* The screen version of Isaac Asimov's novella, "The Bicentennial Man" by Chris Columbus (1999) met with criticism from both SF fans and film reviewers alike, each critical of the comic adaptation that resulted from a serious and moving premise and, in particular, the mawkish sentimentality that overtakes the movie. The making of the film seemed peculiarly redundant however, not because the story itself was unsuitable for revision, but because a much more faithful screen adaptation had already been achieved a decade earlier with the creation of Star Trek: The Next Generation's Data. A number of factors link Asimov to Star Trek, not least is the fact that Gene Roddenberry had specifically called upon Asimov's help during production. Original series producers, Herb Solow and Robert Justman, report that, together with using prominent SF writers such as Asimov and Harlan Ellison in his campaign to save the series from cancellation, Roddenberry also sought Asimov's help in creating a better role for Captain Kirk (William Shatner) to off-set Leonard Nimoy's popularity as Spock (Solow and Justman: 226). More specific to this article however, is the fact that both Roddenberry and Asimov shared an intrinsically optimistic vision of the future. For each man utopia was achievable and technological advance promised a better world. However, Roddenberry's seemingly inexorable faith in human nature was not matched by Asimov, who conceived the artificial human--and machine intelligence in general--as superior to humanity in terms of moral rectitude.
