Hober Mallow is a fictional character in the
''Foundation'' series by
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov ( ; – April 6, 1992) was an Russian-born American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. H ...
. In the 1944 novella "
The Big and the Little", he is a Master Trader for the Foundation who pioneers the use of commerce to increase the Foundation's power and influence across the galaxy.
Mallow is voiced by
Julian Glover
Julian Wyatt Glover (born 27 March 1935) is an English actor with many stage, television, and film roles. Classically trained, he is a recipient of the Laurence Olivier Award and has performed many times for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Gl ...
in the 1973
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
adaptation ''
The Foundation Trilogy''. He is portrayed by
Dimitri Leonidas in season two of the 2021
Apple TV+
Apple TV+ is an American subscription over-the-top streaming service owned by Apple. The service launched on November 1, 2019, and it offers a selection of original production film and television series called Apple Originals. The service w ...
television series adaptation ''
Foundation''.
Literature
Hober Mallow appears in the novella "
The Big and the Little", published in the August 1944 issue of ''
Astounding Science Fiction
''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled ''Astounding Stories of Super-Science'', the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William C ...
''. It was later retitled "
The Merchant Princes", collected with four other stories and published as ''
Foundation'' in 1951.
Description
Mallow is a successful merchant who brokers deals within the Foundation, and also between their territories and non-Foundation worlds.
He is a native of Smyrno, one of the four "barbarian" planetary kingdoms of the Anacreon Province that exist under the Foundation's religious influence, but he dislikes the religion itself.
While Mayor
Salvor Hardin had previously employed Foundation priests and their Scientism religion to secure the Foundation's influence over local barbaric planets, Mallow believes that this approach has limited use toward the Foundation's greater goal of amassing power across the galaxy. His business dealings have convinced him that commercial relationships are a better strategy to consolidate the Foundation's power. The complacent Foundation leaders initially resist, but Mallow's use of business deals to resolve crises and form alliances eventually proves to be effective.
Marcelo Leite of ''
Screen Rant
''Screen Rant'' is an entertainment website that offers news in the fields of television, films, video games, and comic books. It is owned by Valnet, parent of publications including Comic Book Resources, Collider, MovieWeb and XDA Developers.
...
'' explained, "Mallow plays a significant role in establishing the Foundation’s power and influence over the galaxy."
Josh Wimmer and Alasdair Wilkins of ''
Gizmodo
''Gizmodo'' () is a design, technology, science, and science fiction website. It was originally launched as part of the Gawker Media network run by Nick Denton. ''Gizmodo'' also includes the sub-blogs ''io9'' and ''Earther'', which focus on pop ...
'' described Mallow as "larger-than-life", and "one of the strangest characters Asimov ever created, a heartless bastard who's described physically more like a particularly intelligent shaved bear than a normal human." He is not a native Foundationer, and is depicted as willing to kill his own crew for disobedience. Wimmer and Wilkins called the character "a good fit for the current mood of space-based science fiction—his ruthlessness in command would be a good match for
Admiral Adama's approach on ''
Battlestar Galactica
''Battlestar Galactica'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Glen A. Larson. It began with the original television series in 1978, and was followed by a short-run sequel series, '' Galactica 1980'', a line of book adaptat ...
'', and his conduct on the ''Far Star'' reminded me of the initial, darker characterization of
Malcolm Reynolds on ''
Firefly
The Lampyridae are a family of elateroid beetles with more than 2,000 described species, many of which are light-emitting. They are soft-bodied beetles commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glowworms for their conspicuous production ...
'' ... he's a character who arguably works even better now than he might have done against some of the more gallant and dashing space captains of the 1940s and 1950s." They also wrote, "The only problem is that Asimov doesn't really give him any weaknesses to go against his strengths—sure, he's a complete bastard, but he's justified in his conduct at every turn."
Asimov describes Mallow's "great, brown arms" in a sequence, noted by Cora Buhlert to have "homoerotic vibes", in which Mallow is sunbathing nude with a male friend, Ankor Jael, who "places a phallic object—a cigar—in Mallow’s mouth".
Plot
In "The Big and the Little", Hober Mallow is a Master Trader for the Foundation. He and his ship, ''Far Star'', are sent to
Korell to investigate the disappearance of three Foundation vessels in the vicinity. A Foundation missionary, Reverend Jord Parma, seeks sanctuary, but Mallow suspects subterfuge and turns Parma over to the Korellians, whose laws forbid Foundation missionaries to be on the planet under penalty of death. Mallow negotiates the sale of Foundation devices to the ruler of Korell, and soon the planet is dependent on them. Mallow is later tried for murder on the Foundation planet
Terminus for condemning the missionary to death, but is exonerated when he proves that Parma was actually an agent of the Korellian secret police. Mallow's popularity results in his appointment to Mayor of Terminus. Korell subsequently declares war on the Foundation, and when Mallow imposes an embargo on them, the Korellan economy collapses due to its dependency on Foundation technology, thus forcing its surrender.
Adaptations
Radio
Mallow is voiced by
Julian Glover
Julian Wyatt Glover (born 27 March 1935) is an English actor with many stage, television, and film roles. Classically trained, he is a recipient of the Laurence Olivier Award and has performed many times for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Gl ...
as in episode three "The Merchant Princes" of the 1973
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
adaptation ''
The Foundation Trilogy''.
Television
Mallow is portrayed by
Dimitri Leonidas in season two of the 2021
Apple TV+
Apple TV+ is an American subscription over-the-top streaming service owned by Apple. The service launched on November 1, 2019, and it offers a selection of original production film and television series called Apple Originals. The service w ...
television series adaptation ''
Foundation''.
He is a roguish trader and con man with a "sarcastic personality and questionable morals, who is summoned against his will to serve a higher, selfless cause."
Storyline
In the 2023 episode “
A Glimpse of Darkness”,
Hari Seldon's mysterious
Vault on Terminus opens after 138 years. Warden
Jaegger Fount approaches, and exclaims "Get Hober Mallow!" before being incinerated. The name "Hober Mallow" is subsequently projected in front of the Vault.
In "
King and Commoner", Mallow swindles Commdor Argo of
Korell, and evades capture alongside High Claric
Poly Verisof
The ''Foundation'' series is a science fiction book series written by American author Isaac Asimov. First published as a series of short stories and novellas from 1942 to 1950, and subsequently in three collections, for nearly thirty years the ...
and
Brother Constant of the Foundation's propagandist Church of the Galactic Spirit.
Mallow, Verisof and Constant meet with Seldon's digital avatar in the Vault in "
Where the Stars are Scattered Thinly", and Seldon recruits Mallow in a scheme against the Empire.
Subsequently in "
A Necessary Death", Mallow approaches the Empire's navigators, the genetically engineered and cybernetically enhanced
Spacers, with an offer to free them from their servitude to the Empire by giving them a synthesized version of the micronutrient opalesk, on which they are dependent. After weighing the risks, the Spacers reject Mallow's offer and turn him over to Imperial General
Bel Riose, but he escapes.
In "
The Last Empress", Mallow saves Constant from execution by the Empire, and they consummate their relationship.
In the season two finale "
Creation Myths
A creation myth or cosmogonic myth is a type of cosmogony, a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it., "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the universe and its inhabitants came to be. Crea ...
", Mallow's capture is revealed to have been a ruse to smuggle a special jump sequence to
She-Bends-Light, a Spacer on Riose's flagship, ''Shining Destiny''. She uses it to program the fleet's warships to jump into one another, which will inevitably destroy them all and free the remaining Spacers from the Empire. Riose battles the Emperor clone
Brother Day in hand-to-hand combat, and uses Mallow's
castling device to switch places with Day via
teleportation
Teleportation is the hypothetical transfer of matter or energy from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them. It is a common subject in science fiction and fantasy literature. Teleportation is often paired with tim ...
, venting the Emperor into space and killing him. Trapped on the doomed flagship, Mallow and Riose share a toast as the ''Shining Destiny'' explodes.
Reception
Sean T. Collins of ''
Decider
Decider is both a real word and a "Bushism". It may refer to:
* ''Decider'' (website), a pop culture website operated by the ''New York Post''
* '' Bill Maher: The Decider'', a stand-up comedy special
* Decider (Turing machine), a Turing machin ...
'' wrote, "Dimitri Leonidas actually has that roguish
Han Solo
Han Solo () is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. He was introduced in the 1977 film ''Star Wars (film), Star Wars'', and later appeared in ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980), ''Return of the Jedi'' (1983), ''Star Wars: The F ...
charm so many actors and characters have tried and failed to recapture."
Richard Edwards of ''
Space.com
Space.com is an online publication focused on outer space, space exploration, astronomy, skywatching and entertainment, with editorial teams based in the United States and United Kingdom. Launched on July 20, 1999, the website offers live coverag ...
'' described the character as having "charm to spare".
Collins called Mallow's rescue of Constant "legitimately one of the most exciting and sexy acts of swashbuckling" he had seen in years.
Jeffrey Speicher of ''
Collider
A collider is a type of particle accelerator that brings two opposing particle beams together such that the particles collide. Compared to other particle accelerators in which the moving particles collide with a stationary matter target, collid ...
'' called Mallow "probably the most relatable young male character on the show", and described his relationship with Constant as "the best romantic relationship in ''Foundation'' so far."
Goyer said that the deaths of Mallow and Riose were always planned for season two, adding that "I like that they meet their fates twinned together".
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mallow, Hober
Fictional con artists
Fictional merchants
Foundation universe characters
Literary characters introduced in 1944
Male characters in literature
Male characters in television
Television characters introduced in 2023