# Favorite Science Fiction Robots? (Top 5) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 27, 2005, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-science-fiction-robots-top-5/323634 "2005-09-27T04:45:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-science-fiction-robots-top-5/323634/1 "2005-09-27T04:45:00Z")
I was just listening to the dramatization of the new Hitchhiker’s Guide BBC audio dramas (Tertiary, Quandary, and Quintisential phases), and it occured to me that out of all the robots i’ve seen/read in various sci-fi shows, whether it’s Bender, C3P0, R2, Calculon, Acting Unit 001, David Duchovny, Al Gore (sorry, couldn’t resist 😉 ) the Iron Giant, and others i’m sure i’ve forgotten, i always gravitate back to Stephen Moore’s rendition of Marvin the Paranoid Android, as my absolute favorite robot i mean, i can’t help feeling for the guy, here he is, brain the size of a planet, saddled with an incurable terrible pain in all the diodes down his left side, he’s 37 times older than the universe itself, and nobody pays him any respect or listens to the poor guy (well, maybe aside from the small rat in his right ankle, but i think it may be dead by now…) he’s like a depressed, metal Rodney Dangerfield (or as Douglas’s wife put it, a more metal Eeyore), he gets no respect… if i had to list my top 5 robots, it’d probably go as such… 1; Marvin the Paranoid Android (Stephen Moore’s voice, and the original “Tin Can” costume, to me, that _is_ the quintessential Marvin) 2; Movie Marvin (Warwick Davis inside the “tin can”, Alan Rickman as the voice) 3; Bender “Bending” Rodriguez (Bending Unit 22) 4; The Iron Giant 5; Gus from Tripping the Rift, an obvious rip/parody of C3P0 who’s your favorite Metalman? ---
**Author:** ![jimpatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b9e5f3/32.png) [@jimpatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimpatro)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-science-fiction-robots-top-5/323634/2 "2005-09-27T05:46:24Z")
**Robbie the Robot** - _Forbidden Planet, The Invisible Boy_ The proverbial butler mechanized, that classic monotone voice, engineering that made you believe he was real. **Robot Maria** - _Metropolis_ Elegant, Deko design and very sexy. **Robot** - _Lost in Space_ Similar in nature to **Robbie** , a servant of man and that gullibility, ya gotta love 'im. And just another great, effective design. **C-3PO** - _Star Wars_ Lovable, devoted, proper. Shiny gold! **R2-D2** - _Star Wars_ The perfect sidekick, mischievous, cute. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-science-fiction-robots-top-5/323634/3 "2005-09-27T05:48:42Z")
1 V.I.N.C.E.N.T (and B.O.B of course! ) [http://www.jeffbots.com/vincent.html](http://www.jeffbots.com/vincent.html) 2 Kryten [http://www.jeffbots.com/kryten.html](http://www.jeffbots.com/kryten.html) 3 Huey, Duey and Louie [http://www.jeffbots.com/silentrunning.html](http://www.jeffbots.com/silentrunning.html) 4 Caliban [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0441005144/102-7431616-3407343?v=glance](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0441005144/102-7431616-3407343?v=glance) 5 Annalee Call (Definition of Robot stretched, but valid IMHO ) > **[Alien: Resurrection (1997) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118583/)** > > Alien: Resurrection: Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. With Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Dominique Pinon, Ron Perlman. 200 years after her death, Ellen Ripley is revived as a powerful human/alien hybrid clone. Along with a crew of space pirates, she... …dishonourable mention to the ultimate Metalman, Metal Mickey! [http://www.culttelly.co.uk/top100/progid58.html](http://www.culttelly.co.uk/top100/progid58.html) ---
**Author:** ![jimpatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b9e5f3/32.png) [@jimpatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimpatro)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-science-fiction-robots-top-5/323634/4 "2005-09-27T05:51:47Z")
Aww, \*\*H, D & L \*\* were cool too! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-science-fiction-robots-top-5/323634/5 "2005-09-27T07:18:32Z")
Kryten NDR (Andrew) from Asimov’s _Bicentennial Man_ - the original short story, not the subsequent (non-Asimov) novelisation or the movie. C -3PO Data and(not sure if this one counts, so sue me) The Tin Man (Wizard of Oz) ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-science-fiction-robots-top-5/323634/6 "2005-09-27T07:28:56Z")
Does the Shrike (A.K.A the Lord of Pain, from books by Dan Simmons) count as a robot? If so, he has my vote. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-science-fiction-robots-top-5/323634/7 "2005-09-27T08:38:49Z")
In no particular order : Gort, from\* The Day the Earth Stood Still\*. The T-1000 from _Terminator 2_. Another vote for Robbie. I’m not sure if they fit the OP, since they are non-humanoid and a class rather than an individual, but I like Keith Laumer’s Bolos and Sabrehagen’s berserkers. Bolo’s are nearly unstoppable sentient tanks, programmed with the ultimate “noble warrior” mentality and armed with firepower measured in megatons per second. Berserkers are ancient war machines programmed to destroy all life. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-science-fiction-robots-top-5/323634/8 "2005-09-27T10:25:24Z")
Tom Servo R2D2 Huey, Louie, and Dewey from _Silent Running_. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-science-fiction-robots-top-5/323634/9 "2005-09-27T12:24:38Z")
Hammerstein and Joe Pineapples (a transvestite robot assasin!) , hell, all the _**[ABC Warriors](http://www.dreamnation.fsnet.co.uk/abc.html)**_ the Raums from the brilliant, unheard-of Manx TV series _Space Island One_ The unskinned, skeletal terminators in the flash-forward scenes in T2 Marvin Robbie * * * Hey, why no love for TWIKI? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-science-fiction-robots-top-5/323634/10 "2005-09-27T12:41:38Z")
I think my favorites have been noted, but, just for the heck of it: **Robby** from Forbidden Planet, then in lots of other places for many years. The first robot without a real “face” (although they tweaked it for the poster, so that he looked kinda evil). Obeyed Asimov’s three laws. And he wasn’t just a metal person, as so many robots are. A lot of the humor in FP resulted from Robby’s acting in what seems to be a human manner, but is strictly defined by his programming. Although I suspect Morbius prgrammed him with a bit of humor. Plus, he has an emergency override command – you gotta love a robot with a Safeword. **Gort** – Gort still looks impressive, over half a century later. Menacing and convincing. Gort _doesn’t_ obey Asuimov’s laws, but he’s one of the few robots that has a logical reason not to. **Maria/whatever** – from **Metropolis**. AFAIK, the first robot in cinema history, but so absolutely perfect you wouldn’t guess it – sh _looks_ great, with her metal exterior with odd protrusions of no obvious purpose (ages before 2001 gave us spaceships with odd protrusions) and with her slow and dignified walk. **Andrew** from Bicentennial Man – So sue me. Everyone hates this movie, but it _feels_ more like Asimov’s writing and more like SF writing than mainstream sf dreck than almost all other films out there. Andrew looks great – just what a human-appearing-for-no-other-reason-than-peopkle-expect-it robot oughta look like. The emphasis is on the robot and his development more in this film than in any other. **Tom Servo, Crow, and Gypsy** – they make no sense as robots in any sf sense, but I have to include them. If Robby had been programmed by the gang at Best Brains, this is how he’d turn out. (“You understand the mechanism?” “Yes, Morbius. A Simple Blaster.” “OK, now come over here. Point it at the Commander. Aim right between the eyes.” “How about if I aim right between the legs?” “No, Crow, we don’t want to go there. Just try to wing his ear.”) ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-science-fiction-robots-top-5/323634/11 "2005-09-27T13:06:52Z")
**Gnut** , from the Harry Bates story “Farewell to the Master” (later filmed in much altered form as _The Day the Earth Stood Still_). Indestructible, unstoppable – and more civilized, wise and noble than the humans who tried to destroy him. Best of all, he was Klaatu’s master, not the other way around. The lovesick vacuum cleaner from Robert Sheckley’s story “Can You Feel Anything When I Do This?” And, of course, **Joe** , the nacissistic cybernetic beer can opener in the Gallagher stories by Lewis Padgett (the team of Henry Kuttner and his wife C.L. Moore). (Funny; they saw a future with intelligent robots, automatic aircars and 3-D television, but not self-opening beverage cans.) ---
**Author:** ![Who\_me\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/958977/32.png) [@Who\_me\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Who_me_1)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-science-fiction-robots-top-5/323634/12 "2005-09-27T13:52:56Z")
You don’t specify movies only so I want to nominate R. Daneel Olivaw. I really have to buy Asimov’s robot books again. It’s been so long since I’ve read them… ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-science-fiction-robots-top-5/323634/13 "2005-09-27T14:44:31Z")
The first vote for [**ED 209**](http://www.robocoparchive.com/char/ed1.jpg) from Robocop. He’s got no hands/claws/grapplers just a minigun and rocket launchers 🆒. And he does not obey Asimov’s laws, at all. More or less the opposite. It’s possible the [**The Iron Chicken**](http://www.earthstar.co.uk/clangchicken.htm) is a robot, she certainly looks mechanical. And the Clangers had to re-assemble her after they shot her down\*\*\*\*\* which suggests she’s a very sophisticated machine not an organism. So, those two plus Marvin, Bender and Robbie. Definitely not and Star Wars robots, they just piss me off. The Silent Running 'bots _were_ cute. C3PO is just annoying. Do replicants count as robots? \*\*\*\*\*accidentally, with a big firework rocket, the Clangers would never do something like that on purpose. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-science-fiction-robots-top-5/323634/14 "2005-09-27T14:51:47Z")
Hmm – I was thinking movie robots, from the earlier responses. They’re still pretty good, but Baldwin’s choice of **Joe** from the Kuttner/Padgett “Proud Robot” stories would have to be included. There are a lot of robots I like from sf literature, but I don’t have their names on me… ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-science-fiction-robots-top-5/323634/15 "2005-09-27T14:58:19Z")
The fallen robot from _Laputa: Castle in the Sky._ ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-science-fiction-robots-top-5/323634/16 "2005-09-27T15:23:53Z")
What? No votes for Twiki? ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-science-fiction-robots-top-5/323634/17 "2005-09-27T15:32:54Z")
> [@JThunder](#): > > What? No votes for Twiki? No. May I suggest a Celebrity SciFi Robot Deathmatch: Twiki vs. ED-209 Or we could lock him in a room with Marvin. After we’ve had Bender get twentieth century on his shiny metal ass. ---
**Author:** ![jimpatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b9e5f3/32.png) [@jimpatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimpatro)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-science-fiction-robots-top-5/323634/18 "2005-09-27T16:11:11Z")
Okay, to round out my top ten: **ED-209** , kicks some serious ass **Laputa Robot** , very graceful **Terminator Robot** , menacing **Gort** , big and emotionless **Tom Servo, Crow and Gypsy** , Satellite of Love! okay, top 12. ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-science-fiction-robots-top-5/323634/19 "2005-09-27T16:39:20Z")
> [@JThunder](#): > > What? No votes for Twiki? Sure, in other Celeb. Deathmatch matchups… Twiki Vs; a Frogstar Battle Robot The Iron Giant in full Battle-Mech mode ED-209 (good choice, BTW) T-1000 a Borg Drone Johnny 5 (in BattleMode) the OmniDroid 10 from The Incredibles (as a side note, i’d have _loved_ to see one of the OmniDroid prototypes bear a passing resemblance to the Iron Giant…) a Gremlin 😉 and for sheer annoyance factor, lock him in a room with Gus, C3PO, and the original Lost in Space robot ---
**Author:** ![Cornelius\_Tuggerson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Cornelius\_Tuggerson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cornelius_Tuggerson)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-science-fiction-robots-top-5/323634/20 "2005-09-27T18:08:03Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Does the Shrike (A.K.A the Lord of Pain, from books by Dan Simmons) count as a robot? If so, he has my vote. I thought he was more of a golem then an actual machine, but yeah he kicks ass. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-science-fiction-robots-top-5/323634.md?page=2)