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

From 1973, Decidedly Lo Fi

The audio quality is a bit sketchy due to the technology available. This recording also contains painfully loud, weird electronic noises as “ bumpers” between scenes - unfortunately the only part of the recording that is very clear and audible. On the plus side, it’s only $2 something?

A great story, with an appropriate style, but with horrible volume levels.

First, this is by Isaac Asimov, so the story is brilliant. Second, it was first released in the early seventies and it was produced in the sci-fi radio style of the fifties and sixties, so the voice acting and theremin-like music/effects are appropriate (if you don't know, you'll find it jarring). Unfortunately, the volume levels were very low and uneven. I played it at full volume, with an earpiece, but if there wasn't complete silence, I might miss several lines.

The price was low and I like the old timey style, so I put up with the awful volume levels. Listen to the sample, and know what you're getting into.

Not bad for what it is

Here's a commendable adaptation of Asimov's Foundation stories, but probably only hard-core Asimov fans will want to own it. The original stories describe a lot of things without much dialogue, yet the writers who adapted this made quite a lot come through while still staying pretty true to the story line. That in itself is amazing. They employ a varied cast, which gives characters some personality, but even so you probably need to have read the books to follow along fully. The sound effects seem cheesy from a 21st century perspective, but they fit the era (and frankly, also Asimov's writing style). There is one big problem: The volume is low and inconsistent. You will be listening intently at high volume to hear what seems like a character mumbling, then nearly have your eardrums blown out by a random sound effect. It is certainly a product of the original recording, not Audible. I found the same exact adaptation through another source for comparison and the problem persists. Since it's not that expensive, if you're curious you can skip a couple of Starbucks lattes and get this, but you might also be able to find it (legally and legitimately) cheaper elsewhere with a little searching. Just don't use a full-price credit on it.

Only fair adaptation with variable sound quality

Far better are the Audible versions of the Foundation novels themselves.

BBC adaptation has low sound quality at times and sometimes is not fair to spirit of original material. Asimov's admitted tendency to sometimes create buffonish characters tempted BBC actors to overacting.

Ok......

The sound effects and transition computer voice really took away from the narrative and value of the story. Was often difficult to listen to.

Great for it's Time

The plot is interesting. I prefer the Robot series. I also like the Foundation's Edge.

Bad sound effects

I think of Asimov as my favorite author but this production and over dramatization of his book does no justice for him and his work.

Shakespeare himself would complain about the overacting

These are some of my favorite books so I was excited about the dramatized version. However, the Monte Python meets over-the-top high-school Shakespearean acting is dreadful. Real “I....am HAVING! butter....aaaaaaand JAM.......on......my......toast, ......this very mornnnnnnnnING!” Kind of stuff.

Add to that the quiet (mixed with super super quiet) dialog that’s barely intelligible much of the time and VERY loud 50s sci-fi beeps and boops and other robots-being-tortured noises (that I suspect are sometimes intended to be music) at every scene break and you have an audio roller coaster that will split your skull if your listening with headphones.

I struggled through this because of my love of the books, but it’s really pretty bad.

Dated performance

The effects and performance were probably acceptable in the 60’s/70’s but the performance and effects haven’t aged well. For me it was a bit of a difficult listen. Incidental audio effects are too loud and borderline painful, especially when listening with earphones. Some of the environmental effects applied to the voices should be cleaned up to make them more intelligible.

Not bad but not the whole storry

I bought this under the impression it was a narration of the books. I was wrong. This more the cliff notes version of the books. While an interesting take on the books, was not what I was looking for.