{"id":23865,"date":"2015-01-10T09:20:32","date_gmt":"2015-01-10T14:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=23865"},"modified":"2015-01-10T09:20:32","modified_gmt":"2015-01-10T14:20:32","slug":"doctor-who-robot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/01\/doctor-who-robot.html","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Who: Robot"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>Tom Baker\u2019s time as the Doctor is arguably the most iconic in the show\u2019s history, and the length of his run as the Doctor is not only a result of but also a contributor to that fact. The first full episode with Tom Baker as the Doctor is simply called \u201cRobot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The robot looks very unimpressive by today\u2019s standards. But the story is one that continues to be told and explored, as we get closer and closer to that imagined future in which robots are not merely an accepted part of life, but are given a degree of autonomy, with us hoping that <a href=\"http:\/\/sawiggins.wordpress.com\/2014\/05\/23\/double-blind\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">rules such as Asimov\u2019s famous three laws<\/a> may help to keep us safe.<\/p>\n<p>The way the episode focuses on the conflicting commands which the robot has been given is reminiscent of what happens to HAL in Arthur C. Clarke\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B000HEBCZQ\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B000HEBCZQ&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=jamefmcgrshom-20&amp;linkId=5EC2ILITZPAWRYVD\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">2001: A Space Odyssey<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important;margin: 0px !important\" src=\"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=jamefmcgrshom-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=B000HEBCZQ\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\">, as revealed in the sequel <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B000HF4U04\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B000HF4U04&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=jamefmcgrshom-20&amp;linkId=OP6IWXNUBJDMFQKL\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">2010: The Year We Make Contact<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important;margin: 0px !important\" src=\"https:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=jamefmcgrshom-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=B000HF4U04\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\">.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the low-budget special effects, the episode marked a great introduction to Tom Baker\u2019s time as the Doctor, with his somewhat manic air that could switch quickly back and forth between the comic and the serious. And it included poignant plot and <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140827221923\/http:\/\/www.chakoteya.net\/DoctorWho\/12-1.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">dialogue<\/a>. My favorite moment is when the Doctor says about the robot, \u201c<span style=\"color: #000000\">It was a wonderful creature, capable of great good, and great evil. Yes, I think you could say it was human.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-27432\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/files\/2014\/12\/robot1-1024x788.jpg\" alt=\"robot1\" width=\"432\" height=\"332\"><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tom Baker\u2019s time as the Doctor is arguably the most iconic in the show\u2019s history, and the length of his run as the Doctor is not only a result of but also a contributor to that fact. The first full episode with Tom Baker as the Doctor is simply called \u201cRobot.\u201d The robot looks very [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":27432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[801,2765,4843,10494,12704],"class_list":["post-23865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-doctor-who-science-fiction","tag-arthur-c-clarke","tag-doctor-who","tag-human","tag-robot","tag-tom-baker"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Doctor Who: Robot<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tom Baker&#039;s time as the Doctor is arguably the most iconic in the show&#039;s history, and the length of his run as the Doctor is not only a result of but also\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/01\/doctor-who-robot.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Doctor Who: Robot\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tom Baker&#039;s time as the Doctor is arguably the most iconic in the show&#039;s history, and the length of his run as the Doctor is not only a result of but also\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/01\/doctor-who-robot.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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