I loved reading Asimov's Foundation. A wonderfully clever and complicated story. But one thing Asimov did was to tell a lot of the story himself, as the writer. I was always wondering how they would achieve an adaptation. A narrator seemed a silly proposition, but that was my only solution. What they have actually done as a solution is tell a different story. Or, as of this episode, jumble the entire Foundation up and pull out a different narrative.
I have mixed feelings. I really wanted a good adaptation of Foundation. What we have is some smart story telling that I am very much enjoying.
Certainly, some of the characters are the same. And some of the key features of Foundation come through. I totally get why book readers are upset. But I also think it is worth seeing this for what it is and giving it a chance. My intuition is that this jumbled Foundation could still well deliver over a number of seasons. Asimov's writing, especially in Foundation, Robot, and Galactic Empire, was told from an historical perspective. Each work inhabiting the same universe but at different times. He did, eventually, bring everything together into a whole in Foundation and Earth. It looks like the writers of the TV Foundation series are drawing in aspects of Galactic Edge and Robot into Foundation and retelling the story from a new historical perspective. We will have to wait and see.
The bottom line is that if you are an avid book reader, as I am, let's see where this goes. If you've never heard of Asimov before and like Sci-Fi, this is a great example of hard science fiction.
I have mixed feelings. I really wanted a good adaptation of Foundation. What we have is some smart story telling that I am very much enjoying.
Certainly, some of the characters are the same. And some of the key features of Foundation come through. I totally get why book readers are upset. But I also think it is worth seeing this for what it is and giving it a chance. My intuition is that this jumbled Foundation could still well deliver over a number of seasons. Asimov's writing, especially in Foundation, Robot, and Galactic Empire, was told from an historical perspective. Each work inhabiting the same universe but at different times. He did, eventually, bring everything together into a whole in Foundation and Earth. It looks like the writers of the TV Foundation series are drawing in aspects of Galactic Edge and Robot into Foundation and retelling the story from a new historical perspective. We will have to wait and see.
The bottom line is that if you are an avid book reader, as I am, let's see where this goes. If you've never heard of Asimov before and like Sci-Fi, this is a great example of hard science fiction.