The Emperor's Peace

Watched the pilot so far and it was great. The sound, landscape and costumes give you a very similar feeling to Star wars mixed with Dune and Warhammer 40K games. No action in here so far, so my guess it will be more of a drama/adventure series. Many gave this low ratings, but it seems like most of them are complaining that it's not like the books. Frankly I don't read these kinda books, it's boring for me. So I can't care less. As a sci-fi series the Pilot was very interesting and had a good story setup.

I guess if you are looking to compare to the books just read the books instead.

Opening with children and Seldon's vault was unexpected, but a good 'hook' for people who are not hard-core fans.

Making Gaal Dornick female was maybe done just to give a gender balance that was not normal in the 1940s. That Asimov adjusted for later, and it is inherently a good idea.

But for those who don't already know how it comes out, having the young mathematician female increases the feelings you must have for her plight.

Also done tastefully - the Empire is abstractly cruel. No one is seen being tortured, which matches the original short story that Asimov wrote as a lead-in when the original short stories were collected as three books.

Incidentally, I'd have seen two books as better. The first half of the second book completes the main theme, and its second half introduces The Mule and mental control.

What we have are a lot of extras built around that short story. Including religious extremism, a present-day reference but also one Asimov would almost certainly have agreed with. And they have the good sense to make the religion of Gaal's planet not even remotely like Islam: insulting moderate Islam is no way to discourage extremism.

The jump-ship adds imagery not found in Asimov, as well as protection for passengers. But it seems an excellent extra.

The image of the transit is very obviously derived from what astronomers think a Black Hole would look like. And which matches the images from a distant galaxy seen in 2019.

The Genetic Dynasty is a nice innovation. In the Asimov story, the nominal Emperor is an unseen child and the man with the real power is behind the scenes. A man who negotiates with Seldon, but much less dramatically,

Viewers should have noticed that the person listed as Demerzel is very odd and strangely powerful. Readers of the later Foundation books will know why this is perfectly proper. I will not spoil what will later emerge.

This was a great introduction to what might be one the G. O. A. T.s of the sci-fi series genre.

The opening narration could have been a little better, but it did a great job overall.

The story itself, is superb so far. And the casting! Oh the casting... The emperor, his face, his mannerisms, etc. Are perfect for the role of a douche! I love it! 😂

Dr. Seldon... top notch guy. The writers did an awesome job with the lines, and the actor did an awesome job making me feel like he is indeed a stoic, but passionate genius!

As for the protagonist, she is very similar to Dr. Seldon in intellect and character, but has the added benefit of being a bit more of a people person, making her a little less likely to p- off others.

Excited for episode 2!

As someone who grew up reading these books and almost every fiction book by Isaac Asimov, I was worried that this had no chance of living up to his amazing craftsmanship and story telling. I was worried "Hollywood" would find a way to ruin it like they did for "I, Robot", example.

However so far they have stuck to the book pretty well and while making certain concessions to keeping the pace interesting for casual viewers and taking full advantage of modern special effects, it only makes it better than I dared hope.

If that is a spoiler, sorry, but that's all you'll get from me for now and if you've read the books, thankfully the only real spoiler available is that-at least so far--it is very, very good!

On to episode 2!

As an avid fan of Asimov in the 70s and 80s, I was anxious that Foundation would be more like the Riverworld TV show -an abysmal adaptation of Philip José Farmer's seminal series- rather than Game of Thrones.

But luckily that is not the case... The opening stays generally true to the basic central... ahem... Foundation... of Asimov's opening chapters of the book, even if it does stray off the path a fair bit. But it manages to update it for the 2020s and change the pacing and flow to make it work on the screen..

Interestingly the side characters are more fleshed out in this episode than they ever were in the books, for Asimov was more a conceptual and dialogue author than one known for excellent, character driven stories (except maybe Elijah Bailey and Daneel Olivaw)

Luckily the casting (of females specificially) isn't just another Female Ghostbusters. The characters work... Take Gaal Dornick. She is just so well done, and I will admit having a nerd-crush on her from the get go... In this first episode she is still so adorably naive as to the scale of what she helps Seldon set in motion that you can't help but feel for her.

Reading the comments of "slow and boring" really makes me feel sorry that some just cannot appreciate decent, proper storytelling.

Also, it goes without saying that the production quality, set and costume and World Building is Star Wars level.

Solid start. Can't wait to watch more episodes.