Bishop (Alien)
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Bishop 341-B is a fictional character from the Alien series of films, an android created by the Weyland-Yutani corporation. He, his creator and a character known as Bishop II are portrayed by actor Lance Henriksen.
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[edit] Fictional background
Bishop is a synthetic (or "artificial person", as he prefers to be called), a very advanced android assigned to the Colonial Marine vessel Sulaco. Like other synthetics, Bishop possesses superior strength and hand-eye coordination (demonstrated when he does the famed knife trick), though he does not engage in combat, instead acting as a medic and tending to other various support functions. Bishop made his first appearance in Aliens when the Sulaco was ordered to investigate loss of colony contact on moon LV-426. Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley was an advisor on the mission. Contrary to popular belief, the fluid consumed by Bishop was not milk, but rather a lubricating fluid (which spills out simlarly to blood when he is cut with a knife and again near the end of the film).
During the events portrayed in Alien, Ripley was assaulted and nearly killed by Ash, another android that was commissioned on the ship also as a science officer. He had been ordered in secret to bring back the Xenomorph life form at the expense of the crew and had to be disabled and ultimately incinerated by Parker (Ripley's crewmate) to prevent any more deaths. Officer Ripley is at first disturbed by Bishop's presence, but comes to accept and trust him through the events of the film.
[edit] Aliens
The team of Marines from the Sulaco, along with Ripley, Bishop and a company executive set down on LV-426. Ripley first notices that Bishop is a synthetic when he cuts his finger and some of his lubricating fluid leaks out, and requests that Bishop stay away from her, even though Bishop reassures her that he cannot harm or let any harm come to a human being through his own inaction. Bishop's calm, selfless bravery throughout the crisis, including his crawl through a ventilation duct to hook up to a remote satellite and pilot down the other dropship vida remote, slowly wins Ripley's trust. Later, after rescuing the orphan Newt from the alien hive, she returns to the landing platform only to discover Bishop and the dropship are gone, but Bishop shows up on the other side of the platform in time to get Ripley and Newt away from the blast, explaining that the platform was becoming unstable. Ripley thanks him sincerely, but an alien queen that hid away on the outside of the dropship stabs Bishop through the abdomen and then rips him in two. However, Bishop is still capable of saving Newt from being blown out the bay doors into the vaccuum of space, and, deemed repairable, is placed in hypersleep on the Sulaco with the rest of the survivors.
[edit] Alien³
Bishop makes a brief appearance in Alien³ when Ripley finds his remains and partially repairs his speech and memory functions. Bishop reveals the events that followed the conclusion of the second film, then asks Ripley to disconnect him for good, saying, "I can be reworked, but I'll never be top of the line again. I'd rather be nothing."
[edit] Bishop II
At the end of Alien³, a squad of Weyland-Yutani soldiers arrives to retrieve Ripley and the xenomorph queen gestating inside her. With them is a man identical to the android Bishop (also played by Lance Henriksen). Since the movie's release, fans of the series have debated whether the man (who was named in the credits as Bishop II) was an android or not.
Though Ripley at first believes him to be another android, Bishop II claims that he is in fact the man who designed the Bishop series, sent by the Company to show Ripley "a friendly face." When prisoner Morse is shot in the leg by one of the soldiers, Mr. Aaron ("85") attacks Bishop II with a monkey wrench, calling him a "fucking android." Though the theatrical edition is not entirely clear at this point, the "Assembly Cut" released with the Alien Quadrilogy in 2003 shows Bishop II bleeding red blood and groaning in pain, with a gruesome flap of ear and skin hanging from his face. Reeling from the injury, Bishop II reasserts that he is human by screaming, "I'm not a droid!".
The 2004 film Alien vs. Predator cast Lance Henriksen as Charles Bishop Weyland, CEO of the Weyland Corporation, suggesting that the Bishop android series (including Bishop II) were created in the image of the founder of one of Weyland-Yutani's parent companies. While Lance Henriksen had declared that Bishop II was human in the commentary for Alien³, he later went on record, along with AVP director Paul W. S. Anderson, to clear up the matter, stating that Bishop II was an android.
Other non-canonical sources pertaining to the series present alternatives to the movie canon. The novelization of Alien³ by Alan Dean Foster gives Bishop II the name Michael Bishop and clearly indicates his status as a human.
[edit] Alien vs. Predator
The film features Henriksen in the role of Charles Bishop Weyland, the founder and CEO of Weyland Industries.
[edit] Trivia
- Bishop uses the Gerber Mark II knife in Aliens.
- Aside from Ellen Ripley and Jones the cat, the original android Bishop is the only character to have appeared alive in more than one Alien movie. Hicks and Newt were in both Aliens and Alien 3 but were dead at the start of the latter.
- Lance Henriksen wanted to wear double-pupil contact lenses for a scene in Aliens where Bishop is working in the lab on a microscope and gives a scary look at one of the marines. He came to set with those lenses, but director/writer James Cameron decided he was acting the character with just the right amount of creepiness already and did not need them. A still of Henriksen wearing the contacts can be seen in the Aliens documentary on the Alien Quadrilogy DVD box set.
- Bishop states he could never harm a human or, through inaction, allow a human to come to harm. This is the first of Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics
- In the game "Predator: Concrete Jungle", Charles Weyland is mentioned by the daughter of Hunter Borgia, Lucretia in a conversation, revealing that he knew Charles Weyland "before he disappeared".
[edit] Academic importance
Bishop (often in contrast to Ash) crops up in academic studies as he is a high profile Asimov-compliant, potentially self-aware machine. [1] He has implictions for how we deal with "the Other"[2] as the androids are treated with fear and suspicion and there exists "hi-tech racism and android apartheid." [3] This arose as part of the technophobia trend that crops up in pre-1990s cinema with Bishop being significant as he redeems himself at the end of Aliens confounding Ripley's expectations. [4]
[edit] References
- ^ Buttazzo, G (May 2000). "Can a Machine Ever Become Self-Aware?". R. Aurich, W. Jacobsen and G. Jatho Artificial Humans, an historical retrospective of the Berlin International Film Festival 2000: 45-49. Retrieved on 2007-01-10.
- ^ Nishime, LeiLani (Winter 2005). "The Mulatto Cyborg: Imagining a Multiracial Future". Cinema Journal 44 (2): 34-49. Retrieved on 2007-01-10.
- ^ Kozlovic, Anton Karl (Spring 2004). "HAL-o-phobia: Computer Horror in the Pre-1990 Popular Cinema". Sincronía. Retrieved on 2007-01-10.
- ^ Kozlovic, Anton Karl (September 2003). "Technophobic themes in pre-1990 computer films". Science as Culture 12 (3): 341-373. DOI:10.1080/09505430309008. Retrieved on 2007-01-10.
