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With Foundation Season 3 in the rearview, we attempt to take a holistic look at the entire season and put it all into perspective, not just within the show but its production. Spoilers to come as usual! We're joined by Travis Johnson, Friend of Stars End, formerly of the Black Alert Podcast and Star Trek Podigy, both Star Trek Podcasts, and much more! I feel like we're crawling from the wreckage. Travis, however, enjoyed the season and was looking forward to discussing it! I hope we didn't bring him down. But where are we? The Genetic Dynasty? Gone! Demerzel? Melted! The Luminists, Cloud Dominion, and the Galactic Council? Devastated! David Goyer and a lot of the creative staff? Shuffled off! Roxann Dawson? We don't know! Yet, the robot head we're calling Giskard has WiFi, and it looks like robots writ large will become an important force in what's to come. Season 4 has officially been greenlit, but will we actually see it? And is there hope for the narrative going forward? Once again, we try to puzzle it all out! Join us! And don't forget to vote for this year's Hari Awards for Foundational Excellence! Polls close on October 11th!

Hoo boy! That was one hell of a season finale, wasn't it? You may have noticed that none of us were exactly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as we remonstrated about Foundation's Season 3, Episode 10, "The Darkness." Spoiler Alert, as usual. Of course, you can listen without watching first, but this one needs to be seen to be believed. But there were small photons of light trying to break through the shroud; we were joined for our conversation by Cora Buhlert, the 2022 winner of the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer. Cora has an incandescent and extensive collection of commentary and fiction. Want to check it out? Start at her blog, CoraBuhlert.com! Her latest foray into fiction is "Queen of the Communist Cannibals," published in Cliffhanger Magazine. And speaking of cannibals, how about that David Goyer? Okay, "cannibal" might not be entirely fair, but he recently said that one of the reasons he's stepping away from the show is that he "was having a hard time figuring out how to keep doing my vision of the show on a smaller budget." Is that what this is? Full Metal Belt-Tightening? Who needs to send out pink slips when you're writing the script?

In which we ruminate about Foundation, S3E09, "The Paths that Choose Us." Spoiler Alert, as if that wasn't obvious. If you thought that episode 8 was intense, this one was a philosophical gut punch after another. And they come, fast and powerful. We see the full extent of the Mule's power as Gaal tries to free Warden Greer. And we see Dusk, despite the "genetic drift," doing the most Cleonic Thing possible. If you thought the destruction of Anachreon and Thespis was intense, you'd better buckle up! Sad, alone, and desperate to matter, even his final meal is an act of spite. Demerzel is questioning. Rather than following an efficient, structured algorithm, a plethora of paths try to choose her. Can she find guidance in the Prime Radiant? And finally, Brother Dude has escaped the compost heap and is rushing toward the Imperial Palace with the Brazen Robot Head that we can only call Giskard for some reason. Can Giskard help him make amends with Demerzel? So watch the episode if you haven't yet, and then join us for the show! What does it all mean? We're teetering on the razor's edge. Come see where we fall! Let's GO!

Join us for another barn burner of an episode as we look below the surface of Foundation, S3E08, “Skin in the Game!” Brother Dude goes on trial, Brother Dawn wakes up, and Brother Dusk is up to something so sinister that Demerzel is preconfessing. We're picking up speed as we slide into the inevitable conclusion! Also, what's up with Bayta? Don't miss this one!

Foundation, S3E07, "Foundation's End" is another episode that demands analysis! And has big revelations! Don't tell anyone, but I may have squeed. We have another special guest to help us wrap our heads around this one! Spoiler alerts, as usual. And don't let the title frighten you; we're not going anywhere! In this one, she names the robot that dare not speak its name. Plus, brother dude goes on a trip that makes 2001: A Space Odyssey seem tame in comparison! And a surreal fairy tale that probably has something to do with "the Mule's" backstory! A bit, a bit. To quote the great Hari Seldon, "Tragic story, I wonder how much of it is true." We're joined, once again, by Renaissance Man Extraordinaire, Paul Levinson! Since he was last on the show, Paul has published a short story, "In the Dybbuk's Pocket," and expanded the short story we discussed last time into a novel, It's Real Life: A Natural History of The Beatles. Paul and some friends did a reading from the novel at Big Red Books. You can check that out here! But first, join us for our deconstruction of what Paul calls 'by far the best of all the episodes (of Foundation) so far!" Once again, you don't want to miss this one! Let's GO!!

Let's chat about Foundation, S3E06, "The Shape of Time!" It's a big episode and we have a big guest star to enlarge our conversation. We call this one, "The Shape of the Podcast," and people are already calling it "longer than usual!" As you proceed, be warned! Here be spoilers! If the mark of a great episode is that it becomes even more interesting on a second watch, then this one checks the box! Our big guest hails from a planet that, to paraphrase Douglas Adams, is bigger than the biggest potato ever and then some! We welcome back Rick Tetrault from the ⁠⁠Infinite Potato Alliance⁠! Rick's currently featured on ⁠⁠⁠That Star Trek Podcast⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠Unspeakable: A Call of Cthulu Actual Play Podcast⁠! It's big talk about big developments! Don't miss this one! Let's GO!

In which we discuss Apple TV+'s Foundation, S3E05 - "Where Tyrants Spend Eternity." We didn't love this episode as much as the last one. Do you remember the Star Trek Episode "Court Martial?" It's the one where Captain Kirk is accused of murdering Lt. Commander Benjamin Finney. It's a little like that. The climax of the episode comes when Kirk's attorney, Samuel T. Cochran, deploys the Chewbacca defense. He starts with, "Ladies and gentlemen of the supposed jury, this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk. But Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about it; that does not make sense!" Eventually, he concludes, "If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit," and Kirk goes free. Also, this description does not make sense. There's a lot of that going on.

Join us as we talk about Foundation, S3E04, "The Stress of Her Regard." It's an episode so big, so intense, and so seismic that it'll take FOUR of us to talk about it! In 1893, Nikola Tesla invented an earthquake machine! Legend has it that by 1898, the machine was so powerful that neighbors called the police, afraid that Tesla's laboratory was about to shake itself apart! If you want to wreak that much havoc in the Foundation Universe, you ask Roxann Dawson to direct an episode! Hoo doggy, is this one a humdinger! We're joined by Joel McKennon of the Seldon Crisis Podcast as we break down this earth-shattering, paradigm-shifting, and mind-blowing installment! Don't miss this one! The entire galaxy might be trying to shake itself apart!

We discuss Foundation, S3E03, "When a Book Finds You." Now, you may find yourself grooving in a Kalgan rave. Or, you may find yourself with an intuitive giraffe. Or, you may find yourself in the stacks of a large imperial library. Or, you may find yourself with a dubious prince, with a dubious beard. So you may ask yourself, "Huh, how did I get here?" It was the book. The book found you as it found us all. But what was the book? Was it some needlepoint mathematics in a Toblerone box, or Foundation and Empire? It could have been The Zen of Positronic Robots by Sunmaster 74, or even How to Subjugate the Galaxy On Less Than 30 Altairian Dollars a Day by Magnifico Giganticus! It almost certainly wasn’t The Sensuous Dirty Old Man by Dr. A. So join us! Come along for the ride as we discuss what we’re calling “Possibly the best episode of season three so far!” You’ll be glad you did!

In which we talk about Foundation S3E02, "Shadows in the Math." Spoiler Alert! You know what to do! The pieces are starting to fall into place! S3E02 begins with a brief review of how the Second Foundation has evolved over the past 150 years! We see the Mule trying to consolidate power on Kalgan and get to meet Torin and Bayta! Meanwhile, the Cleons each seem to be going off the rails in their own, wildly diverging direction. We talk about it. Do we make sense of it all? There are still a lot more questions than answers! Plus, our first Laura Burn! Don't miss it! And don't forget to join the conversation at r/StarsEndPodcast on Reddit! Let's GO!

In which we discuss Apple TV+'s Foundation, S3E01, "A Song For The End of Everything." Now we're into the meat of our new even-numbered season as we finally have a real teevee episode to talk about! As always, this way lies spoilers. If you care about such things, get thee to the platform! We'll be here when you're ready! The premier is dense, and it's a barn-burner! We welcome the return of friend of the podcast, Alexander Siddig! We recognize Brothers Dawn and Dusk, but we're not sure what we should call the other guy. Is Demerzel having a mid-life crisis? Is that guy really the Mule? Where's Bayta? And what is it with the name "Han," anyway? So we have questions! Do we have answers? Tune in and see! Let's GO!

It's an even-numbered season of the Stars End podcast! You know what that means! Our Second Interregnum has come to a close! The big news, of which you're already, no doubt, aware, is the return of Foundation to Apple TV+! New episodes are officially set to appear in a mere 65 hours or so! We're here and we're ready! We're going to watch 'em! We're gonna talk about 'em! It's why we came together as a podcast to begin with! There's still some of Season 5 in Post-Production. We'll get that out in parallel with season 6! And we had a question from a listener about whether we have a forum where those interested could find the three of us. Our Twitter account used to serve that purpose, but you know we've mostly evacuated from that cesspool. We've established a new beachhead on Reddit, and all three of us can now be found at r/StarsEndPodcast! Here are the "official teaser" that came out a few weeks ago and the official trailer!

In this episode, we continue to drift along The Currents of Space, floating into chapters 7 through 12. This almost coincides with the second installment in Astounding Science Fiction for November 1952 (Chapter 7 was published in October). This is the middle section of Asimov's middle Galactic Empire Novel (in-universe chronologically, that is). The middle layer of a current is called the laminar flow. It flows somewhat faster than the currents near the water's surface or the riverbed. We'll leave it to you to decide if this part of the novel flows better or more quickly than the rest of the book. A lot is going on. Rik is regaining his memories and remembering the world of Spacioanalytics, the Five Great Squires are being blackmailed, Rik and Velona escape into space only to be forced into a room to discuss things with Lady Samia of Fife in classic Asimovian style and the Townsman embarks on a spree of killing and craziness that paradoxically culminates in his being stuck on a ship that he can't pilot. Check out the chapters, then join us for the conversation! Let’s GO!

We start Asimov's third (or second) Galactic Empire Novel, The Currents of Space, by discussing chapters 1 through 6. This nearly corresponds to the first installment published in the October 1952 issue of Astounding Science Fiction which covered 1 through 7. A friend tells me that our episodes are better when we’re enjoying the stuff that we’re reading. We certainly enjoy reading The Stars End Mail Bag! This time when we opened it up, it inspired a short conversation about My Living Doll starring Julie Newmar and Bob Something-Or-Other. And we’re liking The Currents of Space so far! It hits the ground running with a threat of planetary destruction and a hero in the mists of amnesia! This is the Good Doctor’s take on race relations in the American South making it a nice companion to The Caves of Steel which tackled the issue in our northern cities. This gave us a lot to think about! Like, what year was this written? It looks like the answer is actually 1952 and not 1951 like I, Joseph, thought. We see parallels to three (count ‘em! 3!) Star Trek episodes! But which ones? Not "The Omega Glory," I'll tell you that much. Is Ol’ Isaac reading comic books on the side? And how does this compare to the other Galactic Empire Novels? Plus, another round of “Where’s Daneel?“ Have we figured that out yet? And more! You’ll have to listen to find out!

We conclude our coverage of The Stars Like Dust ―, with chapters 15 through 22. That corresponds to part 3 of Tyrann as published in The March 1951 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. "We the People… Do Ordain and Establish this Podcast." As we rejoin our heroes The USS Enterprise, trailer firmly attached by tractor beam, is approaching planet Omega 4. There they find the derelict USS Exeter in orbit. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Galloway beam over to the Exeter where the entire crew has mysteriously been turned into common rock salt, just like you can buy from any neighborhood hardware store. No, wait. I'm confused. That's the "Omega Glory," S2E23 of Star Trek. I swear, sometimes these Star Trek references just write themselves. Anyway, the beginning of the episode is actually pretty good, but the ending is very, very dumb. So dumb that it lands it in the "So bad you have to see it to believe it" category. Unfortunately for the episode, people only seem to remember that ending. To Asimov's credit, we know that he did not like that ending, Strangely he didn't like it even some 15 years or so before the episode aired. How does that work? I guess you'll have to listen to our episode. Meanwhile, being of a certain age myself, I can't seem to get this little earworm out of my head. Let's all sing along! "Ee Plannista, enor durtofo amo orper fectyoo nion..." Everybody!!