Radio / The Foundation Trilogy

Title: Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation.
Author: Isaac Asimov
Audio Adaptation: Patrick Tull

—Narrator

A Dramatization by BBC Radio broadcast on Radio in 1973, based on Isaac Asimov's Space Opera of the same name. Told in 8 one-hour segments, each episode is edited to change the Third-Person Omniscient narration into pure Dialogue, adding Music and Sound Effects for the immersive qualities.

• "Part One: The Psychohistorians and the Encyclopedists", airdate 6 May 1973
  The first episode covers the events from "The Psychohistorians" and "The Encyclopedists".
• "Part Two: The Mayors", airdate 13 May 1973
  The second episode covers the events from "The Mayors".
• "Part Three: The Merchant Princes", airdate 20 May 1973
  The third episode covers the events from "The Merchant Princes".
• "Part Four: The General", airdate 27 May 1973
  The fourth episode covers the events from "The General (Foundation)".
• "Part Five: The Mule", airdate 3 June 1973
  The fifth episode covers "Part One" of "The Mule".
• "Part Six: Flight from the Mule", airdate 10 June 1973
  The sixth episode covers "Part Two" of "The Mule".
• "Part Seven: The Mule Finds", airdate 17 June 1973
  The seventh episode covers the events from "Search by the Mule".
• "Part Eight: Star's End", airdate 24 June 1973
  The eighth episode covers the events from "Search by the Foundation".

Copies of this radio broadcast are available from Audible, the Internet Archive, iTunes, and YouTube.

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The Foundation Trilogy provides examples of:

• Adaptation Deviation: This adaptation changes much of the third-person narration into character dialogue and tries to make the dialogue sound more natural when spoken aloud. Minor elements (such as Lord Dorwin's Elmuh Fudd Syndwome or Magnifico's Flowery Elizabethan English) are often subjected to removal, although the converse of minor elements being added (such as expanding planet Rossem) also occurs. During "Part Seven: The Mule Finds", the Encyclopedia Galactica excerpt is changed from the Mule, to an excerpt about Kalgan, capital of the Mule's empire.
• Adaptation Distillation: This adaptation of The Foundation Trilogy skips "The Traders", and occasionally leaves out minor elements (the Funetik Aksents Dr Asimov wrote, for example). "Part Eight: Star's End", does the most abridging, making "Search by the Foundation" (a three-part story) the same length as "Search by the Mule" (published in only one part).
• Audience Murmurs: The sound effect of a grumbling audience is used during Hober Mallow's trial to emphasize the fact that he and his prosecutor are having this courtroom debate in front of an audience.
• Audio Adaptation: This is an adaptation of The Foundation Trilogy by The BBC Radiophonic Workshop for Radio with a full cast for the characters, sound effects, and with stereophonic radio (one of the BBC's first ever).
• Computer Voice: Text from the Encyclopedia Galactica is read aloud in a monotone and artificially adjusted to sound more robotic. It's also overlaid with a clicking sound to imply a computer recording.
• Dramatization: As a Radio broadcast, the third-person narration was removed, and some of the dialogue was changed to include characters talking about their actions, such as who is entering/leaving the room.
• Drop Ship: In "Part Seven: The Mule Finds", Bail Channis explains to the Rossom governor that the transport they arrived on is merely a surface-to-ship capsule, and that their spaceship remains in orbit around the planet.
• Encyclopedia Exposita: The Encyclopedia Galactica excerpts are read in a monotone voice and artificially adjusted to sound more robotic. It's also overlaid with a clicking sound to imply a computer recording. The excerpts primarily appear at the start of certain story segments aligning to their publication as a Novel, it also shows up to interrupt the text, like a footnote. During "Part Seven: The Mule Finds", the excerpt is changed from the Mule, to an excerpt about Kalgan, capital of the Mule's empire.
• Footnote Fever: The Encyclopedia Galactica is read as an Epigraph at the start of each story segment, but also interrupts the dialogue occasionally to clarify terms that the audience may be unfamiliar with. Mostly during "Part One: The Psychohistorians and the Encyclopedists".
• Gratuitous Panning: This 1973 adaptation of Isaac Asimov's famous work starts with a computer voice speaking over the sound of a teleprinter. To imitate the effect of the machine printing, the voice pans slowly from left to right and then back at the end of each 'line'.
• Ludd Was Right: In "Part Seven: The Mule Finds", the citizens of Rossum point out that their existence, lacking in technology or intense thought, has made them content and happy with their life, unlike Captain Pritchard who has been highly stressed throughout this whole situation.
• Narrating the Obvious: The closest thing to a Narrator in this broadcast are the recitations from the Encyclopedia Galactica. The dramatization required changes to the dialogue to include many of the character actions that had been described by the third-person narration, causing characters to describe what they see happening to the character taking that action.
• Narrator: The Encyclopedia Galactica is read by a narrator with a teletype machine in the background and in a monotone voice artificially adjusted to sound more computery. The original work's third-person narration is removed, leaving characters to comment on each other's actions.
• Noisy Nature: In "Part Seven: The Mule Finds", the farm animals are noisier than the humans when the characters visit a pig farm. Pigs don't usually squeal and grunt constantly.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: To capitalize on their multi-actor cast, many lines from the third-person narration in the book were rewritten to be dialogue for the characters.
• Radio Voice:
  • "Part One: The Psychohistorians and the Encyclopedists": During Hari Seldon's trial, everyone's voice gains a reverb to indicate that they're using a microphone to speak to the room.
  • "Part Three: The Merchant Princes": During Hober Mallow's trial, he and his prosecutor take on a soft reverb and the background fills with Audience Murmurs to indicate a large room and microphones to carry their voices.
  • "Part Seven: The Mule Finds": The mental voices used for Psychic Powers develop a reverb so that they are not mistaken for verbal dialogue.
• Second-Hand Storytelling: While most of the examples are played as straight as they are in the original work, "Part Two: The Mayors" manages to shift King Lepold's recounting of the Nyak hunt to occuring during the hunt itself, rather than speaking of it in the past tense.
• Stock Sound Effects: When the computerized narrator announces the title or quotes from the Encyclopedia Galactica, the sounds of a teletype machine play in the background to imply that the Narrator is a mechanical recording.
• Speech Impediment: In "Part Seven: The Mule Finds", the people of Rossum struggle to communicate clearly, usually stuttering over simple words.
• Title Drop: The last episode, "Part Eight: Star's End", refers to Hari Seldon's statements (during "The Psychohistorians"), that the Second Foundation is founded at Star's End.

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