Hugo Crast is a character in the Apple TV+ series Foundation. Hugo is from Thespis and is a trader, operating the ship Beggar's Lament. He is portrayed by Daniel MacPherson, first appearing in the episode "The Mathematician's Ghost".
Biography[]
Early life[]
Hugo Crast, born Cian un Edan,[1] is a native of the planet Thespis. Born around 12,032 Era Imperial, Hugo worked as a trader and spent most of his life in cryosleeping between ports. Hugo had been off-world since the bombing of his homeworld, and was considered to be "blood-neutral." capable of hiding his heritage which proved to be useful when trading in Anacreon ports. By 12,102 Era Imperial, Hugo was a regular in Terminus City, trading supplies and information from off planet in his starship, the Beggar's Lament. While on Terminus, Hugo spent time with his lover, Salvor Hardin.[2]
When an Anacreon force tries to sneak in to Terminus, Hugo is present at the Foundation meeting to discuss a plan. He is aware the Anacreon craft are attack corvettes and warns the rest of the committee as such. When Salvor says Hugo should leave as the Anacreons are going to attack, Hugo opts to stay. He asks Salvor if she will go with him but she says she has to stay to protect the citizens.[2]
An Anacreon - Phara Keaen - is captured by Salvor and Hugo assists her in the interrogation. From this, they establish Phara is Grand Huntress of Anacreon. After Salvor has a vision where she sees the ghost of a boy she had seen before, Hugo reassures her that he has faith in her. He helps Salvor with the defense of Terminus and offers to leave to get help, but is told he would be shot out of the sky before he reached orbit. Hugo therefore stays, saying he does not regret staying on the planet before the attack started.[3]
Phara is able to disable the fence protecting Terminus City and the Anacreon forces attack. Hugo joins the battle to defend the citizens of the Foundation.[4] Alongside Salvor and her father, Abbas, Hugo takes the fight to the Anacreons by targeting their corvettes.[5]
The Invictus[]
After the attack on the corvettes, Hugo and the rest of the Foundation have to contend with the Anacreons taking over Terminus City. Hugo takes the fight to the Anacreons, but in the end is defeated along with the rest of the citizens. He is taken prisoner along with select other citizens of the Foundation and boards his ship - The Beggar's Lament - along with Anacreon forces. In order to save Salvor’s life, he slaves his ship to her making both of them indispensable - the ship will only respond to her, and Hugo has to be there to help.[5]
The crew of The Beggar's Lament must board The Invictus and do so through a jump in space suits. During this, Hugo misses the jump and floats away.[6] He is able to make it to a communications station where he contacts Thespin forces and calls for help.[1]
Thespins come to help but are sucked into the jump along with The Invictus, and Hugo is reunited with Salvor above Terminus.[7]
Legacy[]
One hundred and thirty-eight years later, the Mentalic Loron used his powers to trick Salvor Hardin into believing he was Hugo Crast when she crashlanded on Ignis. Drawing on the memories of Hugo from her mind, he appeared to her as Hugo. He claimed that, since the Beggar's Lament was still genetically encoded to him, it kept him informed of Salvor's movements. When she went into cryosleep, and with nothing left on Terminus, Hugo followed suit and set his own cryopod to synch up with the systems on the Beggar. Salvor believed the ruse, but Hari Seldon was suspicious enough to want further confirmation.[8] Loron later used Hugo's image during a fight with Salvor in an effort to distract her during the confrontation.[9]
Appearances[]
- Season One
- "The Mathematician's Ghost" (First appearance)
- "Barbarians at the Gate"
- "Upon Awakening"
- "Death and the Maiden"
- "Mysteries and Martyrs"
- "The Missing Piece"
- "The First Crisis"
- Season Two
- "The Sighted and the Seen" (as a mental projection)
- "Long Ago, Not Far Away" (as a mental projection)