The direction of the series is starting to resolve a bit for me though I'm still not confident it's the best direction. We spend time with the Cleons (which I just realized is an anagram of "Clones"...weird) to show the dissolution of the Galactic Empire (another issue seems to be the new Cleon who has an unexpected variation...but it's not clear what or why...probably will become more important later). Then we have the first "Selden crisis" with the invasion of Terminus.
There are many interesting individual scenes in this episode. Cleon frightening one of his mathematicians to death has a kind of black humor to it. The interrogation of the Huntress is also interesting and dramatic. But the whole does not equal the sum of its parts.
What has become more obvious to me is that the writing is not clear about what Selden's psychohistory is and its implications. They make several references to "prophesy" in the series, giving Selden's work a quasi-religious feel (which I think is unnecessary.) We have several references to Selden's approach predicting the big events but not able to predict that of individuals and then we have the idea of one individual (Salvor Hardin, in this case) fouling up the plan...maybe. Yes, that's important but it seems premature to introduce that element right now. It's just all getting a little muddled. (And where did Hardin's ill-defined abilities to prophesy (?), see truth (?), come from? Why not make it clear what Hardin can do from the first?)
And one last suggestion (though it's too late to do anything about it): get rid of the narration. It sounds pseudointellectual and doesn't really add anything to the series. I'd prefer they show rather than tell.
There are many interesting individual scenes in this episode. Cleon frightening one of his mathematicians to death has a kind of black humor to it. The interrogation of the Huntress is also interesting and dramatic. But the whole does not equal the sum of its parts.
What has become more obvious to me is that the writing is not clear about what Selden's psychohistory is and its implications. They make several references to "prophesy" in the series, giving Selden's work a quasi-religious feel (which I think is unnecessary.) We have several references to Selden's approach predicting the big events but not able to predict that of individuals and then we have the idea of one individual (Salvor Hardin, in this case) fouling up the plan...maybe. Yes, that's important but it seems premature to introduce that element right now. It's just all getting a little muddled. (And where did Hardin's ill-defined abilities to prophesy (?), see truth (?), come from? Why not make it clear what Hardin can do from the first?)
And one last suggestion (though it's too late to do anything about it): get rid of the narration. It sounds pseudointellectual and doesn't really add anything to the series. I'd prefer they show rather than tell.