Apple TV+’s sprawling sci-fi saga, “Foundation,” is hitting its mid-season stride for this second outing and the Imperium is facing certain annihilation against Hari Seldon’s feisty resistance movement referred to as the Foundation.
Besides the exceptional performances on display from stars Lee Pace, Jared Harris, Laura Birn, Lou Llobell, and Leah Harvey under David S. Goyer’s (“Blade,” “Man of Steel,” “The Dark Knight Trilogy”) regular hand on the helm as its executive producer, the remarkable attention to detail involved in “Foundation’s” visual effects, cosmology and worldbuilding is actually impressive.
Acting as a guiding star to maintain “Foundation’s” planetary science rooted within the realm of believability is NASA’s Kevin Hand, an acclaimed astrobiologist who acts because the series space advisor working closely with showrunner David S. Goyer and the writing staff so as to add grounded astrophysics detail and consistency to the pricey production.
Hand is well-seasoned in his advisory roles, and along with current duties at JPL because the Deputy Project Scientist for upcoming Europa Clipper and Europa Lander missions. He’s also consulted on several high profile Hollywood movies reminiscent of director Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus.”
But “Foundation” is by far one among his most complex projects that requires his full focus, imagination and intense research.
“David Goyer and I even have known one another for various years and have worked on just a few things here and there,” Hand tells Space.com. ‘We originally met at a writers’ retreat that was organized through the Science & Entertainment Exchange, which is an extension of the National Academy of Sciences that works to get more science fidelity in TV and film.
“We hit it off and I worked with him a bit on ‘Krypton’ and we have rejoiced through the years batting things forwards and backwards. When “Foundation” was bubbling up as an actual possibility he engaged me to return down and work with the team within the writers room after which stay on to undergo scripts and brainstorm with the artists about easy methods to take into consideration this galactic civilization and the geography of not only where they’re within the galaxy, but additionally easy methods to architect these planets so that they are majestic and visually compelling and largely realistic astronomically and physically.”
One in every of Goyer’s primary goals within the making of “Foundation” was getting the computer graphics right and being involved in every visual effects shot.
“With various science advising I’ve done previously, one among the primary pieces of the connection that I attempt to establish is what rules or laws of nature does this author or director or producer want their universe to abide by,” Hand says. “All of us love ‘Star Trek’ but all bets are off on the subject of ‘Star Trek,’ not less than within the recent movies, and that is positive. On the opposite end of the spectrum is ‘The Martian’ with creator Andy Weir’s allegiance to NASA technology and missions that JPL placed on the surface of Mars. And you may err an excessive amount of on either side of that spectrum.
“One in every of the things I actually enjoyed about working with David Goyer is that he continually does an exquisite job of threading the needle on wanting to make something with a terrific story and great characters that is visually magnificent, while also having rules for this universe that we’re abiding by. With ‘Foundation,’ based on Asimov’s classic books and his high fidelity for science, that was no easy task.”
One element that is consistently encountered and sometimes ignored in science fiction TV and film is a planet’s seasons. What’s the day-night cycle? How briskly is it rotating on its axis? How close is it to its star? Hand helped flesh out those details to a tee.
“So we had many discussions of the essential sequence diagram for stars, fascinated with supergiants and G-Type stars and what it could mean to be a planet or a moon going around such a star. Within the series you will see planets not only undergo day-night cycles and have different climates, but there’ll even be seasonal differences.
“It is a more subtle attention to detail that I actually appreciate about working with David and the team at Apple. To get the science right in cases like that helps improve the story and makes the visuals particularly compelling. Then we had discussions in regards to the spaceships, how briskly they might travel, easy methods to make something look novel, and easy methods to construct that season one star bridge.”
Hollywood has a somewhat sketchy track record for injecting realistic science into their outer space endeavors in favor of spectacle over substance, and Hand was well aware of the checkered history.
“You get quite a bit less flawed while you start incorporating science early, and that is exactly what David did,” he notes. “I have been woven into this process because the earliest days. On this particular case of ‘Foundation,’ I am unable to consider an example of finding something we absolutely couldn’t do. By getting my science advise from the beginning, we could construct from the bottom up and make compromises here and there.
“An example that is applicable today is the Radiant, the palm-sized object of psychohistory predictions that now has a digital manifestation of Hari Seldon inside it. When that was being written we talked about what we could realistically portray by way of this character contained in the Radiant. Fast forward to today and everyone seems to be enchanted, if not petrified, by the prospect of AI and this Hari Seldon within the Radiant is a extremely fun technique to portray the potential of a supercomputer AI on screen.”
Hand did his homework thoroughly and even went back and browse the “Foundation” books as a part of the ramp-up for this ambitious production various years ago.
“They’re still good, but from a story and character standpoint they don’t seem to be great,” he admits. “They’re form of flat. Asimov wrote them as separate short stories at different time limits. So I give numerous credit to Goyer and the writing team for taking the nuggets of psychohistory and the massive science ideas that made those books what they were, but then tackling that challenge of an underdeveloped continuous plot and characters by adding things just like the genetic dynasty.
“Although I helped conceive of various theses planets and stellar systems, my jaw continually drops after I get to see these visuals on screen.”
“Foundation” airs exclusively on Apple TV+.