Exploring Tomorrow – The Trouble With Robots. (RV14, retro451)

In the big scheme of things, this was the first episode we featured that wasn’t comedy. The retrobots just got tired of waiting for Keith to do something, and took matters into their own hands.

Just what is the trouble with robots? They always do what you tell them, and have trouble deciphering what you mean, when you don’t say what you mean. Know what I mean? Mr Martin is about to learn that fact when he goes to interview a scientist who has put robots to wide use. In the robot controlled car, Martin rides to the castle in the countryside of Transylvania.

Baron Deklitz has hidden television cameras everywhere in his castle, and robots crawl the place to act as the domestic staff. Is the Prime Minister of Transylvania afraid of something? Are the robots a sort of body guard for him as well? He relies on the scientific logic of his bots to write national policy. That’s safe, right? Suddenly the baron is shot dead. Is Martin also going to be in danger?

Martin tries to make a break for it, but it’s hard to escape from the machine gun toting robots. For the areas where the mechanized robot vehicles can’t go, they issue orders for humans to beat the bushes for their man. Now Martin is in position to take the blame for killing the baron. The bots are just following orders, right? Can Martin take control of the device that controls them, and make them do his bidding?

With machines in control of the country, without the need for human intervention, is this all a disaster waiting to happen? If the bots are all shut down, will the country come to a screeching halt? Hey, you know how that disaster at Y2K worked out don’t you? Apparently the machine-phobic folks in the 1940’s didn’t get that memo.