"The wheels of Dr Calvin grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small."
This is the first episode I've ever blogged of this fourteen episode ITV series of plays from 1962, all science fiction, whether original or adaptations. It is also, barring a near-miracle, the last, as this episode is the only one to survive the junkings to which British television was so very prone. This being ITV, this time we cannot blame Pamela Nash.
I won't say much about thestory, which I recall from the original I, Robot short story. There is, it must be said, an odd change in that the robot with the modified First Law is said to be able to kill, which it is not: it can merely passively allow a human to come to harm. There was, I suppose, a fear that this, a stoiry of ideas, was too talky and lacking in action. Yet TV of this era was pretty much theatre with a big camera pointing at it. Talky is no sin.
Changes aside, I very much enjoyed this. It is a very early 's view of the future, of course: by 2039 we shall be orbiting Saturn and beginning to master hyperspace with our robot slaves, apparently. The robots themselves look... well, hilarious, and I say that with affection. The banks of computers, at lreast, look way cooler than real computers eventually would.
What makes this adaptation a triumph, however, is Maxine Audley's extraordinary performance as Susan Calvin. It's extraordinarily that she is, I think, still the only person to have played the part. Yet she will be a tough act to follow. This adaptation is, perhaps, just what it is. But it's a very nice little artifact. The intro from the actual Boris Karloff is just a bonus.
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