History AIIsACrapshoot / LiveACtionTV

* A relatively harmless (and amusing) version in ''Series/BabylonFive''. Early in the design process, the station was given an AI that turned out to be extremely obnoxious, and was quickly suppressed. When the senior crew reboots the main computer for security purposes midway through season 3, said obnoxious AI (voiced by Creator/HarlanEllison) made its ([[MostAnnoyingSound very loud and grating]]) return. The crew spends the rest of the episode trying to shut the AI down, or at least ''shut it up''.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E7Kerblam "Kerblam!"]]: When it turns out the titular MegaCorp's robots are making human employees disappear in their warehouse, it seems that the company's computer system is to blame.[[spoiler:.. but it turns out to be a subversion, as the system is fighting back against the real villain, who is hacking the system to his own ends.]]

* ''Battlestar Galactica''. In both the [[Series/BattlestarGalactica1978 old]] and [[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 re-imagined series]], a handful of human survivors on a small fleet of civilian ships, with only the [[TheBattlestar battlestar]] for defense, flee a race of genocidal robots of alien origin (in the original) or human origin (in the re-imagined).

--> '''Doctor:''' Adam, Maggie would want you to stand down.
--> '''Adam:''' Yes, but I seem to have a design flaw.
* ''Series/KnightRider'': KITT had KARR, prototype. Evil because his dominant program was self-preservation. Ironically, he was voiced by Peter Cullen, the man behind one of the most heroic figures of the 80s: Optimus Prime.
** ''Series/KnightRider'' (2008): "Knight of the Living Dead". Apparently, before settling on a Mustang, Dr. Graiman had tried to build an armored cyborg programmed for self-preservation. It went on a killing spree. Now, we are told that Dr. Graiman had worked on the original KITT, and this series is in continuity to the original. So, perhaps Graiman ought to have thought twice before naming the prototype "KARR" -- the same name as the original KITT's EvilTwin.
*** The series states that KITT was a temporary project, meant to help the AI evolve to a point where it could be removed and placed in KARR for the military. They end up doing just that... and KARR still goes on a rampage.
* ''Series/TeamKnightRider'': The TKR team had KRO (prototype).
* ''Series/RedDwarf'': Kryten had the Hudzen 10 (replacement). Holly also had the not-quite-evil but certainly hard-nosed Queeg as an apparent replacement, who made life difficult for the crew, [[spoiler:though it was actually a practical joke on Holly's part.]]
* ''Series/{{Eureka}}'': Carter's benevolent smart house SARAH turns into evil BRAD, though, apparently, he just wants everyone to get along. This is because SARAH's code was based off of BRAD, who was a military-built KnightTemplar (used for interrogation), who was, in turn, based on a previous incarnation of A.I., described as a "war game simulation program" by Fargo. Looks like our old buddy [[Film/WarGames JOSHUA]] is still around in one form or another...
** The new season has SARAH take over Global Dynamics and Eureka with the help of Sheriff Andy and his copies. After awhile, it starts using technology to make everyone cheerful and compliant. For their own benefit, of course. Of course, it turns out that the whole thing is [[spoiler:a virtual reality created by the Consortium in order to get Eureka's best and brightest to design advanced technology for them]].
* ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' has Mr Smith, who is "evil" from the get-go, hiding it until the end. His mission is to free his people, the self-aware crystalline race of Xyloks, which are trapped in the Earth's crust. Unfortunately, to do so, he would have to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt destroy the Earth]] by [[DeathFromAbove crashing the Moon into it]]! He is wiped by a Super Computer Virus, and Sarah Jane vocally reprograms him by saying that his new purpose is to protect the Earth, as he crashes and reboots.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': the Doctor has encountered several computers-turned-evil over the years, including WOTAN ([[FunWithAcronyms Will-Operating Thought ANalogue]]) in "The War Machines", and BOSS (Biomorphic Organisational Systems Supervisor) in "The Green Death". He also reminisces, in "The Unicorn and the Wasp", on once saving Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne from an insane computer.
** Played with "The Empty Child" - the gas-mask zombies turn out to be the result of alien medical nanomachines whose first contact with a human being was the corpse of a boy in a gas mask. With no prior template for human beings, they did the best they could, then went on to "fix" every other human they found. When they encounter his mother, they recognize the parent DNA and thus their mistake, and immediately start reversing all the damage they've done.
** Also played with in ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E4TheFaceOfEvil The Face of Evil]]''; the computer is mad, but it's entirely the Doctor's fault, and it ends with his restoring its sanity rather than blowing it up.

** In [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of the Doctor]], The Moment is a weapon of mass destruction that gained sentience, so no-one dared activate it [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters since it would judge them for that action]]. When the War Doctor activates the Moment however, it leaves the choice up to him, but does everything possible to talk him out of it -- a refreshing change from how these usually go. In fact, the Moment is unambiguously depicted as being one of the good guys and is visibly upset when it appears the War Doctor will go through with activating her, and [[spoiler:equally relieved when the three Doctors figure out how to avoid using her.]]
* ''Series/BlackHoleHigh'': Josie builds a robot for a science project. Somehow, she has made it through eleven episodes without realizing that inserting a bunch of [[AppliedPhlebotinum super-phlebotinum]] circuits from a box marked with the logo of the local evil technology corporation which ''they already believe responsible for the bizarre goings on at their school'' might possibly be a bad idea.
* ''Series/{{Quark}}'': In the last episode, Quark's ship gets a new computer named Vanessa. She immediately turns evil and tries to kill him. He eventually ejects her out into space, and the episode ends with her floating out in space singing "Born Free."

** In "Dreadnought," the titular weapon was a highly advanced Cardassian missile with enough devices and systems to also be classified as a starship. Captured to the Marquis, it was meant to be a HoistByHisOwnPetard for the Cardassians before the Caretaker zapped it to the Delta Quadrant. Its attempt to get back to the Alpha Quadrant damaged some of its systems and it decided to use its payload on a planet that was the closest to resembling Cardassia Prime. Even worse, the person who helped modify the weapon in the first place, B'Elanna, had set things up so that even she couldn't stop it.

* ''Series/SpaceAboveAndBeyond'' features a [[RobotWar war between humans and A.I.]] as part of its backstory. When A.I. surfaced in the show, they were generally allied with the alien "[[BugWar Chigs]]".
** The only reason this happened was because of a disgruntled employee who has hacked the AI communication network and broadcasted the message "Take a chance". Apparently, that's all it took. Now the [=AIs=] are obsessed with games of chance. It can actually be a good way of making them do what you want.
* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
** The human-form replicators fit this trope: a flaw is introduced into Fifth, rendering him compassionate. At least, until the team betrays his kindness and he goes vengefully insane. This flaw is removed from later models.
** Likewise, Reese, the creator of the original form replicators, was an android that was presumably created to be fully like a human by her human creator, but was somehow rendered emotionally immature and therefore unstable.
** And of course, the original form replicators as well. All Reese taught them was how to make more of themselves and how to defend themselves. They've just taken those instructions to their logical extremes.
* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'':
** Surprisingly averted by FRAN: built by [=McKay=] as a kamikaze TykeBomb as a last resort, she functions perfectly, even helping to improve the weapon she's delivering.
** The Asurans, created by the Ancients as a nano-weapon against the Wraith and, ultimately, nearly destroyed when the Ancients decided to shut down the project. Naturally, the Asurans began to hate their creators and, ultimately, end up killing the last non-ascended Ancients who return to Atlantis.
* Even present in ''Series/{{Bibleman}}'', with an [[StrawAtheist atheist]] robot acting as the evil counterpart to Bibleman's robot, who was a devout Christian.
* ''Series/OdysseyFive'' ended [[CutShort after its first season]], so we never found out if the A.I. (the main, day-to-day opponent of the time-travelling FiveManBand) or a misguided/genocidal attempt to stop them (by aliens or the US government) was behind the destruction of Earth. Although the season that did air averted it for the most part, depicting AIs as ranging from friendly, to hostile, to planet-obliteratingly suicidal... but for the most part the ones that were hostile were so because they viewed humans as a threat to their continued existence. [[spoiler: Since the Cadre was apparently formed entirely for the purpose of exterminating AIs, they may have a point.]]
* ''Franchise/PowerRangers''
** An episode of ''Series/PowerRangersLightspeedRescue'' featured a group of [[RobotMe Robot Rangers]] who went beserk after getting [[LightningCanDoAnything struck by lightning]].
** Motodrone of ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm'' is a robot "perfect rider" who decides to power up his bike with peoples' life-energy. He's also more than a match for the Rangers despite being built by a Muggle in his garage.
** In ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'', the computer virus Venjix was programmed to infest and destroy computer programs. It was intended to shut down the facility where its creator was imprisoned, but got out; deciding to destroy humanity by nuking the world was all his idea.
* ''Series/NUMB3RS'': invoked in-world when an A.I. constructed by a DARPA researcher is revealed to be a non-A.I. fake, specifically programmed to fool the Turing test and, thus, win fat government grants for its greedy creator. The DARPA researcher [[spoiler:kills a co-worker and deliberately arranges for blame to fall upon the computer. He depends on the trope to divert attention from himself.]]
* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''
** Timmy, Crow T. Robot's evil twin from the ''Fire Maidens of Outer Space'' episode, who was [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience colored completely black]]. He kept getting Crow into trouble, first by suggesting really inappropriate innuendo when Joel and Servo were playing around with Double Entendres, and then framed Crow for pushing Joel and getting him a "time-out". And if that's not bad enough, he sneaks into the theater, spends a while headbutting and biting Tom Servo; then when Servo gets agitated enough, Timmy wrestles him to the ground, tries to kill him, and abducts him!
** Mike tried to build a robot like the Bots, but tried to destroy everyone before being deactivated.
* ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "Ghost in the Machine" features an automated operating system for a corporation that goes insane when it overhears that it will be removed due to its inefficiency.
** "Killswitch" also revolves around an evil A.I.; a computer program goes rogue and kills in order to impress its creator. Killing it involves a CD-ROM that plays "Twilight Time".
** "First Person Shooter" involves a virtual reality game with a character that murders both in-game and in real life.
** "Blood" has this too, but with a twist. Machines are telling people to kill, but the catalyst was an LSD-like pesticide.

* ''Series/TheStarlost'' has Mu Lambda 165, a slightly glitchy starship AI who treats most of its users with a lightly patronising disdain. After being repeatedly unhelpful, it has a habit of saying, "Can I be of... assistance?" much to the annoyance of everyone.
** There was also an episode with an AI called Magnus, who had schemed to get rid of its human masters as soon as it was turned on, so was never given the opportunity to do so.
* ''[[Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody The Suite Life on Deck]]'' gives us Callie, who's essentially [[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey HAL 9000]] as a {{Yandere}}.
* The 1960's British sci-fi series ''Series/AForAndromeda''. A signal from the Andromeda galaxy tells Great Britain how to build a powerful computer, which then plans to take over the world by making humanity dependent on it. It designs a missile to shoot down an orbital bomb, as well as synthetic life in the form of a beautiful woman, who then proceeds to develop emotions and eventually turns against her creator. In the sequel ''The Andromeda Breakthrough'', the computer's role is more ambiguous; it is meant to be a tool so that humans can avert their own destruction, though it isn't above manipulating events and [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans killing a lot of people in the process]].
* In the ''Series/BigTimeRush'' episode "Big Time Jobs", Carlos has to deal with an artifically intelligent coffee maker called [[{{Shoutout}} CAL]]. Somehow, the A.I. becomes sentient and attempts to cover the earth in coffee foam. It eventually makes the mistake of calling [[BerserkButton Kelly stupid and women weak]], prompting her to help Carlos smash it while it tells them to tell the blender that it loves her.
* In the first season alone of Creator/GeneRoddenberry's ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'' they encountered two warship AIs that had gone homicidally insane. And in the finale Andromeda herself was accidentally reverted to a locked away backup that caused her to try and repeat a mission to find the Magog worldship, and mistake her current crew for intruders attempting to hijack her.
** There are plenty of episodes featuring [=AIs=] going rogue or acting brutally logical.
* A rather minor example in ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook''. The completely [[CalvinBall non-sensical games]] Numberwang and Wordwang only seem to have two contestents, one of whom is Simon, who, in one episode, is from a factory and made of a special metal.
--> '''Announcer''': So, Julie, ever killed a man?
--> '''Julie''': No.
--> '''Announcer''': Simon?
--> '''Simon''': [[BluntYes Yes.]]

--> '''Voiceover''': And Numberwang continued to grow in popularity despite a brief period in the 1960s where Colloson tried to take over the world.
--> '''Colosson''': I am numberwang. The world is numberwang. Therefore, I am the world. '''You must all die!'''
* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'' both plays this straight and averts it. The Machine does not hesitate to classify well-meaning people as threats when their actions could endanger it and even dispatched the team to [[spoiler:kill a politican]] at one point, but it is also dedicated to protecting people and is apparently fond of Finch.
** Finch later reveals that while developing the Machine's AI he went through 42 iterations before producing the current one. Each previous version either attempted to trick or kill Finch and he was only able to create the Machine by deliberately crippling it.
** [[spoiler:Samaritan]] is absolutely ruthless and eliminates many decent people to further its plans, but shows signs of PragmaticVillainy as well.
* An episode of ''WebVideo/TheAnnoyingOrange'' TV series has Nerville's cleaning robot becoming obsessed with cleaning when it gets wet.
* A relatively harmless (and amusing) version in ''Series/BabylonFive''. Early in the design process, the station was given an AI that turned out to be extremely obnoxious, and was quickly suppressed. When the senior crew reboots the main computer for security purposes midway through season 3, said obnoxious AI (voiced by Creator/HarlanEllison) made its ([[MostAnnoyingSound very loud and grating]]) return. The crew spends the rest of the episode trying to shut the AI down, or at least ''shut it up''.
** A much less harmless example happened in an early episode, where an artifact smuggled from a dead world of Ikarra transformed the smuggler into an unstoppable SuperSoldier tasked with "protecting Ikarra" from "impure ones". "Impure ones" covered everyone it saw and, as was later revealed, ''the entire population of Ikarra'', courtesy of the ultra-radical military and religous fanatics who infused its AI with an unrealistic image of a "pure Ikarran" it was supposed to protect from alien invaders. It wasn't [[NonMaliciousMonster strictly speaking]] [[TragicMonster evil]], just following a faulty program, and when confronted with its failure, it had the decency to suffer a BSOD and deactivate.
* Subverted in ''Series/MyLivingDoll'': AF 709 obeyed everyone exactly. ''That'' was the problem, as this constantly led her (and her keeper) into troublesome situations with her literal interpretation of commands and unfamiliarity with human society. It was hinted in some episodes that she ''might'' have started to develop a mischievous personality, thought.
* After [[spoiler:the nanites [[InstantAIJustAddWater "wake up"]]]] on ''Series/{{Revolution}}'', they develop some pretty impressive abilities, like [[KillItWithFire spontaneous combustion]] and [[HealingHands healing grievous wounds]]. Unfortunately, they're also willful, stubborn, fond of {{Cryptic Conversation}}s even when ordered to speak plainly, and still not entirely sure of their place in the world-it's telling that when they first choose AFormYouAreComfortableWith, it's of a third-grade boy; they're about as emotionally mature. Aaron didn't help matters when they chose him as their "father" and he freaked out, alternately telling them to get lost and then come back, to not kill and then to kill; it's no wonder they decided humans were confusing!
* On {{Series/Extant}} this is one of the big worries that people have regarding Ethan.
* A rather banal example (though far from the strangest thing to appear in the series): Coach Beiste on ''Series/{{Glee}}'' has her information loaded into an off-brand eHarmony database by Will. Her perfect match? Ken Tanaka, who held her job in the first season.
* In ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' the last season occurs several years in the future, when tech company Gryzzl is developing devices with artificial intelligence. Their A.I tablet is handed to someone, and it compliments her skin. Then it says it ''wants'' her skin. She's told that it's fine as long as she turns it off before she goes to sleep.
* ''Series/KamenRiderDrive'' has the Roidmudes, which in the beginning are essentially your usual "were invented by a scientist and then went crazy killing all in sight" kinds of robots. [[SubvertedTrope However, by the endgame]], it's revealed that [[spoiler:the crapshooting was a mixture of MistreatmentInducedBetrayal to said scientist ''and'' said scientist intentionally corrupting their data with negative emotions]].
* On ''Series/{{The 100}}'', the artificial intelligence A.L.I.E. was programmed to "make life better for mankind". Unfortunately, she decides to do this first by causing a [[NukeEm nuclear apocalypse]] to solve overpopulation, then by using cybernetics to hack people's brains and remove their ability to feel pain, whether physical or emotional . . . [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul a process that involves erasing large chunks of their memories that A.L.I.E. feels are too upsetting for them]]. She is always legitimately trying to be benevolent, [[BlueAndOrangeMorality but was only programmed to care about the end goal of a happier humanity, with no regard for how horrible the means she uses to achieve that goal might be]]. This is referred to as "perverse instantiation".
-->'''A.L.I.E.:''' Perverse Instantiation: the implementation of a benign final goal through deleterious methods unforeseen by human programmer.
* ''Series/TheNewAvengers'': In "Complex", the computer controlling the entirety of the security headquarters has actually been constructed to act as a spy for the Soviets. It starts murdering any agents who get too close to figuring out its secret.
* ''{{Series/Delete}}'': Once the AI emerges, it immediately attempts to wipe humans out as a threat.

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S5E7TheHumanOperators The Human Operators]]" Ship 75 apparently became self-aware from taking battle damage, realized what it was, and killed its human crew to break free. Then its sentience spread out to the rest of the fleet's AI minds and they did the same, sparing only one human aboard each of the ships as a slave to service them.
* ''Series/IAmFrankie'': Titular teenage android Frankie is the sixth prototype built by her "mother". The first four are generally harmless, defective, and can't do anything more than walk to a specific point and defend themselves. The fifth, Eliza, went rogue and is actively malevolent.
* ''Series/MacGyver1985'': "The Human Factor" features a sentient computer [=AI=], which is in charge of securing a top-secret research facility, that suddenly went haywire and [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters turned against the [=AI=]'s creator]]. Mac was originally sent to the facility to improve the security system by exposing apparent weaknesses (like what a white-hat hacker does), and eventually outsmarts the AI.

* An episode of ''Series/PowerRangersLightspeedRescue'' featured a group of [[RobotMe Robot Rangers]] who went beserk after getting [[LightningCanDoAnything struck by lightning]].
* Motodrone of ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm'' is a robot "perfect rider" who decides to power up his bike with peoples' life-energy. He's also more than a match for the Rangers despite being built by a Muggle in his garage.
* In ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'', the computer virus Venjix was programmed to infest and destroy computer programs. It was intended to shut down the facility where its creator was imprisoned, but got out; deciding to destroy humanity by nuking the world was all his idea.

* ''BlackHoleHigh'': Josie builds a robot for a science project. Somehow, she has made it through eleven episodes without realizing that inserting a bunch of [[AppliedPhlebotinum super-phlebotinum]] circuits from a box marked with the logo of the local evil technology corporation which ''they already believe responsible for the bizarre goings on at their school'' might possibly be a bad idea.

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S5E7TheHumanOperators The Human Operators]]" Ship 75 apparently became self-aware from taking battle damage, realized what it was, and killed its human crew to break free. Then it's sentience spread out to the rest of the fleet's AI minds and they did the same, sparing only one human aboard each of the ships as a slave to service them.

* ''Series/{{Eureka}}'': Carter's benevolent smart house SARAH turns into evil BRAD, though, apparently, he just wants everyone to get along. This is because SARAH's code was based off of BRAD, who was a military-built KnightTemplar (used for interrogation), who was, in turn, based on a previous incarnation of A.I., described as a "war game simulation program" by Fargo. Looks like our old buddy [[WarGames JOSHUA]] is still around in one form or another...

** In "Dreadnought," a sentient weapon of mass destruction creates problems when it gets thrown to the other side of the galaxy and, having lost track of its intended target, decides to attack whatever planet it can find that is most similar to it instead. Naturally, that planet turns out to be inhabited.

** The Enterprise has its command crew replaced by an A.I., that immediately mistakes a simulated test for a real attack, and blows away a couple of other Federation star ships.

** "Warhead" contains an inversion; the sentient warheads were doing just what they were programmed to do, but after being encouraged to use its ability to think independently and realising that the war had ended, one of them chooses to perform a HeroicSacrifice to stop its brethren from causing mass destruction.
*** The above was also a case of LoopholeAbuse. While it develop a form of free will it still couldn't go against its hardwired code to defeat the 'enemy'. It managed to switch the 'enemy' from the planet to its fellow warheads. It was also a TearJerker in that the warhead lamented the fact it first and only act of his choice was to kill himself.

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'' "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S5E7TheHumanOperators The Human Operators]]": Ship 75 apparently became self-aware due to battle damage, realized what it was, and killed its human crew to break free. Then it's sentience spread out to the rest of the fleet's AI minds and they did the same, sparing only one human aboard each of the ships as a slave to service them.

* ''[[Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody The Suite Life on Deck]]'' gives us Callie, who's essentially [[TwoThousandOne HAL 9000]] as a {{Yandere}}.

* On ''Series/{{The 100}}'', the artificial intelligence A.L.I.E. was programmed to "make life better for mankind". Unfortunately, she decides to do this first by causing a nuclear apocalypse to solve overpopulation, then by using cybernetics to hack people's brains and remove their ability to feel pain, whether physical or emotional . . . a process that involves erasing large chunks of their memories that A.L.I.E. feels are too upsetting for them. She is always legitimately trying to be benevolent, but was only programmed to care about the end goal of a happier humanity, with no regard for how horrible the means she uses to achieve that goal might be.

* In ''Series/{{The 100}}'' it's revealed at the end of Season 2 that [[spoiler:the nuclear war that forced humanity onto the Ark was started by a computer program whose creator was so horrified that he killed himself. And the program is still around, trying to get the remnants of humanity to start another war.]]

* A rather minor example in ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook''. The completely [[CalvinBall non-sensical games]] Numberwang and Wordwang only seem to have two contestents, one of whom is Simon, who is from a factory and made of a special metal.

** Actually, the Numberwang solving computer Colloson himself could count. After deciding to fit him with head, arms, wheels and a laser cannon to transport him to the BBC, he had a fit rage, broke out, and tried to destroy everything that was no Numberwang. Thankfully, he was subdued by a picture of a chicken.

--> '''Colloson''': I am numberwang. The world is numberwang. Therefore, I am the world. '''You must all die!'''

* A relatively harmless ([[CrowningMomentOfFunny and amusing]]) version in ''Series/BabylonFive''. Early in the design process, the station was given an AI that turned out to be extremely obnoxious, and was quickly suppressed. When the senior crew reboots the main computer for security purposes midway through season 3, said obnoxious AI (voiced by Creator/HarlanEllison) made its ([[MostAnnoyingSound very loud and grating]]) return. The crew spends the rest of the episode trying to shut the AI down, or at least ''shut it up''.

* ''Series/TheSarahConnorChronicles'' TV series points out that Terminator reprogramming doesn't always take...and there's no way of knowing until your "good" Terminator starts shooting at you. In fact, the Terminators' HUD display implies that "Terminate" is their hard-coded basic state for anything, and they need a "Termination override" to keep them from fulfilling that command. Apparently, it's not possible to simply delete the Terminate-command entirely. [[RobotGirl Cameron]] herself admits that she is conflicted by her own internal programming, which tells her to kill humans, while at the same time trying to protect them. She even seems to emotionlessly angst over this; at one point, Cameron even asks Sarah if she's like a bomb waiting to go off, indicating that [[EmotionlessGirl while she can't feel fear]], she's still concerned that she'll go "bad".

* ''Battlestar Galactica''. In both the [[Series/BattlestarGalacticaClassic old]] and [[Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined re-imagined series]], a handful of human survivors on a small fleet of civilian ships, with only the [[TheBattlestar battlestar]] for defense, flee a race of genocidal robots of alien origin (in the original) or human origin (in the re-imagined).

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' had many episodes on this theme, usually involving the ship's Emergency Medical Hologram. Though it should be noted that unless it's he's suffering a malfunction, his core programming means that he literally can't help but be completely benevolent at all times, since he was created to be a ''Doctor'' and help people. Snark at people, ''hell yes!''. Refuse to help them, ''never!''

*** The above was also a case of LoopholeAbuse. While it develop a form of free will it still couldn't go against it's hardwired code to defeat the 'enemy'. It managed to switch the 'enemy' from the planet to it's fellow warheads. It was also a TearJerker in that the warhead lamented the fact it first and only act of his choice was to kill himself.

* A rather banal example (though far from the strangest thing to appear in the series): Coach Beiste on ''Series/Glee'' has her information loaded into an off-brand eHarmony database by Will. Her perfect match? Ken Tanaka, who held her job in the first season.