A young girl discovers that she has won more than a scholarship with a pre-eminent mathematician, she’s also an accomplice to his unpopular prophecy Of the impending destruction of the great Galactic Empire.

Big budget adaptations of beloved epic science fiction properties are like buses – you wait ages for one and then two come along at once. Just beating Denis Villeneuve’s Dune to the screen (in the UK at least) is Apple TV+’s 10-part version of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, show run by David S Goyer (The Dark Knight). It’s an impressive looking series but its hard sci-fi conceits require that you give it nothing less then your full attention.

Just to set some context, Isaac Asimov’s original 1950s-released trilogy of Foundation, Foundation and Empire Second Foundation was a collection of short stories written in the 1940s for Astounding Magazine, and was awarded the Hugo for best all-time series. Asimov then added sequels Foundation’s Edge (1982) and Foundation and Earth (1986), as well as prequels Prelude to Foundation (1988) and posthumously published Forward the Foundation (1993). As with Dune, many considered the series to be unfilmable, but Goyer has taken a good stab at it with this opening episode that mostly sits within Foundation.

There are far too many deviations from the books to list, and indeed I wonder what value there would be in doing so. Inevitably, gender and politics have come a long way since the 1940s and the show does its best to be inclusive and of its time. We begin on Terminus, a planet at the end of the universe where kids are daring one another to try and breach the perimeter of The Vault. Only one of their kind had successfully done so, instead of being chase away by sonic defences.

And then we’re on Trantor, the Eye of the Empire, and home to three emperors, except they’re the same person. Bear with me. Brothers Dawn, Day, and Dusk are genetic dynasty clones of Cleon the First, at different stages of their lives – child, adult and old man they are becoming concerned about the teachings of Hari Seldon (Jared Harris, The Terror), professor of probability theory. Seldon has invited Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell, Voyagers) to join him on the planet to assist him with his studies, while aware that he (and she) are likely to be arrested for their heretical work.

If you’re still with me, that’s just scraping the surface of this episode’s plot, which does a lot of world building. The teleplay by Josh Friedman (Snowpiercer) and Goyer gives you enough to understand what’s going on and who the main players are without swamping you with too much exposition. There’s also a useful scene where Gaal is shown the sights by a fellow traveller (Reece Shearsmith) which helps with our orientation of the planet. Harris is excellent as Sheldon, supported by the less familiar Llobell as Gaal. Lee Pace (Guardians of the Galaxy) also brings a certain heft to the show as Brother Day, and there are excellent visual effects to bring the world to life.

Verdict: An understandably plot-heavy opener to the complex sci-fi series, but if you’re prepared to devote your attention to it, you’ll be richly rewarded. 9/10

Nick Joy