I, Robot (23 Jul. 1995)

Late at night, Dr. Link works on his creation, a powerful robot named Adam Link. Adam goes berserk and murders Dr. Link! Law enforcement issues an order for the robot's destruction, but the... See full summary »

Director:

Adam Nimoy

Writers:

Otto Binder (short story), Alison Lea Bingeman

Stars:

Cynthia Preston, Barbara Tyson, Nathaniel DeVeaux

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Cynthia Preston	...	Mina Link (as Cyndy Preston)
Barbara Tyson	...	Carrie Emerson
Nathaniel DeVeaux	...	Col. Birch
Leonard Nimoy	...	Thurman Cutler
Ken Kramer	...	Judge Clancy
Eric Schneider	...	Detective Barclay
Robert Clothier	...	Dr. Linstrop
J.B. Bivens	...	Security Guard
Robert Moloney	...	Lab Technician
Don MacKay	...	Dr. Link
John Novak	...	Voice of Adam (voice)

Storyline

Late at night, Dr. Link works on his creation, a powerful robot named Adam Link. Adam goes berserk and murders Dr. Link! Law enforcement issues an order for the robot's destruction, but the dead man's daughter Nina Link hires retired lawyer and full-time curmudgeon Thurman Cutler to defend the machine's rights as if it were a man! Cutler takes the case as much to mock the legal system that has made him a cynic as for any other reason, but can even his brilliant mind save Adam Link from destruction?

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Plot Keywords:

based on short story | robot as pathos

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Genres:

Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Details

Release Date:

23 July 1995 (USA)

Company Credits

Did You Know?

Trivia

The action starts at Rossom Hall Robotics Laboratory. This is undoubtedly an homage to the play "R.U.R.", subtitled "Rossum's Universal Robots", by Czech writer Karel Capek, and credited with introducing the word "robot" to the English language. (From a Czech word meaning "worker".)

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Goofs

In his ruling at the end of the episode, the judge says that "the Constitution defines a person has a human being", and that the Constitution "empowers the courts to interpret and reinterpret its meaning..." In fact, the U.S. Constitution contains no definition whatsoever of "person" (though the word is used frequently), never uses the words "human" or "human being" at all, and contains no grant of an "interpretative power" to the courts in any of its provisions or amendments.

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Quotes

The Control Voice: It is said that God made man in His image, but man fell from grace. Still, man has retained from his humble beginnings the innate desire to create, but how will man's creations fair? Will they attain a measure of the divine or will they, too, fall from grace?

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Connections

Version of The Outer Limits: I, Robot (1964)

User Reviews

Unfocused Sci-Fi Courtroom Drama

While this is an improvement over the Outer Limits' first try at dramatizing this story, it still doesn't work well because, this time around, it's just an odd melange of ideas that don't reinforce each other.

Presumably, the issue at hand is whether artificial intelligence will deserve human rights, but the show, instead, plays around with whether the robot's lawyer is just a cocky cynic who wants to mock the justice system or a crafty advocate who uses misdirection and mockery to defend his client. Yes, that's all kinda interesting, but the authors never bothered to tie it into the show's theme, so, why did they spend our time on it?

And instead of finding ways to dramatize the robot's "humanity," it shows us how humane the robot's best friend and surrogate sister is. Okay, she's cool, but what about the subject of the show?

And instead of asking the audience to see the injustice in creating an artificial intelligence, and then denying it any rights, the show pulls a bogeyman out of its hat by blaming the robot's actions on its secret military sponsors. But why even go there? It's just a cliché that doesn't address the point of the show.

This episode never really went anywhere because it forgot where it was going right after it started.