Feb 1, 2021
Out of This World: Little Lost Robot (1.2, ABC, 1962)
"The modification is in the First Law of Robotics."
"But the First Law is immutable!"
"Well, it's not immutable any longer. The modification was essential for the strategic task being carried out here."
"As you know, the First Law states that, um, no robot can harm a human being; neither can he allow a human being to be harmed."
"I should know, General - I formulated the law."
#out of this world#Little lost robot#Single play#Missing TV#Armchair Theatre#isaac asimov#sci fi tv#Leo Lehmann#Guy Verney#boris karloff#Maxine Audley#Clifford Evans#Murray Hayne#Gerald Flood#Hayden Jones#Roger Snowdon#Leonard White#Irene Shubik#Out of this world was a Sci fi offshoot of Armchair Theatre headed by Shubik and acting not unlike Armchair Mystery Theatre had earlier on#Providing more fantastical plots than the average AT episode. Each episode was introduced by Karloff (just as Don Pleasence had introduced#The mystery version) and adapted stories by well known Sci fi authors; it was well received and quite timely (coming off the back of the A#For Andromeda serial and feeding a sudden interest in all things space) but lasted just one series of 12 plays before Shubik was poached by#The BBC (where she would create spiritual successor Out of the Unknown). And of those 12 alas this is the sole survivor: one little orphan#Play (two others exist in audio only format). And it's brilliant. Obviously it shows the constraints of producing science fiction on a#Nothing budget but it's an audacious and entertaining attempt. A brilliantly paranoid little thriller about a cuckoo in the nest only the#Cuckoo is a potentially malevolent robot; up against it is cool calm genius Dr. Susan Calvin (the wonderful Audley) who must use robot#Psychology to identify the bad apple. Even writing those tags it sounds absurd but it's sold so well and executed with such good faith that#I was genuinely on the edge of my seat for the final act. A rather wonderful slice of pre DW brit sci fi telly and a joyous thing to have#Survived the purges of archive destruction; now if only someone can rustle up the other 11 (in particular the adaptation of Philip K Dick's#Imposter) I will be very happy indeed thank you. I'll wait.
