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!
“We Don’t Expect to Podcast Forever but We Do Intend to Hang On As Long As Possible!”
It’s the final episode of Season 2 where we wrap up our discussion of Season 1 of Foundation with the First Annual Stars End Hari Awards! Frankly, a lot of it is the three of us gushing about how good the episodes and the performances were.
But more importantly, you get to find out who won! Best Performance! Favorite Episode! Favorite Podcast Guest! All the important stuff. Not included: unimportant things like “Least Inspirational Quote,” which must be “All love is programming.”
We couldn’t have done it without you! Our thanks go out to everyone who supported us by voting, commenting, and listening! So, please join us!
Plus a preview of season three! What will we be doing in the long dark interregnum before season 2 of Foundation?
“We Send Podcasts Out Into Space Hoping Someone Will Answer!”
Although we’re going to continue to refer back to Foundation Season 1 a lot this year, this is the penultimate episode of our official discussion!
And we’re got quite a lot to say! This is our first conversation about the season in its entirety! We’re joined by special guest Luigi DiMeglio of the Foundation Era YouTube Channel!
And be on the lookout for questions and polls! In our next episode, we’ll be hosting StarsEnd’s First Annual Hari Awards! And WE want to hear from YOU on all the big awards! Plus there will be some surprises! Stay Tuned to our Twitter account @StarsEndPodcast and here at our website StarsEndPodcast@Wordpress.com for news, official announcements, and our usual load of whimsy.
But first: S2E11! Let’s go!
“Under the Genetic Dynasty, There is Only Room for One Podcast”
Haven’t watched Episode 10, “The Leap” yet? We’ll be here when you’re done.
Astoundingly, here we are at the end of Foundation’s Season 1. We’re all about to experience the teevee equivalent of empty nest syndrome.
But not yet! There are two more episodes of Stars End for this season! There’s this one, where we talk about Episode 10 and then there will be one more in about two weeks where we give an overview of Foundation’s epic first season! Also a special guest! Also, also some surprises!
And we’re here for the duration! It might feel like it will be 30,000 years until there will be new content on Apple TV+ but we’ll be here through this new interregnum to make sure that it feels like far less than 1000 years!
You’ve come with us this far! Let’s keep moving forward together!
Stars End S2E09 – Sometimes Podcasts Shout Louder Than Logic.
You know. Spoilers and all that.
In 1987 the Smiths released an excellent compilation album entitled “Louder than Bombs.” It’s the apotheosis of mope rock! In 2021 “Is it Really So Strange” that we would release a podcast episode called “Louder than Logic?” Even if none of us is named “Smith?” We’re nothing but a bunch of alliterates!
But here’s the thing: it fits.
Gaal can feel the future in a way that might undermine psychohistory! That’s Louder than Mathematics!
Lewis was able to wish the Invictus back to Terminus! That’s Louder than Science!
And Salvor always knows how that coin will land! That’s Louder than Random!
Have you ever tried to replace a colorblind, left-handed clone with a perfect replica of Cleon I? That’s Louder than Reason!
You should join us as we talk about this barnburner of an episode directed by the great Roxann Dawson!
I mean it! “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want!” Join us!
Stars End S2E08 – “Your Lack of Understanding Does Not Obligate Us to Podcast”
If you’re a Lee Pace fan, or “stan” as the kids say, or even an “aficionado” like they said back in my day, “The Missing Piece” may be for you! It’s like the last temptation of Brother Day meets Dune with 100% fewer sandworms. That is to say, it’s a lot of loincloths and wandering around in the desert. Damn sand gets in everything!
Plus Hari’s still incorporeal, Gaal indulges in some casual vandalism, Salvor and Phara go on a trip, and Ethel the Aardvark goes quantity surveying.
As usual, we talk about it.
This week we’re joined by Rich Greenberg, a screenwriter and old friend of Jon’s. Rich is known for Zoe (2018), starring Ewan McGregor, Léa Seydoux, and Rashida Jones, as well as the Emmy Award-Winning The Beauty Inside (2018). Rich will tell us about the process of adapting an intellectual property, particularly a science fiction IP for television.
Join us!
Stars End S2E07 – An Exhortation from one of the Galaxy’s Major Podcasts
It’s Halloween evening as I write this and the two biggest Sci-Fi franchises have new episodes out. The premiere of Star Trek Prodigy was last Thursday and the season opener for Doctor Who was this evening.
But I have another venerable old franchise on my mind.
Namely Twilight Zone. “Hey, kids! You want to see something really scary?!?”
Well, “scary” probably isn’t the right word for “Mysteries and Martyrs” but I think some of us found it a little unsettling.
Still, there are lots of big questions! Is Psychohistory as we know it a thing of the past? What is the Anacreoneans horrific plan for the Invictus? Has the show succumbed to the Great and Glorious Az’s predilection for exposition? And in the show with the most per-capita executions might someone get put to death for erroneous thumb-clasping?
We don’t know! But we’re going to talk about it anyway! With extra special guest star Cathy Blumenfeld, who has the distinction of escaping that Asimovian indoctrination so many of us suffered as teens.
Join us! You’ll love it! It will be like losing yourself in the scar and seeing real clouds!
Stars End S2E06 – An Entire Galaxy Pivoting Around the Actions of an Individual Podcast
There are a lot of things happening in Episode 6, “Death and the Maiden.”
Beware! The spoilers are probably even more densely packed than usual. “The spoiler-space may even be compact,” he said mathematically.
What a difference a week makes! We described Episode 5 as a “bridge” episode. In episode 6, there’s stuff going on right and left! Actually, maybe even in 2, 3, or, 4 dimensions! This cries out for an “Age of Aquarius” joke, but I don’t have one. Any help?
Politics! Religion! Explosions! Big themes! Hints about how everything fits together! This one has it all!
And we have Morgan, as our latest very special guest! She’s a self-described Daneel Olivaw stan and biotechnologist who loves all things Asimov and tweets Foundation-related stuff as @AsimovPosting. She joined us and brought a fresh new voice to the conversation!
You should join us and join the conversation too! You’ll be glad you did!
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.
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.
All Images from Foundation on Apple TV+
Stars End S2E5 – The Seers Condemned this Podcast
If you’d rather not be rudely awakened by some spoilers, you know what to do! We’ll be here when you’re ready.
And speaking of rude awakenings, how about that Gaal Dornick? That whole ordeal didn’t seem pleasant at all!
What isn’t rude is our conversation this week, about Foundation’s Episode 5, “Upon Awakening,” it’s better than being roused by a thunderstorm, a smoke alarm, or a cat licking your face.
And this will really shake you out of your slumber! We’ve got a very special episode for you because we’ve been joined by a very special guest, Joel McKinnon host of the very excellent Seldon Crisis Podcast! Joel’s a very interesting guy with a very interesting podcast and some very interesting other irons in the fire.
If you’d prefer to listen to Seldon Crisis another way, it’s also available on the You Tube.
Also, Joel is in a band! The Jupiter Sheep! You can learn more about them and listen to their music here! And
Also also Joel has written a rock opera called Planet and Sky, which was performed by the Max Wyvern Band and expanded into yet another podcast!
And you can discover the rest by following Joel on Twitter @JoelGMcKinnon.
You should check these things out.
But not right now! Right now it’s time for the also excellent StarsEnd Podcast! Let’s go!
Stars End: A Foundation Podcast 