So of all the cast of characters of "Lost in Space," which character would you consider to be the wildcard of the bunch. I think most people might say that it would be Dr. Smith because he always seems to throw a wrench into things. But no. That merely makes him a foil for the other characters. He is hardly what I would call a wildcard. Even so, I give him credit for becoming the crux of many plot-lines, and I'd love to write up a blog about him at a later time.
To have a realwild card character, you need someone who cannot be easily predicted and whose role tends to be more inconsistent. Nobody expects it to be The Robot. Why would it be? He is an artificial, programmed creature who must always abide by logic in everything he does. Could a character like that ever be considered a wildcard type?
Well... He just sort of is.
For one thing, I am unsure if he really is all that he says he is. The Robot tends to be extremely inconsistent in how he operates. In one episode, he claims he has no emotions and can only function specifically as he has been programmed. But in that same episodes, he will tell a joke, or even laugh. The laughter was especially curious. When challenged on it, he explained it off as the sound of him performing maintenance on his memory banks. But we all know that he was really laughing.
The Robot has also shown signs of jealousy, fear, self-loathing, pride, and a number of other human emotions despite him expressing that these things are impossible. And yet, he is still very much a computer. He understands human emotion... but by the numbers.
In one episode, an earthbound demon entity called Mr. Nobody became angry and caused all kinds of storms and earthquakes. The humans all thought it was just a natural event, but The Robot called it anger. When asked to explain this, he described it as a "Release of pure force with antimatter core." The Robot then went on to say, "It has anger! It will destroy us!" What happened here was very significant. The Robot was able to explain anger in a scientific way that only he could understand. The humans just didn't get it.
There is a strong cult believe that The Robot was built using alien tech. It is almost never even hinted at in the show, but it would explain why there seems to be a disconnect between The Robot and the humans he is assigned to protect. They are always having trouble with him. He is inconsistent in his abilities which makes him quite fallible. His cries of danger are nearly always at the very last second when a solution is too late. Yet, there are days when he is functioning like he should.
One theory is that all he does is actually for the greater good in the long run. He takes risks and leads the humans into bad situations that he has calculated they can overcome. He does this so that things will work out for the best later on. That would mean that he is a lot smarter than he sometimes looks. This seems entirely plausible if you watch enough episodes.
The Robot also obsesses over fiction as if it was real. In one episode, Will and The Robot find a sleeping princess. The Robot remembers the tale of "Sleeping Beauty" and absolutely goes crazy in ordering Will to kiss her. Will, being a young boy, still thinks girls are gross and does not want anything to do with kissing girls. But The Robot sees something that fits inline with a clearly fictional tale and absolutely loses his mind in ordering Will to kiss her. "Kiss her! You must kiss her! KISS HER!!!!!" It was pretty funny. Will did not have much of a choice because The Robot was about as pushy as he had ever been. It did not even lead to good things, but The Robot had to complete what he thought was a real fairy tale happening right there in front of him. Kind of cute in a way.
Everybody loves Dr. Smith. He's probably why the show is the most notable. But for me, I am always finding myself looking to The Robot. You see, I know what Dr. Smith is capable of. He's the most predictable character in the show. But I never, ever know what The Robot is going to say or do. It always keeps me on edge. The Robot is clearly the wildcard character in the show, and I love him!
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If the fictional story was downloaded as information, the robot would not intuitively realize it was fiction. As for his emotions, he is a PERSON of a sort but may not realize it.
ReplyDeleteI do not particularly agree with you here. He should be smart enough to know the difference between fact and fiction. There is a bit of whimsy present in this robot that pops out now and again.
DeleteInteresting that the character who should be following his programming is the unpredictable one. It comes from how the robot interprets these commands. Numbers do not change, but how they are viewed can.
ReplyDeleteI think there is a reasonable debate here, especially when he exhibits signs of a sense of humor, jealousy and pride.
DeleteThe robot is indeed a wildcard character, I never really thought about it but he is the most unpredictable character on the show. It's actually really easy to personify the robot, he seems to react not so much by a set of rules but by his own curiosity, logic, and whimsy. I remember the "Sleeping Beauty" episode, that was fascinating how he reacted to the situation. I prefer AI in a story to be closer to human in the way it thinks and "feels" it's hard to relate to cold logic.
ReplyDeleteThe "Sleeping Beauty" episode can still be a weird robot moment, but there so much more evidence that suggest that he may be more than a simple robot.
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