With a huge budget, a starry cast including Jared Harris and explosive interplanetary plot, this new sci-fi epic wants to be taken seriously. What a shame it feels so earnest and ropey
Take one series of sci-fi books by the king of the genre Isaac Asimov. Add writer David S Goyer (known for Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy and Zach Snyder’s Man of Steel), a galaxy full of money and king of television Jared Harris to star in it … and you have Foundation, a major new release from Apple TV+.
An interstellar empire is ruled by three men – or possibly only one, depending on how you account for the fact that they are all clones of the original emperor Cleon, decanted at various ages. There’s a boy/young man (Brother Dawn, played by Cooper Carter and later Cassian Bilton), a middle-aged Brother Day (Lee Pace) and an older Brother Dusk (Terrance Mann), who live on planet Trantor and have kept the galactic peace for generations but become, as you might suspect, un peu smug and complacent in the process. They eat a lot of roast peacock.