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Sapphire & Steel
"Rogue Robot"
Sapphire & Steel Annual 1981
World International Publishing
Written by: Glynis Holland (?)
Art by: Paul Crompton and Genn Rix (?) |
The testing of a robot with a
new secret military application goes terribly wrong.
Didja Know?
"Rogue Robot" is a 5-page text story that appeared in
Sapphire & Steel Annual 1981 published by
World International Publishing.
According to Steve Holland at the
Bear Alley Books website, this story was probably written by
Glynis Holland, with art by Paul Crompton and Genn Rix.
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The robot seen in the illustrations of this story is
very reminiscent of the one from the Doctor Who 1974
serial "Robot". |
 |
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| X45 robot in this story |
Dr. Who robot
(photo by Gary Bembridge from London, UK - Doctor Who
Experience London Olympia, CC BY 2.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58539393) |
Sapphire takes time forward by a year very briefly in this story
to a time when a deflector shield capable of reflecting the
robot's laser will be in place in the field for testing.
Though they fought the forces of time, the pair did not have the
ability to travel in time beyond Sapphire's ability to rewind
time up to about half a day in the TV series episodes. Due to
this conflict with Sapphire's established abilities, PopApostle
has
chosen to place this story in the alternate interpretations
chronology, not the series main chronology.
Characters appearing or mentioned in this story
X45 (robot)
Henry Dickson
Samuels
Sapphire
Steel
Didja Notice?
The robotics firm in this story, Clark-Carlton Robotics,
appears to be fictitious.
Dickson informs his co-worker, Samuels, that the X45 robot
came from
London already fully assembled.
The X45 robot in this story goes rogue for no explained
reason. Presumably, the entity of Time interfered somehow
with the robot's programming. But Time has generally needed
an old artifact or something of the sort to make a breech in
time and manifest trouble. What was the trigger here? Maybe,
in this case, it was the presence of something from the
future instead of the past? The robot as presented here
seems too sophisticated to be a product of 1981
technology. How was the Clark-Carlton corporation able to
build it? Did they gain access to parts or plans from the
future somehow? If so, how could that have been
accomplished? Could it have been technology from the time
travellers' civilization of 1500 years in the future as
described in
"The Creature's Revenge" Part 1?
Perhaps some technology got left behind by one of that
civilization's experiments in the 20th Century.
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