Marvin the Paranoid Android

Marvin the Paranoid Android is a fictional character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams.

Marvin is the ship's robot aboard the starship Heart of Gold. He was built as a prototype of Sirius Cybernetics Corporation's "Genuine People Personalities" technology. Marvin is paranoid in the literal sense that he deems himself more important than he truly is. Marvin is more obviously afflicted with severe depression and boredom, in part because he has a "brain the size of a planet" which he is seldom allowed to use. Indeed, the true horror of Marvin's existence is that no task he could be given would occupy even the tiniest fraction of his vast intellect. Marvin claims he is 50,000 times more intelligent than a human, though this is, if anything, a vast underestimate. When kidnapped by the bellicose Krikkit robots and tied to the central intelligence core of their war computer, Marvin simultaneously manages to plan the entire planet's millitary strategy, solve "all of the major mathematical, physical, chemical, biological, sociological, philosophical, etymological, meteorological and psychological problems of the Universe except his own, three times over," and compose a number of lullabies. He seemed to find them the hardest.

Marvin's voice was performed by Stephen Moore on radio and television, while Alan Rickman played this role in the movie. David Learner operated his body on television, having previously played and voiced the part for the stage version, and Warwick Davis wore the Marvin costume for the feature film. He is "probably... the most popular character to appear in the Guide", according to Geoffrey Perkins, producer of the radio series. Stephen Moore released two pop singles — "Marvin"/"Metal Man" and "Reasons to be Miserable"/"Marvin I Love You" (double B-side) — in the UK in 1981, though neither reached the top 40. Two of these were re-recorded and remixed to coincide with the 2005 Hitchhiker's movie release. Reasons to be Miserable and Marvin are now performed by Stephen Fry.

According to Douglas Adams, "Marvin came from Andrew Marshall. He's another comedy writer, and he's exactly like that." Indeed, in an early draft of Hitchhiker's, the robot was called Marshall. It was changed to "Marvin" partly to avoid causing offence, but also because it was pointed out to Adams that on radio the name would sound like "Martial", which would have undesirable connotations. However, Adams also admitted that Marvin is part of a long line of literary depressives, such as A. A. Milne's Eeyore or Jacques in Shakespeare's As You Like It, and even owes something to Adams's own periods of depression.

Marvin from the 2005 film is featured (although behind a glass screen) in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Exhibition currently running at Blackpool Zoo. The costume from the BBC Television version of the story has a cameo role in the feature film, appearing in the Vogon office queue with various other life forms.

One passage from the book series demonstrates Marvin's absolute depressed state and outlook on life:

"I got very bored and depressed, so I went and plugged myself into ship's external computer feed. I talked to the computer at great length, and explained my view of the universe to it, " said Marvin.

"And what happened?" pressed Ford.

"It committed suicide," said Marvin.

Another:

"The first ten million years were the worst. And the second ten million. They were the worst too. The third ten million I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline"

Marvin's most popular quote was "Life... don't talk to me about life." A less-popular quote (yet similar) from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe: "Why should I want to make anything up? Life's bad enough as it is without trying to invent any more of it."

Marvin does not actually display signs of paranoia, despite his moniker, nor does he show any signs of mania, though he is referred to as a "manically depressed robot." He remains consistently morose throughout. In fact he exhibits remarkable stoicism, being willing to wait millions of years for his employers.

Marvin reappeared in the second-to-last chapter of So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish. Arthur and Fenchurch find him on the planet where God's Final Message To His Creation is located. He is barely functional, claiming that due to time travel he is now "thirty-seven times older than the Universe itself," and every part of his body has been replaced, with the exception of "'all the diodes down my left side,'" which have been giving him severe pain for the whole of his existence. Arthur and Fenchurch end up carrying him, enduring the robot's constant abuse, to the God's Final Message viewing station, where they lift him up to see the words of the message: "We apologise for the inconvenience." Astonishingly, Marvin's responded thus: "'I think,' he murmured at last, from deep within his corroding rattling thorax, 'I feel good about it.' The lights went out in his eyes for absolutely the very last time ever." His already worn-down circuits then completely stopped working, and Marvin was no more.

However, in the 2005 radio adaptation of the fifth and final novel in the series, Mostly Harmless, in which Marvin did not originally appear, he has a cameo at the end of the last episode alive and well. He explains that it turned out he was still covered by his warranty agreement, and is back to parking cars at Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. This revival was possibly due to the makers wishing to include such an ever-popular character in the final ever radio episode of the Guide, and possibly in line with Douglas Adams' stated wish that he'd given the book series a more upbeat ending.

References in popular culture

"Paranoid Android" is the name of a song by British rock band Radiohead, possibly named after Marvin, but without any other apparent explicit reference. The line "When I am king you will be first against the wall" might be a reference to Marvin's introduction, in which it is said that the marketing department of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation is defined by The Hitchhiker's Guide as "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes." An edition of the Encyclopedia Galactica that fell through a time warp from 1,000 years in the future defined the marketing department of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as "a bunch of mindless jerks who were the first against the wall when the revolution came."

Kimi Wong was the female voice accompanying Stephen Moore (the original radio and TV voice of Marvin) on "Marvin, I Love You" which is a love song to Marvin. Wong is the ex-wife of Richard O'Brien, known for creating The Rocky Horror Show. The song can be found on a Dr. Demento compilation CD, and the B-side of one of the Marvin 7" singles.

Marvin's Hangman

One of the bonus features on the 2005 DVD of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a game called "Marvin's Hangman". The point of the game is to guess different four letter words. Each letter you get wrong detaches another part from Marvin, meaning you lose on the fifth wrong guess.

There are only six different words available: star, home, life, book, fish, and mice.

Marvin's lullabies

In Life, the Universe and Everything, Marvin composes lullabies to pass the time. The lullabies are as follows.

As printed in Chapter 31, US edition:

Now the world has gone to bed, Darkness won't engulf my head, I can see by infrared, 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.

External links

Fan sites

Characters in written fiction | Fictional characters with mental illness | Fictional robots | Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Marvin the Paranoid Android

References in popular culture

Marvin's Hangman

Marvin's lullabies

External links

Fan sites