MovieChat Forums > Small Wonder (1985) Discussion > Vanessa: The new ans improved Vicki

Vanessa: The new ans improved Vicki

posted 10 years ago by EarthPrincess82
4 replies | jump to latest

I really don't understand why Ted created Vanessa to begin with. In season 3's episode "It's Okay to Say No" Ted installed a system inside of Vicki that allowed her to eat, drink and use the bathroom. Now, if could do that then why not just upgrade Vicki instead of creating a whole 'nother robot altogether? I just don't get it! It must've been done just to create a plot because when Vanessa became more trouble than she was worth, he just dismantled her. And he never even tried to upgrade Vicki at all. It was a silly plot.

[–] bartallenii 10 years ago

You'd think that if he had to create another robot, he'd have tried to create a robotic boy since Vicki was pretty much a successful test run.

"Our cows make a decent living wage, so please, no tipping."

[–] scs0 9 years ago

Sometimes it's better to start from scratch than to update something that exists with newer ideas. That way if the ideas don't pan out you'd still have the original intact. Of course the real reason was for the plot ideas it provide, and why not? The evil twin thing is a time-honored plot device and it even worked well on Star Trek:TNG with Data and Lore (I believe Lore was created before Vanessa was conceived on this show)

It is interesting how his employer didn't seem to care that expensive tech just disappearing: it's 2015 and we still don't have most of the tech that was built into Vicki. Also if his employer abandoned the Vicki project, why would they have allowed the development of Vanessa?

Civility is just a warm and fuzzy name for censorship.

[–] alluettea 8 years ago

It was way she did things. thought for herself.

[–] ZAROVE 8 years ago

WELL, in terms of Vicki and the missing tech, if they scrapped the idea, they may have just thought she was shunted off to storage. If the company is large enough, then it likely has a lot of stored useful but discarded Tech, like most corproations do. Heck, there are warehouses in New York filled with what were popular items back in the 1980s that were sold recently, the merchandise still completely intact with only shelf wear. Things like those neon coloured leggings or weird haltertop things. I saw that on the News. I also know of Tech CPmpanies that have stockpiles of tech in Warehouses thye just stuffed there... if the Vicki Project was scrapped, then they liekly ordered Ted to put the parts in storage and just forgot about the whole thing as new projects occupied their Time.

As for Vanessa, that's pure plot convenience.