Foundation Star Lee Pace Was Fascinated By A Surprising Side Of Isaac Asimov’s Writing

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Based on the iconic science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov, Apple TV Foundation takes a long look at history. The first season of “Enterprise” takes place in the year 12067 EI (Imperial Era), 12067 years after the founding of a vast galactic empire. Thanks to some careful research, fans have noticed that the empire didn’t arise until more than 18,000 years from the present day. The Enterprise book series also features huge, centuries-long time spans between installations and offers glimpses into a future that is too distant – perhaps 100 billion years away – for the mind to process. By then, all of humanity will have evolved into a single intelligence.

In the TV show “Foundation,” Lee Pace plays a series of Clone Emperors who oversaw the Galactic Empire for thousands of years, including Cleon I, Cleon XII, Cleon XIII, Cleon XVII, and Cleon XXIV. He also plays a clone named Brother Day who, along with Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton) and Brother Dusk (Terrence Mann), alternate the roles of various Cleons. The mythology and plot of the Foundation are too complex to go into here, and summarizing them would take longer than trying to explain the world of Frank Herbert’s Dune. Needless to say, it deals with big, wild ideas about institutions, empires, evolution, religion, and politics. This is par for the course for Asimov.

When Pace was preparing to star in Foundation, it was natural for him to do his research on Asimovites. However, it was soon discovered that Asimov, for all his fame in the worlds of science fiction, had an entirely separate literary niche that the actor knew nothing about. In an interview with Wired, Pace explained that he had just discovered the glory of the 1970s reference book Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare.

Before doing the Foundation gig, Pace was already a fan of Asimov and had read the Foundation novels. However, when he started doing his homework for the series, he learned of Asimov’s analysis of Shakespeare and became hooked all over again. By reading Asimov’s works, he found some unexpected connections:

“But actually, the thing I read very early on about Isaac Asimov — and this is quite a turn-off — is his analysis of Shakespeare’s plays. He has this amazing volume where he breaks down the history behind them and what Shakespeare meant. Some of the most interesting things he writes about are the relationship of robots and humans to technology. So, I feel like at the end of Season 3, we’re kind of uncovering some of the richest things that Isaac Asimov wrote about that were created within the world of ‘The Enterprise.’

For those unfamiliar with Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare, the author’s book reviews all of William Shakespeare’s plays in succession (for 849 pages), pointing out important passages and providing bits of historical context. Asimov does not analyze the meaning of the poet’s text or poetry; Instead, he looks to recordable details such as geography, trade, and politics to place Shakespeare’s words on a broader, human level. Asimov also groups Shakespeare’s plays by genre but by geographic region, essentially serving as a Shakespeare tour guide. There are Greek, Roman, Italian and English plays, while Hamlet and Macbeth are presented as English (perhaps disappointing for Shakespeare fans).

Throughout the book, one can see that Asimov, although a science fiction author, is concerned with the great distortion of human history, and tracing the way things are interconnected. This, as Peace notes, is also the main theme of “Institution.”

“Foundation” is now streaming on Apple TV.