her narration?

“By the time you recognize an atrocity, you may have already been complicit in one” is wise, but ominous.

Terminus. At the Vault.

Hober’s “It doesn’t work like this” is a hot take and a correct one.

“Governance depends on me continuing to govern.” Coward.

The vault, first of all, seems to use time lord technology. It’s bigger on the inside of course, but also time passed differently for Hober in the vault, two days rather than two minutes. Constant and Poly didn’t notice even though there was a similar gap between when those too entered. Are we supposed to take from this that time passes inconsistently inside the vault? Are the writers just being sloppy?

“We’re inside the mathematics of Hari Seldon.“ No, you’re literally inside Hari Seldon himself.

This does seem a lot like the inside of the prime radiant though.

Those blue contacts really make Isabella Laughland look intense.

“I see by your robes that the foundation has entered the religious phase.“ That’s a decent callback to the books. Then Hari pats Brother Constant on the head. Who’s a good girl? Who’s a good girl? Is it you? Who’s a good girl?

So Hari knows Director Sermak and he knows Hober Mallow but he doesn’t recognize Poly and he didn’t know that the Foundation had entered its religious phase. Sigh.

Poly gets that the Vault is a tesseract. This makes me want to go back and reread Heinlein’s “And he built a crooked house.”

Hari says he wants to prevent the coming war.

Siwenna

Bel and Glawin approach a dwelling.

“Fleet Supremus?”

We’ve swapped Onum Barr and Ducem Barr. Whoever he is, he’s been sending reports to the empire for 40 years.

Is an oval bookshelf one of those things that are supposed to look science fictional but aren’t?

“Books are for old men.”

Glawin, “Here’s to those who fight and ask why.” Ducem is beside himself with approval!

This is twice now. What are the writers implying?

Ducem shows Bel and Glawin some reruns. They quickly learned important stuff about the Foundation and its technology: jump ships, and personal shields. Bel is dubious.

The “Local Constabulary” arrives and Ducem asks to be shot in the head. Not sure that isn’t stupid. If nothing else it’s a waste of a good character… unless he has the imperial nanobots, maybe?

And again, with the laughably efficient transporters. A futuristic pneumatic tube seems like the worst possible way to attain orbit. Especially without a ship of some sort.

Terminus.

Hari offering Sermak wine that was literally made from his body is way too “on point.”

We learn that the prime radiant is “a quantum computer that exists in a state of superposition.” Quantum computers seem like magic, but maybe not that magic.

Hari is assigning people homework.

Sermak is dismissed out of hand. Constant and Poly get to be envoys to the Empire. Poly: “An agent of peace. Yes. That’s something worth being.”

“The honor is mine, my loyal child” is much better than a pat on the head. I was afraid he was going to scratch her behind her ears.

Fine suit. Now piss off. Lol.

And we learn hologram, Hari, like any AI, needs the three laws. He “had to” kill the warden. “For a god to be effective you have to be intermittently wrathful.”

Then, this, “I heard the warden on my doorstep. How long before he declared himself the only holy vessel worthy of my spirit?”

On the one hand, that’s an apt critique of organized religion. But it seems at odds with a policy of using an ersatz religion to expand the Foundation.

“Let no being presume upon my mercy.” *WINK*

I enjoyed Hober calling out Hari on his BS.

Hari in turn, calls religion “A developmental stage, that all successful civilizations go through.” But can you go through that stage legitimately if it’s all a con? Did the United States have a religious stage? Is it right, freaking now? Is the Church of the Galactic Spirit akin to the US’s current religious status quo with megachurches and pastors using the trappings of Christianity to their own ends?

Hober gets his own homework and it’s not being an agent of peace.

Trantor

Sarath, Rue, and the Handman are beneath the banyan tree. They are joined by someone who is wearing an utterly ridiculous outfit.

The new guy, Markley, is worried. We learn that Cloud Dominion can block or reverse a memory wipe and fool a memory audit. Clear implications here about Rue.

Sarath wants information both about her parents’ assassination, and the assassination attempt on Day. She’s cold and matter-of-fact. Everything we have seen of her personality thus far could have been a front.

Terminus.

The sun has gone down, so a decent chunk of time must’ve passed. Hober is leaving the Vault.

I don’t believe that Hari said Hober could take the Spirit. By the way, the bishop’s claw in the Spirit, is named Beki.

It’s actually Constant who calls out the sexual tension between her and Mallow. This could be foreshadowing that’s either good or bad. “I can’t help feeling that this is it” is ominous. [But the discussion on our podcast makes me think that Hober and Constant getting together could be equally ominous].

“Wenus” is funny. I did not expect to hear that name in the teevee show.

We end on a long wistful look between Constant and Hober and a bit more of Gaal’s narration. That narration always seems to be in counterpoint to what we’re seeing on the screen. “With few exceptions, attraction is entirely irrelevant to human history. It only matters on the small scale of the human heart.” I think this is the show trying too hard to misdirect us.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

All Images from Foundation on Apple TV+.

Watching Foundation: “King and Commoner”

You know how this works. Joseph’s comments, critiques, and conjectures from watching the episode. Simultaneously published at ComicsTheUniverseAndEverything.net. Let’s go!

Watching Foundation S2E03

Space

It’s a slow pretty build as we see the Beggar approaching a planet, presumably Ignus.

It’s tense between Gaal and Salvor. The planet appears to be a dump and Gaal comments that it’s a weird place to build the Second Foundation.

Salvor’s “You would say that” is annoyingly passive-aggressive. Will they follow up?

The time jump bothers me here. First of all, they’ve had some travel time since this conversation started between Salvor and Gail. It should’ve happened already. Or if it seems almost instantaneous to them that they reached the planet they must’ve been traveling very close to the speed of light. I think this is a contradiction that’s going to be increasingly annoying as the show goes on.

The elephant in the room is that Salvor died in Gaal’s vision. There is a heated discussion about whether they can avoid or change those events. Nobody’s pondering how Gaal encountered someone with mental powers. Could that be an implanted image?

There’s that hand that we see crashing to the ground in the previews.

And Hari’s being an ass again. He’s taking them to Oona’s World without even bothering to discuss it with them.

Gaal’s anger about the math not making sense would be better in a show where they were carefully trying to make things make sense.

But Hari needs to go to an abandoned mine, and the Wi-Fi won’t reach that far. Boy, these three are being pissy with each other.

“Uninhabited doesn’t mean we’re alone.” That sounds good but actually yes it does.

Terminus

We see the Vault with Hober Mallow scrawled across it in large friendly letters. I think “don’t panic“ might have been a better choice given that the vault just exploded a guy.

It seems to me that stoic armed guards surrounding the vault is a very unfoundational visual.

Cut to a tense discussion involving Poly and Director Sermak.

“The vault is literally a man.” “Was this divine justice?” “How could Seldon’s math predict an individual?” It seems we’ve got a lot of characters pointing out the flaws in the show. I’m not sure that helps enough.

But “we don’t have time to cry and clasp our icons“ is at least funny.

Now it’s nice that Poly is the one making some sense about psychohistory, despite profoundly non-psychohistorical things going on.

So Poly and Brother Constant are going in search of Hober Mallow even though he is a “fuc%ing @sshole.“

Oona’s World

There are “autonomous mining machines“ abandoned in the desert. That means robot.

These robots “…sucked the palladium from the pores of the planet; and then, when there was nothing left of value, they were turned loose upon the population. The emperors are hollow men who hollow out their worlds.”

The political commentary here is apt but simplistic.

Then there’s a pretty much content-free argument between Hari and Gaal. Hari is an ass and Gaal is petulant. We knew that already.

It gets a bit better when the conversation turns to Salvor’s destiny. But not much. Hari starts by saying that Salvor’s future, might well be immutable. Then he talks about making small changes in the present to adjust large events in the future. Salvor’s death is a small detail in one of those large events. If the large event changes, of course, that will change! Ultimately the two are arguing over nothing simply because they are both profoundly unpleasant people.

Eventually, Hari says “At enough scale, I am insignificant.” I’m not sure a mathematician would phrase it that way. More importantly, it’s like the writers aren’t even watching their own show. In the last episode, we get that preventing Hari from starting the Second Foundation put the galaxy on a disastrous path. The show has already argued that Hari is NOT insignificant.

Lepsis Penal Colony

I assume that’s Bel Riose but I can’t see the guy from Law and Order UK under there. Joanne says he looks like a character from Planet of the Apes.

The quick scene introducing the Bel Riose at the penal colony is outstanding. We very quickly learn that Riose is compassionate, able to speak truth to power, and steadfast in both his beliefs and in defending others.

This tells you everything you need to know about him for the rest of the scene and the rest of the episode, possibly the rest of the season. Notice how many of the same beats hit in his conversation with Demerzel.

Oona’s World.

There’s a real dungeons and dragons vibe and Gaal gets to meet the image of Kalle, who Gaal tells us has been dead for hundreds of years. This surprises Gaal even though Hari’s standing right next to her. [Note: The handshake here is significant. I missed that.]

Hari sends Gaal away. “if you don’t hear from me within six hours, leave.” Yeah, right!

Korell

This looks very short-hand fascistic, except the leader is in fancy dress.

We hear the name “Master Trader Ponyets,” the main character of “The Traders” from Foundation the book.

That’s Commdor Argo in the fancy dress. And Ponyets turns out to be Hober Mallow, who in fairness, does seem to be an asshole.

He wants to sell a “castling device.” I’ve always heard “castling“ pronounced as three syllables in the chess context, “cas-el-ing.” “Cast-ling” sounds like a tiny member of a cast.

Hijinks ensue. This bit ends in a Kafkaesque fashion.

Trantor:

Demerzel is back with Riose. “I want to see Day like this” is admirable, and I see Law and Order guy under there now. Well, second time through.

C-17 is being a Dick. But the guy in the straw hat on Siwenna is an informant for the Empire. Why would they bother to do that?

Dawn and dusk are merely window-dressing here, emphasizing that C-17 wants to separate from the dynasty.

Riose really gets the better of the exchange with C-17 who comes off as cruel and insecure. Ultimately Riose is reunited with his husband. Now he’s reminding Joanne of Monty Python’s Life of Brian and me of the “it’s” guy at the start of an episode of Flying Circus. [Note: really Jon was right: “It’s the old man from scene 24” is the optimal reference.]

Then, haircut… and BAM! Law and Order Guy!

Demerzel and C-17 are being creepy again. And she has to reassure him he’s doing okay. More insecurity.

Oona’s World.

Gaal and Salvor debrief and prepare to leave. Salvor points out how dysfunctional Gaal and Hari are together.

“Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right” is another Salvor Hardin quote ascribed to Abbas. It might be less irritating if they called that character “Salvor” and Leah Harvey’s something else.

Korell

The two red robes standing out within the deluge of people is very effective.

Yet another execution in a revolting festival atmosphere. The name of the method of execution is funny and disturbing at the same time.

“I’m rather busy right now” is hilarious. Mallow’s funny. At least that’s something. The escape brings us back to comic-bookish. I don’t mind though.

This whole sequence is great fun!

Trantor

Riose: “A weak emperor needs a strong general.” Loyal to the empire to protect its people.

On his ship: absolute confidence. The casualness with which Riose comports himself is impressive and something I’ve never quite seen before.

We get our first good look at a Spacer who is named “She-Bends-Light.” Are they going for a Native American vibe there? That would be a weird juxtaposition.

Is the Foundation more technologically advanced than the Empire now?

Oona’s World.

I think a planet stripped of all its resources is different from a collection of sinkholes. Strip mining would make a lot more sense. Literally no one is going to go to the extra trouble to mine in a way that leaves easily-collapsable caverns. Looked cool though.

If the mining robots were programmed to go after living things, which seems to be the case, why are they just waking up now? Is the fourth law “A robot may not act until it is necessary to the plot?”

This is too Star-Warsesque for me.

They detect a life-form and it’s Hari. Off to the rescue because the plot robots are after him!

“You have a body, how is this possible?” “I don’t know!”

Because of math? I feel like we’re back to the Mathematicians being wizards. Not only don’t I like that but it can do real damage. Gaal and Salvor’s superpowers were bad enough. If they don’t explain this well it will diminish the entire series.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

All Images from Foundation on Apple TV+.

Watching Foundation: “A Glimpse of Darkness”

Spoiler warning, obviously! As usual, Joseph’s notes, thoughts, and musings from watching the episode. Simultaneously published at StarsEndPodcast.com.

Watching Foundation S2E02

Open on The Beggar floating in a storm on Synnax.

The reckoning begins. Gaal ripped Hari out of the Raven. He has been sentient ever since. So that awful black-and-white bit when AI Hari was in the knife handle went on for 138 years. Hologram Hari from the Vault said, “It would be bad for me to have been conscious this entire time,” and that was only thirty-five years or so. On the other hand, Hari was in the knife handle before Gaal got to the Raven. Why wasn’t he conscious then? Maybe it was the abruptness of the transfer. Maybe the Raven’s system woke him up. If that’s the case, why wasn’t he downloaded out of the knife?

The second smartest person in the galaxy didn’t realize that would happen. Besides, she told him she was upset about Raych. She’s had what, an extra day to get her head together? And in the meantime, she’s met her daughter who’s older than she is. Shouldn’t she still be off her game?

“We don’t have time for this Hari,” she tells him. “ I looked at the math. The plan’s gone off course.” This is true but the ship is about to sink again. Isn’t not dying a higher priority?

The plan has gone off course because there’s supposed to be a Second Foundation. This, of course, is exactly what we said on the podcast last week.

In quick succession, Hari meets Salvor, AI Hari calls Hologram Hari “the other one,“ and we learn war between the Empire and the Foundation is imminent.

Finally, they focus on what’s about to kill them all. Hari fixes the computer from the inside while Salvor fixes the external stuff. They get off the planet.

Evidently, you can fix a starship by stabbing and punching it. “Last refuge of the incompetent.”

Also, there’s no way Salvor wouldn’t be thrown off the outside of the ship. The mother and daughter hug was sweet though.

Siwenna, a planet in The Outer Reach

We see a woman (Brother Constant) dressed like a monk in red robes. She has a pendant that looks like the vault. Another monk is awoken from a drunken stupor. He uses “Dear Seldon,” as an exclamation like “Dear Lord.“ Together, they find the corpse of a third monk who was “killed for his beliefs in the teachings of Hari Seldon.“ Killed by lightning.

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Avoid Lightning.

“They can keep their gods. We are just shining a light on the great force that underlies everything.” That’s objectively funny. How can any religion find that threatening?

Followed by “(Our aura’s) not much use against lightning.”

“Avoid lightning.”

That’s the same joke as, “Doctor, it hurts when I do this.”

“Then don’t do that!”

Trantor

Demerzel and C-17 are musing about a former imperial dynasty. Under that dynasty, Cleon tells us the empire was four times as large. That doesn’t make sense. Maybe this means that the so-called Galactic Empire doesn’t span the entire galaxy, departing from the books. But if that’s true, how was the Empire not already in decline? Losing 75% of your Empire is a big deal. Are the producers just leaving space for aliens? Is this the equivalent of a typo?

Demerzel reports that the memory audits on Dawn and Dusk were clean. That only means that they have no recollection of hiring someone to kill C-17. He wants this “loophole“ closed. It seems to me they have an extra step here.

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Demerzel suggests sending Bel Riose to check on the Foundation. We quickly learn that he is smarter than C-17 and prone to, let’s call it “creatively interpreting his orders.”

We see the three Cleons sitting at a meal. They’re being coached to act in unison, something 11, 12, and 13 did reflexively. This is the genetic drift. DNA can apparently be corrected, so why is it even a problem? The glib answer Dusk gives doesn’t satisfy me. C-17 is more determined than ever to marry and end the Genetic Dynasty. Dawn and Dusk aren’t happy.

Back to the Beggar.

That whole give a man a fish thing is too cliché. I’m not unpacking everything here.

But interestingly, Hari points out that the three of them are “decades from Terminus without a jump ship or access to a gate.” Is that why Salvor was in cryo-sleep? Did the Beggar travel for decades with a hull breach? This seems dubious.

Hari says, “First Foundation needs to be kept in the dark. Psychohistory predicts the natural patterns of humanity. Introduce too much information into the system, and you disturb it, which is why the system requires a counterpoint.” He means the Second Foundation. This is straight from Asimov’s books but it’s also why Hari and Gaal never should have been sent to Terminus to begin with. I think the writers may have listened to season two of our podcast.

And now Gaal is admitting that her and Salvor‘s abilities are two sides of the same coin as it were.

The big turning point is about 150 years in the future.

Trantor.

The Cleons dine with Sereth, C-17’s fiancé-designate, called “Dominion” here, and her chief of staff, Enjoinder Rue.

Dawn says he has always been fascinated by planetesimals. Theoretically, more than 1000 in the Cloud Dominion are populated. Planetesimals aren’t like Pluto and Ceres. They’re much smaller than that. Sedna, Phobos, and Vesta are some of the larger ones. They’re too small to have a reasonable gravitational field and there’s no way you could go skating on one. They’re not exactly prime real estate.

“…can’t you simply decant a new one of you and take their knees?” Barbaric.

There’s lots of verbal sparring and jabs. They discuss succession and the plan to replace the Genetic Dynasty. Sereth then pokes Brother Dawn with a metaphorical stick.

And she’s really too direct. “Won’t I be accomplishing what yesterday’s (assassination) attempt sought to do but could not?”

“Assassination by procreation” is a nice turn of phrase though.

Day and Sereth are casual and joking as the two visit C1 and the pickles. Then she quotes a forbidden poem about an uprising. She’s arrogant and thinks she has the upper hand here. She might be overreaching.

The two discuss getting rid of the spare pickles and future clones. This is clearly the plan I had postulated. Is it Luminism and Demerzel behind it? Then talk of intercourse, sterility, and combining genetic material.

Jockeying for advantage. Dominion is small. Empire shrinking. “There are rumors. But the integrity of your hermetically sealed lineage was corrupted some time ago.”

Is Sereth a Luminist? Could she be behind the plan rather than Demerzel?

Siwenna

The two monks are doing a membership drive, and we get to see “the magicians who fly through the air and cannot be touched.” The crowd which was initially hostile, turns curious too quickly. This is a real carnival sideshow, snake oil stuff. Their religion doesn’t appear to be exactly Scienceism since it presents Hari in religious terms, underpinned by mysticism.

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The cleric is called “Poly.” That IS Poly Verisof.

There’s one guy in a straw hat that gets focused on. I wonder if he’s a Foundation plant.

I absolutely love the fact that their communicators print out text on strips. That seems silly but it’s consistent with the novels. They are being called back to Terminus because the vault is opening.

“The second coming of Seldon means the second crisis.”

And here is the real importance of the Invictus. The Foundation now has jump ship technology.

Back on The Beggar.

Gaal is afraid that if she goes to the turning point, she won’t be able to find her way back. Have we had any evidence that visits to the future were more than visions?

Then Gaal is inspired by her religion in which she doesn’t believe. She wants to suffocate herself in hopes of getting a vision of the future. Sigh.

Hari agrees, Gaal needs to drown. Maybe we’re not actually done with that reckoning.

But she does have a vision. She sees the Mule who sees that she is from the past. He asks “Are you from the Age of Empire, before Hober Mallow pierced its hide?” The Mule is the source of the coming darkness. And the Mule learns the location of the Second Foundation from Gail. Back in the present, they find Ignis and it’s suspiciously close to them. Then they decide to go there and start the Second Foundation. Seems dumb.

I hope they’re saving the Mule for season three. There’s too much going on here. [And in retrospect, post-recording, I think we may have seen the Warlord of Kalgan, a separate character from the Mule rather than the Mule himself.]

The clerics arrive back on Terminus.

Poly is called the “first witness” and “the ten-year-old half-feral child with a front-row seat to Revelation.”

There is a Director; is there a mayor?

The Warden intends to meet with Hologram Hari when he leaves the vault. Poly, the leader of the church, isn’t invited. The Director dismisses the church as “just recruitment.“

There’s a real left/right dynamic building between Poly and the Director. This could be the Church of the Galactic Spirit versus the Merchant Princes. “I believe in the prophet.” “ I wonder how you’re spelling it.”

Also, Poly is a drunk.

Brother Constant is the director’s daughter.

Now everyone is at the Vault.

The warden approaches the Vault and appears to be praying as he tries to talk to Hologram Hari. This religion is a strange mix of proselytizing, posturing, and propaganda. Thinking about modern religions, though maybe that’s not so strange a mix.

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This is not going to go well.

The Vault does not want to talk to the warden. It wants to talk with Hober Mallow. What happens to the warden here is, I think, unintentional; it’s a consequence of channeling enough energy to speak through him.

Back on The Beggar.

Gaal is worried they’re playing into the Mule’s hands. She and Salvor have a heart-to-heart and Gaal reveals something else about her vision.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

All Images from Foundation on Apple TV+.

Watching Foundation: “In Seldon’s Shadow”

Spoilers, obviously. This will work the same as these did for season 1. Some notes, some thoughts, and some musings from when I watched the episode. But if you want to hear more of my Dors theory, that’s on the podcast. Simultaneously published at Comics, The Universe, and Everything.

Watching Foundation S2E01

It looks like Hari is having a breakdown but in black and white, so you know… It must be artistic?

Joanne says Hari’s rant is like they were trying to channel Shakespeare. They did not.

Gaal’s narration starts, “Any man can be a success but it takes a madman to be great.”

Back to where Gaal meets Salvor. Salvor’s affect is different; “(Mari) carried me, raised me. But I was always yours, I think.” She still wants to feel special. Gaal stomps on it and Salvor seems crestfallen.

Shift to Trantor. The Empire is shrinking, nibbled away by the First Foundation.

But those rings around the planet are cool. Those must be the “monument” the others promised to C11, even bigger and more impressive than the star bridge.

Well, that’s icky. But we learn that Demerzel, like Data is “fully functional.” We never saw this with Data though.

The tone here is wildly different from S1, then “Just be you, your voice.”

Oh, this is a dream of sexy time and ninjas.

Ninjas. So we don’t know where humanity came from we’ve probably forgotten To Kill a Mockingbird and Seurat and Exile on Main Street… But there are still ninjas?

This is very comic-bookish.

But wait. Is this not a dream? Wow!

We see a recurring motif again with Demerzel carrying Brother Day. Not somber this time.

And there’s the first good laugh of the entire series.

Hari again. Now in living color. Is this the inside of the vault? It looks like a picture of a modular form from this documentary. Did one of the producers see this? They might also be going for an Escheresque mindscape.

Flashback to Hari’s childhood. Mom praises his spatial skills, and Dad slaps him around.

But the spatial stuff is relevant. Hari’s figuring out where he is.

Different surrealist imagery. If they’re trying to evoke MC Escher they’re not getting there. Warehouse 13 managed it though.

Yanna? Someone from Hari’s past. Why not Dors?

“Something’s breaking the future,” claims Hari. “…I need to fix it.”

Some nonsense math betrays that the image of Yanna isn’t really her.

Shift to Synnax focussed on the Prime Radiant. Oh.

Gaal wakes with a start and gets all maternal, looking for Salvor.

Neither sleeps well. Salvor points out that similarity, dreaming of the past or the future. Gaal shuts this down and Salvor is crestfallen again. But precognition and retrocognition (which Salvor’s thing is evidently called (Where is Arthur C. Clarke when you need him?)) can’t be all that different. Which of these two is supposed to be the genius?

My coin says you’re lying? What the hell is the basis for that?

We get to see Terminus. Unsurprisingly, the settlement has grown over the last nearly 200 years.

The narration tells us that “Dark waters are rising everywhere.”

A red klaxon is ringing, which hasn’t been heard in 138 years. The Vault is waking up.

I know that actor. He was the murderer in “Mr. Monk and the Three Pies.”

Yup, we’re in Foundation and Empire. At least sort of. Talk of preparing for the inevitable war with the Empire. Also, these guys: director, warden, and brigadier sound like time lords, oddly enough.

Back to Hari in cyberspace. Now the other character is presenting herself as Kalle, of the Ninth Proof of Folding. Hari figures out that he’s inside the Prime Radiant.

An Image of a modular form from the BBC Horizon Documentary “Fermat’s Last Theorem.” Actually, it’s just an approximation without being able to visualize hyperbolic space.

Gaal did it.

Copies of Hari? Yeah, a lot more than two I bet.

Gaal shows Salvor how the Prime Radiant works. The Red line, blue line stuff is pretty effective, but it seems derivative from Loki.

The interregnum is getting longer. I think this is all about the Second Foundation. We’ve talked about this on the podcast. Psychohistory I’d like a GPS or a maps app. But you also need real-time information, like traffic reports to make real-time adjustments. That’s the role of the Second Foundation. Because of Gaal, AI Hari never started the Second Foundation.

This version of Day is paranoid, and cavalier. “Somebody get me a damn blasted robe so my manhood isn’t flapping around,” is funny and odd. “Damn blasted?” Who says, “damn blasted?” Dawn’s reaction might be the funniest thing here.

The ninjas were “blind angels.” And again with the executions.

Day confesses to feeling fear and doesn’t want to die. Says he “feels like a singular soul.” This could be the source of his odd behavior or the result of it. Was this the endgame of the genetic alteration plot? The plotters signed their work with that silly brouhaha in S1. Maybe this Day becomes a Luminist. Maybe he already is.

To Dawn, “Do you feel like a singular soul?” Is a loaded question.

This Dawn is radically different from C14.1. But he still buys into the philosophy of the Genetic Dynasty. Day thinks Dawn and Dusk are threatened by his upcoming marriage.

And this would be a better plan to bring down the dynasty. Convert Day to Luminism. Convince a Day that he’s distinct from the other Cleons, maybe even convince him that he has a soul that the others lack. If he buys into that, starting a family of “singular souls” to succeed him is a natural response to keep the Empire out of soulless hands. Then the Genetic Dynasty theoretically ends.

Demerzel is a mainframe now. Decentralized to where? Or what? Now Day wants to know if their sexy time is indecent. This behavior makes me wonder anew how Demerzel is tied into the plot from S1 and if sexy time is a tool to manipulate Day.

Then, “Pardon me, I have to put my head on.”

The rings around Trantor are populated.

Our first look at Queen Sareth. She thinks the Empire is frightened.

Now we see Dusk. He’s more outwardly disapproving than Dawn. “Foreigners seem more foreign every year.” A tinge of nativism.

Day sees his marriage as a way to address the genetic drift by introducing new genes. Exacerbating the “problem” is an odd response. Dusk says, “Steering into the rapids is an odd cure.” Day claims it’s the boldest one. That doesn’t ring true. If the Genetic Dynasty is the problem, though, replacing it with individual rulers who you believe do have souls makes sense.

Gaal and Salvor decide to leave Synnax. “The Beggar’s tough.” Is a glib, too-convenient answer to whether the ship can fly after being derelict and waterlogged for more than a century. They have a plan to raise the ship leaves neither of them brain-dead. Barely it seems.

Salvor’s back to being disappointed by the reunion even though there’s finally an inkling of progress.

The Queen is presented to the emperors, Day = C17. Sareth is “Doyen of the Trade Leagues.” Do we get the Merchant Princes in through the side door? “Most excellent” reminds me of Bill and Ted.

Right off Sareth calls herself a usurper.

She brings a gift of active pigments, and Dusk is excited; he can’t get these! Is this a signal of the Empire’s decline? She on the other hand is dismissive of Day’s gift.

The Dayparts are called away. Lord Dorwin has drifted into the range of imperial Wi-Fi. That doesn’t make any sense. But now the Empire knows that Terminus is still up and kicking.

“There have been rumors of an alliance at the edge of the galaxy, led by magicians who glow in the darkness, and fly unaided through the air, and whom weapons cannot touch, who speak of a galactic spirit who will return and guide his people to a promised new age.“

Compare this to this quote from “The Merchant Princes.”: “…when I was young there was a small ship of strange men, who did not know our customs and could not tell where they came from. They talked of magicians at the edge of the Galaxy; magicians who glowed in the darkness, who flew unaided through the air, and whom weapons would not touch.”

Demerzel counsels caution.

Back inside the Prime Radiant. “Show your work.” Lol. He’s been speaking to the Radiant itself. “Your work was always incomplete. Perhaps I am its completion.”

“I’ll explain more if you can meet me in Oona’s world,” says the radiant. “You’ll appreciate it down to your bones.“ I think the end result of this will be Dors Venabili.

Hari escapes the Radiant just in time to help Gaal and Salvor escape Synnax, assuming that the “reckoning” doesn’t take too long.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

All Images from Foundation on Apple TV+.

Watching Foundation: “The Leap”

I’ll get back to S1E09 when time permits; but in the meantime, S2E01 has dropped a bit early! What are ya doin’ here? You can come back to this!

Watching Foundation: S1E10

There’s Hari’s coffin floating through space as Gaal muses about sleep. It’s transmogrifying into the Vault.

Back on Terminus.

This is very Asimovian. Everybody is standing around while Hari exposition-dumps.

Hari: “History is written by the victor, and neither of you seems to be winning.”

The enmity? Thespin King murders Anacreon Huntress. But really it’s Cleon II with a plan that could span centuries.

Hari on the Invictus. He gave the problem of the Invictus to his model. That’s thin. It’s probably running a pseudo-random number generator. But how could you back-engineer the seed without ever encountering the ship?

“Well, I might have lied about that.” Funny.

Trantor:

12 and 13 ponder 14’s fate. 13 and 14 discuss 14’s situation.

14: “…living out a script written centuries ago.” There’s determinism. “We’re not people. We’re echos.”

Terminus. Hari: “ The Foundation was never about curating knowledge, it was about curating people.“

3 parts of a tripod.

“The human race is an ever-evolving story told over thousands of years by countless number of voices. But for a long time now that chorus has been suffocated and quietly erased. Because under the Genetic Dynasty, There is only room for one story. One voice.”

He implies that Cleons will lead to extinction. “We cannot become who we must become if the Empire is allowed to persist. That path leads to the annihilation of the human race.”

The three civilizations in a single-star system? I’m still dubious.

12:53 When Kier touched Hari, that looks more like an imperial shield than a hologram.

“It wouldn’t have been wise for me to have been sentient all this time.” Foreshadowing Azura’s fate.

16:04 and we’re basically done with the first crisis.

Trantor.

13 takes Azura for a walk.

“I know people hate me, consider me evil. But it is my detachment, My Indifference to suffering that allows me to rule effectively. The galaxy is so vast, the problems so large, that I must turn a blind eye to the individual.”

Interesting to see 13 musing about his ambitions as a child, which we saw in episode 1, and then discussing how they’ve evolved.

Legacy. Azura’s punishment. So dark! The last shot of her is tiny and shrinking as 13 walks away.

Terminus.

Mari is pissed at Hari. Salvor believed she was special but her lack of connection to the Vault belies that.

Salvor and Rowan discuss Phara and plant a tallyn oak in her honor.

We get a time-lapse of the tree growing. “In the months that followed, the children of the outer reach took Hari’s words to heart, setting aside hatred in favor of strength. It takes more power to build than to burn and Hari wanted them to build.”

Hugo and Salvor don’t have a lot of chemistry. But Salvor has more visions. And she sees a young Gaal. She goes up to the vault and disappoints us with nothing but a rhetorical question.

Chekov’s embryo rears its now-self-evident head. Salvor and Mari talk and we learn about Salvor’s genetic background. Salvor won’t be Mayor, she’s going on a Gaal hunt. This bit’s kind of slow and draggy.

A lot of this could have been at the start of season 2. Joanne says that this entire episode feels like the closing scenes of a movie. That gives me flashbacks to Return of the King which was painfully tedious at the end.

Back to Trantor. Before the episode, I was thinking about the plot in episode 9 and how dumb it was. What would have made it make sense? As we pointed out on the podcast maybe it was meant to fail. Why do that? If the frozen replacement Dawn has also been genetically altered but in a way less obvious and more sinister than the changes made to 14.

I wondered if Dawn was going to leap to his death here.

“All love is programming.”

Demerzel has her hand on 14s back here exactly like she did with 11 right before he was vaporized.

13 looks like he’s on the verge of letting 14 live. 12 remains a huge asshole.

And then goddamn it! Total shock! But in retrospect, I should have seen it coming.

“I am loyal, Empire to the Cleonic dynasty above all else,” says Demerzel

I wonder if the newly decanted Dawn will remember having his neck snapped.

I’m assuming that the shifting paints are figurative.

13 carrying 14 to the disintegration chamber is reminiscent of Demerzel bringing 11 back to bed the night before he was vaporized.

12 really seems torn up by this.

Olbrecht tells us that the plans undermining the Dynasty were more extensive than thought. The source material has been altered. That silly plan was the insurgents signing their work. I like that!

Still, the Dynasty isn’t any worse off than any inherited dynasty. Are they?

See? Disturbing.

Disturbing scene with Demerzel. I wondered if she was going to shut herself down with these tools we see. Nope. Instead, well, you should see that for yourself. This is clearly what a positronic crisis looks like. There’s some sort of conflict there. Maybe it’s a conflict with the programming to be loyal to the Cleons. Even if there was no order given, Demerzel must have known she was going against 12’s wishes. Maybe the three laws were overwritten by the dynastic programming but remnants are still there.

Synnax.

Gaal’s back.

That seatbelt isn’t going to be enough to survive reentry.

Just a rowboat in the middle of an ocean seems stupid. Looks like Synnax has been abandoned. But there’s a red light underwater. Now it’s like Gaal is chasing a laser pointer. My cat does that.

Not sure if this bit is annoyingly slow or if it wouldn’t work if they didn’t show us everything.

But we end with Salvor meeting Gaal 138 years in the future. Salvor’s been in stasis for “more than 100 years.” I wonder if there’s more to her story in the “present day.”

Lots of nice stuff in this episode, but the pacing is off. The bookkeeping and laying the groundwork for Season 2 is slow going.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

All Images from Foundation on Apple TV+.

Watching Foundation: “The Missing Piece”

Quick note: We’re skipping S1E09 for now; it’s the only episode I don’t have notes for from its original airing. S1E10 tonight before midnight, when the first episode of season 2 drops.

Watching Foundation – S1E08

Spoiler Alert, as always just in case you haven’t seen the episode yet!

So, here we go! Joseph’s random thoughts about S1E08. Simultaneously published at ComicsTheUniverseAndEverything.net.

Anacreon looks like the Genesis Planet. We see Phara as a child and her trauma during the Empire’s retaliation. I didn’t need to see that. Assholes. This is one of those things that is better left to the imagination.

Phara: “It blinked into orbit like a prayer. …the gods did not just approve of my plan to destroy the empire they engineered it.” “You simply have no concept of revenge, do you? I don’t care about mankind. This ship is going to be my voice.”

Hari and Gaal. Investigating “Feeling the future.” Gaal talks about her dream of a wave destroying her world. It drove her to learn math. Hari; “(math) proved that it wasn’t a dream at all it was a premonition.“

Gaal has an “Intuitive processing ability that puts you ahead of the math.” Hari wants to keep Gaal in the Dark. “This prescience of yours has the potential to skew psychohistory completely.” So the math can’t tolerate other predictions? This seems like magic trumping science. And mathematics in this show has already been too magical.

Hari says that the Foundation needs a second Foundation. On Helicon. And he calls Helicon “Star’s End” according to the closed captioning. That Apostrophe annoys me.

Where’s Hugo? He’s narcing on the Anacreonians to the Thespins. This is anticlimactic. This guy is no Han Solo; I expected something more dynamic.

But the mood of futility here isn’t bad. Standing in the desolation, crying out into the darkness, “Does anybody read me?”

We see C13 walking the spiral. A Trek of over 170 km with no food no water no rest. No nanobots or toys. A quick calculation, that’s over 100 miles. That’s not survivable. Did they flub the arithmetic again?

At the end of the Spiral, there’s a cave called the Womb that has water. If the Mother is willing the pilgrim will see a deeply personal vision.

C13 breaking Demerzel’s salt bracelet is a dick move. He wants to keep her with him but she looks stricken.

The crowd thins out quickly. Too quickly, since they implied about half made it to the end of the spiral. We meet a charming companion for C13. It would be nice if 13 could learn some compassion here. He gets some information about what others have seen.

C13 lies and says he’s from Baltaros. The gentleman is from “the manufacturing planet.” Badly polluted by making things for the Empire.

Back to Hari and Gaal. The Foundation was designed to draw fire. The Second Foundation must be kept secret.

Gaal: “If you’re not willing to trust me, then I am not going to Helicon.” Gaal is going to take her brain and go home. What starts off as a strong confrontation with Hari degenerates into a tantrum.

Now C13 is doing a Jesus imitation. And he falls to one knee. The wavy images of burned feet are a bit much. The pilgrim helps him up.

Back to the Invictus. Salvor’s finally trying something other than violence. Trying to peel off some of Phara’s men. She argues the plan will lead to the extinction of the Anacreonians. “Phara sees herself as a hand reaching out of Anacreon’s grave. But Anacreon children are still being born today.”

Phara does the Hawkeye thing with aplomb. Pretty good. “You do luck, I do skill.”

These computer components remind me of 2001 and TNG.

Salvor tries violence again. Gets herself and Lewis onto the bridge with no Anacreonians. Someone else got killed. Is this progress?

The individual work pods look cool but seem like form over function. Lots of circles on this ship. Significance?

They find the navigation pod. “Folding space is as much intuition as it is science. It’s like making a wish.” More magic over science. This seems especially anti-Asimovian.

This is a pattern. Gaal has an intuition that obviates mathematics. Humans can guide jump ships with wishes, “A cognitive leap that only a human brain can perform.” This is displacing science in favor of mysticism in a way that’s very non-Asimovian.

Salvor’s going to sacrifice herself to guide the ship to Terminus. And she gets snarky. “It might as well be the outlier.“

Terminus. The null field is expanding.

The Spiral. The old man gives up. C13 looks stricken. Grieves that the pilgrim will no longer be with him. Does he show some compassion for the pilgrim here? Maybe.

Alas, dear Yorick, I will smash your skull.

Here’s some more of the Shakespeare quote. “Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rims at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar?”

Reflecting on the demise of the Pilgrim maybe? Also, are skulls really that fragile?

But 13 makes it to the cave. He’s pretty messed up. And alone. “Fewer than half make it?” That must be the tourism bureau. People certainly wouldn’t sign up for the real rate of attrition.

Maniacal supervillain laughter as 13 enters the cave.

To the tribunal, C13 repeats the story the pilgrim gave him about the swirling salt. He claims to have seen a “birthroot flower.” A signal to the luminists that the world could sustain life. And a metaphor for three lives created out of one.

“Just like my brothers and I!” “This is a holy vision.” The tribunal decides his soul is not mired in stagnation. “…from this day forward no other zephyr will stand in your way.“

This is pitch-perfect political manipulation on C13’s part. It stands in stark contrast to his largely inept and tone-deaf early attempts. That makes this hard to believe. Or maybe it’s his ineptitude that forces his lies. There’s certainly a history of political leaders getting ahead on lies and nothing else!

Gaal resorts to hysteria and violence. Again. Gaal threatens suicide to get off the ship. At least we’ll get to see Synnax in 138 years. It will be wet.

Back to the Luminists. C13 is strutting oddly. “Zephyr Halima, thank you for inspiring me to take this journey of transformation.“ Twisting the knife.” Asshole.

Demerzel visits Zephyr Halima, she is visibly upset as she does it. Demerzel claims that she did not coach 13’s performance. Halima comes across as wise now.

Halima: “I’m not going to leave this room alive, am I?” Demerzel: “I must not be in possession of a soul, otherwise I might be able to disobey his commandments.” This was petty and cruel. And it implies a lot about Demerzel. She may not have the capacity to be the mastermind we were thinking she might be.

The Invictus. “Jumping into a planet’s orbit requires absolute precision.“Or luck. Remember who you’re dealing with.” Magic over science yet again.

What is moving the Invictus to Terminus supposed to accomplish? What’s the next step that will magically happen with Salvor presumably dead? “That’s all there is in a crisis, trying.” Once again an unimpressive aphorism from the formerly quotable Salvor Hardin.

The Anacreonians break into the bridge and shoot Lewis. Another casualty of Salvor’s attempts to save the day. She seems pretty slow to pick up this pattern.

Salvor’s gun misfires. So much for luck. Interesting.

And the Invictus jumps. It’s possible that showing Gaal awake during the jump in episode one was to tell us Salvor can survive this.

The spinning ship bothers me. It looked dumb when they did it on the Discovery and it looks dumb now.

Demerzel reports to C13. Killing Halima was unnecessary. “Your lack of understanding does not obligate me to explain, says C13. What an asshole. So much for developing compassion. From that little kid who might develop kindness, we end up with someone even more villainous than before.

Demerzel realizes that C13 saw that flower on her vanity. “Seeing nothing, I would not wish that emptiness on anyone.” Is the implication here that the Cs have no souls? It certainly positions them as an other in a way it would not have before. And it makes the allusion in the title a little too obvious.

The thought clearly festers. We see C13 feeling cold without vision. As if it wasn’t already obvious enough. I didn’t need to be told this twice but I get the writers wanting to show us this visual. I’ll excuse it for the emphasis. And we’re done.

I didn’t remember many of the things in this episode that annoyed me.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

All Images from Foundation on Apple TV+.

Watching Foundation: “Mysteries and Martyrs”

Spoiler Alert: go watch Foundation S1E07 if you haven’t already. We have about two more days here to be ready for season 2!

Joseph’s random thoughts about Episode 7, simultaneously published at ComicsTheUniverseAndEverything.net. Let’s go!

Watching Foundation S1E07 Mysteries and Martyrs

The Anacreonians and their hostages approach the Invictus. Phara is harsh and unforgiving. And sick? Or just beat up?

Great. “The most powerful weapons platform the Empire had ever built.” “A world-killer.” So the Invictus is the Doomsday Machine. Where’s Commodore Decker when you need him?

We get an explanation for why they needed Lord Dorwin. Good thing he didn’t die in that spectacular explosion!

Suiting up. And Lord Dorwin has a plan to send a message.

Floaty through space action. Hugo does a Frank Poole imitation. Unlike Frank, I think he’ll be back. But we get some cheap, momentary angst.

They’re going to jump to the Invictus because the outer defense systems can’t recognize anything as small as a human. That’s a plot-driven weakness. “If you miss the outer ring you’ll be lost.”

Above the Maiden. C13 sees Demerzel’s kneeling as betrayal even as she’s trying to cop a lame excuse. “Motherless atrocity that I am.”

C13 points out the obvious contradiction; Demerzel’s faith in Luminism contradicts her very nature.

He also thinks that Demerzel’s actions contradict her programming, which is supposed to be Loyalty to the Cleonic Dynasty.

Demerzel claims that she can’t act contrary to her programming. It’s odd that’s even a point of discussion but it’s also very Asimovian.

Halima is now the front-runner. C13 wants to know “what she actually wants from me.”

On the Surface, C13 and Demerzel approach a tent.

The Luminists are idiots. Sacrificing themselves on a ritual: “Walking the Spiral.” Demerzel claims she did this many years ago.

Negotiations begin. C13 thinks he can still barter his way out of the problem. That already didn’t work once. He’s not even negotiating in the right universe.

Halima wants the end of the Genetic Dynasty. Halima is playing a true believer here. I don’t think that’s sincere. “I don’t claim to see the future.” She turns nasty. “You are the reverberations of a dead man’s ego.“ and “The soulless creature cannot recognize itself.“

She’s haughty when she references Seldon’s “similar observation.” Then calculating and dismissive. Truth to power sure but also obnoxious and self-satisfied. She thinks she has the upper hand. For the moment, she’s right!

Back at the Invictus. Hugo ostentatiously floats away. There’s an obvious way he can get back, but I think the show wants us to believe he’s gone so he can save the day.

Salvor notices (senses?) something. a gun starts shooting. It looks like the gun is firing globs of molten metal. I don’t think that’s what the show intended, but either way, I’m thinking about the special effects and not the story. That’s a bad sign.

And Dorwin throws away his leverage by opening the door. Phara then executes him on the spot. Disconcertingly ruthless and brutal. “He served his purpose.”

Isn’t that dumb? Why wouldn’t the controls have similar safeguards to the door?

“The atmosphere is frozen.” Then what’s suspending the particles all making the light beams visible? They “restore atmosphere” and people take their helmets right off. If the atmosphere is frozen it must be near absolute zero.

The Invictus is randomly jumping. Salvor sounds smart when she puts the story together, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense.

The “much longer deaths” line is pretty good.

Above the Maiden again. Demerzel thinks Halima is reckless and threatening. C13 reminds us of Seldon’s prediction and refuses to play defense.

I don’t think “I will appeal to your gods” is an argument that will get you there. But Joanne points out Trump.

“I will walk the great spiral and let the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone decide what’s true.”

We get more with C14 and Azura. Sexy time.

She gives him corrective contacts as a gift. Says he can’t wear them because they will attract attention. Like schtuping the gardener isn’t going to attract attention.

He shows her another copy of himself who will take his place if there’s ever an accident. If they know he’s different the other Cs will kill and replace him.

But the interesting thing here is the subtext that Azura is connected to some sort of underground.

You can lose yourself in the scar. “Come with me.”

But it’s a real relationship. C14 and Azura are open enough with each other that it’s dangerous. (Spoiler, I’m wrong here.)

“We are Trantor. Nothing outside the palace walls is relevant.”

On the Raven. That isn’t a hologram, it’s a “Quantum consciousness protocol.” So Hologram Hari is AI Hari.

But if Hari was recorded and placed in the knife, what’s the deal with the Walt Disney coffin?

Hari says “FIRST” Foundation. Gaal was supposed to lead the First Foundation.

The Invictus. Salvor wants to fight. Akiva doesn’t. “I’m the only expert…” is an odd way of praising that thought.

There’s a fight. Akiva is pretty competent at fighting for someone who’s “not a fighter.”

Salvor gets to live because they might need her. Like nanobots guy didn’t have the same potential.

39:57. Strong intense speech from Phara.

Not a bad plan, but it begs the question. Is there a succession plan? All the Cs live in the same place. All the spare Cs are in the same place. The genetic source of the Cs is at the same place. Demerzel who is the only person who might be able to hold things together is in the same place. We never see anyone with any kind of agency except for one ambassador. Chop off the head!

With Hari gone, the Raven is shutting down. But Hari comes back just in time to save Gaal. There’s a lot of convenient timing on this show.

“The Foundation needs more than a man to inspire it. It needs a myth that can endure for centuries.”

“It worked” because the mortality projections were somewhat inaccurate. What was sigma? It’s a ridiculous claim. And reminds me of reactions to Nate Silver and the 2016 election. He wasn’t “wrong.”

Teevee Hari is egregiously arrogant. And he had Lethe Syndrome, which is essentially Space Alzheimer’s. The cognitive decline would have prevented him from becoming the mythic figure the Foundation needed.

Hari was “engineering the narrative.” When he had Raych kill him, he couldn’t foresee Gaal coming to his cabin. That’s a rational limitation of psychohistory.

Hari wants to move toward the debris field. Gaal thinks that’s insane. And it is.

Gaal: “I think I can feel the future.”

That is one tough piece of plexiglass.

From Wikipedia:

In Greek mythology, Lethe (/ˈliːθiː/; Ancient Greek: Λήθη Lḗthē; Ancient Greek: [lɛ́:tʰɛː], Modern Greek: [ˈliθi]), also referred to as Lemosyne, was one of the five rivers of the underworld of Hades. Also known as the Ameles potamos (river of unmindfulness), the Lethe flowed around the cave of Hypnos and through the Underworld where all those who drank from it experienced complete forgetfulness. Lethe was also the name of the Greek spirit of forgetfulness and oblivion, with whom the river was often identified.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

All Images from Foundation on Apple TV+.

Watching Foundation: “Death and the Maiden”

Finishing up the Season 1 rewatch. Look for episode 7 in about 12 hours.

Watching Foundation – S1E06

Spoiler Alert! Joseph’s random thoughts about Season 1 Episode 6, Simultaneously published at ComicsTheUniverseAndEverything.net.

Spacers. Weird. They look like Gollum.

“I barely consider them human,” says 13.

“The human mind can’t tolerate the discontinuity” of space folding.

Maiden, mother, and crone. There’s an interesting parallel between the Cleons and the Goddesses of Lumenism. The central themes of Luminism: are cycles, Ouroboros, and nature seeking completion.

The Luminists believe that the goddesses were once a single entity. That’s very Catholic. As is the fact that they are a trinity.

Demerzel is a Luminist, which seems odd. She bypasses the “How is it that you believe” by answering why. How is the more interesting question.

“The search for meaning is not always about the answer.”

“At every point in our lives, we have the power to choose our own path.” A Three-Laws robot does not always have the power to choose.

The goddesses guide us towards service and truth “as though towards the center of a great spiral.”

So spiritual geometry. Luminists are circles and Cleons are lines.

Zephyr Halima gained fame by spearheading the recovery after an earthquake. She has been a Zephyr for less than a year.

13 is expecting clamoring masses. Halima meets him alone. And highlights what 13’s trip means about the importance of Luminism to the empire. She’s a skilled politician.

By offering 13 a drink, she gets him to symbolically reject the faith and the opportunity to surpass his impure intentions even if Demerzel is the one to voice it.

“I’m afraid whatever impurities I may harbor will have to remain hidden.” The rejection said out loud.

“Something tells me that’s how you prefer it.” And Halima spikes the ball.

“Triple blessings to you all.” The Catholicism references are pretty loud too. Of course, they are.

“I don’t think anyone with pure intentions would wheedle their way onto my welcoming committee.” So he gets it but he should have seen it coming.

Back to Terminus.

“Empire ships are as good at preserving their peoples’ lives as they are at taking others’.”

Lord Dorwin is still alive. Where’s everybody else? Dead.

The Anacreonians straight-up murdering people is gut-wrenching. They’re suddenly a lot less nuanced.

Talk of the Invictus and redemption from Phara. That eye is disconcerting.

Phara’s trying to crew a ship. The librarian is also skilled in Astronautics.

The jump ship was shot down to capture Dorwin.

More straight-up super villainy from Phara as she shoots Jacenta’s husband in the leg.

14 is wooing the gardener again. “A foolish attempt to control the uncontrollable.”

12 and 14 hunt for “Ghillie raptors” with powerful camouflage.

“I’d rather mold it myself.”

Invictus is a legendary powerful warship. Phara’s found it.

“Thank Seldon.”

Salvor has a plan. “This is the first Seldon crisis.” She’s convinced herself that she’s part of the plan. “Hari put me here to stop the Anacreons, and he’s helping me figure out how.”

Back to the Maiden. 13 is bitchy about being greeted by “a heretic.” He throws his weight behind Zephyr Gilat which is probably counterproductive.

Desalination plants might have worked in a popular election but the enclave is a tight group of politicians. They might see through it and water for the people Might not bolster their self-interests.

He smiles at Halima like “I got you.”

Terminus. Abbas talks about Trantor. “Miracles everywhere.” Built on a mountain of lies. Why did he join the Foundation? He believed in a girl called Mari Hardin. “I got you out of it didn’t I?” Dodging the question.

Trantor: 14 doesn’t want 12 to know how many raptors he killed. 12 takes 14 to a brothel where the girls’ memories are wiped.

Didn’t get the obvious? They have to force the resemblance between this girl and the gardener. Of course, 12 gets a report from her after her time with 14.

Salvor gets another vision. This time she’s in the body of Gaal.

Hari to Raych. “It has to become impossible for you to remain onboard.” Hari can’t fix things. He’s a lot less certain than the Hari in the book.

“This whole thing collapses because you stay with her.” Sacrifices waisted. “An entire galaxy pivoting around the actions of an individual.” The cryopod was programmed for Raych.

Abbas martyrs himself to destroy the “Corvettes.” Salvor melts down. “Daddy!”

So many ways that 14 is different. He’s reaching out to people outside the family. He’s showing concern for other people and a willingness to put himself at risk. 14 is colorblind. But “Cleons are exact copies.”

Shadowmaster Olbracht finds the raptors that 14 hid. Probably realizes the color blindness.

Meanwhile, Salvor is growing toward seeing violence as a problem.

And we’re doubling down on the part of the episode recognizing that psychohistory doesn’t work. Maybe. But Salvor’s also starting to see herself as a piece of the plan which is problematic.

The Desalination system should not be front and center at a funeral. Just saying.

And Halima walks in to interrupt Gilat and steal the show. It’s classic politics. Gilat and 13 are appealing to reason. Halima wins hearts and minds by connecting on an emotional level.

Souls used to be like candle wax burned down and snuffed out. “The mother took the straight line of life and sewed it into a circle.” Reincarnation is not about ascending to the highest planes of enlightenment. There is no end because our capacity for growth is infinite. “Even a soul that appeared holy 400 years ago would not be holy today.” “We must embrace the value of transformation, of evolution, of difference!” “We rejoice that her soul is not bound to a single immutable body.“

It’s extra odd that Demerzel would be an adherent to this religion. Is it aspirational?

Also bowing and leaving 13 to stand is a powerful statement.

Salvor and Hugo are captured. Phara & Company take Hugo’s ship and leave with the hostages who can crew a jump ship.

The episode ends with one defiant coin flip.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

All Images from Foundation on Apple TV+.

Watching Foundation: “Upon Awakening”

In the Unfinished Business Department. I started these “Watching Foundation” posts while Season 1 was running. I’m going to try to wrap these up as I finish my Season 1 rewatch. Slightly edited thoughts from the initial watch. I’m not removing things that turned out to be wrong, I’ll add parenthetical comments.

Can I do it? It’s five more episodes in four days, let’s give it a try.

Watching Foundation – S1E05

Spoiler Alert! There may be plot complications!

You know how this works. Joseph’s Random thoughts about Episode 5, no post-podcast revelations this time. Simultaneously published at ComicsTheUniverseAndEverything.net.

The Black Hole story scares Gaal because of the Event Horizon. In her dream, she’s swimming in the darkness and that does not scare her; but the water stands for her religion and it’s telling that it’s in darkness.

Another interesting font.  

They put those prayer stones into infants.  Barbaric.

Upon Awakening is a religious notion on Synnax.  Makes sense with the “Sleeper” being the central mythological character.

Shit. So much water! Keven Costner is going to show up, isn’t he?

They check the university for illegal activity.  Gaal encounters “Instructor Sorn,” apparently a former Professor at the university.  He knows Gaal from when she was a baby.  “All analytical learning goes against the faith of the awakening.”

She just tries to save him from the seers. “Just drop the books and go…”

“They are just words on a page.”  He gives her Kalle’s book of folding. “Furthering knowledge is the most noble work of humankind.”

Strong parallels between Synnax and the Galaxy.  Sorn is channeling Hari.

“We did this, not your slumbering God.”

The door looks like a Star Trek delta.  But otherwise, this is terrifying.  Sorn is cleansed which is to say executed.

Gaal takes part in the execution and then immediately (?) dives to retrieve the book she wanted.  Sure, NOW she raises a fuss about the rising water. And enters the math contest.

Gaal gets a message back from Hologram Hari.  No, not that one.

There are sexism and bias.  There’s resistance to Gaal’s solution because she’s a woman and from Synnax.  “The beauty of Mathematics is that it’s pure.”

Hari says it’s “ingenious, elegant, and true.”  A mathematician would not say “true.”

Gaal comes clean and complains about the rising water, but not she’s raising enough of a fuss and then she leaves for Trantor.

There’s not enough of a feeling of her awakening.  Doing the priesthood’s bidding and then sneaking around.  She seems like a hypocrite or a coward.  Also, there’s more “Math is Magic.”  500 years old problems don’t get solved overnight just because someone found a scroll.

Gaal on a ship.  It doesn’t make sense that the blood is still on her hands or the knife. 

That was quite a meltdown.  And “Raych Foss Arrival Protocol” screws up a beautiful theory.

There’s that font again.  It would have been a nice touch if it had been specific to Synnax.

Salvor tries to talk sense into the Anacreonians.  “Desperate people make mistakes.” 

I feel like I’m watching Braveheart.  I never wanted to watch Braveheart.

Meanwhile, the imperial ship arrives and the Anacreonians have hidden their cannon.  Lord Dorwin isn’t going to last very long, is he?

I’m not sure what purpose it serves to have the computer fucking with Gaal.  

That casket thing Hari’s in is going to keep him alive.  Obviously? (turns out, no.)

Lewis: “We will devote our lives to protecting the empire.”  It’s impossible that he’s that stupid.  Is it a pose?

Why would Lewis suspect Gaal was behind Hari’s murder?

Raych is cryptic.  Says not to lose faith in the plan.  The show makes it plain that he’s speaking for Gaal’s benefit.  There are too damn many executions on this show.

Phyra takes down the “standard imperial issue shield.”  Which they already told us was going to happen.

Cheap pathos.  Gaal’s attempting suicide.  We’ve made a lot of characters female, but they wouldn’t write a male character with crippling despair.  What the hell just happened?

The ship’s course was corrected.  It’s inconceivable that it would be that violent within the ship without some sort of warning. And the timing is ridiculously convenient.

Mathematical technobabble is annoying and it’s unrealistic that what she does is accurate enough given the numbers that she’s throwing about.  They want to show us Gaal is smart but the puzzles are annoying.  The mission is almost scuttled because the computer is screwing with her rather than giving her information.

Back on Terminus, there’s a ridiculous amount of shooting with no one getting hit.  These guys are worse shots than Storm Troopers.

Phrya has Salvor’s mom.  This is too much of a repeat of the earlier encounter where they tried to show us that Salvor’s smart.  But her Mom clearly understood what Salvor wanted it’s dumb to waste time apologizing.  This is a lack of respect for the audience.

The fight scene is pretty well choreographed but maybe not because it’s so poorly lit.  And the Grand Huntress of Anacreon should be more formidable.

Gaal goes to see with her own eyes.  But she shouldn’t be able to see the stars.  Letting this error slide is almost a convention, but making it a plot point just draws attention to it.

Terminus isn’t innocent.  “Because of what your profit said, my home world burned.”

Lord Dorwin didn’t last very long, did he?

The blood is disappearing of course Hari is still alive.  But what’s the deal with him phasing in and out? (In retrospect, this is Hologram Hari, Mark 1.)

Antiparallel vectors, by the way, have parallel but opposite directions.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

All Images from Foundation on Apple TV+.

Watching Foundation: “Barbarians at the Gate”

You know how this works. Joseph’s Random thoughts about Episode 4. Simultaneously published at ComicsTheUniverseAndEverything.net.

Watching Foundation – S1E04

Getting caught up on these, still: Spoiler Alert! You know what to do!

That’s a crazy opening! C14 tries to commit suicide. I guess it didn’t take long for the mental health of the Cleon’s to become an issue. Maybe they should have let C11 live a bit longer and tried again.

Personal Shields Can Come in Handy.

He doesn’t die, but the young lady gardening runs away from him.

Funeral. For whom? “Faith is a sword forged in the fires of the infinite.” These ladies remind me of the Sisterhood of Karn from Doctor Who.

This is an odd sequence. It looks like some things are launched from the funeral which impact on a gas giant, making it all wibbley wobbly. The funeral must be taking place on one of the moons. Shift to Demerzel watching remotely.

Sexy time for C13. The Cs have a Kinetic field. Maybe Junior didn’t try to commit suicide after all. But he sure scared the crap out of that girl.

Demerzel interrupts sexy time. Brother Day is needed.

“Proxima Opal has passed.” That must be who the funeral was for. There is debate about her successor in the Conclave. It’s basically the political version of technobabble but the Cs aren’t happy about a possible candidate. Something about “Primary Octavo.” Unsurprisingly there’s a religious dimension to the Cs claim to rule.

“Luminism” must be a religion. Primary Octavo states that only individual beings have souls, excluding the Cs. No souls for you! Why not counter with the Cleons having a single soul? That makes the dynastic succession that much stronger. None the less it threatens their rule.

Back to Salvor and the Anacreonians.

The Anacreonians claim they want a navigation module. Salvor finally shows some indication of being smart. But “If you were going to kill me, you’d have done it already” reminds me of a bunch of things, not the least of which is Clara in “Deep Breath” (Doctor Who), which was a lot better.

Salvor and Phara go through the gate. “If she isn’t back within a watch, we’ll raze your city to the ground,” which wouldn’t take that much.

The Anacreonians are acting like terrorists.

Salvor sees the boy, but Phara does not.

Using the Vault to incapacitate Phara was smart.

“The stories about Salvor Hardin? They usually begin here. The warden and the ghost.”

We get a Direct refutation of old Hardin. Abbas says “Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” Salvor calls it “an old man’s doctrine.”

Questions about the plan.

Abbas: “If you were better at math, you’d know that repeated luck was more than just luck, Salvor.” Maybe. Except that random events can cluster in a way that seems non-random to our brains.

Back to Trantor. We meet Shadowmaster Olbrecht. C14 wants the name of the girl in the garden. Was he trying to manufacture a meet-cute with a faux suicide attempt?

Salvor is channeling Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead with the coins. Does she have some kind of mental powers?

Neutron bombs. 50% of the population on Anacreon died off within a week, 20-30% in the remaining year. But the use of neutron bombs changes a lot of assumptions; most of the infrastructure should be intact.

Salvor seems to intuit things about Phara. She wants to die. She wants everyone to die. Larken Keaen was the greatest hunter of Anacreon, so Phara must be the Grand Huntress of Anacreon.

Hologram Hari? Finally! But no, not that one.

The Outer Kingdoms are starting to fray away from the Empire. “Seldon all but gave you a to-do list and you ignored him!”

It’s even clearer that the “middle throne” is the actual emperor. I can’t believe these guys are a Kiwanis Club. President-Elect, President, and Immediate Past President.

Arguments about the plan. “I may be an outlier, Lewis, but I’m not the one screwing up the plan!” Lol, even though I’m feeling a bit sorry for Lewis.

Kubbra Sait is excellent. Real gravitas. “A weapon is only as good as the man who’s wielding it.” The music is briefly reminiscent of a motif in Doctor Who.

Trantor again. Gardener girl is Akuta Something? C14 is being a dick to her even as she’s being kind.

“If you’re not dead within the hour, have a kilogram of these sent to my quarters.”

Salvor has a vision of Seldon’s library. There’s THAT kid with THE knife. We’ve been seeing images of Raych.

Then they tell us what they’ve already shown in case we didn’t understand it.

Churchill from Doctor Who is a statistician. Thousands working. No results after 30 years? Claims the predictive models of Seldon are “counter factual.” Brother Day is having none of it. Lee Pace is fantastic here as he yells a statistician to death. Probably.

The philosophical divide seems to be couched as “Free will” vs. “predestination” rather than “Great Man” vs. “Bottom Up.” Although maybe that’s the same thing.

C13 gives 12 a rash of crap for his actions in episode 1. An almost complete repudiation. The discomfort Brother Dawn felt with the executions comes home to roost. “I will save our legacy.” Demerzel reinforces C13. “Certainly now the empire will no longer be rent by impulsive action.” He probably doesn’t get the sarcasm.

We see Dorwin. He’s sent to investigate the communications buoy and told to pay a visit to the Foundation. “The Empire will not be kept in the Dark.” Wowd Dowwin doesn’t sownd wight thow.

Meanwhile C14 is spying on Akuta using a drone that looks like a dragonfly. Creepy, but she doesn’t seem to mind.

Phara makes an argument that they really want the navigation module. To relocate from Anacreon. “You can’t negotiate with someone who’s willing to set the board on fire.”

Salvor thinks there’s a bigger picture that she’s missing. Reassessing is a sign of smart. She puts it together that the Vault is connected to Hari.

The Anacreonians are preparing to raze the city such as it is. Like a strong wind couldn’t do that.

“And the beginning of the end, as befitting its name, took place on Terminus.”

And in a Marvelesque precredits scene, a ship approaches Gaal Dornik’s escape pod.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

All Images from Foundation on Apple TV+