"The Bicentennial Man" is a novelette in the Robot series by American writer Isaac Asimov. According to the foreword in Robot Visions, Asimov was approached to write a story, along with a number of other authors who would do the same, for a science fiction collection to be published in honor of the United States Bicentennial. However, the arrangement fell through, leaving Asimov's the only story actually completed for the project. Asimov sold the story to Judy-Lynn del Rey, who made some small changes to the text. Asimov restored the original text when the story was collected in The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories (1976).
Small Wonder is an American children's comedy science fiction sitcom that aired in first-run syndication from September 7, 1985, to May 20, 1989. The show chronicles the family of a robotics engineer who secretly creates a robot modeled after a human girl, then tries to pass it off as their adopted daughter, Vicki. The series turned out to be a surprise hit, specifically among children, with reruns airing internationally. Owing to its popularity in some countries, the show had to be dubbed for different languages.
Professor Bernice Surprise Summerfield, or simply Benny, is a fictional character created by author Paul Cornell as a new companion of the Seventh Doctor in Virgin Publishing's range of original full-length Doctor Who novels, the New Adventures. The New Adventures were authorised novels carrying on from where the Doctor Who television series had left off, and Summerfield was introduced in Cornell's novel Love and War in 1992.
Scooby-Doo! in Arabian Nights is a 1994 made-for-television film produced by Hanna-Barbera, and aired on syndication on September 3, 1994. It is an adaptation of The Book of One Thousand and One Nights and features appearances by Scooby-Doo and Shaggy Rogers, in wrap around segments.
The Toyman is the name of three supervillains and one adolescent superhero appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, as an adversary for Superman.
Ashley Thomas is a fictional character from the British soap opera Emmerdale, played by John Middleton. He made his first screen appearance during the episode broadcast on 5 December 1996. It was announced on 22 October 2015 that Middleton would be departing as Ashley at the end of his contract after the character was diagnosed with vascular dementia in the episode aired on that day. The contract was later extended in order for the storyline to be extended. It was revealed that Ashley would be killed off at the end of the storyline. Middleton filmed his final scenes in March 2017 after his contract ended, and Ashley died on-screen on 7 April 2017, ending his 21 years on Emmerdale. Ashley appeared in further episodes in home movie scenes, making his final appearance on 13 February 2018.
Rodney Blackstock is a fictional character from the British television soap opera Emmerdale, played by Patrick Mower. He made his first appearance during the episode broadcast on 24 October 2000. He was introduced as the estranged father of Bernice Blackstock, with his backstory involving him leaving her at five years old. Rodney has been described as an "ageing lothario" who enjoys wine, money and the company of women. In 2012, he was ranked within What's on TV's top 100 British soap characters of all time.
Bicentennial Man is a 1999 American science fiction comedy-drama film starring Robin Williams, Sam Neill, Embeth Davidtz, Wendy Crewson and Oliver Platt. Based on the 1992 novel The Positronic Man by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, the plot explores issues of humanity, slavery, prejudice, maturity, intellectual freedom, conformity, sex, love, mortality and immortality. The film, a co-production by Touchstone Pictures and Columbia Pictures, was directed by Chris Columbus. The title derives from the main character existing to the age of two hundred years.
Maico 2010 is a manga series by Toshimitsu Shimizu which ran in Young King from 1997 to 1998. The manga was adapted to an anime television series on WOWOW that ran from April 6, 1998 to September 28 of that year titled Android Announcer Maico 2010 as part of the Anime Complex omnibus show. The series was published in English by ComicsOne. ComicsOne rated the series as "Suggested 17Up."
Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe is a science fiction radio drama series by the ZBS Foundation, written by Thomas Lopez. The first series, Ruby: Adventures of A Galactic Gumshoe, was created in 1982. In each story, the title character Ruby is hired to solve a metaphysical problem. New series have been released every few years, reaching Ruby 11 in 2023. Ruby is played by actress Laura Esterman.
Nicola King is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Emmerdale. She has been played by Nicola Wheeler since she joined the soap in 2001. Wheeler left the role in January 2006, with her on-screen departure airing in March. In July 2007, it was announced that Wheeler chose to return to the soap eighteen months later and Nicola made her return on 12 September 2007. Wheeler took maternity leave throughout 2015, and Nicola departed temporarily on 26 March 2015, to work in Dubai for six months. She made a brief appearance on 7 May 2015, via webcam, and then made her full-time return on 11 November 2015, when returned from Dubai due to an incident that happened there.
The Original Astro Boy is a twenty-issue 1980s comic book series by NOW Comics, based on the original Japanese Mighty Atom series by Osamu Tezuka. The series was based mostly on the 1963 Astro Boy anime series, but began to include elements from the 1980 series in later issues. The comic went through three writers and artists, and embellished the original plotline, despite only covering the first episode of the 1963 series.
The Vision is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema, the character first appeared in The Avengers #57. The Vision is loosely based on the Timely Comics character of the same name who was an alien from another dimension. The character is an android built by the villainous robot Ultron created by Hank Pym. Originally intended to act as Ultron's "son" and destroy the Avengers, Vision instead turned on his creator and joined the Avengers to fight for the forces of good. Since then, he has been depicted as a frequent member of the team, and, for a time, was married to his teammate, the Scarlet Witch. He also served as a member of the Defenders.
Skaar is a fictional character, a comic book superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, usually as a supporting character in stories featuring his father, the Hulk, who conceived Skaar with the extraterrestrial Caiera during the 2006–2007 "Planet Hulk" storyline. Created by writer Greg Pak and artist John Romita Jr., the earliest version of the character appeared in a cameo in an alternate history story in What If? Planet Hulk #1, in which the character was drawn by Rafa Sandoval. The Earth-616 version of the character appeared in World War Hulk #5, by Pak and Romita, Jr.
"Special Service" is the sixty-fourth episode, and the twenty-seventh episode of the third season (1988–89), of the television series The Twilight Zone. It was written by J. Michael Straczynski. In the episode, a man discovers that for the past five years, he has been under constant video surveillance and the footage broadcast 24/7 as a hit TV show. Some critics noted similarities between the episode's story and the critically acclaimed 1998 feature film The Truman Show. Unlike The Truman Show, however, "Special Service" consistently treats its premise as humorous and implausible, a satire of the human tendency to assume that events revolve around oneself.
Robopocalypse (2011) is a science fiction novel by Daniel H. Wilson. The book portrays AI out of control when a researcher in robotics explores the capacity of robots. It is written in present tense. Writer Robert Crais and Booklist have compared the novel to the works of Michael Crichton and Robert A. Heinlein. It was a bestseller on the New York Times list.
Mother/Android is a 2021 American post-apocalyptic science fiction thriller film, written and directed by Mattson Tomlin in his feature directorial debut, and starring Chloë Grace Moretz, Algee Smith and Raúl Castillo. It follows a pregnant woman and her boyfriend who try to reach a fortified Boston amidst an AI takeover. It was released on December 17, 2021 on Hulu.
