Metamatic Forums Socialising The Green Room We are the Robots...

There's a lot of sci-fi/fantasy fans on the forum, so I guess that a lot of us must like one of the classic staples of sci-fi, the Robot, and Its perhaps not surprising if a lot of us do as John’s electro often conjures up many aspects of that sense of being non-human, or being elevated to a unique perspective of living in detachment from humanity. And yet there’s still that unbreakable need to be a part of the human condition, even if its by proxy, and the idea of android’s and replicant humans in fiction occasionally touches on this.

Putting all the seriousness aside though, robots are sometimes just pure fun, and very often good to look at, and my recent rant on another thread about Transformers made me think about my favourite robots in fiction, in movies, TV, comics, or anywhere really. The Hasbro Transformers robot toys never appealed to me, probably because I was way too old for that 80’s craze, and I’m also not particularly interested in cars, which those particular bots often disguised themselves as.

One of my all time favourite machines with personality are Silent Running’s unique and magically convincing droids: Huey Dewey, and Louie, I saw the film in the cinema as a child, and they made me believe in the human need for robots.


So what are your favourite robots?

Is it Kraftwerk’s mannequins, or Twiki from Buck Rogers, K9, Gort, Fritz Lang’s art deco man machine, Yul Brynner as The Gunslinger, Astro Boy, or heaven forbid Robin Williams as Bicentennial Man or even Metal Mickey in the show produced by Michael Dolenz or is it Chris Cunningham’s graceful and profound Bjork bot (as mentioned recently by Mr Ilektrik and Brian).

What a great topic!

factoid of the day: Jean Michel Jarre collects toy robots.

For the purely "Robot" aspect, then I would say without a doubt my choice would be Yul Brynner's Gunslinger from Westworld, one of my all-time favourite SF movies, and Maximillian from The Black Hole.

I also really like the robot design from I, Robot, and have a soft spot for Gort (The Day the Earth Stood Still, original version).

However, although not actually a robot, but only part robot, for me it has to be The Daleks – often referred to (somewhat wrongly) as robots.

Exactly what it was about the Daleks which first grabbed my imagination in the early 80s remains to be determined, but I have remained as fascinated with the Daleks as much as Doctor Who itself, if not more. I still collect them today.

The fact that they are alien: part robotic and utterly relentless was surely enough to captivate any young boy. However it was more than that – it was the design itself. That iconic shape of cult 60s design, made the Dalek perhaps the most recognisable and memorable creature ever associated with Science-Fiction. And what a design – robust and robotic, mechanical and malevolent. The Daleks had no human features, yet they still had distinguishable ‘face’ comprising two lights and a singular eye mounted on a dome.

Clearly, the Daleks were designed to fascinate, and there’s nothing more alarming that the distinctive shadow of a Dalek looming around a corner. The variations in design over the years, from the colour schemes to the actual design changes and updates – many intentional, some due to prop restoration – keep the Daleks fresh and progressive. Everybody has a favourite colour scheme, whether it be the gun-metal grey Daleks of Genesis, the cream and gold livery of the Imperial Daleks or the heavy, machined finish of the first wave of new series Daleks in 2005. Even the name – DALEK – instantly brings to mind that shape, and of course, that voice.

I'd love to see that collection!

I actually saw the sequel Futureworld in the cinema. I have to agree that the Gunslinger is a smart classic, such a neat idea to cast Brynner in the part, I get the feeling that Schwarzenegger's relentless Terminator was just a touch inspired by the unstoppable Gunslinger. Strangely though I sometimes get blank stares when I mention Westworld to people, and as for Futureworld, well nobody seems to have heard of it, years ago I once tried to big-up (EuroDisney) now Disneyland Paris by saying that it was like walking around Futureworld but minus the robots!

It was the 60's for me Alex, I still remember being three to four years old and seeing an illustration on the back of a magazine that we had in the house, it had brightly coloured Daleks flying about on platforms around a metal structure.

The fascination with the Daleks will never go away for me either, stamped on my psyche for sure. I think the Daleks must secretly be quite vain creatures, they sure dont attempt to blend in, and all those colour and decorative changes hint at the dandy side of the squid behind the suit

Great question, core memory! I hope I do not do it an injustice by straying away from the more typically accepted "metal & wires" definition of a robot. My favorite "synthetic humans" are
#4 - Bishop from the movie Aliens (played by Lance Henriksen)
Not a very developed character but I liked him anyway, probably because I tend to like Henriksen's portrayals no matter what he is in.
#3 - David from the movie Artificial Intelligence: AI (played by Haley Joel Osment)
I had not anticipated liking this movie (I expected a Pinocchio rehash) but some interesting plot events changed my mind.
#2 - The original terminator from the movie Terminator (played by Arnold S.)
Arnold finds the role he was born to play (no, not California Governor). Classic non-stop tension. Loved the machine code running down the side of his field of vision. (Although unless it was for debugging purposes it really served no use.
#1 - The 5 Replicants from the movie Blade Runner
One of my favorite movies of all time (although I confess I prefer the version without Harrison Ford's voiceovers.) In my opinion all the replicants were fantastic characters in their own way. I refer to "5" replicants because despite director Sir Ridley Scott's many statements on the subject I do not accept that Deckard was a replicant as well. Also, those of you with the "Ultimate Collector's Edition" saw that Scott had a deleted scene in which you learn that Dr. Tyrell was actually deceased and that he had long ago replaced himself with a replicant duplicate. But since the scene wasn't in the released version I don't count it.

My two favourites are as diverse as they can be. Number one is Darryl Hannah's replicant, Priss, in Blade Runner and the other is Marvin The Paranoid Android from the original BBC TV series of Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy (not seen the movie so not sure if their Marvin was as good as the BBC's).

Where I now live, in South Africa, traffic lights are called robots - don't ask me why. Maybe it's something to do with them being automated and remotely controlled. It was weird to me at first but now when I give people directions it's "left at the first robot" without even thinking about it. I guess that means I've settled down here.

Favourite Marvin line is when he asks Arthur Dent if Earth had oceans and Arthur says something like "yes, great majestic rolling oceans" and Marvin trundles off muttering "I hate oceans".

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My 2 are Mr Data from Star Trek Tng and also all variants of Cylons from the rebooted Battlestar Galactica also have softspots for Robbie the Robot from Forbidden Planet and the Robot from Lost in Space tv series

Bender from Futurama!

Ah, how could I have forgotten Bender? I'm such a meatbag! :p

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Has to be the one off Lost in Space..

[img]http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:lBdXOeap8CbUoM:http://www.dograt.com/WordPress/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/Lost_In_Space_robot_body_1_2_2004.jpg&t=1[/img]

Then what was that pre-Metal Mickey tea-time telly series about robots? Had a distinctive 'electro' theme tune ..

Not forgetting that wonderful double act of C3PO & R2D2 ..

Damn I'd forgotten Bender.What about Kryten from Red Dwarf?