Foundation “The Shape of Time” is the sixth episode of the third season. While the first five episodes have spent time building up the growing conflict between the Empire, the Foundation, and this season’s main villain, The Mule, this episode features more combat. This is something I have been eagerly anticipating. Foundation Season 3 is certainly keeping us busy with drama in the Empire, as things fall apart in the wider galaxy.
The Fight We’ve Been Waiting For
Last week’s episode left us on a cliffhanger of Demerzel boarding the Beggar’s Lament. When we consider it, Dermerzel is one of the few characters, alongside The Cleons, Seldon, and Dornick, who have been present during the significant events of history so far. After a bit of a struggle, the conversation between the two characters provides valuable insights into the topics of the Foundation. For example, discussing how Demerzel can’t use the Prime Radiant to understand the shadows, which is the second Foundation.
The following scenes between Demerzel and Gaal, in what appears to be a knock-off of the Star Trek Vulcan Mind Meld, were among the gruesome scenes from the first few episodes. The revelation that The Mule’s upcoming battle is going to take place on Trantor is not a big surprise. With what has happened in the last episode, Trantor and the Empire are both vulnerable, with a lot of the fleet destroyed. However, once again in this episode, the VFX team deliver some stunning shots of the visions both characters are seeking.
Demerzel remains one of the most compelling characters in Foundation. Not only is she full of tricks, like causing EMPs and being able to revive people. Foundation “The Shape of Time” finally gives us more information on the mysterious vision of Gaal Dornick fighting The Mule. It’s something that was shown in the second season. However, the first part of Foundation Season 3 does not really do much with this. Although this episode finally reveals more and more.
New Terminus
Toran and Bayta Mallow have arrived at New Terminus with Uncle Mallo and the mysterious Magnifico Giganticus. It’s somewhat both enjoyable and disappointing that Toran has put a shirt on now, after being shirtless for the first part of Foundation Season 3. I remain confident that the musician is part of some trap by The Mule. Taking him to the Foundation HQ is going to be a terrible idea. We know The Mule is coming for Foundation, along with Empire and everyone else.
The Vault is also seen once again, with Doctor Ebling Mis observing. We’re at the point of The Vault opening, as it does once every season, it would seem. Thankfully, we got more of Jared Harris as Hari Seldon. I do enjoy the scenes Harris appears in, simply because he steals every one of them. While his absence is understandable, given the story, it is still a shame that we are not seeing more of him.
The Battle of New Termius fully kicks off and gives us more explosive action in Foundation Season 3. With Seldon vanishing into thin air and The Vault closing up again, it makes me think that the Hologram Seldon has realised he is not fully aware of what is going on. From the first two seasons, we know that the Vault Seldon was an edited version that lacked knowledge of the Second Foundation, which likely explains why this version is not aware of The Mule.
Empire & Brother Day’s Journey
Empire is scattered and broken at the moment. Brother Dawn is dead it would seem, while Brother Dusk is only days away from the end of his time. However, Brother Day has gone completely awol and escaped into a lower colony of Trantor. His story is somewhat of a sad story, not only for Brother Day but also for Empire. We’re seeing the fall and decline of each individual member. However, the story is rather compelling. Day is a man chasing a normal life and wanting normal love. It is something we see a ton of times in Sci-Fi settings like this, leaders who don’t want to be where they are.
Notably, Brother Dusk was missing from this episode. Which raises a lot of questions. We’ve also got his Superweapon to think about for upcoming episodes, the blackhole type of thing. It’s unknown if anything will be done with that, but I expect something will happen and Empire will likely need to use it.
Conclusion
Foundation “The Shape of Time” really dives headfirst into the action. I think the highlights for me were the ending moments of the episode. The Foundation thought they were strong, but The Mule’s arrival trashed their fleet, and Hari Seldon vanished. This episode was fantastic and likely one of my favourites of this season so far. The fleet battles with New Termius are excellent, although I would appreciate a bit more close-up action with ships. Then again, Foundation has never really given us that, apart from the end of the second season.
Foundation Season 3 premiered on AppleTV+ on July 11th 2025. New episodes are released weekly on every Friday. Based on the award-winning novels by Isaac Asimov, “Foundation” chronicles a band of exiles on their monumental journey to save humanity and rebuild civilisation amid the fall of the Galactic Empire.
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