S01.E01: The Emperor's Peace

[AnimeMania]

Gaal Dornick leaves her life in Synnax behind when the galaxy's greatest mathematician, Hari Seldon, invites her to Trantor.

Airdate: September 24, 2021     

[marinw]

I was going to wait until Season Three of Dickenson or For All Mankind dropped, but I'm a sucker for a space epic so I just re-subcribed to Apple now. Not sure this will fill the Expanse-Sized hole but I am so ready to enjoy this show on its' own terms.

[AnimeMania]

My thoughts:

Thoroughly engaging and thought provoking story telling. There was no fluff or flash, just solid, well founded exposition. I can see why this is hard to produce for TV since none of the characters live long enough to drive the story to its conclusion. You become attached to the characters, but their part in the story is small, you wish to see what happens to them yet the scope of the story leaves no room for the vagaries of an individual's existence when contemplating time measured in the spans of Empires. 

This story is just the visual definition of "Entropy", in a battle between chaos and order, chaos will always win in the end. Order requires way too much energy to be sustained forever.

Is every person in the galaxy essentially (human) humanoid? I am guessing that those long necked creatures in the spaceship were some form of robot, even though they might have been a slightly different(genetically modified) species of living beings capable of withstanding the rigors "jumpdrive" travel.

Why does anybody close to the Empire rulers who read Hari die while everybody else in the galaxy know of him and are fine. How does Hari continue to operate, it seems with the Empire's approval, if they feel he is such a threat. How has his ideas been propagated throughout the galaxy, doesn't the Empire control all major communication pathways. Why is the Empire stupid enough to live broadcast his trial across the galaxy, everyone seeing one man stand up to the Empire will undermine it's authority. Hopefully they will allow a live broadcast delay so that they don't air the seditious bits, then again, maybe not.

When Gaal and Raych were walking to the Imperial Library it looked like it was raining. Does it rain on the inside of a planet? It seems inefficient, inconvenient, and wasteful.

Is every person in the galaxy essentially (human) humanoid? I am guessing that those long necked creatures in the spaceship were some form of robot, even though they might have been a genetically modified human or a different species of living beings.

How did Gaal get all those fancy outfits for her trial if she doesn't have any luggage, especially ones fine enough to appear before the "Masters of the Universe".

They mentioned "Abraxas was the bait" and I couldn't remember what Abraxas was. After "Googling" it, I have come to believe that it was an equation that was made up for this TV show that Gaal solved to be noticed by Hari. I am pretty sure that is what it was and hopefully it will get more "Google" hits after the episode airs so other can remember easier.

[paulvdb]

3 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

Is every person in the galaxy essentially (human) humanoid?

Taking this (and some other stuff) to the book topic because the show itself has not (yet?) explained this.

[Zonk]

Well this is some weird shit, but I liked it. Only ever heard of the books and was wondering how they could ever adapt it. Seems like they are doing well so far.

Still a few questions/nitpicks:

As an explaination of the three emporers our narrator said they were "clones of Cleon I, decanted at different ages". But what I got from the rest of the episode is that they weren't decanted at different ages, but at different times. So that the younger could learn from the older ones. Am I right? Was the explaination just misleading?

They have all that high tech but not a robot that can clean the mural? We have robots who can clean our floors and mow our lawns. I mean if they have only one guy working on it and he takes like 15 years to clean it once, the middle parts have to be filthy as hell at times. And who shoots somebody with a splatter gun, next to such a work of art? At least pretend like you are taking him to a cell first so that you can mop it up easier. For that matter what is the point of a gun that makes such a mess?

There is no material strong enough in the universe for a space teather like that. Even a thin cable is cutting it real close. Maybe I could be convinced that it was held together by force fields but it didn't seem like it...

How are they going to make a 50.000 light year journey in 878 days without a jump drive? So they have two seperate faster than light technologies? How would the slower one even work?

Very minor: How was there so much blood coming out when the prayer stones were removed? Nobody of the people on set ever removed a piercing? There aren't any active blood vessels going through the stone, The body builds scar tissue around it...

So finally Psychohistory... It's a fun scifi concept but I don't buy it. First they tell me the future it predicts can't be changed, then they tell me events can be postponed or even shortened by tens of thousands of years. What is it? If you can do that much you can also prevent events. Just plug a few new policies into your equation and see what happens. The whole series hanging on that is stretching my suspension of disbelieve real thin. Also am I supposed to be invested in shortening the dark ages from 30.000 years to a 1.000? What does it matter? It's still a lot longer than a human lifetime and at the scale of the lifetime of a galaxy both are a blip.

8 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

Is every person in the galaxy essentially (human) humanoid?

My speculation is that the show depicts the future of the milky way with humanity having colonised it. The galaxy we were shown in the beginning was a spiral galaxy, at least.

Edited September 24, 2021 by Zonk

[AnimeMania]

23 minutes ago, Zonk said:

So finally Psychohistory... It's a fun scifi concept but I don't buy it. First they tell me the future it predicts can't be changed, then they tell me events can be postponed or even shortened by tens of thousands of years. What is it? If you can do that much you can also prevent events. Just plug a few new policies into your equation and see what happens. The whole series hanging on that is stretching my suspension of disbelieve real thin. Also am I supposed to be invested in shortening the dark ages from 30.000 years to a 1.000? What does it matter? It's still a lot longer than a human lifetime and at the scale of the lifetime of a galaxy both are a blip.

I looked at this the same way that we model our climate maps, the climatologist can predict where the storm is headed but don't have enough data or computer power to predict what will happen if certain variables get changed. A logical step might have been to allocate more resources to the study in an attempt to stave off the the oncoming unrest by a couple of millennia. The longer you can hold it off the better Psychohistory might become at predicting a more favorable outcome.

[Zonk]

1 minute ago, AnimeMania said:

I looked at this the same way that we model our climate maps, the climatologist can predict where the storm is headed but don't have enough data or computer power to predict what will happen if certain variables get changed. A logical step might have been to allocate more resources to the study in an attempt to stave off the the oncoming unrest by a couple of millennia. The longer you can hold it off the better Psychohistory might become at predicting a more favorable outcome.

Predicting storms is done by meteoroligists and they can predict what happens if variables change. That is their job. They just don't always know what variables will change how.

Climate science on the other hand is a stab in the dark. We know that with the globe warming weather will become more extreme, but it's still a crapshoot where the weather will change to what. Different models tell different stories.

So there is no predicting something accurately without knowing every relevant data point. To get as accurate predictions as this story claims Psychohistory can make, you'd need near endless datapoints and changing even one of them should change history on a massive scale. (butterfly effect) So no, still not buying it. I can probably ignore the logical problems with it and suspend my disbelieve, but it's not easy.

[marinw]

Trantor = Coruscant

I think this would work a little better with more minamilist art direction. 

That said, I did like the look of Synnax, whoes population had apparently ignored warningd about sea levels and have now adapted their lives to a more watery planet. And Rings!

Edited September 25, 2021 by marinw

[Zonk]

3 minutes ago, marinw said:

And Rings!

Rings are rather unlikely for a rock planet. You'd have to have a big moon the size usually only gas giants have (though that's not impossible, earth has a gas-giants sized moon) and then that moon would have to get destroyed. The debris then forms the rings. It's not yet known what destroyed the moon that formed Saturns rings, but the most likely cause is that it got to close to Saturn and it's gravity pulverised it. The gravity of a rock planet wouldn't be strong enough to do that.

So a rock planet would have to have a very big moon and that moon would need to get pulverised by something like a massive asteroid. Both extremely unlikely propositions...

Also rings are very temporary. They can only exist for a few hundret million years. Saturns rings are less than a hundret million years old.

[Melina22]

I was afraid of disappointment, but no. I've decided this is my new favourite show. It's been so long since I got to experience that wonderful honeymoon period where you absolutely love a new show and haven't been disappointed in it yet. This is how I felt during the first two seasons of the reimagined BSG, and the second season of Babylon 5.

I'm just going to enjoy the ride and not examine it for flaws right now. (I'm sure that will come later.) 

On 9/24/2021 at 10:56 AM, AnimeMania said:

Why is the Empire stupid enough to live broadcast his trial across the galaxy,

Good point though. 

On 9/24/2021 at 10:56 AM, AnimeMania said:

How did Gaal get all those fancy outfits for her trial if she doesn't have any luggage, especially ones fine enough to appear before the "Masters of the Universe".

Also this! Although to be honest, I didn't notice too much fashion, other than the weird green raincoats they wore on Synnax. I couldn't decide if they were cool or tacky. 

[ferjy]

3 hours ago, Melina22 said:

I was afraid of disappointment, but no.

I’m liking it too. But then I love Jared Harris. Superb actor (it’s in the genes!). I preferred his character in The Expanse, but I’d watch him read a phone book. The actress playing Gaal seems good, I haven’t seen her before. I can’t place her accent. I thought I detected some Aussie, but her bio on imdb doesn’t mention Australia at all. And nice to see “Dean” from Harry Potter all grown up. He filled out well! He’s not using his British accent here. I suppose he and Gaal will become an item eventually. The giveaway was her “Cute!” comment when she first saw him on her device. 😀

The story is interesting so far. I’m in for now. 

 

[Anduin]

2 hours ago, ferjy said:

I’m liking it too. But then I love Jared Harris. Superb actor (it’s in the genes!). I preferred his character in The Expanse, but I’d watch him read a phone book. The actress playing Gaal seems good, I haven’t seen her before. I can’t place her accent. I thought I detected some Aussie, but her bio on imdb doesn’t mention Australia at all. And nice to see “Dean” from Harry Potter all grown up. He filled out well! He’s not using his British accent here. I suppose he and Gaal will become an item eventually. The giveaway was her “Cute!” comment when she first saw him on her device. 😀

The story is interesting so far. I’m in for now. 

 

While I'd love to claim her as a fellow Aussie, she's South African.

[Melina22]

55 minutes ago, Anduin said:

While I'd love to claim her as a fellow Aussie, she's South African.

I'm really surprised! Tonight I was guessing she was from New Zealand. Wherever she's from, she's fantastic in the role. 

[Anduin]

1 hour ago, Melina22 said:

I'm really surprised! Tonight I was guessing she was from New Zealand. Wherever she's from, she's fantastic in the role. 

All us Southern Hemisphere people sound alike to you, huh? Do you know how accentist that is?

Okay, I rarely admit to laughing at my own jokes, but I think that's a good one.

[marinw]

On 9/24/2021 at 6:47 PM, Zonk said:

I can probably ignore the logical problems with it and suspend my disbelieve, but it's not easy.

 I am also wondering about Psychohistory being a bit of a self-fullfilling prophesy: By telling the Empire about it's own downfall, certian events are set into motion, which may hasten or cause said downfall. Without a parallel universe with no Hari Sheldon, there's no way of knowing for certain. Also, on our own world most empires eventually collapse or become less powerful. The trick is predicating when and how.

9 hours ago, Melina22 said:

the weird green raincoats they wore on Synnax. I couldn't decide if they were cool or tacky. 

I'm going with cool. Gorgeous shade of green.

[pasdetrois]

Good to see Lee Pace.

[ferjy]

On 9/28/2021 at 9:16 PM, pasdetrois said:

Good to see Lee Pace.

It took me a while to realize he was the lead in Pushing Daisies!

 

[Hanahope]

Finally subscribed to apple plus to watch.  

I've never read the books, always meant to, but just never got around to it.

So from what i gather in the first episode, 35 years in the past, Hari Seldon predicted through math that the empire would go into a 30,000 years dark ages, but with his "foundation", it could be shortened to 1,000 years.  apparently, despite the math being complicated, his research is easy enough to follow that he has attracted a lot of people to his point of view.  there's been some 'math contest' around for quite a while, and finally a girl on a more back-wards planet solved it by using the writings of another genius that no one else considered.  she was brought in to ostensibly confirm or deny Seldon's work, and she supports it, further saying that the dark ages could be put off if they stopped cloning the emperor.  the emperors, of course, don't like that idea.

the emperors are clones of the first one, 'reborn' at certain times to learn from the two elder clones.  i'm guessing that a new "dawn" is 'born' when "dusk" dies, with "day" being the primary leader.  (keeps Lee Pace working for the entire show this way)

someone decides to destroy the structure that connects a space port to the main planet (and i guess i have to handwave how such a structure was built and could exist in the first place - and why?  what's wrong with orbiting in a station and shuttles?), for yet unknown reasons (mad at the empire?).  i did like the visual of the tower striking down the emperor statue.

Day decides not to kill Hari and Gaal, but banish them to a far flung planet with their followers.  i was confused that at first they said it was 865 or some such days (little less than 3 years), but then while on the shuttle Gaal says the trip was still another 51 months (more than 4 years).  in any event, presumably they eventually land on and colonize Terminus. 

At some point, a large floating dual oblesk ('dublesk') is created that has a 'go away' forcefield.   35 years later, people try to touch the dublesk, but only one woman is able to do it (though she denies it to a kid).  don't know yet its purpose.

I'm intrigued and will continue to watch, hoping these questions get some answers.

[AnimeMania]

6 hours ago, Hanahope said:

a large floating dual oblesk

is a doublesk