To say Apple TV+'s Foundation diverges from its source material would be a bit of an understatement.
An adaptation of Isaac Asimov's classic science fiction novels, Foundation is less interested in following its source material to the letter than it is in creating a story within Asimov's universe that would make good TV. The basic plot remains the same: mathematician Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) foretells the fall of the Galactic Empire thanks to his theory of psychohistory. Knowing the fall is inevitable, he establishes the Foundation in order to preserve knowledge and, hopefully, civilization in the years to come.
Foundation takes this story and tweaks it in some pretty big ways, which makes sense when considering the scale of Asimov's work. The Foundation books are collections of interlocking stories and novellas whose events span hundreds of years, not to mention an entire galaxy. Characters who appear in one story may be long dead in the next, and so much happens in between stories that we never fully "see" on the page. These elements make creating a completely faithful TV show rather challenging, which explains several of showrunner David S. Goyer's choices to deviate from the books.
Here are the biggest changes Foundation has made so far. The following contains massive spoilers for the show and the books, so consider yourselves warned!
Pulling from the prequels
The opening episode of Foundation sticks fairly closely to "The Psychohistorians," the first story in Foundation, which recounts Hari's trial and Gaal Dornick's (Lou Llobell) journey to Trantor. However, the show incorporates some characters and elements from Asimov's Foundation prequels into this story. Neither Hari's adopted son Raych (Alfred Enoch), the Emperors' minister Demerzel (Laura Birn), nor the Prime Radiant appear in "The Psychohistorians." Their presence here helps expand Foundation's cast of characters, as the cast of "The Psychohistorians" is pretty sparse and varies greatly from other Foundation stories.
The Emperor(s)
Speaking of not appearing in "The Psychohistorians," let's talk about one of the most blatant changes made to Foundation: the Emperors. Brother Dawn (Cooper Carter), Brother Day (Lee Pace), and Brother Dusk (Terrence Mann) are genetic clones of Emperor Cleon at three different stages in his life cycle. Emperor Cleon does show up in the prequels to Foundation (albeit not in "The Psychohistorians" or Foundation itself), but he does not clone himself. In fact, there is no cloning in the Foundation novels, so this is a massive departure. However, having a genetic dynasty allows for character continuity throughout the season, which is helpful when dealing with the scope of Foundation.
Gaal Dornick and Synnax
Gaal is one of many Foundation characters who has been gender-swapped for this series, with others including Demerzel and Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey). But perhaps the biggest change to her character is that she actually has a personality now. In "The Psychohistorians," Gaal is essentially an audience surrogate used to present the reader to Trantor and Hari. All we know about him is that he's a gifted mathematician from the faraway planet of Synnax.
In the show, Gaal is still a gifted mathematician, and she's still from Synnax. However, she has a more defined backstory involving the tensions between religion and science on Synnax, which have made her a pariah. Asimov never discusses Synnax's culture, so everything in the show about the Church of the Seer and the purges of scientists is entirely new. These changes lend more texture to Foundation's universe and make Gaal a more compelling character.
Trantor and the Starbridge
You know that whole sequence where terrorists from Anacreon and Thespis destroy Trantor's Starbridge, causing it to crash into the planet in spectacular fashion? None of that happens in Foundation. In fact, the Starbridge doesn't even exist in Foundation. Asimov's novels were very light on big action sequences and planetary carnage, but their inclusion here helps visualize the problems the Galactic Empire is facing.
Anacreon and Thespis
Since the Starbridge incident is an invention for the show, the political fallout and subsequent bombing of Anacreon and Thespis are also departures from Asimov's books. That being said, the planet of Anacreon figures heavily into the later stories of Foundation, specifically "The Encyclopedists" and "The Mayors." Thespis, meanwhile, straight up does not exist. The name may be a reference to Asimov's short story "Fair Exchange?" about a time traveler who tries to save the musical score of Gilbert and Sullivan's opera Thespis.
Journey to Terminus
The Foundation's journey from Trantor to Terminus is not in the Foundation novels, so basically everything that happens in Gaal and Hari's storyline is completely new. Gaal and Raych never meet in the books, much less start a romantic relationship. Hari does not make the journey to Terminus, nor does Raych kill him. (He does die in the books, but it isn't shown.)
The Vault
We learn a little bit more about the mysterious Vault on Terminus in Foundation's third episode, "The Mathematician's Ghost." The Vault was already on Terminus when the Foundation arrived, and it projects a null field that prevents living things from approaching it. This is highly different from Asimov's work: The Vault is introduced in Foundation's second story, "The Encyclopedists," but it is not an anomaly. It's simply described as a room that will open on the fiftieth anniversary of the arrival on Terminus.
Salvor Hardin
The changes regarding the Vault also change the character of Salvor Hardin in a few ways. Salvor is the main character of "The Encyclopedists" and the following story, "The Mayors." In these, Salvor is the first Mayor of Terminus City. However, in the show, Salvor instead serves as the Warden of Terminus. She keeps her people safe and has a strange connection to the Vault. She also has a love interest in Hugo (Daniel MacPherson), who is not in the books.
Perhaps the most striking change is that Salvor is more of a warrior than a politician in the show. In the books, Salvor famously says that "violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." However, it is Salvor's father Abbas (Clarke Peters) who utters that line in Foundation's fourth episode, "Barbarians at the Gate." The show's version of Salvor seems to think otherwise: She dismisses her father's advice as an "old man's doctrine," prepares to fight the encroaching forces from Anacreon, and regularly carries weapons. In short, she is far removed from her book counterpart.
The Foundation
In "The Encyclopedists," the Foundation is solely focused on building the Encyclopedia Galactica - they have no knowledge of the Empire's looming Fall until the end of the story, nor do they know about psychohistory or Hari's true intentions in creating the Foundation. Meanwhile, the show's version of the Foundation already knows their role in preserving civilization after the Fall. This is a big change, as one of the main tenets of Hari's psychohistory is that populations should not know they are being analyzed, as this will change their behavior.
Trouble on Terminus
While Anacreon and the Foundation's relationship is quite contentious in Asimov's Foundation, it never quite reaches the level of outright attack we see in episode 4, "Barbarians at the Gate." Since the Empire doesn't bomb Anacreon in the books, the resulting fallout is a show-only creation, as is the character of Phara (Kubbra Sait). It appears that the incoming Anacreon attack on Terminus City will be the first Seldon Crisis the Foundation must face, although it's clear that this crisis will take a different shape in the show than it does in the books.
Brother Dawn is struggling
As previously noted, the three Cleons (and cloning) in general, are new additions to the Foundation universe. This means that everything involving the aging Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton) and his differences from his fellow Emperors is fabricated for the show. Brother Dawn's storyline, as he grapples with the agency he has as a member of a genetic dynasty, also introduces two brand-new characters to the world: Shadow Master Obrecht (Mido Hamada) and Azura (Amy Tyger), whose their presence fleshes out the political workings of Trantor.
First crisis
Episode 5, "Upon Awakening," ushers in an all-out conflict between the Foundation and the Anacreons, which Gaal's narration at the end of Episode 4 implied was the beginning of the fall of the Galactic Empire. This makes it the first of many Seldon Crises the Foundation will endure in order to keep civilization afloat.
The first Seldon Crisis in the books occurs in the story "The Encyclopedists," when the planets near Terminus, including Anacreon, cut ties with the Empire and threaten the Foundation. As Mayor, Salvor manages to avoid an escalation of conflict through diplomacy and giving the rebel kingdoms access to nuclear technology. Meanwhile in the show, the crisis is far from over, and Salvor is unable to stop it. Like much of the rest of the series, this is a huge deviation from the books. However, keep in mind that Foundation's heavy focus on dialogue and diplomacy may not have been as engaging onscreen as it is on the page. Thanks to this change, we get to see some pretty cool battle scenes, and the show continues to flex its impressive visual effects.
Gaal is back!
Turns out Gaal getting shot into space was not the end of her story. She's just spent the last 30 years in cryosleep, meaning she's caught up to the show's present timeline and we'll presumably be seeing a lot more of her. This is a relief: Gaal's new backstory is one of Foundation's most compelling book-to-show changes, and Lou Llobell continues to deliver a stellar performance.
Asimov's novels see Gaal journeying to Terminus after Hari's death, but here Gaal is headed somewhere else entirely: Hari's home planet of Helicon. This could be the show's way of building towards the Second Foundation - instead of introducing entirely new characters to lead an entirely new Foundation, why not have a character we're already familiar with occupy the same role?
Wait a minute... Hari's back, too?
You didn't really think that was the last we'd see of Hari, did you? After all, there's no way Apple TV would bring Jared Harris onboard for only two episodes.
However, I thought we would see Hari re-appear in his pre-recorded Vault messages like we do in "The Encyclopedists" and "The Mayors." Instead, we get something completely different: Hari re-appears with Gaal on Raych's ship, glitching in a concerning manner. Whether Hari is actually still alive or something stranger is going on remains to be seen, but it's clear that his character is now on a very different trajectory from the books.
A whole new world
Episode 6, "Death and the Maiden," features Brother Day's journey to the Maiden, a moon whose inhabitants practice the religion of Luminism. Central to Luminism is the belief in three goddesses - Mother, Maiden, and Crone - and their cycle of rebirth. In theory, it sounds similar to the cycle of Emperors. However, Zephyr Halima (T'Nia Miller), a candidate to succeed the late Proxima Opal as leader of Luminism, believes that as clones, none of the Emperors have souls. Naturally, Brother Day is not a fan.
Luminism and the three moons - Mother, Maiden, and Crone - are show-only inventions. Much like with Synnax's Church of the Seer, these additions provide depth to the varying cultures that make up the massive world of Foundation. Luminism in particular emphasizes the role religion plays in the Galactic Empire, perhaps as a way of setting up the church of science that figures prominently into several stories in Foundation. However, given the massive changes being made to the Terminus plot, it's looking less and less likely that we'll be seeing that story anytime soon.
The Invictus
At this point, the Terminus story has completely diverged from the books in such a way that it's hard to draw comparisons to the source material beyond character and place names. However, Phara's plan to use the destroyer Invictus to attack Trantor bears some similarities to Asimov's "The Mayors." In that story, Anacreon Prince Regent Wienis wants to turn a refitted Imperial battlecruiser against the Foundation. Still, there are several differences between this plan and Phara's: Wienis isn't even a character in the show, Phara is striking at Trantor instead of Terminus, and she's using kidnapped Foundation members to help her do it. We're definitely in uncharted water here.
Salvor's vision
Foundation keeps insisting that Salvor is special and an outlier, and in "Death and the Maiden" we get to see a little more of what that might mean. Salvor has a vision of what happened when Raych killed Hari, giving us a little more insight into one of the show's more pressing mysteries.
Most interesting about this sequence is the fact that Salvor appears to be reliving events from Gaal's perspective. She's wearing Gaal's clothing and witnesses Hari's death just as Gaal did. This establishes a connection between two of the show's leads that does not exist in the books. It also suggests that Salvor may have mentalic abilities, a theory that gains even more traction when you consider how she could sense Phara's thoughts and predict the outcome of coin tosses in episode 4. Mentalics, who are key in founding the Second Foundation, are not introduced until later in the series.
Who else could be a mentalic?
Interestingly, the books see Raych's mentalic daughter Wanda playing an instrumental role in the creation of the Second Foundation. While Raych and Gaal do not have a relationship in the books, Foundation's second episode revealed that Gaal is pregnant. Her child may play a Wanda-like role in the future, especially now that she is journeying towards Helicon instead of Terminus.
There's also the possibility that Gaal is a mentalic herself. In the first episode, she woke up during a jump through space and was able to process it, which is not something the normal human mind should be able to do. Perhaps she, like Salvor, is a special outlier. This would be another big step away from her character in the books, but would help establish the Second Foundation earlier on in the show, which seems to be the direction her arc is taking.
All is revealed...
Episode 7, "Mysteries and Martyrs," finally gets to the heart of why Raych killed Hari. As Hari - or rather, Hari's consciousness - tells Gaal, he had Lethe Syndrome. He knew that once his cognitive decline began, the members of the Foundation would no longer believe in him, so he chose to die so that his memory would persist as a myth. Just like Hari's death at Raych's hands, Hari's Lethe Syndrome is not in Asimov's Foundation novels. However, the Foundation does view him as a kind of mythical figure, an image helped along by the pre-recorded messages he left in the Vault.
Another big reveal (and big departure from the books) is that Gaal realizes she can feel the future, essentially confirming that she is a mentalic - albeit one with different powers from the telepaths in the novels. It seems like this is what sets her and Salvor apart from other Foundation members, and continues to prepare us for a modified version of the Second Foundation.
The Second Foundation
Why have Hari and Gaal been hurtling towards Hari's homeworld of Helicon for the past few episodes? In Foundation's eighth episode, we finally get confirmation that it's because Hari intends to set up a Second Foundation, one that the Foundation on Terminus will know nothing about. Hari says it will be situated on Helicon, at Star's End.
In Asimov's Second Foundation, "Star's End" isn't on Helicon. It actually refers to Trantor, with the name coming from the in-universe saying, "All roads lead to Trantor, and that is where all stars end." The Second Foundation remains on Trantor even after the fall of the empire and the sacking of the planet - something the show may be building towards with the Invictus storyline. However, before we can get any more information about the Second Foundation and why the show version is on Helicon, Gaal leaves Hari behind and begins the journey back to Synnax.
The Vault Opens
Virtually none of the events leading up to the Vault’s opening in Foundation occur in the book. The Time Vault featured in Asimov’s short story “The Encyclopedists” is just a room that everyone knows will open and play a message from Hari addressing the Foundation. There’s no null field. The Prime Radiant isn’t required to open it, and the Anacreons and Thespins are not present for the message.
Hari’s message in “The Encyclopedists” contains information that the Foundation members already know in the show: the Empire is dying, and the Foundation on Terminus is tasked with continuing civilization after the Fall. Hari delivers this news by hologram, unable to interact with the Foundation. However, the Hari that emerges from the Vault in the show is able to see and react to what’s going on on Terminus, similarly to his projected consciousness that spoke with Gaal in previous episodes.
We're doing revolution now?
In the season finale of Foundation, Hari (or at least his consciousness ghost) reveals the true plan for the Foundation on Terminus, which is... revolution. Kind of. Essentially, Hari's plan is to outlast the Empire by building a new one, starting with the Foundation, Anacreon, and Thespis. To make sure they don't get attacked, they're going to build more destructive ships like the Invictus. Plus, they use the Invictus to fake a flare, which would signal to the Empire that life in the Outer Reach has been destroyed.
This reveal seemingly counters what Hari told the Emperors at his trial, which is that he wasn't trying to undermine the Empire. To be fair, he also lies in his trial in the book, saying that he simply wants to set up a Foundation on Terminus to compile an Encyclopedia. The Encyclopedists know nothing about the Fall of the Empire, but the Foundation in the show does, making the revelation that they're supposed to outlast the Fall feel somewhat hollow. The Foundation's union with Thespis and Anacreon is also new to the show, and it potentially sets up a showdown with the Empire for Season 2.
All in the family
It's official: Salvor is Gaal and Raych's daughter, which is why she's been reliving Gaal's memories and seeing her parents as children. The familial tie, which most definitely does not exist in the books, links two of the show's leads and explains their mentalic abilities. However, Salvor being Raych's daughter does somewhat correspond with an element of the novels. Raych's daughter Wanda is a mentalic, like Salvor. She goes on to play an important role in founding the Second Foundation.
Where do we go from here?
Seeing as the show jumped 138 years into the future in its final minutes, there's a lot of uncertainty for what the second season of Foundation may entail, although all signs point to there being more Foundations. Now that Gaal and Salvor have reunited on Synnax, they may start their own branch. There's also the loose end of the Second Foundation on Helicon to explore.
As for the Empire and the Foundation on Terminus, their fates are a little more unsure. One interesting hint for the future is the introduction of a young Poly Verisof (Jairaj Varsani). Poly is the high priest of Anacreon's church of science in "The Mayors." Since they make a big deal of his presence in this episode, it's possible we may see a version of that story next season.
Another interesting tidbit is Demerzel's breakdown, where she tears off her face to reveal her robot skeleton. Since the show incorporates robots and mentions the Robot Wars, it's clear that Foundation is also quietly adapting Asimov's Robot series. Perhaps we'll see more elements of those stories woven into future seasons.
Final verdict
Adapting a work as far-flung as Foundation was always going to be difficult. David S. Goyer and his team adopted a number of strategies to mitigate these challenges. The creation of the Cleonic genetic dynasty allows for continuity across long periods of time and gives the Foundation more of an adversary. Gender-swapping characters like Salvor, Gaal, and Demerzel results in women playing more of a role in Foundation than they ever did in the books. Incorporating material from the sequels and prequels gives the story a more robust feel and a wider scope.
However, there are also several deviations from the novels that make it hard to associate the show with its source material. Salvor is an entirely different character, regardless of her gender, and the Invictus plot takes Foundation right over the edge into Star Wars territory. Since that story took up most of the season's final episodes, it became glaringly obvious just how much was being changed from the books — and how much of Asimov's story we wouldn't be seeing as a result.
It's completely understandable if you're frustrated about these changes because at some points the show is Foundation in name only. However, the greater ideas of Foundation — most importantly the perseverance of humanity — are still very present. Overall, the show and the books are two different beasts entirely, and they are sure to diverge even further in the second season. As long as we get the Mule, I think I'll be okay.
All episodes of Season 1 of Foundation now streaming on AppleTV+.
