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Robby the Robot
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===Story background=== Robby the Robot originated as a supporting character in the 1956 MGM science fiction film ''Forbidden Planet''.<ref name="Honeybone">{{cite web |last1=Honeybone |first1=Nigel |title=Robby The Robot: A Look Back at a Robot Legend |url=https://horrornews.net/8245/robby-the-robot-a-look-back-at-a-robot-legend/ |website=Horror News.Net |access-date=2022-03-07 |date=2019-04-11}}</ref> The film's storyline centers on a crew of Earth explorers who land their starship, the [[C57-D]], on the planet [[Altair]] IV, inhabited by the mysterious human Dr. Morbius and his daughter Altaira who was born there. Robby is a mechanical servant that Morbius has designed, built, and programmed using knowledge gleaned from his study of the ancient Krell, a long-extinct race of highly intelligent beings that once populated Altair IV. The film’s plot is loosely based on [[William Shakespeare]]’s play ''[[The Tempest]]'' (1610), with the planet Altair IV standing in for Shakespeare’s remote island and Dr. Morbius for [[Prospero]]. In this context Robby is analogous to [[Ariel (The Tempest)|Ariel]], a spirit enslaved by Prospero. [[Image:Forbiddenplanetposter.jpg|thumb|'''Robby the Robot''' in a poster for the original release of ''[[Forbidden Planet]]''. (The lurid presentation does not accurately reflect the character in the film.)]]Robby exhibits [[artificial intelligence]], but has a distinct personality that at times exhibits a [[dry wit]]. He is instructed by Morbius to be helpful to the Earthmen and does so by synthesizing and transporting to their landing site 10 tons of "isotope 217", a lightweight though still effective replacement for the requested lead shielding needed to house the C57-D’s main stardrive to power an attempt to contact Earth base for further instructions. Morbius programmed Robby to obey a system of rules similar to [[Isaac Asimov]]’s [[Three Laws of Robotics]]<ref name="Hall of Fame" /><ref name="Telotte" /> as expressed in ''[[I, Robot]]'' (1950).<ref>Kreiter, Ted. "Revisiting The Master Of Science Fiction." ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]'', Volume 276, Issue 6, p. 38. {{ISSN|0048-9239}}.</ref> One of the laws is a rule against harming or killing humans. This becomes an important plot point near the conclusion of the film when Robby refuses to kill the [[Id, ego and super-ego|Id]] monster; he recognizes the invisible creature to be an [[alter ego]]/avatar of Dr. Morbius. Hollywood purposely, and misleadingly, depicts Robby in the film’s advertising posters as a terrifying adversarial creature carrying a seductively posed unconscious maiden (Altaira), but no such scene is in the film and the images do not reflect in any way Robby's benevolent and intelligent character. Robby only carries one person during the film, the Earth starship's Dr. Ostrow, when he is mortally wounded near the end of the film.
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