It's time for my companion article to
10 Awesome Cyborgs in Movie History. This article will be the 5th article in my ongoing series featuring robots, cyborgs, and sentient computers. In the first three articles,
14 Awesome Movie Robots Youve Forgotten,15 More Movie Robots Youve Probably Forgotten, and
12 Awesome Robots From TV History, we dealt only with robots. With my first cyborg article, we obviously moved on to cyborgs. For each of the articles above, I set up a few laws to restrict the size of the articles. Known as Tims Laws, these rules are adjusted for each article.
Tims First Law states that only cyborgs can be used, meaning pure robots are excluded.
Tims Second Law states that only cyborgs with a significant role in a television show are allowed. Movie cyborgs will not be tolerated nor will background characters.
Tims Third Law states that a cyborg is defined as a living being whose powers are enhanced by computer implants or mechanical body parts (from the World English Dictionary). That leaves out guys with prosthetic legs or pacemakers. That also leaves out constructs like The Terminator, which are robots surrounded by living tissue.
Tims Fourth Law states that no kid shows, animated shows, anime, puppets, or anything else of that ilk is allowed in this article. Thats it. Lets get started. Here are 10 great cyborgs, in no particular order, from television history.
Honorable Mentions:
Daleks from Doctor Who - I know they are considered cyborgs, but since they are complete beings encased in a transportation device, I ruled them out as true cyborgs. Daleks violate Tim's Third Law. Cylons from Battlestar Galactica - These guys just didn't feel right to me. I'm not psychotic about my BSG history, but from what I remember the Cylons are all artificial beings, not living beings that had portions of their bodies replaced. Cylons violate Tim's Third Law. Glitch from the TV miniseries Tin Man - I never gave this miniseries much of a chance when it originally aired, so I don't have much insight into Glitch. Hopefully it will air again soon so I can update my opinions. Max Guevara from Dark Angel and River Tam from Firefly - Each of these ladies is genetically enhanced, and as far as I know do not have mechanical or electronic enhancements.
10. Adam - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2000)
Adam is a pretty unique cyborg. He made his first appearance in the "The I In Team" episode in Season 4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer when Professor Walsh checks up on an experiment she is performing. That experiment, it turns out, is the part man, part demon, part machine Frankenstein-ish cyborg named Adam. As was typical in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Adam advances from a cameo appearance to more and more important roles in subsequent episodes, eventually becoming the primary antagonist (or "Big Bad") in the fourth season of Buffy.