The third season of Foundation is only two months away! And here I was beginning to doubt it would exist. I am thrilled, because I love the show and all the interesting things it did with the premise, and when it does get broadcast I hope I will find time for write the Byzantium - Asimov - Show writers meta brewing in me.

Dear Yuletide Writer,

we share at least one fandom, which is great, and I'm really grateful you take the time and trouble to write a story for me. All the prompts are just suggestions; if you have very different ideas featuring the same central characters, go for them. Also, I enjoy a broad range from fluff to angst, so whatever suits you best works fine with me.



DNW:

- bashing of canon pairings or characters in general. By which I don't mean the characters have to like each and everyone - a great number of those I've nominated can be described as prickly jerks, among other things, and it would be entirely ic for them to say something negative about people they canonically can't stand - but there's a difference between that and the narrative giving me the impression to go along with said opinions.

- Alpha/Beta/Omega scenarios, watersports, infantilisation. Really not my thing, sorry.


Likes:

- competence, competent people appreciating each other

- deep loyalty and not blindly accepting orders

- flirting/seduction via wordplay and banter (if it works for you with the characters in question)

- for the darker push/pull dynamics: moments of tenderness and understanding in between the fighting/one upman shipping (without abandoning the anger)

- for the pairings, both romantic and non-romantic, that are gentler and harmonious by nature: making it clear each has their own life and agenda as well

- some humor amidst the angst (especially if the character in question displays it in canon)


The question of AUs: depends. "What if this key canon event did not happen?" can lead to great character and dynamics exploration, some of which made it into my specific prompts, but I do want to recognize the characters. Half of those I nominated are from historical canons, and the history is part of the fascination the canon has for me. ) However, if you feel inspired to, say, write Maria Theresa, space captain, and manage to do it in a way that gives me gripping analogues to the historical situations: be my guest!

How much or how little sex: I'm cool with anything you feel comfortable with, from detailed sex to the proverbial fade out after a kiss. Or no sex at all (case in point: several of the non-romantic relationships I prompted), as long as the story explores the emotional dynamics in an intense way.

( Josephus Trilogy - Lion Feuchtwanger )

( 18th Century Fredericians )

( Byzantine Empresses )



( Foundation (TV) )


( Lost in Space )

( Vikings: Valhalla )

I got a new ipad for my birthday, and with that new ipad came three free months of Apple + tv. I wouldn't have subscribed on my own - I really have enough streaming services to justify to my budget - , but three free months, why not, and thus I had the chance to marathon Foundation, a tv series loosely based on Isaac Asimov's novels. It was go created by Josh Friedman by Sarah Connor Chronicles fame, Jane Espenson (from Buffy and BSG) is among the producers and scriptwriters, and Bear McCreary (from BSG and Black Sails) wrote the drop dead gorgeous music. All of which got my attention.

Now I have read the novels, but that was decades ago, literally when I was a teenager, I never reread them (as opposed to many of Asimov's robot stories, which I thus remember much better), and I only remember bits and pieces, not nearly enough to get emotionally invested in which I still could tell had to be massive changes. (For a start, lots more female characters in main roles having agenda and doing the talking than is common in good old Isaac's stories, the glorious Susan Calvin excepted.) This probably made me the ideal audience. All in all, I was impressed and increasingly hooked by the show. It has its bumpy early installment try out hits and misses in the first season, but by the second season you can tell the writers have figured out what works and what still needed improvement and keep on delivering great stuff. (BTW, I would NOT reccommend you start with the second season, though, and not just because I'm a completist by nature. The second season builds on what has happened in the first.) Also, the actors are great. Both the ones I already knew like Lee Pace (who gets to play several variations of a character due to the concept of cloning and has fight scenes in the nude at least once per season) and the ones that were new to me, like Laura Brin who plays Demerzel (aka what happens when the creator of Cameron and Catherine and John Henry from Sarah Connor Chronicles has a go at an Asimov material), or the actress playing Constant in the second season, are just outstanding. Incidentally, two of the main characters in both seasons are black women, and s2 adds two more poc women to the mix; I'm pretty sure Gaal and Salvor, if they existed - I think Gaal did, but I could be misrenembering? - were white men in the books. Go show, say I. Though Gaal's storyline in s1 was after a strong start left meandering and one of those elements in need of improvement, which definitely came in s2, more about this later. Season 2 also offers Ben Daniels, last seen by me as one of the two leads in the tv Exorcist, and he's both badass and gay in his Foundation role as well.

What I did remember from those decades ago was the basic premise both books and tv show share: the concept of "Psychohistory", mathemaqtician Hari Seldon using said craft to predict the Galactic Empire he lives in is about to fall and will be suceeded by 30 000 years or more by bloody chaos unless active measures are taken (including but not limited to the Foundation of the title) that will limit the decline and fall time to a thousand years. There's an obvious Edward Gibbon interpretation of the titular Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire influence here along with with some Byzantium in the way said Empire is depicted, along with questions as to whether or not the future can be changed or is set in stone, the weight of individual choices vs the big picture, the concept of freedom and so forth.

Foundation, the tv series, took the late Roman/Byzantines in Space idea and ran with it, but far more inventively than other space Romans I've watched. Instead of your regular imperial dynasty (which it is in the novels, I think), the "genetic dynasty" in the show always consists of a trio of clones based on its founder, Cleon I., in various stages of his life - Brother Dawn (child and young man up to his early 20), Brother Day (the ruling Emperor in his 30s and 40s, and that's where multiple Lee Pace performances come in, naked or otherwise) and Brother Dusk (50s, 60s, 70s, then he "ascends" i.e. dies and a new baby brother Dawn is "birthed" while the previous Dawn and Day are promoted to Day and Dusk, respectively. This is supposed to ensure there's never a succession conflict and is also a great symbol for the stagnation Seldon diagnoses, because while the various clones of Cleon do have some differences in their personalities (and these are a gift for actors), they raise each other and thus the same type of decisions keep being made. Also raising them, supporting them and being the all important political advisor to boot: Demerzel, the last (to everyone's knowledge, including her own) surviving human-looking robot, who was already millennia of years old when the Genetic dynasty started. (We get some dialogue in both seasons about the millennia ago "Robotic Wars", but no details. Demerzel's personal backstory is revealed in fragments, with the biggest reveal happening in the last but one season episode which recontextualizes a lot of previous events, but there's still a lot more, given her age. (She might be the oldest sentient person in the galaxy at this point, and she's definitely a person.) (If you know your Asiimov Robotic Laws, you'll mutter "but what about..." at certain plot points in s1; s2 does bring them up and addresses what altered for Demerzel re: that.) Demerzel's relationships with the Cleons and theirs with her is intense and screwed up on several levels, and as I said, and the question of free will and programming for both machine and human is very much central to it. As for the imperial clones, of whom we meet various incarnations due to s1 having two time jumps and s2 another one right at the start, they work better as variations of the same basic potential and genetic make-up changed through circumstances into separate personalities than anything I've seen since Orphan Black. (BTW, I wouldn't be surprised if the decision to make them a triad at different ages wasn't on a Doylist level also made to ensure no one actor had to do all those scenes because while Tatiana Maslany succeeded gloriously, this is a A LOT of work.) Some are sympathetic, some are despicable, some in between, but you always get where they're coming from - and the sheer deformity which comes by inahabiting the all powerful position of Empire is never ignored.

And those are "just" the show's antagonists.

(The Imperial splendor on Trantor is both where part of the show's budget clearly went and Byzantine-influenced more than by Romans, with the colourful murals being also plot points in both seasons.)

On the heroic side of things, we have Gaal, mathematical prodigy from a deeply science loathing planet, Salvor, of the first generation born Terminus, the planet where Seldon's followers were settling on, who in the first seaosn is the show's stoic action heroine, Salvor's parents who are part of the original exiles, Salvor's boyfriend... and the late, or is he, Hari Seldon, whose theory kicks off the plot. Hari Seldon in the novels as far as I recall dies very early on and thereafter occasionally shows up as a holographic recording. This isn't quite what happens on the show, to put it as unspoilery as possible. He's also a lot more morally ambiguous than the nice old man figure I dimly recalled. Which is guessable from the fact they hired Jared Harris to play him. ( Definitely spoilery comments about the show's Hari Seldon ensueing. )

S2 added Constant and Poly (Poly we've seen as a small boy in s1 and he's an old man in s2), and Constant, a cheerful cleric with an earthy fondness for life and a great sense of humor, is probably my favourite new s2 character, despite fierce competition by Space!Belisarius, err, General Bel Rios, the Ben Daniels character who comes with a husband he loves, Glawen, Queen Sarbeth and her trusty advisor the former courtesan Rue. (Rue has backstory with the current Dusk, Sarbeth has plans for the current Day.) And Hober, a trickster type from the fine tradition of characters claiming to look out only for themselves but finding themselves in the business of hero saving before they know it. The various storylines intersect and influence each other at different points, and where in s1 I thought the Clones-plus-Demerezel plotline worked better than the Foundation characters plot line(s) did, s2 changed that so I never was impatient to get back to palace scheming and power struggling but was rivetted by what everyone else whas doing as well, see above.

Perfect, the show is not. But it has definitely captured me, and I do hope it will get its third season to continue its tale. Both seasons wrap up the stories of their seasons-only characters, and there will of course be another time jump (as indicated by its teaser scene at the very end), but in addition to those characters surviving from season to season due to plot and circumstance (three or four so far, depending on how you count one of them), this is a show where cloning, digital copies and as of s2 ( something spoilery ) are all part of the worldbuilding, so they could potentially bring back other characters as well. Even if not, there hasn't been one the show didn't manage to make interesting for me so far, and I trust that will continue. And it is fantastic to look at, in general, not just Trantor. The "spacers", i.e. genetically manipulated humans needed by the current faster-then-light travelling ships, being a case in point, but also invidual worlds, like the desert world Brother Day and Demerzel visit in s1, or Gaal's watery home planet. (That her people chose to ignore science and let the ruination of the environment continue until the ocean overtook everything is a none too subtle dig at the present, but that water planet still looks great.)

...and did I mention you get Lee Pace doing everything from subtle reactions to scenery chewing with abandonment as various Space!Roman/Byzantine Emperors with no concept of personal space?

More Yuletide. Incidentally, I haven't had the chance to watch either of the Christmas specials I want to watch yet - Doctor Who and Call The Midwife, that is - and might not get the chance until after New Year. Being with the family is tricky that way. But it does offer the occasional time to read! And thus, without further ado:

( Recs for Breaking Bad, Dexter, Galaxy Quest, The Last Unicorn, Psycho, Robot Series by Isaac Asimov, Sarah Jane Adventures and Watership Down )