News Foundation Adaptation Series Officially Ordered by Apple

[Christopher]

Which is something I don't really get seeing as what people were seeing was a hologram of Seldon activated at certain times via his predictions. They could use the hologram idea and still keep using the same actor. That's what confuses me. The only reason I could think of for going that way would be if they plan on doing two-way interaction with him.

Seldon isn't the only character in the story. They presumably want to keep multiple actors around across a multigenerational saga. Including Lee Pace, who's apparently playing the emperor clones (alongside older and younger actors as his predecessors and successors in the dynasty).

Let's face it, the books could not possibly be adapted with any kind of fidelity into a workable TV series. So there's no point even trying to apply the standard of fidelity here. All they can do is take the general concepts and characters from the book and piece them together in a new way, telling a new story of their own -- like how Marvel movies build new stories by cherrypicking assorted characters and storylines from the comics and mixing them together in new ways.

 

[Skipper]

True, cloning is not even mentioned once in the old trilogy or in the prequels or the sequels

I seem to vaguely remember that the Second Foundation actually prevented developments in those scientific fields that could make Seldom's predictions useless. It's right?

 

[oldtrekkie]

I seem to vaguely remember that the Second Foundation actually prevented those developments in those scientific fields that could make Seldom's predictions useless. It's right?

The Second Foundation tried to prevent developments in the fields of psychohistory and telepathy... They were not entirely successful.

 

[Skipper]

The Second Foundation tried to prevent developments in the fields of psychohistory and telepathy... They were not entirely successful.

I suppose developments in medical fields like cloning and longevity would be harmful for previsions' accuracy too, but simply Asimov didn't think about it

 

[Owain Taggart]

Seldon isn't the only character in the story. They presumably want to keep multiple actors around across a multigenerational saga. Including Lee Pace, who's apparently playing the emperor clones (alongside older and younger actors as his predecessors and successors in the dynasty).

Ahh, I hadn't thought about the multigenerational aspect. So, in this sense, they want the same grouping of characters throughout, which from a production standpoint would definitely make things easier. I agree, fidelity would be hard to achieve with a series like this as it's hard enough a concept to film in the first place. I guess the foremost thing they would focus on would be the heart of the concept, or so I would hope.

 

[oldtrekkie]

I wonder if we'll get to see Trantor in its heydays. It must be something to see.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

There was an eight episode BBC radio series version of the original trilogy back in the 70s but adapting it in the way it was done back then would look laughably bad given the production values of modern TV series. I'm looking forward to seeing how they've done this adaptation and how the main themes. Also intrigued to see if any later Foundation incorporations from other Asimov works are evident.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I wonder if we'll get to see Trantor in its heydays. It must be something to see.

Basically, it was the model Lucas used for Coruscant.

 

[wayoung]

There was an eight episode BBC radio series adaptation of the original trilogy back in the 70s but adapting it in the way it was done back then would look laughably bad given the production values of modern TV productions. I'm looking forward to seeing how they've done this adaptation and how the main themes. Also intrigued to see if any later Foundation incorporations from other Asimov works are evident.

I literally listened to that last week! My library didn't have the audiobook but did have this! Reminded me a lot of their crazy Star Wars radio drama from the same period.

 

[oldtrekkie]

Basically, it was the model Lucas used for Coruscant.

But that doesn't work. Trantor from space is just a hull with no features, its splendor is totally internal.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

But that doesn't work. Trantor from space is just a hull with no features, its splendor is totally internal.

Its inhabitants prefer it that way. Gaal Dornick is basically a tourist so wants a breath-taking view of Trantor, which is apparently available. From depictions of the lower levels of Coruscant, I think a majority of its population might be like Trantorians, never venturing to the surface.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I literally listened to that last week! My library didn't have the audiobook but did have this! Reminded me a lot of their crazy Star Wars radio drama from the same period.

The audiobooks read by Scott Brick are very good. I can recommend them.

 

[oldtrekkie]

Its inhabitants prefer it that way. Gaal Dornick is basically a tourist so wants a breath-taking view of Trantor, which is apparently available. From depictions of the lower levels of Coruscant, I think a majority of its population might be like Trantorians, never venturing to the surface.

But there's nothing to see on the surface, except a windowless stretch of metal in every direction( and according to "Prelude to Foundation" a few trees). Trantor is like one giant submarine.

 

[oldtrekkie]

The audiobooks read by Scott Brick are very good. I can recommend them.

I agree he's the best. I have listened to many of his books, that is to say, the books that he read, not the ones that he wrote himself. I don't know if there are any of these.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

But there's nothing to see on the surface, except a windowless stretch of metal in every direction( and according to "Prelude to Foundation" a few trees). Trantor is like one giant submarine.

In Foundation, Gaal Dornick appeared to be impressed by the view of Trantor from an observation platform. I'm not sure a featureless vista of metal sheeting would elicit that response. The adaptation appears to show the female version of Dornick viewing Trantor while descending a space elevator, thus combining two scenes from the book. I can't see much detail on the surface, however.

 

[oldtrekkie]

In Foundation, Gaal Dornick appeared to be impressed by the view of Trantor from an observation platform. I'm not sure a featureless vista of metal sheeting would elicit that response. The adaptation appears to show the female version of Dornick viewing Trantor while descending a space elevator, thus combining two scenes from the book. I can't see much detail on the surface, however.

You've watched a trailer?

 

[Christopher]

But there's nothing to see on the surface, except a windowless stretch of metal in every direction( and according to "Prelude to Foundation" a few trees). Trantor is like one giant submarine.

And an adaptation is under no obligation to copy that exactly, any more than anything else from the books. A world that looks featureless from space is fine for a prose story, but a TV series naturally needs to be more visually oriented.

Of course, from an orbital distance, there wouldn't be that much visual difference between a world covered in a smooth sheet of metal and a world covered in an unbroken expanse of skyscrapers or whatever, since the human eye doesn't have the resolution to make out individual buildings from so far away. The difference would only really be visible on the dark side, where you could see the building lights. Although in this putative unbroken expanse of skyscrapers, it would probably appear as a pretty solid, undifferentiated glow across the entire nightside, much more uniform than the nightside view of Coruscant, which contains some very wide swaths of darkness that argue against it truly being a continuous planetwide city -- unless those are areas where the city is all underground, I guess.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

You've watched a trailer?

Yes, the trailers do seem to reveal quite a bit about how the books have been adapted - even suggesting the inclusion of elements from other Asimov works - although this could be misdirection or my misinterpretation. I won't say what.

 

[arch101]

I wonder if we'll get to see Trantor in its heydays. It must be something to see.

You've kind of seen it already in Star Wars films. Except for the vast doming of large areas of the planet-city. They almost have to do something a little different with Foundation so as to not look like copying.
The story opens with Trantor at its height so Friday will be the night to see it. I'm actually more interested in the later visit to ruined Trantor to see the library.

 

[oldtrekkie]

I wonder if they'll take the whole saga or just the trilogy. In the case of the former then we might get a glimpse of Daneel Olivaw lurking in the shadow...