I am a science fiction geek. I love Star Trek, Farscape, Battlestar Galactica (though I haven’t seen all of them yet, I do plan to at some point), and get all perky-cheerful when I see a commercial for a new science fiction flick or series. And Dr. Who. Heavens, I think people would murder me if I forgot to mention Dr. Who.
Anyway, I started thinking about robots today.
Alright, alright! I started thinking about robots today after I started a personal re-watch of the Star Trek Next Generation series on Netflix. I fess up, alright? My geekdom knows no bounds.
So! Robots!
I tried to think of a list of my top 5 favorite robots of all time. I figured consistency is good, you know? I’ve done heroes, villains, why not robots too?
But … have you got any idea how many robots we’ve got out there? It was weird just listing them on my paper, but if you Google the subject, the list is overwhelming! Still … I took to the task, and here’s my list of top 5 Robots.
Number 5 goes to Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still. (Tell me you wouldn’t pee your pants if that thing was in Central Park.)
Number 4 goes to R2-D2 … Because I just saw a poster that said he was the most offensive character in Star Wars. But really because he was crazy quirky for a robot and had mad skillz when it came to stopping things from making human pancakes out of Luke and company.
Number 3 goes to the “fix-its” from Batteries Not Included. And if you don’t know that movie, don’t tell me. I’m pretty sure I just dated myself by mentioning it.
Number 2 goes to AMEE from Red Planet for two reasons. One, she has 3/4 of my name (Aimee, in case you were wondering). And two, she reached in and broke one single rib on a character in that movie. Just – reach, snap, run. That’s a sweet set of programs she’s got there.
Number 1 position … likely to be held forever … is Data from Star Trek. His endeavor to understand humanity might have been funny at times, but for the most part it was absolutely fascinating. It got me to ask myself why I do some things and what it would mean if I didn’t understand emotions like compassion.
That’s it! Those are my top 5 Robots.
And if anyone comes out and says they’ll just pit a T-850 Terminator on any of my chosen robots, I’ll just make Gort step on them.
AJMaguire 