Salvor Hardin

Hardin is voiced by Lee Montague in episode two "The Mayors" of the 1973 BBC Radio 4 adaptation The Foundation Trilogy.^[4][5]

A gender-swapped and expanded version of Hardin is portrayed by Leah Harvey in the 2021 Apple TV+ television series adaptation Foundation.^[6][7] Harvey's casting was announced in December 2019.^[8] Hardin is the Warden and protector of Terminus, 35 years after Seldon's trial.^[6][9]

In the 2021 episode "The Mathematician's Ghost", Warden Hardin is disturbed to find that the "null field" around Hari Seldon's mysterious Vault, which repels all life and seemingly protects the Vault, has suddenly expanded. She is a second-generation colonist who possesses a unique resistance to the field. As ships approach from the planet Anacreon, a violation of Imperial sanctions, Hardin finds herself surrounded by an advance ground party of Anacreons.^[10] Hardin outwits the Anacreons and captures their leader, Grand Huntress Phara Keaen, in "Barbarians at the Gate",^[11] but Keaen manages to escape and disables Terminus City's defenses from the inside in "Upon Awakening".^[12]

In "Death and the Maiden", the Anacreons round up colonists with the skills necessary to repair and crew the Invictus, a long-lost Imperial warship that Keaen plans to use to attack the Empire. Hardin has a vision of Seldon's death which reveals to her that Raych Foss killed Seldon on his own orders, and that the escape pod taken by Gaal Dornick had been intended for Raych. Hardin and her lover, the Thespin trader Hugo Crast, are captured by the Anacreons.^[13] They bring Hardin, Crast and the colonists aboard the Invictus in "Mysteries and Martyrs",^[14] and after several casualties they manage to circumvent the security protocols and reach the bridge in "The Missing Piece". As Hardin fights Keaen and Crast's Thespin allies arrive, the Invictus jumps into the unknown.^[15]

The ship appears over Terminus in "The First Crisis", and Hardin is reunited with Crast. The Vault's null field has enveloped the entire planet, but Hardin solves its puzzle and the Vault becomes a portal. Hardin proposes they use Invictus to give all three worlds leverage against the Empire, and kills Keaen before she can destroy the Vault. Seldon emerges from the portal.^[16][17] In the season one finale episode "The Leap", Seldon reveals that the true intent of the Foundation is to create a new civilization assisted by Anacreon and Thespis. Months later, Hardin learns that she is the biological daughter of Dornick and Foss, and realizes that her visions are their memories. She leaves Terminus in search of Dornick. Years later, Dornick lands on her home planet, the ocean world Synnax, and finds another pod underwater, containing Hardin in stasis. Awakened, Hardin tells Dornick she is her daughter, and gives her Seldon's Prime Radiant device.^[18][19]

In season two, Hardin and Dornick determine that Seldon's plan is off course, and he explains that reviving the interrupted Second Foundation is the solution. Dornick has a vision of Hardin's death at the hands of a mysterious telepath, the Mule, 150 years in the future.^[20][21] In "The Sighted and the Seen", Hardin, Dornick and Seldon arrive at Ignis, where Hardin is seemingly reunited with Crast. He is revealed to be an illusion created by a Mentalic, or telepath, and the trio are taken before the leader of the Mentalic community, Tellem Bond.^[22] Bond has established a refuge to save Mentalics from persecution throughout the galaxy. She welcomes Dornick and her precognitive talents in "Why the Gods Made Wine", but is resistant to Seldon and the idea of the Second Foundation. Seldon is suspicious of Bond, and appears to leave the planet, but in actuality he has been captured and slowly drowned at Bond's command.^[23]

In "A Necessary Death", Hardin remains suspicious of the Mentalics' motives and Seldon's sudden departure. She discovers his drowned body, but is caught by Bond and rendered unconscious, floating face-down in a pool of seawater.^[24] In "The Last Empress", Bond prepares to transfer her consciousness from her dying body into a captive Dornick,^[25] but Hardin appears and saves Dornick in "Long Ago, Not Far Away" Seldon is also alive, and kills Bond.^[26] Another Mentalic controlled by Bond's psyche attempts to kill Dornick in "Creation Myths", but Hardin dies taking the bullet meant for Dornick. The conflict with Dornick's previous vision of Hardin's death illustrates to Seldon and Dornick that the future can be changed after all. They decide to enter cryosleep, and awaken periodically to keep the Second Foundation on track.^[27][28]

Goyer said that Hardin's death was originally planned for the end of season three, but while writing season two it was decided that killing the character earlier would be a stronger creative choice that would move the story forward.^[29] He said that though he loved the character, "I thought it would be surprising, and I thought her death would be meaningful because one of the themes that we've been exploring in the show, it seems like psychohistory predicting a probable future because conditions can change, you know? That the Empire can fall on this date or the Empire can fall on that date. So it's not a deterministic future, it's a probable future."^[30]

• Asimov, Isaac (May 1942). "Foundation". Astounding Science Fiction. p. 38. Retrieved March 29, 2024 – via Archive.org.
• Asimov, Isaac (June 1942). "Bridle and Saddle". Astounding Science Fiction. p. 9. Retrieved March 29, 2024 – via Archive.org.