“Foundation” isn’t TV’s first stab at adapting a dense, beloved book series to the screen, and it won’t be the last. But in taking on Isaac Asimov’s seminal works of science fiction, the new Apple TV Plus drama does, at least, do something rather unusual for adaptations. Instead of doing its best to faithfully recreate its source material’s most iconic characters and storylines, David S. Goyer’s “Foundation” uses Asimov’s texts as inspiration for a markedly different version. Remixing Asimov’s characters, settings and themes into something more timely and fitting for television versus the page,...