ManWithPez

Governor! Please! She isn't even real!

In the course of most science fiction movies, the hero gets a little help from some friends.  Strictly speaking, since we are talking about science fiction, these people don’t always have to be actual, real people.  What?  You never got any help from an imaginary buddy?  Here’s a few of my favorite assistants from science fiction who might not have actually been real, but whose help was invaluable throughout film and television.

The best dayminder...ever!

10.  Virtual Girlfriend/Lyla (The 6th Day/Spider-Man 2099) – I’m going to tie these two here, because in the scheme of things, they really aren’t that important, other than eye candy.  In the case of The 6th Day, Michael Rappaport’s Virtual Girlfriend (Jennifer Gareis) was there simply so he could have sex with something, and then turn it off later (though the character did seem to have genuine affection for the thing).  In Spider-Man 2099, our main character Miguel O’Hara has a holo-agent, or holographic assistant named Lyla who appears to have quite the attitude.  She minds his calender, and, oddly his workouts, apparently.  Frankly, I just needed another character to round out the list, and I remembered Lyla.  I put Virtual Girlfriend in here, because they seem pretty closely matched (minus the mastur…I mean virtual sex.)

Such a nice hologram. The real one could use some work, though.

9.  Leah Brahms (Star Trek:  The Next Generation) – Leah Brahms (Susan Gibney) designed the warp drives for the Galaxy class starships, of which, Enterprise was the first.  There was a bit of trouble in the episode “Booby Trap”, and for help, Geordi LaForge kind of recreated her in the holodeck so that she could help solve the problem.  The real problem, however is that Geordi got the hots for the hologram (something I’m certain happens a lot in the holodeck), and couldn’t reconcile her with her human counterpart who turned out to be a total bitch.  I suppose things worked out alright, as in the future in an alternate timeline, they marry and have three children together.  All primed by that one little holographic interlude…Gross.

With a name like Rimmer...you just know he's a...hologram.

8.  Arnold Judas Rimmer (Red Dwarf) -  Admittedly, I don’t know much about Red Dwarf, and I make no apologies here.  I’ve simply not been exposed to it.  I have, in my research, found that it is better to include something of which you’re uncertain than to risk the umbrage of science fiction fans…especially fans of British Sci-Fi.  Therefore, here’s Arnold Rimmer (Chris Barrie).  The real Arnold Rimmer was killed during a radiation leak 3 million years in the past of the show, and the ship’s only survivor was brought back from stasis.  As Rimmer was the person with the most interaction with Lister, he was brought back in holographic form.  That’s about all I know about it, but I promise you my six readers (Hi, Grandma!) that I will look further into this, because the character’s history seems so fascinating!

I ever make a ship's computer's avatar...it WILL look like this!

7.  Rommie (Andromeda) – Here’s another one I’m not much informed about…sue me.  Rommie (Lexa Doig) is the ship’s (Andromeda) avatar, a unique part of the ship’s operating AI. She is the interface between the crew and the ship, or she can operate the ship on her own. In the beginning of the series she was only shown as a screen projection or hologram until engineer Harper discovered a way to make her more corporeal.  He transfered her matrix to one of the ship’s androids so she could be a part of the crew while off of the ship as well as on ship. Despite the new body, Rommie often appeared as a hologram when interacting with people aboard the ship.  Although she acted much like the ship she represented, she, over time learned to care and respect her crew.

At least the head conforms to Brando's ego...

6.  Jor-El (Superman) – When Jor-El (Marlon Brando) sent his infant son on a magic carpet ride towards earth when his home planet of Krypton exploded, he sent a few gifts along with him.  One of this was a crystal that created a ready made Fortress of Solitude for young Kal-El.  Housed within the fortress was a crystal interface that projected a holographic representation of Jor-El for the education of his young son.  Education wasn’t always the goal, however.  He included, along with Kal-El’s mother, wishes and affection for his son, along with some advice.  It has to be an orphan’s dream…barring not knowing your parents at all.  Jor-El manages to guide his son from beyond the grave in such a fashion.

Hello little boy...you want some holographic candy?

5.  VOX 114 (The Time Machine 2002) – Imagine you’re a professor who has managed to travel through time, and one of the first things you encounter in the future is the internet.  Also, imagine that it’s a total smartass.  That’s the thinking behind VOX, (Orlando Jones) an AI librarian designed to assist people in a New York public library.  While it would seem that he’s being sarcastic when Professor Hartdegan (Guy Pearce) asks him his all important question “Why can’t I change the past?”, VOX gives him an oddly practical answer “Because one can not travel into the past.”  When Alex gets his answer later, you’d be surprised just how sensible VOX is.  Also, he’s still around in the year 800,000 and change, and gets to give his predeliction for fiction a whirl as he becomes a teacher. 

He's no Beverly Crusher...but he'll do, I guess.

4.  The Doctor (Star Trek:  Voyager) – As I’ve pointed out on ManWithPez more than once, I wasn’t a huge fan of Voyager, save a few characters.  One of these was socially inept hologram The Doctor, played by Robert Picardo.  While he was great at diagnosis…he is a computer, after all, he seemed to be fairly cold and standoffish with his patients.  More than once he tried to expand his social programming with things like dreams, or a holographic family.  It’s odd that a holographic character would get as much screentime as this one did, but, this is Star Trek, who managed to resurrect the fictional Moriarty of all people over on The Next Generation.  The Doctor was a welcome addition to Voyager however.

Not certain what's more alarming: Bakula as a boxer, or Stockwell's costume.

3.  Al (Quantum Leap) – Despite it’s title, no leaps were ever actually made (or harmed), as Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula)was actually stationary and his consciousness was moved throughout different bodies in time so that he could right certain wrongs.  Helping him was a holographic representation of his friend Al (Dean Stockwell) who carried a computer interface known as Ziggy.  In the pilot episode Sam discovers that Al isn’t actually with him when Al walks through the wing of  plane…a trick he would do several times throughout the show.  Al would relate facts about the time period Sam was in, as well tell him the probabilities that certain actions would have on changing outcomes throughout history.  He also always seemed to have a cigar and some seriously hideous clothes, but again, this is Dean Stockwell we’re talking about.

Holy shit! It's Mary Poppin's ghost!!!

2.  SELMA (Time Trax) – This one’s on the list for being a personal favorite of mine.  The Specified Encapsulated Limitless Memory Archive or SELMA (Elizabeth Alexander) is an invaluable tool to Capt. Darien Lambert (Dale Midkiff)  in his quest to capture some time travelling fugitives.  She’s actually a mainframe computer in the form of an AT&T Mastercard, but assumes a holographic form based on some of Lambert’s childhood drawing in the orphange he was raised in.  Later on, of course, we find out that she really looks like his birth mother, whom Lambert meets in his travels.  Most of the time, she takes the appearance of an English nanny (minus the child shaking, of course) While the two bicker (mostly about protocol) throughout the show, before things are over, Lambert refers to her as a friend, and even though she’s a computer, she does likewise.

She's all blue and amazing. She's like a badass smurf!

1.  Cortana (Halo) – She’s not necessarily a hologram unto herself, but when she interfaces with actual people she uses a holographic representation to do it.  This artificial intelligence actually controls the ship where we first meet Master Chief.  When the Pillar of Autumn is ordered evacuated, Master Chief is forced to take Cortana into his armor, where she takes over several functions, most importantly, communication.  While things look up for her at the end of the first Halo game, the ending of the second turns out the be a little darker, as Cortana gets left behind.  Seemingly, in the third Halo game, Master Chief makes it his mission to regather Cortana.  She has become a fan favorite for her ingenuity and unending assistance to one of video game’s, and indeed, science fiction’s best heroes.  For this reason, she makes the top of the list here. 

So, there’s ten.  I like holograms, I do, but I never understood people in…say…Star Trek, who wanted to nail them.  I mean, think of Quark’s holosuites in Deep Space Nine.  Can you imagine that every so often, someone had to go up there and mop up the….leavings?  UGH!

Tags: List, Nerd, Science Fiction

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 5:36 pm and is filed under Books, Internet, Movies, Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.