I get slightly nervous when the toaster looks at me in a strange way, so I was pleased when Asimov came up with his rules for robots. I think that it was right to declare that: ” A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human-being to come to harm.”

Every good film knows that these rules are there to be broken…

When the robots land in Bolton: “Take me to your nearest pound shop.”

BAAAAAAADDDDDDD ROBOT

Lotta Bottle

1) Ash in ALIEN (1979) You could put it down to lactose intolerance, but Ian Holme has a menace in his irritated facial-ticks that Michael Fassbender and Lance James Henriksen are unable to shake off despite their best benevolent efforts.

Now then, Now then

2) Batty in BLADERUNNER (1982) It may be his Jimmy Savile haircut or his teutonic accent, but Rutger Hauer cornered the market in single-minded ruthlessness, but is he any more deadly than Deckard? 3000 words on my desk by next Friday.

3) HAL 9000 in 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) “You’re my wife now Dave,” the ultimate in snarky AI, but succumbs to the deterrent to hostile machine, the off-button.

4) ‘Maria’ from METROPOLIS (1927) A female robot reaping havoc on the masses in a wonderfully designed costume that inspired Anthony Daniel’s second skin.

J.J. ABRAMS

5) ED209 from ROBOCOP (1987) This stop-motion cop is no better than those walking things the Ewoks defeated. In Verhoeven’s Jacobean masterpiece of modern SF this robot menace is reduced to a joke.

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