Come on, Brother Day, just have a white Russian, you know you want to.
The Day abides.
Not really. It still doesn’t explain why he killed the Baron and thousands of soldiers. And they’ve ruined Toran & Bayta. The Foundation books were literally one of if not the the first science fiction books I ever read. I’m gonna complain over stupid deviations from the source. I do think the Empire storyline is excellent though (even if they did create a Death Star).
And I’m getting worried this prediction I made 16 years ago when a Foundation movie was in the works is going to come true:
Because if he had taken the planet bloodlessly, Foundation and Empire would have been suspicious. Instead, because of all the violence, they just think of him as a pirate. At least, that’s my theory.
Other than that, I think it helps that I’m not a big Asimov fan; I respect him, but I don’t particularly enjoy his books. In fact, I’m not a fan of the Golden Age in general, other than Jack Vance of course - I’m more of a New Wave guy.
And even miniseries are a different medium than books. The book can take its time to establish the nature of a character in various other ways but here we need a quick and visual way to show the power and the lack of regard for any intrinsic value to lives.
I think it’s best to think of these things as covers of the source material.
But that’s literally what happened in the book. He took it without a fight, which made Captain Pritcher very suspicious, but the incompetent Mayor of Terminus ignored his suspicions. In the book the Empire is a non-factor in the galaxy by this point btw.
I mean, I get it, I see that the story is pretty good, and as I said the Empire stuff is great (even if they stole the genetic dynasty from Clarke), but I think it would have been even better if they stuck closer to source material.
Because a lot more conversations and a lot less action are the formula for audience-winning scuence fiction?
I know. This is better.
Without spoiling anything, while Isaac Asimov wasn’t into David Weber-esque chapter long battle scenes with enormous amounts of techno-babble, suffice it to say there’s plenty of opportunity for on screen action later in the book.
If the report about Apple slashing the show’s budget is true, we might be able to put that idea to the test soon enough.
Alright, I started reading the books again and felt I had to respond to this one.
The original series was written between 1942 and 1950. Computers did not exist during that time, nor did data storage. He had to choose between magnetic tape (audio only), microfilm (images only) or making something up. He chose to call his recording media “microfilm”.
And even though he called it “microfilm”, it’s clear from the text that what he was describing was far advanced over 1940s microfilm:
“You see, Pherl had never heard nor conceived of a microfilm-recorder.”
…
“You showed him the results?”
“Two days later. The poor sap had never seen three-dimensional color-sound images in his life.”
Show me a 1940s microfilm capable of recording & playing 3D color-sound images and I’ll eat my hat.
I thing that we just have different tastes in Science Fiction. I prefer writers who make stuff up.
He made up psychohistory and portable calculators, do those count?
Yeah seriously. Can we talk about Emperor Lebowski?
Because violence is the first refuge of Hollywood writers?
Also, we all know Magnifico Giganticus is really the Mule and not Space Euron Greyjoy, right? Chekov’s Clown and all that.
(Note that I just realized that Travis Fimmel (Dune:Prophecy, Vikings, Raised by Wolves) and Pilou Asbæk (Game of Thrones, Foundation) are different actors with a penchant for playing intensely “off” characters).
Two good turns of phrase! Bravo! 
Are we doing book spoilers here or what?
The book was published over 70 years ago. I think spoilers are allowed by this point.
As a total aside, I always pictured the mule as being played by Vincent Schiavelli.
Nice marmot.