Lee Pace as Brother Day (Cleon I, XII, XIII, XVII, XXIV), the middle-aged member of a series of genetic clones of Cleon I, who reigns as Emperor of the 12,000-year-old Galactic Empire. Pace also portrays Cleon I in his prime. Curious is that Brother Day considers Brother Dawn to be his son.

Leah Harvey as Salvor Hardin (seasons 1–2), the Warden of Terminus 35 years after Seldon's trial, hero of the Foundation's first crisis, and later she learns Gaal Dornick is her mother and she also learns that her visions didn’t come from Hari but from her mother.

Laura Birn as Demerzel, the great caretaker to the Emperors and one of the last surviving gynoids from the ancient Robot Wars. She is an android herself who is working for the Emperors for many centuries. Even though she is very loyal to them, it is obvious she does not agree with everything they do, sometimes even loathe it.

Terrence Mann as Brother Dusk (Cleon I, XI, XII, XVI, XXIII), the eldest member of a series of genetic clones of Cleon I who retired from his duties as Emperor. Mann also portrays an elderly Cleon I.

Cassian Bilton as Brother Dawn (Cleon I, XIV, XVIII, XXV), the youngest member of a series of genetic clones of Cleon I and the successor-in-training of Brother Day. He is colorblind but he hides this from Dawn and Day because this is considered imperfection which will kill him.

Daniel MacPherson as Hugo Crast (season 1; guest season 2), an interplanetary trader from Thespis who became Salvor Hardin's lover. In the first season he escaped death on more than one occasion.

Kubbra Sait as Grand Huntress Phara Keaen (season 1), the top military officer of Anacreon who personally leads a raid on Terminus. I was really happy when Salvor put a stop to her, she is so annoying, like her opponents, the viewer also really dislikes her!

Foundation is based on a series of books by Isaac Asimov, created by David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman. Goyer is also known from The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Dark City,, Flashforward, Man of Steel, Threshold and many, many more. Friedman is known for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, War of the Worlds (Tom Cruise), Snowpiercer (TV Series), Avatar: The Way of Water and many, many more. As you can see, both creators have a lot of genre tv and movie experience.

How it all starts:

It is a massive story that spans over multiple planets, different cultures, many centuries. Different storylines intertwine with the large scope in this massive foundation universe. It starts with a great longstanding Empire which is starting collapse. Hari Seldon, a mathematician, has calculated that the Empire, which rules over everyone, will collapse within approximately 500 years. Because he has said this publicly, he gets into a great deal of trouble, as also his adoptive son who is also his assistant Raych (Alfred Enoch), and new prodigy Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell). After winning a mathematician contest, she leaves her home planet Synnax to study with him. This coincides with the death of millions on the planet Trantor, within the Empire, when the Star Bridge is destroyed by terrorists. Brother Day, partly blames Hari for announcing this public announcement and suspects the peoples of Anacreon and Thespis to be behind the actual terrorist attack. To show force, he orders Anacreon and Thespis to be bombed. Instead of killing Hari, Gaal and Raych, Brother Day decides to exile them to a faraway planet called Terminus to establish their Foundation. The reasoning behind it: If they are right, then the Empire will be able to take credit for assisting the Foundation. if the predictions are wrong, then the Foundation will be forgotten at the edge of the galaxy. It will take the ship 4+ years to arrive at Terminus, which should give them enough time to prepare them for living on this harsh planet.

A different approach:

What you’ve read till now is approximately the first two episodes. This is (obviously) the start of this massive saga. I decided to publish this version of my first watch instead of the complete first watch blog because of a few reasons: I am trying to downsize on the length of my blogs; in extension thereof, I want to try and write in less detail; In extension thereof, is that I currently am incapable to give a more general overview of the complete first season of Foundation; last one, there are many spoilers in the rest of this blog.

Still, if there are folks who want to read it all, the details, the spoilers, I added a word document of the complete blog.

Final Word:

As said, Foundation is a massive show, I don’t think I currently can compare it with any other SCI-FI show. It latterly spans centuries, it jumps from past to present and future, many storylines all connected in someway. Don’t expect an action pact SCI-FI series, it often is slow going, it certainly is not fast paced, only on rare occasions things speed up. It is far more an intellectual piece of television, the CGI is amazing, the production values are over the top, it looks fantastic and yes, the story, although mostly slow-going is engaging. I don’t think it is for everyone, it will not be appreciated by everyone but it is a very interesting and massive saga for the ones who do love it!

Screencaps taken from TheTVShows.us.