FEMBOT FILM & TV : FAMILYMATTERS/ODYSSEY5/COLLECTOR/2046

[MAGNUS]

Here are a few more robot appearances in film & tv no one has mentioned before.

1. FAMILY MATTERS : tv series - Season 3 episode 7 ( #54 in the series ) titled ROBO-NERD introduced the mechanical version of urkel called the urkelbot. Season 3 episode 23 ( #70 in the series ) titled ROBO-NERD II brought back urkelbot & featured the laurabot.

2. ODYSSEY 5 : tv series - Season 1 episode 3 following the two part pilot movie titled THE SHATTERER featured a female synthetic artificial lifeform called a sentient.

3. THE COLLECTOR : tv series - Season 1 episode 7 titled THE ROBOTICIST guest stars gabrielle miller who played an android in the outer limits episode GLITCH. I haven't seen this show & have no idea if there is a fembot in it or not. If anyone has seen it please let me know if there are any robots in the story.

4. 2046 : movie - Sequel to the chinese film IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE made in 2000. This is not a science-fiction film but it does imagine a future with female androids when the main character narrates from a story he wrote.

Check www.epguides.com for details on the tv episodes & www.imdb.com for details on the feature film.

MAGNUS

[noidguy]

The "Odyssey 5" episode and "The Collector" episode are now on my want list. Thanks for mentioning them, Magnus.

[ButchyBoy]

I think the Oddessy 5 series is still in the Showtime On Demand list. I'll have to double check, but if it is, I'll be able to tape that episode.

[MAGNUS]

The following details gives away plotlines to the tv shows i listed at the beginning. I am reviewing the fembot content for two of these items.

I can't review THE COLLECTOR but as a side note guest star gabrielle miller ( OUTER LIMITS : GLITCH ) is currently starring in a canadian tv series called CORNER GAS & season 1 of this series is now available to buy on dvd. She is the main reason i'm watching the show.

FAMILY MATTERS - At the end of the episode ROBO-NERD II urkel tells everyone that urkelbot has decided to become a dancer & says he built a mechanical woman dance partner for the robot. He also says this robot is named after laura who is one of the characters in this show.

Everyone goes into the living room & watches as urkel turns on urkelbot & laurabot. The two robots start dancing & everyone joins in the dance. The robots' outfits are composed of full body suits & head masks. This entire sequence only lasts for the final two minutes of the show.

ODYSSEY 5 - At the climax of the episode THE SHATTERER a woman hits peter weller's son while they wait at the car near a cabin. The woman goes into the cabin & asks peter weller where the professor is & peter asks her where is his son. At this point the woman grabs one of the other regular characters in the show & tosses him across the room into a shelf rack.

The woman advances on peter just as he pulls a gun to face her & fires hitting her in the shoulder. White ooze pours out of her wound & she isn't even fazed by the gunshot. She grabs peter by his throat & he fires the gun several more times at close range into her stomach. More white ooze squirts out of the exit wounds in her back & again she doesn't even flinch.

The professor enters the cabin with a shotgun & demands that the woman let go of peter. She turns & the professor shoots her in the torso knocking the woman to the ground. She gets up & the professor shoots her again & this time she doesn't get back up. The woman lays on the floor with white liquid streaming out of her bullet holes & white globules bubbling & pushing their way out of the larger openings in her torso.

This android is more reminiscent of ash in the alien film which is more bio-mechanical in nature as opposed to the nuts 'n' bolts variety we are more familiar with in other tv shows & films.

MAGNUS

[noidguy]

Hey Magnus, is this the gynoid actress from The Shatterer?

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1154942/

[MAGNUS]

This post is a reply to a question asked by noidguy.

Sorry i didn't reply sooner. I was out all day & watching the academy awards all night. It is my duty to report no oscar wins by any robot movie in any category. It is an especially sad day in fembot city since the loss of the film i, robot in the visual effects category. Fembots were so despondent after hearing the news that this nominated film didn't win an award. There were reports of fembots shutting down their own internal operating systems all over fembot city.

The actress you mentioned in your last post is not the one playing the android. She must have played an extra in the shatterer episode. I had to do a bit of research to find the answer. I reviewed the episode & only once is her character name mentioned. Just before the android attacks one of the cast members he calls her tessa. I went to the tv tome website & checked a detailed cast list for the odyssey 5 episode. There is a character called tessa martin played by actress carolyn goff.

If you look her name up on the google search engine there are websites where nude photos of carolyn goff can be found. This actress has blonde hair & reminds me a little of the short, lead fembot, peggy callahan, in both bionic woman adventures. Keep in mind the android in the odyssey 5 episode is made from biological materials & not from wires & circuit boards.

The artificial lifeforms called the sentients do not show up in every episode & i'm not sure how many shows of this series i've watched. The sentients are connected to the destruction of earth seen in the pilot episode. Once you have seen this show you can decide for yourself whether it deserves a place on the sacred master list.

This knowledge is all i can offer at this moment to the fembot kingdom. I humbly bow before noidguy...god of fembotics!

MAGNUS

[noidguy]

Found her.



It's a beautiful thing!

[MAGNUS]

The following details gives away plotlines to the movie called 2046 i listed at the beginning. I am reviewing the fembot content for this movie.

The following paragraphs are rewritten from the english subtitles during the mystery train sequence.

The main character of the movie writes a story called 2046. It is all about men & women looking for love & trying to get to a place called 2046 & risking everything to do it.

The main character begins imagining himself as a japanese man on a train for 2046 & falling for an android with delayed reaction. The train has a range of cabin attendants who can satisfy your every need. These cabin attendants will serve you devotedly like an intimate friend but you must never fall in love with them. Who would ever fall for an android.

Paragraph 201 in the passenger's guide warns that area 1224-1225 is especially cold. The train heating won't be strong enough. Passengers are advised to hug each other to keep warm. Since i'm the only passenger i hug my android cabin attendant. I wonder if it's her mechanism or just my imagination but i sense some responsive warmth in her artificial body.

Whenever anyone asked why i left 2046 i always gave them some vague answer. I once fell in love with someone & i couldn't stop wondering whether she loved me or not. I found an android which looked just like her & i thought the android might give me the answer.

I realized the reason the android didn't answer had nothing to do with her mechanism wearing out. This was not that she didn't like him but more likely that she already loved someone else. The android cabin attendant is seen staring out of the train window on a journey to japan. She is motionless as 10 hours pass, a 100 hours pass & finally 1000 hours pass as she continues to stare out the window.

The above info is the narration that occurs at 1 hour & 20 minutes into the film during the mystery train sequence that lasts 10 minutes. There are no robotic special effects other than a small amount of robotic acting. The android cabin attendants wear unusual futuristic wigs & outfits. There are lovemaking scenes with these androids but no real nudity. This is an art film with piano & opera music in the background & may not be of interest to everyone. This movie has not been released in north america & is only available as a bootleg dvd from asia.

Cast list : Tony leung, faye wong, gong li, takuya kimura, zhang ziyi, carina lau, chang chen & special appearance by maggie cheung.

MAGNUS

[MAGNUS]

VCR Alert! The Collector episode titled "The Roboticist" will be shown here in canada on sunday may 22. The show will air on citytv channel 7 (rogers cable) at 8:00PM. As i mentioned earlier i have no idea if there is a fembot in this episode or not. Here is a description of this show.

Morgan's new client is a beautiful, brilliant young woman who is using her devil-given powers to build a thinking robot that she hopes will improve mankind. But morgan's efforts to save her are hampered by the continuing efforts of news reporter jeri slate to discover who morgan is & what he's up to. Both morgan & jeri are in for big surprises as the devil steps in to influence the course of events.

After this episode has aired i will be providing a report on this show for the benefit of those who haven't seen it yet.

MAGNUS

[noidguy]

Magnus, please tape this. If it has any fembot content I'd like to see it some day.

[Rotwang]

RE : Family Matters

Not only does Laurabot have the same body as Urkelbot (just a different head), but SHE'S A MAN BABY ! (Male performer)

I have a vidcap of the episode, will post it.

[MAGNUS]

I am reviewing the fembot content for The Collector episode The Roboticist.

Chris Kramer plays Morgan Pym who asks the devil for the chance to save the souls of his clients. In this episode Morgan is given the name of Alicia Keller from the devil. Alicia is working on a humanoid robot in her laboratory.

Morgan searches for Alicia on the internet & calls a company to locate her without success. A security guard at the company phones reporter Jeri Slate regarding Morgan. Morgan poses as a job applicant to get access to the company's computer & obtain the whereabouts of Alicia Keller as he is being monitored by the security guard.

Morgan drives out to the address to find Alicia's underground laboratory. She lets him in after Morgan explains that he knows about her deal with the devil. He further explains that she must find redemption within 48 hours or she will die of unnatural causes. Alicia shows Morgan the robot she has been building for the past 5 years. Meanwhile, Jeri Slate is attempting to obtain information on Morgan from a girlfriend of his who works at a diner but she refuses to help her.

Alicia explains that she has been developing artificial brain cells in order to make a robot think & patterned them after a human being. She says the robot is not finished yet & she has been redesigning it over & over again. Morgan says it was the devil who has prevented her from completing the robot & he needs to know who has been hurt by her success. Morgan says he needs more information on her deal with the devil. Alicia says she was impatient & wanted shortcuts on her project.

Alicia takes Morgan to see Dr. Carter who is a virtual vegetable in a wheelchair. Alicia tells Morgan that Dr. Carter volunteered for her dangerous medical procedure which left him paralyzed. Morgan asks Alicia if her robot could help Dr. Carter. Alicia says she needs a one-of-a-kind microchip from the G.T.I. company to complete her work. Alicia & Morgan plan to steal the microchip & begin working on a way to override the company's security system.

Reporter Jeri Slate & Morgan arrange a parking lot meeting to discuss the deaths of some of the people that he has been helping & Morgan says he will tell her where he works if she will leave him alone. Alicia is working on entering the company security program in her lab while Morgan visits his girlfriend from the diner who begins asking him a lot of questions. Jeri Slate begins researching Morgan's workplace.

Morgan joins Alicia in the lab & they discuss his own immortality & his deal with the devil who let him keep his soul. Alicia prepares fake passes which they use to masquerade as G.T.I. employees to gain access into the company & steal the microchip. The security guard discovers the deception & activates an alarm. Morgan helps Alicia escape as he fights with the security guard. The security guard reveals that he is Dr. Carter's brother & that Alicia is responsible for putting the doctor in a wheelchair.

Morgan is taken to see Dr. Carter & his wife who explain that it was Alicia's idea to experiment on him. The doctor is not a vegetable & they kept this a secret because Alicia destroyed any evidence that would incriminate herself. They kept the secret as they waited for Alicia to make a mistake as there was no way to prove Alicia severed the doctor's spinal cord on purpose. The doctor agreed to Alicia's procedure because he was in love with her.

Dr. Carter tells Morgan that what happened to him was due to discovering Alicia's secret. The doctor explains that Alicia was brutally raped at the university & had completely shut off her feelings. The robot she is developing is a way for her to be safe. Alicia is planning on becoming a robot. Alicia wants to be downloaded into the robot in her lab & they must stop her before she accomplishes this procedure. The doctor asks for Morgan's help as they only want to protect Alicia from herself.

Jeri Slate arrives at the exports company investigating Morgan & she is confronted by the devil in human form who manages to get rid of the snooping reporter. At this time Morgan races back to Alicia's underground laboratory.

Alicia traps Morgan in the decontamination chamber between her lab & outside the building. Alicia pulls a sheet off of a robotic copy of herself on a table & explains that she will become a new immortal & invulnerable species. She says she developed the synthetic skin & the gel that could be patterned on a human brain. Alicia also admits that she meant to kill the doctor & she says with her soul in the robot there will be nothing to collect.

Morgan tells Alicia that she can't cheat the devil & pleads with her to reconsider as he knows about what happened to her at the university. Alicia hooks herself up to a table adjacent to her robot double & activates equipment that starts the process of transferring her consciousness into the robot. Morgan watches all of this transpire as he stands helplessly in the decontamination chamber.

The devil in human form arrives inside the chamber when the transfer is complete & magically opens the door leading into the lab. They check on Alicia who is now inside the robot. Alicia's voice emanates from the computer saying the transfer is complete & she has succeeded but there is a malfunction & that she can't move. Alicia says that her original calculations are confirmed & that she will move now but nothing happens. The devil talks to Alicia's motionless body & says that she is now stuck in this metal body just like Dr. Carter is stuck in his wheelchair but at least he is still human. The devil says she is the first client he has ever had who has designed their own version of hell. Alicia's computerized voice says that she will recalculate & make adjustments.

Morgan follows the devil outside the lab & then the devil magically seals the entrance to the underground facility as he discusses having to clean up the mess. Dr. Carter, his wife & brother are waiting for Morgan at the company & in an instant their memories are magically erased. Meanwhile, in the underground lab, the robot Alicia stares into space repeating over & over again that her original calculations are confirmed & that she will move now.

The robotic special effects in this episode include the mechanical body before the skin is applied, her iris & pupil digitally appearing over a white eye when her eyelids are opened & the monotone electronic voice in the computer.

Note to Noidguy : Yes, i did videotape this episode!

MAGNUS

[noidguy]

So this is the second time Gabrielle Miller is shown as a motionless robot lying on a table?

[MAGNUS]

We should compile a list of actresses who have played female androids more than once. It would probably be a very short list. Other than Gabrielle Miller i can only think of a couple at the moment.

Sophia Shinas played Valerie 23 & Mary 25 in two Outer Limits stories but this barely qualifies as the stories were related to each other within the same series. Catherine Schell played an android in two Space 1999 episodes, The Guardian of Piri & The Taybor, each from different seasons but again within the same series.

The more common situation is an actress who has played a robot in a show & then turned up in another show playing opposite another android character. A larger list could be made of these examples. I am wondering if Gabrielle Miller's two robot roles from two separate series would qualify as a first in the fembot hall of fame.

I am curious about how Gabrielle Miller landed these two robot roles. Maybe she is a robosexual performance artist & is stimulated by acting as a robot onscreen. Perhaps she will be playing a robot again in the near future. Maybe i'll write to her & tell her about all of my robotic fantasies involving her onscreen characters so we could meet & she could act out scenes for me. On second thought, that probably wouldn't be a good idea!

She'll think i'm just plain NUTS!!!

Note to Noidguy : In The Roboticist episode of The Collector, Gabrielle Miller's robot copy actually appears propped up at a diagonal slope on a contoured platform that resembles a chair with armrests more than it does a table. This is really only a trivial technical detail but i hope this gives a clear picture to the events from my episode description.

MAGNUS

[noidguy]

Gotta see this.

Btw, Brooke Bundy is another candidate for double droid duty in separate situations. She played a robot in one episode of "Land of the Lost" and also in the "Cyborg" episode of "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea".

[~?]

We should compile a list of actresses who have played female androids more than once. It would probably be a very short list. Other than Gabrielle Miller i can only think of a couple at the moment.

There're more than a couple; not counting porn actresses (Nina Hartley) playing robots more than once, I can name someone right off the top of my head who played robots more than anything else: Lorraine Yarnell.

[MAGNUS]

There are a few fembot film connections i can think of that link up actresses in multiple movie roles.

Kristy Swanson played an android in Deadly Friend & then played the girlfirend of an android in Not Quite Human.

Catherine Mary Stewart played an android in The Annihilator & then played the girlfriend of an android in The Last Starfighter.

Julie Newmar played an android in My Living Doll & then played opposite a female android in the movies Oblivion & Backlash : Oblivion 2.

Michelle Trachtenberg did not play an android but she did play opposite female androids in two movies including Inspector Gadget & Richie Rich's Christmas Wish as well as the tv series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Katey Sagal played a virtual reality, holgraphic woman in Smart House & then provided her voice for a character in Futurama that featured a regular robot in the story.

Majel Barrett played an android in Westworld & then provided her voice for the ship's computer onboard the starship enterprise in the tv series Star Trek : The Next Generation.

Paula Prentiss played an android in The Stepford Wives & in real life she is married to Richard Benjamin who starred in Westworld.

These are the only connections i can think of at this time but i imagine there must be more of them out there.

MAGNUS

[MAGNUS]

Here are a few more fembot film connections i can think of that link up actresses in multiple movie roles.

Tina Louise played an android in The Stepford Wives & then played opposite a robot on an episode of Gilligan's Island as well as acting like a robot in another episode where a mad scientist uses rings to control the minds of the castaways.

Pam Grier played an android in Class of 1999 & then played opposite a variety of robots in films including Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, The Adventures of Pluto Nash & The Vindicator.

Heather Graham played an android in the episode Resurrection of the 1990's Outer Limits series & then played opposite robots in films including Lost in Space & Austin Powers : The Spy Who Shagged Me.

Kim Cattrall played an android in Running Delilah & then played opposite an android in the 1970's TV series Logan's Run as well as playing a mannequin in the movie of the same name.

Angelina Jolie played an android in Cyborg 2 : Glass Shadow & then played opposite a female android in the movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

Meg Foster played an android in Oblivion & Backlash : Oblivion 2 & then played opposite an android in the movie Project Shadowchaser & Steve Austin's cyborg character in an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man.

MAGNUS

[goldengun009]

Hey folks,
If you a look of the Roboticist episode from the Collector, it will be posted in the scans and screens section of the gallery. Too bad it's only Canadian television. However, a DVD of the 1st season will be out sometime in the future, not exactly when.

goldengun009

[MAGNUS]

Here is a newspaper article reviewing the film 2046 opening in theatres on August 12, 2005.

Wong Takes Love Into Future ( Part 1 )

The deleted scenes and alternate ending on the DVD of 2000's In the Mood for Love revealed how different a movie Wong Kar Wai could have made had he chosen to consummate the affair he so masterfully conjured between Tony Leung's and Maggie Cheung's characters in the Hong Kong of 1962.

Wong opted to ignite the spark without lighting the fire. In doing so he captured the physical hunger for love in a way no other filmmaker yet has. For Wong, love has always been elusive, and possibly just an illusion.

In 2046, Wong's much-laboured and multi-layered sequel to In the Mood for Love, the sex becomes commonplace and even mechanical.

There's a price for being in the mood here, and it starts at $10. But the romance, when it appears, is never less than lyrical.

Leung's character, Chow, while still a writer, is no longer the shy husband straining at his marital bounds; he's an incorrigible rake with Brylcreemed hair and a moustache stolen from Clark Gable. He beds numerous women, each more beautiful than the last (and played by a bevy of top-drawer Asian actresses), but he can't wait for them to leave in the morning.

Chow still yearns for something more meaningful, and still longs for the obscure object of desire Cheung brought to life with the sway of an endless array of silk dresses.

"I can't stop wondering if she loved me or not," Chow sighs.

Wong illustrates this yearning through the device of the number 2046, which variously stands for the hotel room of In the Mood's near tryst (and this movie's many liaisons), the title of a sci-fi novel that Chow is writing, a place somewhere out there where dreams reside and a high-tech train makes only one-way trips, and the date when Hong Kong will finally complete the transition to total Chinese rule.

That's a lot of ideas to pack into one movie, which accounts for why Wong had so much trouble getting the film ready for last year's Cannes Film Festival, where 2046 arrived late and awkwardly edited.

It could also leave you with a sense of yearning of your own, wishing the film could be as relatively straightforward as its predecessor.

MAGNUS

[MAGNUS]

Wong Takes Love Into Future ( Part 2 )

It is best to think of 2046 as a series of short stories, pulp fiction penned by a master mood-setter and centred on Chow's character and two seedy rooms in the Oriental Hotel (there's also a room 2047 here, just to confuse you some more). Some of the stories are straight confessions, whispered into silky ears and into erotically charged circular symbols.

In this memory motel, every new conquest comes with the promise of self-awareness, often described in voiceover by Chow, and rich with colour and detail.

There's Lulu (Carina Lau), also known as Mimi, an ex-girlfriend who has learned the stagecraft of life. "No matter what happened, at least she was always the leading lady," Chow says.

The more innocent Jing (Faye Wong), the daughter of the grasping hotel owner, teeters between childish rebellion and adult desire as she attempts to balance Chow's attentions with her growing attraction for a Japanese beau (Takuya Kimura) her father doesn't like.

Gong Li's Gambling ace Su Li Zhen (mysteriously named for In the Mood's siren) has one black glove covering a hand that could be wooden, or not; she also has a kiss that could melt concrete.

Maggie Cheung and Chen Chang as the enigmatically named sexbots Slz1960 and cc1966 bring the sci-fi into focus, teaching us that even android girls get the blues. (Cheung is barely seen in the film; she's as elusive as ever.)

Most fetching and fascinating of all is Zhang Ziyi as Bai Ling, a call girl who has yearnings of her own. Her exchanges - both verbal and non-verbal - with Chow are amongst the most intense moments of 2046.

Would it have been asking too much if the movie was just a bit less surreal? Wong perhaps realizes he's testing even those members of his audience who are used to his narrative flights of fancy. Even the musical cues are somewhat puzzling. Nat King Cole is back, but this time singing the overplayed "The Christmas Song" rather than the rapturous "Aquellos Ojos Verdes" or "Te Quiero Dijiste (Magic is the Moonlight)," the tunes that gave In the Mood for Love such hypnotic grace.

Listen to how Chow describes his sci-fi novel: "I made it as bizarre and erotic as possible, without crossing the line."

Does Wong cross the line with 2046? Perhaps he does, if you were hoping for a more conventional or linear sequel.

But his willingness to let himself be completely carried awayon the wings of desire is always something to behold, even if understanding doesn't hit you until longer after the final frame.

MAGNUS