I, Robot (1964 The Outer Limits)

For other uses, see I, Robot (disambiguation).

"I, Robot"
The Outer Limits episode
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 9
Directed by	Leon Benson
Written by	Robert C. Dennis (teleplay) based on the story I, Robot by Eando Binder
Cinematography by	Kenneth Peach
Production code	43
Original air date	November 14, 1964
Guest appearance(s)
Howard da Silva
Episode chronology

"I, Robot" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on 14 November 1964, during the second season. It was remade under the same title in 1995. Leonard Nimoy appeared in both versions.

Opening narration

“

God looked upon his world and called it good, but Man was not content. He looked for ways to make it better and built machines to do the work. But in vain we build the world, unless the builder also grows.

”

Plot

Defence attorney Thurman Cutler is coaxed out of retirement to take the case for the defence of a robot, Adam Link, against the charge that it willfully murdered its creator Dr. Charles Link. Placed on trial, Adam sits alone in the courtroom, apart from his only friend Nina Link, the professor's niece. Testimony reveals that once Adam was activated he began a trial and error process of learning like that of a child. This suggests that some of his later acts, construed as violent, were in fact a matter of the mechanical man not understanding his own strength, or subtle or vague areas of human thought and emotions. Unfortunately the defence never fully recovers from the revelation that Adam read the novel Frankenstein while absorbing all the books in the Doc's library, and the judge pronounces the robot guilty, even though the Doc's death was accidental. Before Adam can be hauled away to be dismantled, he breaks free of his bonds outside the courthouse to throw a child aside from the path of an oncoming truck, but is smashed into scrap metal in the process. Cutler notes sardonically: "That terrible monster won't ever harm anybody again."

Closing narration

“

Out of every disaster, a little progress is made. Man will build more robots, and learn how to make them better. And, given enough time, he may learn how to do the same for himself.

”

Background

The Adam Link stories first appeared in Amazing Stories magazine between 1939 and 1942, written by Eando Binder, a pseudonym used jointly by brothers Earl and Otto Binder, (though only Otto wrote the Adam Link stories). Unusually for a robot at that time, Adam was a sympathetic character with genuine emotions, and the tales were narrated by Adam himself. "I Robot" first appeared in Amazing Stories Vol. 13/no. 1 (January 1939), and was continued in "The Trial of Adam Link, Robot" (Amazing Stories vol. 13/no. 7 (July 1939)). The original story ends with Adam intending to turn himself off, believing he will not be allowed a trial, and although innocent, writing his confession.

The Outer Limits episode is based on these first two stories. In this TV adaptation, writer Robert C. Dennis invented the character of attorney Thurman Cutler, greatly expanded the role of a nameless newspaperman, mentioned only in passing in Binder's original story, into Judson Ellis and changed Prof. Link's relative to a woman.^[1] The ending was also changed so that Adam is found guilty, ending up as scrap metal when saving a child from being hit by a truck outside the courthouse; in the original "Trial" story, he is vindicated and set free.

Unlike his TV counterpart, the original Adam Link was a six-foot-tall android. In the following four stories ("Adam Link in Business", Vol. 14/no. 1, Jan 1940; "Adam Link's Vengeance", Vol. 14/no. 2,Feb 1940; "Adam Link, Robot Detective", Vol. 14/no. 5, May 1940; and "Adam Link, Champion Athlete", Vol.14/no. 7, Jul 1940) he amasses a fortune as a business consultant, enough to fund a rejuvenation of slum areas and build a "female" robot named Eve to be his wife, is betrayed by a friend who uses him to rob banks, becomes a private detective to find the person who framed Eve for 3 murders and performs a series of athletic challenges. The later stories, ("Adam Link fights a War", Vol.14/no. 12, Dec 1940; "Adam Link in the Past", Vol.15.no. 2,Feb 1941; "Adam Link Faces A Revolt", Vol. 15/no. 5, May 1941; and "Adam Link Saves The World", Vol.16/no.4,Apr 1942) were more outlandish SF adventure tales with Adam and Eve fighting evil robots and aliens in defense of the human race. All 10 stories were adapted by Otto Binder into a 174-page novel Adam Link: Robot, and first published in the US by Paperback Library in 1965.

"I, Robot" first appeared in color comic strip form in 1954 in EC Comics Weird Science-Fantasy #27, followed by "The Trial of Adam Link" in #28 and "Adam Link in Business" in #29, all adapted by Albert Feldstein, with art by Joe Orlando. Later an irregular series of black and white Adam Link comic strips, written by Otto Binder and drawn by Joe Orlando, were published in Warren Magazines' Creepy between 1965 and 1967 ("I, Robot", #2 Apr 1965; "The Trial Of Adam Link!", #4 Aug 1965; "Adam Link in Business", #6 Dec 1965; "Adam Link's Mate!", #8 Apr 1966; "Adam Link's Vengeance!", #9 Jun 1966; "Adam Link, Robot Detective!", #12 Dec 1966; 'Adam Link Gangster!", #13 Feb 1967; "Adam Link, Champion Athlete", #15 Aug 1967).

Analysis

The opening narration makes reference to the Greek deity Prometheus and also the creature of Dr. Frankenstein: the theme of Man defying the power of the Gods. From the prologue, the reference to James Whale's "Frankenstein" is obvious: for example, the little girl is playing near a lake when Adam Link appears, followed by lynching cops and fanatical local armed people who chase the metallic robot.

Cast

Howard da Silva – as Thurman Cutler
Ford Rainey – as D.A. Thomas Coyle
Marianna Hill – as Nina Link
Leonard Nimoy – as Judson Ellis
John Hoyt – as Professor Hebbel
Robert Sorrells – as Fred
Hugh Sanders – as Sheriff Barclay
Mary Jackson – as Mrs. McCrae
Peter Brocco – as Professor "Doc" Link
Ken Drake – as The Judge
Christine Matchett – as Evie
Read Morgan – as Adam Link (uncredited)
John Caper Jr. – as Adam's Voice (uncredited)
John Hudkins – as Truck Driver (uncredited)

References

↑ The Outer Limits: The Official Companion (1986), page 333

External links

"I, Robot (1964 The Outer Limits)" at TV.com
I, Robot at the Internet Movie Database

The Outer Limits episodes

1963 series
(episodes)

Season 1	"The Galaxy Being" "The Hundred Days of the Dragon" "The Architects of Fear" "The Man with the Power" "The Sixth Finger" "The Man Who Was Never Born" "O.B.I.T." "The Human Factor" "Corpus Earthling" "Nightmare" "It Crawled Out of the Woodwork" "The Borderland" "Tourist Attraction" "The Zanti Misfits" "The Mice" "Controlled Experiment" "Don't Open Till Doomsday" "ZZZZZ" "The Invisibles" "The Bellero Shield" "The Children of Spider County" "Specimen: Unknown" "Second Chance" "Moonstone" "The Mutant" "The Guests" "Fun and Games" "The Special One" "A Feasibility Study" "Production and Decay of Strange Particles" "The Chameleon" "The Forms of Things Unknown"

Season 2	"Soldier" "Cold Hands, Warm Heart" "Behold, Eck!" "Expanding Human" "Demon with a Glass Hand" "Cry of Silence" "The Invisible Enemy" "Wolf 359" "I, Robot" "The Inheritors" "Keeper of the Purple Twilight" "The Duplicate Man" "Counterweight" "The Brain of Colonel Barham" "The Premonition" "The Probe"

1995 series
(episodes)

Season 1	"The Sandkings" "Corner of the Eye" "Under the Bed" "Dark Matters" "The Conversion" "Quality of Mercy" "The New Breed" "The Voyage Home" "Caught in the Act" "The Message" "I, Robot" "If These Walls Could Talk" "Birthright" "The Voice of Reason"

Season 2	"Stitch in Time" "Resurrection" "Unnatural Selection" "I Hear You Calling" "Mind Over Matter" "Beyond the Veil" "First Anniversary" "Straight and Narrow" "Trial by Fire" "Worlds Apart" "The Refuge" "Inconstant Moon" "From Within" "The Heist" "Afterlife" "The Deprogrammers" "Paradise" "The Light Brigade" "Falling Star" "Out of Body" "Vanishing Act" "The Sentence"

Season 3	"Bits of Love" "Second Thoughts" "Re-Generation" "Last Supper" "Stream of Consciousness" "Dark Rain" "The Camp" "Heart's Desire" "Tempests" "Awakening" "New Lease" "Double Helix" "Dead Man's Switch" "Music of the Spheres" "The Revelations of Becka Paulson" "Bodies of Evidence" "Feasibility Study" "A Special Edition"

Season 4	"Criminal Nature" "The Hunt" "Hearts and Minds" "In Another Life" "In the Zone" "Relativity Theory" "Josh" "Rite of Passage" "Glyphic" "Identity Crisis" "The Vaccine" "Fear Itself" "The Joining" "To Tell the Truth" "Mary 25" "Final Exam" "Lithia" "Monster" "Sarcophagus" "Nightmare" "Promised Land" "Balance of Nature" "The Origin of Species" "Phobos Rising" "Black Box" "In Our Own Image"

Season 5	"Alien Radio" "Donor" "Small Friends" "The Grell" "The Other Side" "Joyride" "The Human Operators" "Blank Slate" "What Will The Neighbors Think" "The Shroud" "Ripper" "Tribunal" "Summit" "Descent" "The Haven" "Deja Vu" "The Inheritors" "Essence of Life" "Stranded" "Fathers and Sons" "Star Crossed" "Better Luck Next Time"

Season 6	"Judgment Day" "The Gun" "Skin Deep" "Manifest Destiny" "Breaking Point" "The Beholder" "Seeds of Destruction" "Simon Says" "Stasis" "Down to Earth" "Glitch" "Decompression" "Abaddon" "The Grid" "Gettysburg" "Nest" "Final Appeal"

Season 7	"Family Values" "Patient Zero" "A New Life" "The Surrogate" "The Vessel" "Mona Lisa" "Replica" "Think Like a Dinosaur" "Worlds Within" "In the Blood" "Flower Child" "Abduction" "Lion's Den" "The Tipping Point" "The Human Factor" "Human Trials"

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