Foundation and Adaptation Correctives
They say it couldn’t be done, but Apple tried anyway. Apple TV+’s latest offering is an adaptation of Foundation, Isaac Asimov’s seminal science-fiction novel series. If you haven’t read the books, I highly recommend them. Golden Age SF works don’t usually resonate with me for many reasons, but Foundation is the rare type that did. I’m not surprised there have been so many attempts to bring it to TV, and as with prior ones, this one had to make a lot of adjustments. Minor spoilers for the first two episodes follow.
The rings of Synnax, home of lead character Gaal Dornick
The books begin with the formation of the Foundation under the leadership of Hari Seldon. Their goal is to prepare for the decline of the Galactic Empire by creating a compendium of all human knowledge. The show’s pilot mostly follows the major plot events of the book, and does a great job bringing a sense of scale to this story. You get an early overview of the different cultures, religions, philosophies of this galaxy, the conflicts are set up quite well, and so are the key players, but you also know that the story is going to be more than petty political squabbles. The production value brings that sense of grandness home. From the opening credits, the special effects, the interior shots in Trinity Library, the movement between three locales in the first five minutes, the time jump--the show makes clear that this story is huge. And it is! That’s what I loved about the books. The scale in time, space and ideas.
The show is also perfectly cast. Jared Harris and Lee Pace can do no wrong in my eyes, and Lou Llobell does a stellar job as audience POV character Gaal Dornick. The second episode features these characters a bit more and really showcases these actors’ strengths. This episode is also a departure from the books, one that I really liked. We get a new story unfolding on a smaller scale, one that is more personal, almost soap-operatic (and I mean that as a high compliment) focus.
That’s not a bad thing, though I may be in the minority here. My approach to the series was an acceptance that it is not the book, and could never be the book, just given its nature and the nature of TV storytelling as a form. That let me enjoy the ride, and it is a gorgeous and engaging ride. I’m excited to see what’s next.
Lee Pace (center) as Brother Day, one of the clones of Galactic Emperor Cleon.
I think it’s also important to note here that although I’m a fan of the Foundation books, I also recognize that it has shortcomings, some of which the show tries to correct. For one thing, we get more women in leading roles, gender-bent from the original characters in the books. It’s an attempt, and I appreciate it, but this also represents something that I’ve always been uneasy about when it comes to adaptations. TV and movies keep adapting the same works over and over again, see also Dune, and invariably have to do some sort of correction to address the source material’s inadequacies. It could be fixing the sexism or racism through casting decisions, or the insertion of new characters, it could be changing certain plot points or other worldbuilding elements altogether.
And this doesn’t just happen when a 70-year old work gets adapted. FX recently adapted Brian K Vaugh and Pia Guerra’s comic book series Y: The Last Man, another work that I enjoyed (with more reservations that I have with Foundation, but that’s a topic for another day). That comic ended 12 years ago and even with its recency, some changes had to be made with the story because of the comics’ inadequate representations of sex and gender. (Side note: Compared to Apple TV’s Foundation, Y the Last Man is a more faithful adaptation of the source, and is somehow less interesting to me because of it).
And all this may feel a bit deceptive, yeah? The adapted works use the established name to market something that’s different in many ways, some meaningful, even foundational. To some people, the show shouldn’t be called Foundation at all. The structure’s changed, so have some of the characters. The ethos might change because of it, but I’ll have to see more episodes to find out. Is this adaptation just something like someone playing Asimov’s toys, like one does with someone else’s action figures? Where does it stop being an adaptation?
I really love it when something I’ve read gets enjoyed by more people, but these adaptation correctives provide yet another reason why we need to support and encourage the adaptation of more current works, and in general, the creation of more original stories in TV and film. If we’re changing a story so much that it doesn’t even feel like the same story—Foundation the TV series even says it’s merely “inspired by” the books—then maybe we should think about writing new stories altogether.
Image credits: Foundation promotional poster, screen capture images of Synnax and its rings, and the Emperors Cleon, all via Apple TV+, 2021.