Category: Trailers and Show News

Stars End S6E11

Hoo boy! That was one hell of a season finale, wasn’t it? You may have noticed that none of us were exactly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as we remonstrated about Foundation’s Season 3, Episode 10, “The Darkness.”

“The Darkpodcastness.”

Spoiler Alert, as usual. Of course, you can listen without watching first, but this one needs to be seen to be believed.

But there were small photons of light trying to break through the shroud; we were joined for our conversation by Cora Buhlert, the 2022 winner of the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer. Cora has an incandescent and extensive collection of commentary and fiction. Want to check it out? Start at her blog, ⁠CoraBuhlert.com⁠! Her latest foray into fiction is “⁠Queen of the Communist Cannibals⁠,” published in ⁠Cliffhanger Magazine.⁠

And speaking of cannibals, how about that David Goyer? Okay, “cannibal” might not be entirely fair, but he recently said that one of the reasons he’s stepping away from the show is that he “was having a hard time figuring out how to keep doing my vision of the show on a smaller budget.” Is that what this is? Full Metal Belt-Tightening? Who needs to send out pink slips when you’re writing the script?

Stars End S5 – Special Update 2024-02-24

Dateline – Terminus:

It’s sweet that you guys noticed that we hadn’t commented on the news about Apple TV’s Foundation being renewed for Season 3!

But that isn’t exactly what happened; we did, in fact, talk about it on S5E04. Unfortunately, we’ve all been super busy and the post-production train has a metaphorical Bishop’s Claw on the tracks. Believe me, you don’t want to mess with one of those. That episode will be out in a couple of days.

But when the ⁠news about David Goyer and his status as showrunner⁠ dropped, we decided to do something different. Here’s our first special bulletin!

Me, I’m hoping for huge budget cuts! Let’s strip it down until it looks like a production of Our Town and put The Great and Glorious Az‘s vision on full conversational display.

And let’s lean into it! How about a long monologue by Jared Harris, shot on location in a Shoney’s men’s room about how little plumbing has changed in 12000 years? I’d watch that!

Thanks for your dedication to Stars End and never fear! We’ll be getting caught up as quickly as we can.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7qXqJno16MB1be6KrA4mUZ?si=0d6ad473307347f6 https://starsendpodcast.com/2024/02/25/stars-end-s5-special-update-2024-02-24

Some Show News

We’re about four days out from the start of Apple TV+’s New Season of Foundation.

Here’s an interesting article about Season 2, centered around an interview with David Goyer.

You should read the whole thing, but here are some highlights.

  • We will see the Church of the Galactic Spirit.
  • Goyer “wanted to introduce more appropriate levity in the story.” I think that means introducing some levity.
  • Concerning Asimov’s Foundation, he says. “We do not set out to change as much as we can; we actually set out to retain as much as we can.”
  • And here’s a somewhat somber note which echos something you’ll hear us discuss in our Season 4 Episode 1: Goyer tells us, “There is a roadmap. I did originally pitch eight seasons, 80 episodes to Apple TV+. We’ll see if we get there.” We can hope!

The article also provides us with a new trailer!

Just a few more days… let’s go!

Season 2 Trailer

Here’s the latest trailer for Foundation Season 2. What’s up with those Pegasus-like creatures that can actually fly? Are they defying the laws of physics? And how do they fit into Asimov’s universe? We’ll probably have to watch season two to find out!

We’re down to less than a month and anticipation is building… let’s go!

The Latest Trailer for Foundation Season 2

Stars End S3E33

“Use the Podcast But Not to Justify Needless Harm to Individuals”

We interrupt our regular program!

Dateline: Capitol District, Trantor

This just in: AppleTV+ has announced the premiere date for Foundation, Season 2: 14 July 2023.

That means that we, at Stars End will be wrapping up Season 3 of the podcast and strapping in for Season 4!

Release Date! Trailer! New Episodes! We’ll talk about it! You’ll listen! It’s a psychohistorical necessity!

You can watch the trailer along with us on the episode right here.

Meanwhile still in season 3, we reach the climax of not merely Robots and Empire but The Great and Glorius Az’s Robot novels collectively! Do we finally get a satisfying ending? You’ll have to listen to find out! And just how philosophical do we get this time? We’re not saying! So tune in and join us already! We promise that no co-host melted down in the recording of this podcast! Probably.

This could very well be where the climax of the novel happens!

And speaking of meltdowns, the ultimate confrontation between Daneel and Giskard on the one hand Amadiro and Mandamus on the other play out against the backdrop of Three Mile Island. In Asimov’s future, this sounds like a vast deserted wilderness and maybe it is 3000 years hence. Not so today. Three Mile Island itself is pretty small, barely big enough for a nuclear power plant or two. Fun fact: TMA-2, the reactor that suffered a partial meltdown and was shut down in 1979 is currently in a state called “Post defueling monitored storage.” It will be officially decommissioned in 2052.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program. If this has been an actual emergency you would have been instructed where to tune in your area for Foundation and official Asimovalia.

Season 2 Sneak Peek

After a long drought of official information, we finally have an approximate release date and a trailer (well… they call it a “sneak peek”) for Foundation Season 2. It looks spectacular! We’ll discuss it as part of our special Episode 50 coming soon.

So, new episodes of Foundation, Summer 2023. You can watch the trailer below, then join us for episode 50!

Apple TV+’s Season 2 Sneak Peek

Stars End S3E04

“The Podcast as a Whole in its Full Complexity Cannot Be Represented By any Simulation Smaller Than Itself”

After our break, we’re back to reading Prelude to Foundation and things are starting to get weird. Dors and Hari finally journey to Mycogen as we embark on a Voyage to the Space Amish, with apologies to A. E. Van Vogt.

This one has it all! Dors and Chetter deconstructing Hari’s trip to Upperside ad nauseam! Bad bald caps (Boy, does Issac like the word “pate!”)! Rigidly defined gender roles! Lots of complaining! Dors and Hari don’t understand their room! More complaining! And Hari drags some poor guy out of bed in the middle of the night to make him a sandwich. Let’s just say he’s not the ideal guest. Also with some more apologies, this time to Rod Serling, there’s an iPad… and IT’S A COOKBOOK!

Also a new Apple TV+ Minute! Buckle up! This one will be fun!

It’s Out! Also Bingo.

Breaking News!

The first two episodes of Asimov’s Foundation have dropped on the Apple TV+ a few hours early. We don’t know if this was by accident or by design.

So get watching! And if you’re so inclined, we provide some Foundation Bingo Cards to enhance your viewing experience, lovingly crafted by our own Jon Blumenfeld. Value added: It’s what we do here at Stars End Podcast.

Enjoy! And please join us for our reactions on our next episode! Personally, I’m hoping to learn how to pronounce “interregnum.”

Episode 11

As the Manimal threshold fades into the rear-view mirror, we reach our next milestone, with number 11, we now have as many episodes as Cop Rock!  You know, it takes most shows years to get around to a musical episode, but those guys? Musical episode right out of the gate!  Never fear, though; Stars End: The Musical is toward the end of our Thousand Year Plan.

Right now, please join us for Episode 11 – A Podcast Has No End.

And podcasts don’t, but books and trilogies do.  We’re at the end of Second Foundation, and we talk about the very last story, “Search by the Foundation,” known as “…And Now You Don’t” when it was published in Astounding.  We’ll meet Bayta Darell’s granddaughter, Arkady, and see a reveal of where the Second Foundation might be, followed by the reveal that there is no Second Foundation, followed by another reveal that the Second Foundation might be somewhere else, and then… well, you get the idea.  Plus, we discuss the latest trailer and squeeze in one more round of Asimov Trivia before we start Season 2, coming soon to one of them WWWs near you!

Please join us!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3tQHOkowngydUG5gSfK92O?si=1I-NPGC-SiyFwkS501yIiQ&dl_branch=1

New Trailer

Not much to say yet, we’re still digesting, we just got this a few minutes ago. Looks spectacular!