I've Read Every Foundation Book. Here's What Apple TV's Series Gets Wrong

I didn't consider myself a science fiction guy until I picked up "I, Robot" during the pandemic. Fast forward one world crisis and 15 or so books later, and the genre's Founding Father, Isaac Asimov, had a new acolyte. I've read five "Foundation" books (twice), both prequels, and most of the robot novels. Naturally, I was excited for Apple TV's "Foundation" series, and I'll say this right off the bat: the geniuses behind the show are killing it. They've done a fantastic job. But there's a catch: Demerzel. Laura Birn's robotic character is interesting, compelling, and even tragic, but ultimately, it's missing one key trait: intention. Let me explain.

A "Foundation" adaptation was long called "unfilmable," and I get it. The books are all over the place. There is minimal character consistency. People like Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell) are only in the story for, like, two pages. No exaggeration. The narrative will skip 50 years between chapters, then spend a whole book on a few months of time. It's a behemoth challenge to adapt, and ex-showrunner David S. Goyer's impressive pitch has been nearly perfect. Sure, there are little things to criticize. That's the nature of this kind of stuff. But there's really one element, one elephant in the room, one thing the showrunners and writers are getting wrong that is so big, I just don't see how they're going to fix it.

Demerzel is literally the most important character in the books, and much of that comes from a high degree of intentional behavior woven into her character arc. In the show, though? They've turned her into a listless droid that is blindly following humanity-saving protocols and just starting to realize that they aren't going to work. Here's why this is a problem.

Demerzel is a positronic robot that has survived the ages. In the books (where she is portrayed as male), Demerzel is one of the critical connections between Asimov's "Robot" novels and his "Foundation" stories. The robot is alive comparatively early in human history. During this early time, it develops the Zeroth Law, which allows Demerzel to supersede the iconic First Law of Robotics (A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.) to protect humanity as a whole.

Still with me? Good, because it's important. Demerzel, equipped with the Zeroth Law, proceeds to become a key agent guiding human history. Not for centuries, but millennia. She has a constant presence (which Asimov makes more or less obvious at different points in his books) that guides humanity as it builds the Galactic Empire and, eventually, replaces it with the Foundation. Demerzel is also a critical player in developing the living planet of Gaia, a sentient hivemind of humans, flora, and fauna that are mentally connected and present a potential future evolution for humanity. There have been hints of this Gaia concept in season 3 of "Foundation," and you can bet it's going to be a key storyline in the upcoming season 4. But alas, there's the rub.

Throughout the first two seasons of the show, Demerzel is gradually revealed as the power behind the Imperial throne. By season 3, we see her struggling mightily as she waffles between protecting humans, her loyalty to the throne, and her desire to help humanity as a whole. She talks about the Zeroth Law in the show (nearly 20,000 years after she's developed it in the books), and eventually realizes that she can, indeed, help Harry Seldon (Jared Harris) and the Second Foundation reset humanity.

The issue? This is all new revelations and decision-making for our dear robot. Demerzel is coming to realizations in real time in the show that happen much, much earlier in the books.

If you don't see the problem yet, let me get down to brass tacks. This creates a major issue because, in Asimov's stories, Demerzel is a steady, devoted, and fiercely intentional force behind the scenes. The robot guides so many decisions, including learning, developing, and propagating the Jedi-like power of the mentalics, helping Harry Seldon very early on with his psychohistory, and spending five centuries developing the planet Gaia. In the show? All of that has apparently come together by happenstance or, at the least, by independently operating forces. And Demerzel? She's just getting with the program by the end of season 3, just in time to have her body vaporized by Brother Darkness (Terrence Mann).

I'm sure they can resurrect Demerzel and give her a new body. But it doesn't change the fact that her agency in the entire story has largely been stripped away. By giving her a journey of self-realization and newfound purpose, the show has stripped its most important character of its most important trait: intentionality.