Marvin the Paranoid Android
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (December 2023) |
Marvin the Paranoid Android | |
---|---|
Fit the Twenty-Sixth (radio) | |
Created by | Douglas Adams |
Portrayed by | David Learner (television) Warwick Davis (film) |
Voiced by | Stephen Moore (radio and TV) Jim Broadbent (2018 radio series) Alan Rickman (film) |
In-universe information | |
Gender | Male design |
Occupation | Servant |
Marvin the Paranoid Android is a fictional character in
Name
According to Douglas Adams, "Marvin came from
Marvin does not actually display any signs of paranoia, though Zaphod Beeblebrox refers to him as "the Paranoid Android".[2] Nor does he show any signs of mania, though Ford refers to him as a "manically depressed robot". He merely remains consistently morose throughout. In fact, he exhibits remarkable stoicism, being willing to wait hundreds of millions of years for his employers to come.
Radio and TV series
According to his autobiography read in the Secondary Phase of the radio series, Marvin was constructed, much against his own wishes, by the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation to prototype human personality artificial intelligence. In his own words:[citation needed]
I didn't ask to be made: no one consulted me or considered my feelings in the matter. I don't think it even occurred to them that I might have feelings. After I was made, I was left in a dark room for six months... and me with this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side. I called for succour in my loneliness, but did anyone come? Did they hell. My first and only true friend was a small rat. One day it crawled into a cavity in my right ankle and died. I have a horrible feeling it's still there...
— Douglas Adams, from Fit the Twelfth (radio series)
The cutaway illustration of Marvin made by Kevin J. Davies for the "Depreciation Society" featured a "rat cavity".[4]
As the menial labourer on the Heart of Gold spaceship, he grew immensely resentful of the insistence of his new masters (Zaphod Beeblebrox and Trillian; later also Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent) that he open doors, check airlocks and pick up pieces of paper. He reserved a particular contempt for the sentient doors, despising their blissful satisfaction with existence.[citation needed]
When the Heart of Gold crew arrive on the ancient planet of Magrathea, they abandon Marvin on the surface. During an apparently suicidal confrontation with a pair of trigger-happy cops, the crew are teleported directly from Magrathea into the future to the
Deciding they had better leave, the crew make a desperate and futile attempt to engage Marvin's enthusiasm (he "hasn't got one") before he simply does what they really want and opens the door to the ship they want to steal. The ship turns out to be a Haggunenon battle cruiser, and the entire group, including Marvin, but excluding Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent, who escape, are eaten by its crew. Marvin's subsequent survival is never explained, but against all probability, he eventually finds himself on Ursa Minor Beta, just in time to rescue Zaphod from a robotic tank.[citation needed]
A subsequent section of Marvin's biography occurs only in the Secondary Phase of the radio series. Marvin rejoins the crew on the Heart of Gold, and using the improbability drive programmed by Zaphod Beeblebrox the Fourth, takes them to the ravaged planet Brontitall. Having landed in a giant floating marble copy of a plastic cup, the crew accidentally find themselves falling several miles through the air. The carbon-based members of the crew manage to stay alive by grabbing onto passing giant birds. Marvin has no such luck, and, upon impact with the ground, creates his own archaeological excavation site. Cruelly intact, he grudgingly saves the crew multiple times from the Foot Soldiers of the Dolmansaxlil Shoe Corporation. Marvin remains in Heart of Gold whilst Ford, Zaphod, Zarniwoop and Arthur bother the Ruler of the Universe, leaving when an enraged Arthur hijacks the ship.[citation needed]
However, in the Tertiary Phase, Trillian claims this story is Zaphod's hallucination, especially as the reverse temporal engineering explanation has not entered the plot yet. However, of the stories of Zaphod's visit to the Frogstar, the Guide says "10% are 95% true, 14% are 65% true, 35% are only 5% true and the rest are told by Zaphod Beeblebrox", and listeners are presented with one "version" of that visit.[citation needed]
In the television series, the black ship stolen at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe is actually the stunt ship of the
Portrayals
Radio and TV
Marvin's voice was performed by Stephen Moore on the first five radio series and television series and by Jim Broadbent in the sixth radio series. David Learner operated his body on television, having previously played and voiced the part for the stage version.[citation needed]
Film
Warwick Davis wore the Marvin costume in the 2005 film. He is voiced by Alan Rickman. This Marvin's design is a departure from the Marvin of the television series, featuring shorter with an oversized head and stubby limbs. The original television costume from the 1981 television series was refurbished for a cameo role in the film, standing in a queue in the Vogon office on Vogsphere, where the main characters are trying to release Tricia, with various other life forms.[citation needed]
Novel series
A difference between the radio and TV series occurs in the novels when the Heart of Gold crew arrive on the ancient planet of Magrathea. Marvin inadvertently saves the crew by plugging himself into the onboard computer of a police vehicle, which, when exposed to the true nature of Marvin's view of the universe, commits suicide, taking the two police who were then firing at the ship's crew with it. The crew leave Magrathea on the Heart of Gold, but are teleported summarily to Ursa Minor Beta, where Zaphod's great grandfather, in an apparent fit of vicious humour, forces Marvin to accompany Zaphod on his mission of self-discovery. Marvin subsequently saves Zaphod's life by engaging in a battle of wits with a vicious (yet stupid) automated tank and then is abandoned on the planet Frogstar B when Zaphod is sent to the Total Perspective Vortex. Eventually, the crew arrive at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe (which was built over the ruins of Frogstar B in this continuity) and the story continues as with the TV series.[citation needed]
In the third novel, Life, the Universe and Everything, we find that Marvin survived his collision with the sun of Kakrafoon, and was sent back in time by the Improbability Field projected by the Heart of Gold to be rescued by a scrap metal merchant on Sqornshellous Zeta. The merchant grafted a steel rod to Marvin's now-lost leg and sold him to a Mind Zoo, where excited onlookers would try to make him happy. This made him something of a celebrity on the planet of Sqornshellous Zeta, and he was asked to open the brand new bridge that was meant to revitalise the planet's economy. Marvin dutifully plugged himself into the bridge's opening circuit, and, just like the police computer, the bridge committed suicide, taking the entire gathered crowd with it. Marvin was left in the swamp, his false leg having trapped him in the mud, so he spent just over 1.5 million years walking around in a circle, "just to make the point." He planned to keep walking in a circle for another million years before trying it backwards. "Just for the variety, you understand."[citation needed]
Suddenly, he is kidnapped by a squad of Krikkit war robots, who are after his leg, a fragment of the key that will reopen their imprisoned world and restart the genocidal Krikkit War. Thinking that Marvin's intelligence will be an asset, they wire his brain into the interfaces of their intelligent war computer. This is a mistake. The once formidable Krikkit robots find themselves overcome with crippling sorrow and depression, and rather than focusing on their mission of extermination, instead sulk in corners doing quadratic equations. It is also due to Marvin's influence that Zaphod and the others' lives are spared by the Krikkit robots. Marvin is (presumably) rescued by his friends, who bring him back to the Heart of Gold. From here his story is unknown.[citation needed]
Marvin reappears in the second-to-last chapter of
However, in the
Songs
Stephen Moore released two
"Marvin"
"Marvin" was released in 1981. It was a minor hit, reaching number 52 in the British Charts.[6][7]
The song involves Marvin describing his woes ("My moving parts are in a solid state") and frustrations ("You know what really makes me mad? They clean me with a
The vocal was performed by Stephen Moore, who had played Marvin on the radio and television series. Moore also narrated the ship's captain on the B-side.[citation needed]
"Metal Man" was the B-side. The song involves a spoken exchange between the starship captain (also played by Moore, as is a cameo radio voice) and the depressed robot Marvin. The starship is falling into a black hole, and can only be saved by assigning control to Marvin. In thanks for saving the ship, Marvin is relegated back to a menial servant. Such is the lot of a robot.[citation needed]
"Marvin" was incorporated into the 2012 live radio show.[citation needed]
The Double B-Side
"Reasons To Be Miserable" was released in 1981. Its official title was The Double 'B'-Side, and it was a double B-side single released by
"Marvin I Love You" was the other B-side. Marvin describes finding a love letter in his data banks eons after receiving it. The female vocal is provided by Kimi Wong-O'Brien. The song was a frequently requested tune on the Dr. Demento radio show, and was featured on several Dr. Demento compilation albums. As of 2008, it is ranked 56 out of the top 100 favorite novelty tunes on the official Dr. Demento web site.[9]
Marvin's lullaby
"How I Hate the Night", also known as "Marvin's lullaby", was published in the book Life, the Universe and Everything, where it is described as "a short dolorous ditty of no tone, or indeed tune." The first verse of "Marvin's Lullaby" appears close to the end of the episode "Fit the Seventeenth", and the second verse soon after the start of "Fit the Eighteenth" as listed below:[citation needed]
- Now the world has gone to bed
- Darkness won't engulf my head
- I can see by infra-red
- How I hate the night
- Now I lay me down to sleep
- Try to count electric sheep
- Sweet dream wishes you can keep
- How I hate the night
The line "try to count electric sheep" is a reference to Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which inspired the movie Blade Runner. According to Don't Panic, Douglas Adams wrote a guitar tune for the lullaby, and thought it should have been released.[10] In the radio series, Stephen Moore sings the words to a tune resembling "Abendsegen" from Humperdinck's opera Hansel and Gretel. The song was performed at the very end of the 2012 live radio show.
Outside the Hitchhiker's universe
In the episode "Sibling Tsunami" of the animated series
British alternative rock group Radiohead named "Paranoid Android", the lead single from their 1997 album OK Computer, after Marvin. "Paranoid Android" frequently appears on lists of greatest songs of all time and has been described as "possibly the most acclaimed song from the most acclaimed album of all time."[11][12]
Marvin's origins (including those of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, and the HitchHikers handheld device) are referenced in the 2008 radio series The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. In episode 4, Dirk Gently phones his friend Richard McDuff, who now works for a new startup, Sirius Cybernetics. Occasionally, background noises of electronic groans and air pistons can be heard. At the end of the phone call, the electronic voice of Stephen Moore says "Richard, I think we might have a problem with these diodes."[13]
Marvin appeared and was declared the winner in the Q-series episode "Quests: Part II" of the panel game show QI.[14]
References
- ^ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Chapter 11, Wikiquote
- ^ a b The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. p. 92.
- ^ a b "Exclusive interview with MARVIN... well i mean Stephen Moore !". douglasadams.eu. Archived from the original on March 31, 2012. Retrieved 2011-08-24.
- ^ "SOTCAA Records and Tapes". sotcaa.org. Retrieved 2017-03-27.
- ^ "Marvin The Paranoid Android – Marvin (Vinyl)". Discogs.com. Discogs. Retrieved 2012-04-15.
- ISBN 0-7119-9075-1.
- ISSN 0091-7729. Retrieved October 5, 2012.
Fans will not want to miss this book, as it contains information they didn't even know that they didn't even know. For instance, did you know that Marvin is the only robot listed in The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles?
- ^ Marvin The Paranoid Android – The Double B-Side. Discogs (Vinyl). Retrieved 15 April 2012.
- ^ "Dr. Demento's TOP 100 (or so) DEMENTED HITS (from Funny 25's) – 1974 to 2022". Solonor.com. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
- ISBN 1-85286-411-7.
- ^ Greene, Andy (2020-09-24). "500 Greatest Albums: Radiohead's Futuristic Breakthrough 'OK Computer'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2023-08-20.
- ^ "Radiohead: OK Computer OKNOTOK 1997 2017". Pitchfork. 2017-06-22. Retrieved 2023-08-20.
- ^ "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency: The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul, Episode 4". BBC Radio 4 Programmes. UK: BBC. Retrieved 2008-10-27.
- ^ QI (7 May 2022). "Marvin the Paranoid Android Comes to QI". YouTube. Retrieved 20 December 2023.