S01.E09: The First Crisis

[AnimeMania]

On Terminus, Salvor witnesses how powerful the null field has become. Brother Dawn makes a daring choice.

Premiere Date: November 12, 2021

[Glade]

So are there no aliens in this universe then, just earth-humans that colonized a f-ton of planets?  How many pages of 'The Foundation' have they actually written/compiled thus far? 

I really liked how brother dawn's story was more subtle in earlier episodes; I don't feel like the 'man in the iron mask' outcome was the most interesting one; I wanted to see him escape and have children...but then I guess that's what this group could have done instead of try to carry out this impossible/extremely unlikely plan; to create a media blitz by showing up with a Cleon clone and his grown children announcing they are the true heirs to the empire...oh well.  I loved ep 8, but felt this was a bit of a misfire; I hope next week is a better episode to close out the season.

Edited November 12, 2021 by Glade

[Zonk]

Well, I certainly didn't see the betrayel of the love interest coming. Partly because I didn't think these writers had it in them to do something interesting (but they aborted that right away, with killing all of them, so really, they don't), partly because it relied on a few too many coincidences.

I mean was she just standing in front of Dawns room every day in hopes he might try to commit suicide and fail, because "he kinda forgot" to take off his empirial aura?

At least it explains how these very specific genetic mutations came to be in Dawn. But since it was done with Nanobots after he was born, that should also mean, that it can be undone with nanobots, right? So really no need to kill him.

But also, shouldn't his empirial nanobots protect him against such attacks? If not, what are they good for? Protection against attacks would be the main reason to have them.

And did the writers really have to make love interest cartoonishly evil after the reveal? Her being all snarky, stradeling other Cleon's lap, etc. That's like bad 90s-writing. Why not make her a freedom fighter with genuine compassion, who just thinks the ends justify the means? She could have apologised to Dawn, told him this was the only way she could see to free society. But noooo, she has to be EVIL.

 

Around terminus, the woman that ship was bound to must have been braindead. Phara shoots her co-pilot and tells her to give over control over the ship and she does it?! How stupid can you be? As long as you had control over the ship she neded you, now she doesn't and of course kills you immediately.

 

I guess the vault wasn't sent back in time. Hari just sent something with unknown technology, with a field that can encompass a planet, there, before the colonists arrived. Sure. How did he even know there would be somebody there who could withstand the null field and open it? he said he didn't know about Gaal. Are we back to Psychohistory being magic? My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined!

 

1 hour ago, Glade said:

So are there no aliens in this universe then, just earth-humans that colonized a f-ton of planets? 

Yes.

[marinw]

On 11/12/2021 at 6:10 PM, Zonk said:

Phara shoots her co-pilot and tells her to give over control over the ship and she does it?! How stupid can you be? As long as you had control over the ship she neded you, now she doesn't and of course kills you immediately.

Did it not occur to Phara that the pilots would lie about which one of them the ship was synched to?

That episode was...good. I knew Azura was some sort of agent trying to kidnap/seduce Dawn, but I felt for the young man. Nice acting by Cassian Bilton. The Vault coming aapert was a beautiful visual.

Edited November 14, 2021 by marinw

[ferjy]

2 hours ago, Zonk said:

And did the writers really have to make love interest cartoonishly evil after the reveal? Her being all snarky, stradeling other Cleon's lap, etc.

All that was missing was her twirling a moustache. The Empire segment is the only one that interests me now. I'm weary of Salvor and her adventures. I like Gaal and Hari best and in 9 episodes we saw Hari what, 3 times? He had his 7 seconds of fame in this episode and no great revelation. We knew he'd emerge from The Vault eventually.

 

Edited November 13, 2021 by ferjy

[gibasi]

Introducing the mystical element has been the most disappointing aspect of the show. They should have called it something other than Foundation because Asimov was not about mysticism and magic. I might be more open to what the show is if I hadn't had expectations based on Asimov and his books.

[marinw]

2 minutes ago, gibasi said:

Asimov was not about mysticism and magic.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Arthur C Clarke. 

But I take your point. I don't think this show counts as "Hard" science fiction, but YMMV.

[marinw]

On 11/12/2021 at 8:45 PM, ferjy said:

We knew he'd emerge from The Vault eventually.

 

So this is real Hari and not another Holo Hari? I'm confused.

[Zonk]

5 minutes ago, marinw said:

So this is real Hari and not another Holo Hari? I'm confused.

I would assume it's Holo-Hari. As far as we know there is no teleportation in this universe, but there is FTL-cummication. So the Hologram-Data could have been sent from Helicon to Terminus.

But I've been wrong multiple times before, so I might be here as well. I just can't predict what the weird brains of the writers come up with. Sadly, not in a good way.

13 minutes ago, marinw said:

But I take your point. I don't think this show counts as "Hard" science fiction, but YMMV.

I'm not sure this counts as science fiction. I fail to see any science in it...

Edited November 14, 2021 by Zonk

[Melina22]

I'm afraid I'm a bit late to the party this time. I blame it totally on zonk and marinw. 😁Thanks to them I'm totally obsessed with The Expanse now. I've been trying somewhat unsuccessfully to limit myself to two episodes per day, but it's hard. What a fantastic show. 

Ehem, back to Foundation. I was pretty disappointed with this episode, apart from the beautiful Vault reveal. I swear I groaned out loud when I realized that Phara, the most annoying villain of any series ever, was still alive. I was hugely relieved when she ended up with an arrow through her neck, and even then it took her forever to fall over. 

I found the Dawn story to be horribly depressing and also completely superfluous. Dusk already knew his secret, so why the endless buildup to the clone plot, only to have it foiled almost instantly by yet more shooting? And why does this show have so much shooting? I'm so bored with it. 

So HoloHarry has just been hanging out in the vault forever, a vault which FYI kept killing people? What? 

Also, where is Gaal? Still just floating around in her little space Tupperware? 

Sorry to be so snarky. I'm just disappointed. I'm off to check out the Rocinante before bed., 😁

[cdnalor]

On 11/12/2021 at 3:24 PM, Glade said:

So are there no aliens in this universe then, just earth-humans that colonized a f-ton of planets

It's been many years since I've read any Asimov, but I can't recall any stories of his that had aliens in it.  There was a theory back then that intelligent life such as ours was an accident and that humans were alone in the universe.  Asimov may have been in that camp.

[KarenX]

1 hour ago, cdnalor said:

It's been many years since I've read any Asimov, but I can't recall any stories of his that had aliens in it.  There was a theory back then that intelligent life such as ours was an accident and that humans were alone in the universe.  Asimov may have been in that camp.

Fermi’s Paradox!

[Mrs. Stanwyck]

I'm not convinced it is Holo-Hari.  We were told that he was "buried" in a coffin of his own design and I thought it would be real Hari on the ship with Gaal.  Since that was Holo-Hari, maybe real Hari has been entombed on Terminus this whole time.  Not sure how whatever coffin/space pod he was launched in connected with the vault on Terminus but I think we just found not-dead Hari.

Edited November 15, 2021 by Mrs. Stanwyck

[edhopper]

On 11/14/2021 at 8:33 AM, marinw said:

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Arthur C Clarke. 

But I take your point. I don't think this show counts as "Hard" science fiction, but YMMV.

The thing about that Clarke quote is it is no longer true, mainly due to people like Clarke and Asimov. They have envisioned such advanced societies, based on pure science, that we now can distinguish advanced technology from magic.

[edhopper]

Color blindness doesn't work like that, iy makes things gray, not invisible. The red birds were still covering the blue ones.

[MissLucas]

I'm getting tired of Gaal's pseudo historiographical voice-over musings. As a historian I wish she'd stick to maths.

[Ottis]

I had guessed the love interest betrayal early on, though I thought she was a plant by Dusk to test the kid after he noticed small differences in him. The fact the plot was all figured out makes it feel hopeless to oppose Empire.

The show has been slow, but I like how it is finally coming together.