Stephen Stanford

Asimov’s Foundation series was about the broad arc of history and how one man uses science and the study of probability to set in motion events to cushion an inevitable collapse of civilisation. Each section of the story unfolds like a brilliant chess game. Conflict and tension fall away to a resolution that feels inevitable, but only in hindsight. It was a work of genius that still holds up well today despite being more than 6 decades old. Alas the Apple TV adaptation does away with practically everything from the books, relying on a dreary celebration of individual heroics to try and sell the drama - the absolute opposite theme of the novels. It’s true, these books would have been fiendishly hard to adapt, given that the characters all change every few hundred pages (it’s set over a thousand year period), but why buy a property then change it completely? If you’re going to end up making something mediocre, why not go down in flames sticking by what inspired you in the first place. Effects and production value are ravishing, which makes it even more the pity.