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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
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What listeners say about The Foundation Trilogy (Dramatized)

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

classic sci-fi

epic story by the master of science fiction not sure why I waited so long to find out what it was about. now want to read the books.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

nice performance, interesting ideas, patchy story

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, it's the sort of dramatisation that the BBC does extremely well. Engaging performances, well paced and I for one rather like the BBC Radiophonic Workshop soundtrack

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

It's been years since I read the Foundation novels so I'm not sure if it's a facet of the books or the adaptation but many of the twists are obvious from a mile off.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances? How does this one compare?

In terms of BBC dramatisations, particularly from the 70s this is a good example, if perhaps not the absolute pinnacle

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Not emotional exactly but some of the ideas presented give pause for thought

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Review

A classic si fi story, nice to hear the original BBC recordings again after hearing them
on BBC radio many years ago. The recordings quality is variable, and the scfi sounds rather dated. I would still recommend this audio drama.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Too much clutter

Let down by poor quality audio and too many sound effects that obscure the dialog

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A rather quaint rendition of this stunning work ruined by poor sound quality

This BBC radiophonic workshop production must have been marvellous at the time. It is very dated now however. Most notably it failed to address the crude gender imbalances (I assume) of the original works, there are one or two issues unavoidably in the text on that front but the preponderance of male characters just doesn’t feel right. For today’s nostalgic listener the joy of this work is sadly tempered by poor often inAudible sound muffling the sometimes bizarre clipped BBC accents. This required my device to be on full volume and still not be clear particularly with any external background noise . Luckily it is underpinned by Asimov’s masterpiece of mid 20th century science fiction so still very much worth a listen.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Would be great if the audio could be remastered

Not suggesting the style is modernised - it does sound dated. But this is ok, bigger problem is that the recording is muffled

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A good story, let down by bad volume levels

Careful if you listen to this using headphones. the speech is muffled, so you need it up quite loud, to make out what is being said, then every time the scenes transition the discordant "sci-fi " music is deafening. An interesting story and clever, but for me the sound levels need fixing.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

goodness sake the audio transitions need to chill

Everything is five stars apart from the audio scene transitions. They are cool but way too loud. The freaky space sounds need a 12 db cut at least. Some of the acting is a bit too shouty.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

bad sound quality

a good dramatisation of the three books and found listening on a phone better quality.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

What a shame

I listen while driving so have found the sound quality to be pretty awful.

Have read the books and love the story, so I'm annoyed with this as I've now wasted a credit.

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