Online Encyclopedia
List of fictional robots and androids
(Redirected from Robots in literature)
This is a chronological list of robots and androids in literature and cinema.
See also the List of fictional computers
Contents |
Theatre
- The word "robot" comes from Karel Capek's play, R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) [written 1920; first performed 1921; performed in New York 1922; English edition published 1923]. In the play, the word refers to artificially created life forms. [1]
Literature
- Maidens made of gold, Bronze giant Talos, in The Iliad by Homer (circa 800 BC)
- The woman forged out of gold in Finnish myth The Kalevala (prehistoric folklore)
- The legend of the Golem, an animated man of clay, mentioned in the Talmud. (16th century)
- A mechanical man powered by steam in Edward S. Ellis' Steam Man of the Prairies (1865)
- A mechanical man run by electricity in Luis Senarens' Frank Reade and his Electric Man (1885)
- The Tin Woodsman and Tik-Tok in L. Frank Baum's Oz books (1900-)
- A robot chess-player in "Moxon's Master" by Ambrose Bierce (1909)
- The "Professor Jameson" series by Neil R. Jones (early 1930s) featured human and alien minds preserved in robot bodies. Reprinted in five Ace paperbacks in the late 1960s: The Planet of the Double Sun , The Sunless World , Space War , Twin Worlds and Doomsday on Ajiat
- The Martian robot in The Lost Machine by John Wyndham (1932)
- Human cyborgs in Revolt of the Pedestrians by David H. Keller (1932)
- Robot surgeon in "Rex" by Harl Vincent (1934)
- Helen O'Loy , from the story of the same title by Lester del Rey (1938)
- Adam Link of I, Robot by Eando Binder (1938)
- Robots discover their "roots" in Robots Return by Robert Moore Williams (1938).
- Robot as murder witness in True Confession by F. Orlin Tremaine (1939)
- Gnut , in Farewell to the Master by Harry Bates (1940) - (Later made into the classic 1954 SF film The Day the Earth Stood Still)
- Robots by Isaac Asimov:
- Robbie, Speedy, Cutie, and others, from the stories in I, Robot (1940 - 1950) (not to be confused with the Binder short story of the same title)
- L-76, Z-1, Z-2, Z-3, Emma-2, Brackenridge, Tony, Lenny, Ez-27 and others, from the stories in The Rest of the Robots 1964
- R. Daneel Olivaw, from The Caves of Steel (1954) and subsequent novels
- R. Giskard Reventlov, from The Robots of Dawn and subsequent novels
- Andrew Martin, from The Bicentennial Man (1976) (later made into a film)
- Norby, in a series of books for children co-written with Janet Asimov
- The Humanoids, from two novels by Jack Williamson,(1949 and 1980)
- Zane Gort , a robot novelist, in the short story The Silver Eggheads by Fritz Leiber , (1959)
- Irona, the robot maid of Richie Rich, the main character in a comic book series. (1961)
- The Iron Man, in the book by Ted Hughes (1968)
- Androids, fully organic in nature -- the products of genetic engineering -- and so human-like that they can only be distinguished by psychological tests; some of them don't even know that they're not human. -- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968) by Philip K. Dick
- The Electric Grandmother in the short story of the same name, from I Sing the Body Electric by Ray Bradbury ,(1969)
- Doraemon in a manga by Fujiko Fujio (1969)
- The masculinist plot to replace women with perfect looking, obedient robot replicas -- The Stepford Wives (1972) by Ira Levin
- HARLIE in When H.A.R.L.I.E. was One by David Gerrold (1972)
- Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978–1981) (originally a radio series, then a book trilogy and a TV series)
- Chip, the robot teenager in the Not Quite Human series (1985-1986), by Seth McEvoy . Later, Disney made the book into two movies.
- Marilyn, named after Marilyn Monroe, in Kazuo Umezu's 1982 manga My name is Shingo
- Two extreme examples of robot morality, one perfectly innocent and one perfectly criminal, in Roderick and Tik-Tok (1980, 1983) by John Sladek
- The Ore Crusher in Roger Zelazny's short story For a Breath I Tarry.
- Dorfl, a golem deliberately described in terms reminiscent of an Asimovian robot, in Terry Pratchett's Feet of Clay. (1996)
- Moravec s are sentient descendants of probes sent by humans to the Jovian belt, in Dan Simmons' Ilium, (2003)
Films
- The false Maria, in Metropolis (1927)
- Annihilants, robot soldiers belonging to Ming the Merciless in the Flash Gordon film series (1936).
- The Tin Woodsman in The Wizard of Oz (1939 movie)
- Gort, in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) (film version of Farewell to the Master)
- Robby, in Forbidden Planet (1956)
- The all-robot police force in THX-1138 (1971)
- The drones Huey, Duey, and Louie, in Silent Running (1972). Notable as the first movie in which non-anthropomorphic robots were made mobile by manning them with amputees.
- The robots in Sleeper (1973)
- The bomb in Dark Star (1974, by John Carpenter)
- The robotic gunfighters in Westworld (1973)
- Box, in Logan's Run (1976)
- C-3PO, R2-D2 and the droid army, in Star Wars (1977) and subsequent films
- V.I.N.C.E.N.T, B.O.B, Maximillian and the androids made out of humans -- The Black Hole (1979)
- Ash in Alien (1979), Bishop in Aliens and Alien³, and Annalee in Alien: Resurrection
- Hector, in Saturn 3 (1980)
- The "replicants" Roy Baty, Pris, Leon Kowalski, Zhora and Rachel Tyrell -- Blade Runner (1982) (the film version of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?)
- The robot assassin in The Terminator (1984) and sequels
- The little boy Data Analyzing Robot Youth Lifeform in D.A.R.Y.L. (1985)
- Johnny 5 in Short Circuit (1986) and its sequel, Short Circuit 2
- ED-209 in Robocop (1987)
- Cherry 2000 in Cherry 2000 (1987)
- The android Astor, played by Stacey Williams, in Gangster World (1988)
- The evil robotic doubles in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991)
- The Iron Giant (1999) (film version of The Iron Man)
- "Robot" in Lost in Space , the movie of the TV series (1998 )
- Andrew the robot servant in Bicentennial Man (1999) -- based on a short story by Isaac Asimov
- Vanessa the exploding fembot assassin in Austin Powers The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
- AMEE the robot scout in the film Red Planet , who gets stuck in military mode and destroys the human crew of the spaceship. (2000)
- many robots, including David, the lead character, in Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001); based on the "Supertoys" of Brian Aldiss' short story, Supertoys Last All Summer Long[2].
- The robot butler B166ER, the residents of the machine nation of Zero-One, and the Sentinels from the Matrix series.{1999, 2003 , 2004)
- many robots in I, Robot (2004)
Television films and series
1960s and earlier
- Rosie the Maid in The Jetsons (1962)
- Robert the Robot, the transparent mechanical spaceship co-pilot in the Fireball XL5 British puppet television series created by Gerry Anderson (1962)
- Various unnamed robots in the series Space Patrol (known as Planet Patrol in the US (1962)
- K-9, Kamelion, the Movellans, and many more, in the British Doctor Who series (1963–1989)
- Astro Boy from Astro Boy the Japanese animated series (1963–1966)
- "Rhoda Miller" in My Living Doll (1964)
- "Robot B-9" in Lost in Space TV series (1965 to 1968)
- Hymie the Robot in the comedy series Get Smart (1965–1970)
1970s
- The Clinkers, Shields and Yarnell (1977-78)
- The Cylons in Battlestar Galactica (1978–1980) (in the novelizations, Cylons were simply humanoid aliens wearing mechanical armor)
- Questor, The Questor Tapes (1974)
- Twiki and Dr. Forrester in Buck Rogers (1979)
- Yo-Yo, aka Geogory Yoyonovitch, Holmes and Yo-Yo (1976)
1980s
- KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand), a non-humanoid robot in the form of a car, from Knight Rider (1982–1986)
- The Transformers of various Transformers television series (1984–2003)
- Voltron Defender of the Universe (1984-1986}
- Vicki (Voice Imput Child Indenticant) the little girl robot in Small Wonder (1985)
- Data, Lore, Lal (Data's daughter) and Juliana Tainer in the series Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)
- Tom Servo, Crow T. Robot, Gypsy and Cambot from Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988)
- The Skutters, Kryten, the Simulants and many others from Red Dwarf (1988)
1990s and later
- 790 , the sarcastic and perverse bodyless robot head of Lexx
- XR, the indestructable, self healing sidekick robot in Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (also XL, the proto-version of XR)
- Bender the Robot in the animated series Futurama (1999)
- Chii , the Persocom in the Japanese anime series Chobits (2002)
- Robot Jones from Whatever Happened to Robot Jones? (2002)
- The Tachikoma spider tanks from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
- Thunderclese from The Brak Show (2001–2003)
- Gir from Invader Zim (2001)
- XJ-9 (aka Jenny) from My Life as a Teenage Robot (2003)
- R. Dorothy Wayneright in Big O (anime) (2003)
- The Mobile Doll systems onboard Virgos and other mobile suits in Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.
Comic books
- The original Human Torch in Marvel Comics , ( 1938)
- The Superman duplicates, Brainiac and Kelex in Superman, (1958)
- Doctor Doom's Doombots and H.E.R.B.I.E. in Fantastic Four (1961)
- Ultron, the Vision, Jocasta and Alkhema in 'The Avengers (1963)
- The Sentinels in X-Men (1963)
- The Red Tornado, Amazo and Tomorrow Woman and Hourman III in JLA (1968)
- ARPA-01 (female type) and VIC-02 (male type) virtual intercourse companions in Sexy Losers Scientific Erotican plot thread (2003)
Computer and video games
- Ping-chan, the PlayStation 2 accessory robot-girl from MegaTokyo
- Megaman, X, and various other robots/Reploids from the videogame series Mega Man and Megaman X
- Metal Sonic, the evil robotic clone of Sonic from the Sonic the hedgehog video game series.
Unsorted works
- Project 2501 in Ghost in the Shell Japanese manga TV anime 1991 describes AI surveillance of population.
- Transmetropolitan features AIs who abuse virtual hallucinogens
- Harry Harrison / Marvin Minsky: The Turing Option (novel)
- The Mind's I edited by Daniel C. Dennett and Douglas Hofstadter
- Personoids Stanislaw Lem's novels/books
- Arthur from The Journeyman Project video game series
- SHODAN in System Shock
- WOPR in WarGames
- Chii from the Chobits anime and manga series
- Solace in the Callahan's Place stories of Spider Robinson
- IQ-9 of Star Blazers, originally called Analyzer in Space Battleship Yamato.
- Haro, mascot character of U.C.Gundam.
Related articles
- Archive of fictional things
- Artificial intelligence
- Science fiction
- List of fictional computers
- Cyborgs in fiction
External link
- Robot Hall of Fame at CMU – With fictional inductees HAL-9000 and R2-D2
Last updated: 10-24-2004 05:10:45