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

Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

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

Sci Fi Noise Album (with some spoken interludes)

It's a shame that the sound effects were so bad they ruined this for me. The noises were loud, constant and almost always completely unrelated to anything going on in the plot. The most dystopic thing about the vision of the future presented isn't the warfare or collapse of civilization, it's the inexplicable proliferation of jarring sci fi noises that have apparently pervaded every aspect of daily life and interrupt every conversation.

This was the typical pattern: quiet discussion about space politics between two English gentlemen...RANDOM SPACE SYNTHESIZERS!!!!...further quiet discussion of space politics. You need to be extremely vigilant when listening to this: at the volume needed to follow the dialogue, you are constantly at risk of a sudden interlude permanently damaging your hearing.

I have no idea what the producer was thinking (possibly the levels just got screwed up in this version), but I have to imagine it was something like the SNL sketch where Christopher Walken keeps asking for more cowbell.

Dramatization is great, audio quality is terrible!

the story and its dramatization is awesome. but the audio quality is terrible with static in the background and overall you have to pay deep attention to hear what is being said.

Wish the audio was better but good value

I wish the BBC made a better recording of this stage-play-like adaptation of the 3-book series, but it's a steal for the price and I enjoyed the listen. Good value at about a buck-per-book!

THE NOISE!

I love these books, and they are represented reasonably well here. However, some idiot decided to mark the scene breaks with loud, ear-shattering noise. Be wary listening to this with ear buds.

Good. If you can get over the music.

Loved the books. Liked this dramatisation too. As most others have said, the special effects make it a pain in the ear. That aside (if you can get your mind to override that!) it is an enjoyable listen.

Audio is terrible

This sounds like it was recorded of the air in 1972. It’s very hard to understand what the actors are saying. Granted Asimov wrote this as a (grand) space opera, but the actors and writers managed to turn this into a space melodrama. If you absolutely loved the books then this might interest you but it’s the worst way to experience the story for the first time.

Terrible

I know this was a radio play. I have listened to other BBC radio plays in the past. This one was pretty bad. The sound effects were unpleasant to hear They made it extremely difficult to hear the dialog. The actors were okay on the whole, however many were hard to understand. The 4 stars for the story are not for the script, but for Azimov's books. One star dropped because of the script.
I am sorry I bought this version. I really just wanted to listen to the book.

Great Story, good luck with headphones

They used a bunch of sound effects that are 3 times louder than the actors.

poor mixing

I love the story and I was fine with some of the silly 1960s production ideas, but I could not approve the sound mixing. The speaker volume would get sooooo low that I could barely make it out and then without warning my eardrums wanted to rupture from the goofy 60s sci-fi sound effects. I do not recommend purchasing this book unfortunately. Such a disappointment.

Save yourself time and just watch old Dr Who.

I consume books, usually about 2 per week. This took me weeks. dry, boring, too much theremin. I thought it would go fast because you're basically listening to a radio broadcast. but it didn't.
There's very little intrigue. very little science fiction. The "plot" is obvious in the first few paragraphs.
seriously, just go watch old BnW Doctor Who. it's better than this by leagues.