The Foundation Trilogy (Dramatized)

By: Isaac Asimov, Patrick Tull - adaptation, Mike Stott - adaptation

Narrated by: Geoffrey Beevers, Lee Montague, Julian Glover, Dinsdale Landon, Maurice Denham, Angela Pleasence, Prunella Scales

The opening episode begins on Trantor, capital of the Galactic Empire, with the meeting of Seldon and Dornick, their trial, and their exile to Terminus. The action then jumps forward 50 years, to the first Seldon Crisis, where the repercussions of the recent independence of the Four Kingdoms of the Periphery are being felt on Terminus, and are handled by the first Mayor, Salvor Hardin. The scene then moves forward a further 20 years, as Mayor Hardin faces down the domination of the nearby and most powerful Kingdom, Anacreon.

The Merchant Princes
One-hundred-fifty years after the Foundation was established, the now powerful trading nation faces its greatest threat to date, guided by master trader Hober Mallow.

The General
Two hundred years after its creation, the Foundation battles Bel Riose, the last powerful General of the dying Galactic Empire.

The Mule
A further hundred years have passed, and the Foundation is challenged by an unexpected threat named The Mule.

Flight from the Mule
During the war against The Mule, with things going badly for the Foundation, some key figures under the leadership of the Foundation's greatest scientist, Ebling Mis, flee Terminus in search of the Second Foundation, to warn it of the danger from The Mule.

The Mule Finds
The Mule attempts to find and overthrow the Second Foundation.

Star's End
Sixty years later, and a teenage girl is at the center of the Foundation's renewed search for the Second Foundation.

Changes from the written Trilogy: The conflict between The Foundation and Anacreon takes place 70 years into the Foundation era; in the novels it occurs at 80 F.E. A small segment in Foundation titled "Traders" has been removed entirely. General editing for time has been done throughout. A large, rather comedic section on farming on Rossem has been added to "The Mule Finds".

Please note: This is an historical broadcast recording, produced by the BBC in 1973. The audio quality represents the technology of the time when it was produced.

©2011 ABN (P)2011 ABN

uneven audio quality

Wonderful adaptation, but the audio was so uneven I could not enjoy it. Some characters' voices were inaudible and there was a background hum.

Very disappointing.

horrible sound effects

The original book was great. This audio reenactment was nice, too, however, the sound effects are incredibly useless and horrible. the audio quality is good if you have a good head set to listen with. listening tit in the car is NOT recommended.

Dramatization hard to hear.

I returned this one. From the very beginning I could not understand what was being said or what actions were being taken. The sound effects and quality very 1930s.

Enjoyed it, but have one complaint

The Foundation Trilogy is a long time favorite of mine. I read the books as a teen and loved them. Several years ago, I managed to purchase an abridged audiobook version of the first book in the trilogy that was read by Isaac Asimov. So, I was very pleased to be able to get a dramatized version.

As I mentioned in the title, I have mixed feelings about this version. The story is great. How could it be otherwise? The acting was also pretty decent.

My one complaint is the sound. My guess is that the producers wanted to make this sound like a science fiction novel. So, they added a slight echo or reverb effect to some of the dialogue. It made it very hard to understand at times. There were also times when it sounded like the actors were several feet away from the microphone, which also made it hard to understand. However, this didn't detract that much from the production. What was most annoying was the transition music/sound effects that they used between scenes. It was pretty irritating and loud. I had to turn the volume down almost every time because it was not only unpleasant, it actually hurt my ears to listen to it.

I did have to get used to the way the names were pronounced by the actors. I know most of us probably have an idea about the way some exotic names from science fiction should be pronounced, but as I said above, I have an audiobook that was read by the author himself. So, in my mind, his is the correct pronunciation. It didn't detract from this audiobook, it just took me a few seconds to realize who a character was when he or she was first introduced in the story.

I would recommend this audiobook. Just be prepared to turn down the volume at a moments notice and if possible listen to it with headphones. I listened to it in the car and the road noise sometimes overwhelmed the actors.

HArd to listen to

What did you like best about The Foundation Trilogy (Dramatized)? What did you like least?

The foundation trilogy is a great scifi classic, but this dramatization is pretty poor. The recording is hard to understand, and the sound effects are obnoxious

Was The Foundation Trilogy (Dramatized) worth the listening time?

if you have the patience to listen hard to understand what they're saying

awful, very annoying "futuristic' music

as above, music gave me a headache, story good but a bit melodramatic performance for BBC

Sound quality

The sound quality is extremely poor. It’s a recording from a radio program. Hence some dialogue is muffled, while others sound faded. However, the worst part is the high pitched science fiction noises they play during the read. They’re painful to listen to since they’re louder than the dialogue. The track needs to be redone and the volume levels need to adjusted while the quality needs to be cleaned up.

Poor audio quality

Very poor audio quality, can barely hear it in many places with volume set to max. Many sound effects drown out the dialog.

Sound effects

The sound effects were superfluous. They interrupted the flow of the narrative. Toward the end, I almost cringed every time the effects occurred. Too bad, the narrative was very good.

Quite enjoyable

Great background listening. Keep in mind I grew up on 70s Dr. Who and this was pretty nostalgic in tone and acting. Pretty fun take on the foundation series.