episode #41 - I, Robot

episode #9 of 2nd season
air date: 11/14/64 writer: Robert C. Dennis, based on story by Eando Binder Director: Leon Benson

This begins after a murder has been committed; the pursued fugitive is a robot, called Adam Link by its dead creator. It surrenders to the sheriff's dept. and is jailed for killing its maker, though the victim's niece (Marianna Hill) insists that the tin man is innocent. An enterprising reporter (Leonard Nimoy) gets the bright idea to obtain a defense attorney (Howard da Silva) for Adam and have the spectacle of a strange trial. So, much of the episode, a trial episode, consists of flashbacks to what happened.

Based on a series of sf stories from the late thirties & early forties about robot Adam Link, this is one of the more famous episodes and lent a bit of class to the O L show by its inclusion; it was remade for the new O L show in the nineties. Since it is a trial episode, it's on the slow side. However, it offers another perspective on the Frankenstein legend - of man becoming a creator and the possible repercussions of such. The robot is a sympathetic character and the ending is sad - an accomplishment. BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10
Outer Trivia: Star Trek TOS actor alert - Nimoy, back from Production and Decay of Strange Particles, would play Spock for the first time a few months later in the first TOS pilot, The Cage. He would also play the attorney in the O L remake of this episode. Also in The Cage would be John Hoyt as the ship's doctor; he pops up here as another scientist. Marianna Hill would appear in Dagger of the Mind. The inventor is played by Peter Brocco, who would appear as an Organian in Errand of Mercy.