A shorter episode this week but one that takes its time and fits in two stories: one on Trantor and one on Terminus, both set about 20 years after the last episode. The events at the end of Episode 2 are not touched on, even at a point in the dialogue where Hari Seldon's death is relevant. For those keeping track, I note that IMDB credits actor Lou Llobell (who plays Gaal Dornick) as having a voice role in this episode, which I believe confirms that she is the narrator?
The first 15-20 minutes is set on Trantor and follows the Clone Emperor Brother Dusk in the closing days of his life. Because everybody has aged, actor Terrence Mann has to play Brother Dusk and play Brother Day (last episode played by Lee Pace), whereas Brother Dawn is now an adult. I really like this idea, which has shades of Ann Leckie's Radch trilogy but also touches on elements from Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire.
I really enjoyed this initial segment. Aside from being thoughtful and visually rich, it conveys well the idea of the serial-Cleons as distinct characters as well as phases of the same character. Look what science fiction can do! There's no protracted discussion about the nature or ethics of cloning (...or galactic Empires but I'll get to that) but we get an interesting and character-led engagement with ideas of self, ageing and legacy.
I think it is also an excellent defence of this project as a whole. None of this is in Asimov's books but it is a set of rich science-fictional ideas applied to create an engaging story. It even emulates to a degree the ancestry of Foundation as short fiction. The quarter-hour story of Brother Dusk's last days isn't quite a short story structurally as it relies too much on prior events and as a set-up for later events, but it is also self-contained in other ways.
Nice, but I'm mindful of how badly a series with promising elements can run off the rails. I wonder if I should have waited until a whole season had dropped before reviewing? We will see.
I do need to talk about Demerzel though, so avoid spoilers from here.
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