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The Foundation Trilogy (Dramatized) cover art

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
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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

What listeners say about The Foundation Trilogy (Dramatized)

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

A Muffled Foundation

This recording originates from 1973 as a BBC radio 4 dramatization and is contemporary with the John Pertwee era of Doctor Who. Not unsurprisingly the sound effects are of their time, with an additional nod to Forbidden Planet. Its effects and music comes from the same stable, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, as the Hitchhiker?s Guide to the Galaxy. When I originally listened to both of these programmes, in the late Seventies, the sound effects sounded really exciting through a little transistor radio and sometimes through the single earphone that came with it.
I own a tape version that I bought many years ago. The ?hardcopy? version is superior, in quality, to this copy, which from playing the sample sounds muffled as if it had been recorded out of a speaker, from an old LP recording, I?m sure I heard a pop or crackle here or there. I?ve just compared (played through the same speakers) my copy against the Audible sample and while there are passages that have a resonant ambience ? the narrative Encyclopedia Galactica, Court scenes etc. ? the dialogue is clear and crisp (on the hardcopy), as one would expect from the BBC.
This is another example of older recordings needing re-mastering for modern media. I have downloaded a copy of Bill Bryson?s Notes from a Small Island (Unabridged) and it too suffers from this muffled sound quality. I understand Audible are not the originators of the material on their site but they should exercise better quality control before they offer this sort of thing for sale, or perhaps offer a discount for damaged goods.
For the time being I'm sticking to the hardcopy.

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67 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Great story, awful music

The story as expected is excellent and the abridging has been done well. The voices are good and the timing works. However, the music/sound effects are like Pertwee Dr Who at it's most intrusive and the actors sound like they were recorded in a toilet. In a car you can hardly make out some of the quieter (in the distance) speakers as they boom with too much bass (I turned my bass right down). The musical interludes and intermittent backgrounds on the other hand are too loud, too jarring and just make you wince - they are simply unbearable on headphones - this would be better if the music was cleaned off completely. I'm guessing it was recorded in the 70's.

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22 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Asimov at his best. BBC at their worst.

There's nothing more to be said about the classic work that is Foundation, and so I won't. The dramatisation was patchy, trying to squeeze too much of the plot into a limited timeframe. The acting was fine but dated.

For me the big let down was the audio quality, which rendered the dialogue incomprehensible in many places, which with a complex plot like Foundation where you have to be on top of the story as it unfolds, makes for confusing storyline during the bits you can hear. Forget listening to this one in the car, high quality headphones in a silent house are essential.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

A great series let down by BBC

I have been a huge fan of Isaac Asimov for over 40 years and read the first paperback of the 'Foundation' when I was in my teens. I am also a huge fan (usually) of BBC dramatised versions of books.
Unfortunately, this time the great book series was spoilt by annoying sound effects which often obscured the dialogue. I have never, until now, regretted a purchase of an audio book, but this one has left me wishing a had ordered the 'plain' version. Really disappointing. BBC, please use the team that produced 'Hitchhikers Guide', that was brilliant.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

BBC Spoils another good story.

over dramatized with unnecessary sound effects what a waste!. . . . . . . . . .

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

A classic ruined

I got this since I remembered it from long, long ago when I listened to it one Radio 4. I loved it then. The whole thing was ruined by the production which was truly appalling, the dialogue muffled and then any sound effects loud and horrifically sharp, made much worse when listening on headphone. True it was cheap but if I had bought it from a shop I would have taken it back. Very, very poor. My advice - best avoided, really sorry I bought it.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Awful sound effects spoil a great story

Any additional comments?

If I was not already a fan of the Foundation I would not know whether the story was any good because the sound effects drowned out the narrator. An awful production of a great story

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Extremely dated

The story is a classic but the delivery is very dated and the sound effects are very irritating and laughably out of date. I recommend the book but just not this version.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

An impossible task, but worth the effort.

Anyone who has read the complete Foundation Trilogy will realise that cutting it down to 7 hours, whatever is an impossible task. I hope this fine greatly abridged dramatisation will not disappoint too much. They did their best. It's an epic tale spanning centuries of change across the galaxy. The basis of the plot is the idea of psychohistory where it is possible to predict what very large numbers of people will do. We get some good insights into present day politics/religion/commerce too. It's not all blasters and space ships. Fascinating, as Spock would say. Worth a try.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Grows on you

I must have listened to this over 100 times (I previously owned this same recording on cassette). Me and my partner call it our sleeping tablets as it is perfect for falling asleep to. But don't let that put you off, it is sci fi but at a much slower pace. More politics and ideas than guns and action.

The first half is much better in my opinon as it is more philsoophical, centred on the political fall out of the end of empire and the intellectual notion of psycho-history (a discovery that allows mathmeticians to predict the future based on large scale human behaviour). In my opinon, when the Mule enters the fray, the story begins to tail off, although it is still cracking. I went back and read the novels on which this was based and it sticks almost perfectly to the original novels.

The Foundation trilogy is essentially 9 or 10 short stories spanning several hundred years. The bite size nature makes it ideal for bedtime listening. The recording itself is a little poor, but certainly listenable and at this price, a fantastic bargain.

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3 people found this helpful