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The sci-fi genre owes much to Isaac Asimov, whose Foundation series is still a literary landmark. Numerous efforts have been made to adapt this epic saga, which features dozens of characters and multiple plotlines. Because of its complexity, Foundation was considered unfilmable until Apple TV+ ordered a ten-episode series.
Apple's adaptation exceeded expectations, with Seasons 2 and 3 earning top praise. However, Season 1 was crucial in reformulating the core premise of the sci-fi series: while Asimov focused more on ideas than characters, the TV version adopted a different approach. The lasting success and popularity highlight a solution to one of television sci-fi's biggest challenges: transforming complex abstractions into relatable narratives.
Asimov's Foundation Resisted Early Adaptation
Isaac Asimov's Foundation covers a lot more than the original trilogy of novels, written between 1951 and 1953. Their popularity convinced the author to expand the story with a pair of prequels and a pair of sequels. The novels won multiple best all-time series awards, repeatedly outshining newer generations.
The most recent prize was in 2012, when both the trilogy and the first book won Best 20th-Century SF Novel and Best 20th-Century Novelette. There's a reason Foundation is the sci-fi event of the decade. Unfortunately, it's also the same reason it was unfilmable for so long. Sci-fi of the 1940s and 1950s was largely highlighted through pulp magazines, which were deemed colloquial and unscholarly.
Narratives like Flash Gordon and Amazing Stories were widely consumed during the era, and they rarely used science fiction beyond their settings. And then came Isaac Asimov with ideas complex enough to define the genre as a literary powerhouse. Interestingly, the story that would become Foundation was first published as novellas and short stories, appearing in the decidedly pulpy Astounding Science-Fiction.
Publishers soon took note, and Asimov's vision transformed into its final form, excluding the installments published decades later. The first adaptation was a 1973 BBC radio drama serial that lasted eight episodes. However, the dramatization process required a few changes, including both additions and exclusions, particularly to the timeline.
New Line Cinema attempted a film in 1998, spending over a million dollars on a project that was ultimately wasted because the studio became busy with The Lord of the Rings. Foundation's screen rights changed hands a few times, eventually ending upwith Skydance Television in 2017.
Despite the source material's previous resistance to adaptation, the 21st century was arguably the right time to make a Foundation TV series for one reason: prestige television was the perfect medium for historical ideas to unfold at their actual pace. Spoiled by an array of hard sci-fi masterpieces like The Expanse, Minority Report, The Martian, Arrival, and Westworld, modern viewers have also grown accustomed to scientific depth.
But the problem with adapting Foundation wasn't just the rigorous science, or rather, the hyper-complicated mathematics of psychohistory. Asimov later wished he had named it psychosociology instead, as it would have been technically accurate, though the concept remains unchanged. Psychohistory can mathematically predict humanity's path, but fails when applied to a single person.
That immediately becomes a problem for visual storytelling, which relies heavily on characters and choices. Amplifying the complexity of psychohistorical depiction is Foundation's timeline, which unfolds over hundreds of years, necessitating major narrative leaps between storylines. Entire casts appear to shape the flow of history during their lifetimes, only to be replaced by new figures in later centuries.
No singular protagonist anchors Asimov's Foundation, and very few of its characters are emotionally relatable. Although Asimov delved deeper into Hari Seldon's character arc in the prequels, they were likely meant to reflect the author through his alleged alter ego. Asimov's characters effectively serve as vehicles for his ideas — science, war, politics, trade, culture — with all of them coming together to represent the course of Seldon's Plan.
Dramatic standards demand fleshed-out individuals with memorable backstories, and their dialogue shouldn't be limited to strategy, statistics, or sociopolitical theory. The complete lack of compelling drama, combined with a reduced focus on action-oriented themes, made Foundation a serious adaptation challenge.
Foundation only became adaptable with the prestigious rise of serialized television, higher viewer tolerance for complexity, and a willingness to reinterpret the source material. Apple TV took full advantage of the timeliness to produce a TV program that continues to awe both critics and fans.
Apple TV Reframed Foundation into Character-Driven Drama
Apple TV+'s Foundation changed the novels' abstraction-heavy narrative, reframing Asimov's core ideas into meaningful drama. Since psychohistory offers meaning under a certain population scale, the show embedded it within bloodlines and institutions capable of persisting for generations.
The TV show essentially preserved the author's long view of history while providing recognizable human anchors for the audience. The Genetic Dynasty, also known as the Cleonic Dynasty, is the most striking example of this strategy. Asimov's Galactic Empire collapses under impersonal bureaucratic stagnation, with only a few vague emperors mentioned, none of whom are even relevant.
Foundation replaced this forgettable cast with a singular imperium, embodied by the cloned exponents of Emperor Cleon I. Brother Day, Brother Dusk, and Brother Dawn rule the galaxy as one, weaving the Cleonic Dynasty into the fabric of psychohistory. Viewers would most likely be frustrated by the absence of sympathetic main characters, so the television series entrenched a few notable individuals.
Hari Seldon and Gaal Dornick were never supposed to become the beating heart of psychohistory. Showrunners recognized the necessity of the aforementioned heart, as manifested in both Seldon's and Gaal's wildly fluctuating character arcs. Other important characters come and go as they do in the books, along with a fair bit more.
Aside from marinating itself in the extremes and nuances of human emotion, the Foundation series strengthened its scientific credibility far beyond Asimov's original scope. Considering the author's preference for exploring sociopolitical evolution, technological exposition was kept to a minimum in the novels.
The most prevalent source of power across the galaxy was based on atomic manipulation, a relic of the Atomic Age popular during the 1950s. Although Apple TV's Foundation adheres to the general laws of psychohistory and respects the author's perspectives, the series had no choice but to update its fictional technology for the 21st century.
Concepts like genetic cloning are particularly prevalent in popular discourse today, with the Cleonic Dynasty emphasizing one of its biggest downsides — imagine if one of today's tyrants had access to such technology. Narratively, Foundation employed cloning as a metaphor for the stagnation that Seldon warned about.
Digital consciousness uploading is another fashionable talking point, with countless CEOs and tech pundits discussing its potential in recent years. The same applies to cryonics or human cryopreservation, with companies already offering services that many celebrities have already used.
Whether it can actually prolong life remains to be seen, just as it's impossible to know the mental states of a digital consciousness. In Foundation, these advanced concepts function as the counterpoints to the Genetic Dynasty. As long as a Cleon sits on the throne, Hari Seldon and Gaal Dornick will remain active.
Hari's true nature remains unclear — he was a digital brain that somehow gained a corporeal body. That said, both these characters have kept themselves alive using cryosleep. Various other technologies are similarly extrapolated across this high-budget sci-fi epic, from FTL travel and individual force fields to planetary engineering.
Asimov Would Have Likely Praised the Foundation TV Series
Unlike the dedicated fandoms of today, many of whom go overboard with their enthusiasm, Isaac Asimov didn't really consider Foundation as the bible of sci-fi, so to speak. His later novels modified and revised the overarching narrative, creating several retcons to minimize earlier flaws, and Asimov was always among the first to point them out.
He interpreted the art of storytelling as a constantly evolving practice rather than a fixed canon, and the show sees it the same way. Ultimately, Foundation shared its universe with the Galactic Empire and Robot series, combining an array of seemingly discrete elements into a cohesive whole.
And it seems like Apple TV+ has been dipping its fingers into several other Asimov works. From Demerzel and her recently revealed role as R. Daneel Olivaw to the robots themselves, the Foundation TV series pays homage to the author's complete vision. Rather than attempting literal authenticity, the show demonstrates the possibility of reshaping ambitious source material without losing intellectual heft.
The success of Apple's Foundation has established a model for sci-fi adaptations that prioritizes both intellectual curiosity and emotional weight. Science fiction has only been getting better since.
Foundation is now streaming on Apple TV.
