History Main / InterfaceWithAFamiliarFace

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[[quoteright:336:[[Series/DoctorWho https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/interfacewithafamiliarface_5010.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:336:Donating your face for use as a library information terminal. It's like donating a park bench, except way creepier.]]

* ''Film/TerminatorSalvation'': Skynet manifests itself to Marcus with the face and voice of Dr. Serena Kogan, the scientist who froze him before he woke up in the future. When Marcus is confused by this, Skynet offers to switch its appearance to several other human faces.
* ''Film/TerminatorGenisys'' has a rather [[TimeyWimeyBall complex example]] also with Skynet. [[spoiler:John Connor gets turned into a T-3000 by Skynet in the form of a Terminator played by Creator/MattSmith. When Terminator!John goes back in time to ensure the creation of Genisys/Skynet in the new timeline, the holographic interface Skynet projects eventually starts looking like the Matt Smith Terminator. This would usually be considered a StableTimeLoop, except that this has already been established as a separate timeline, and the film ends with Judgment Day being stopped.]]

* In ''Literature/FullMetalPanic'', the A.I. in [[HandsomeLech Kurz Weber]]'s [[HumongousMecha Arm Slave]] is named "Yukari" and is said to have the personality and voice of a certain popular idol (with the novels mentioning that Kurz provided voice clips for the programmers to use). While the novel kept it vague (presumably for legal reasons), the anime just went ahead and confirmed it by casting Creator/YukariTamura as the voice of the A.I.
* In ''Anime/Megazone23'', VirtualIdol Eve Tokimatsuri is an avatar for System E.V.E, [[spoiler: charged with evaluating whether the humans aboard her colony ship were worth of returning to Earth]]. Part III of the OVA shows that her appearance and name were based on a human programmer who'd worked on the Megazone project.

* In Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/TheCavesOfSteel'', robot R. Daneel Olivaw is modeled upon his creator. The resemblance is so good that [[spoiler:his creator is murdered by someone who thought they were attacking the robot.]]
* In Creator/SergeyLukyanenko's ''Literature/LabyrinthOfReflections'', the protagonist uses Windows Home as his computer OS. He keeps the original avatar of the OS, an attractive woman. While in {{Cyberspace}}, he is running away from a mob and runs into a virtual brothel. He then browses through the catalog and is stunned to find a virtual prostitute that looks exactly the same as his avatar. After meeting her, he starts developing feelings for her, which she cautions him against, as she can be a fat guy for all he knows. At the end of the novel, they agree to meet in the real world, and it turns out that this is what she really looks like.
* In ''Literature/{{Neuromancer}}'' Wintermute's virtual avatars always take the form of somebody Case knows, as an indication that he has no personality of his own. [[spoiler: His counterpart, the titular Neuromancer, does have a custom avatar though.]]
* In ''Literature/ThePeaceWar'' by Creator/VernorVinge, Paul Naismith has given his house AI a hologram body and voice modeled on his girlfriend who was one of the first victims of the Peace Authority.
* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': In the ''Literature/NewJediOrder'' series, Lando Calrissian's foray into arms manufacturing creates the Yuuzhan Vong Hunter war droids. Though they have silver death's heads, their voices are one and all based on Lando's (albeit deeper and more masculine).

** It's claimed in the episode "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonVIIBeyondAJoke Beyond a Joke]]" that the android Kryten was designed as a caricature of his (female) creator's ex-boyfriend. (The episode "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIIITheLastDay The Last Day]]" features a recorded message from an executive at the company that manufactured Kryten, who was played by the same actor as Kryten himself; this might suggest an alternative explanation, or just be a case of SignificantDoubleCasting. Or maybe that ''was'' the ex-boyfriend.)

* ''Series/AgentsOfShield'' gives us the LMD Aida, who is physically modeled on her creator, Holden Radcliffe's, former lover Agnes Kitsworth. However, while Agnes was Australian, Aida adopts an American accent.

* In ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'', the A.I. in [[HandsomeLech Kurz Weber]]'s [[HumongousMecha Arm Slave]] is named "Yukari" and is said to have the personality and voice of a certain popular idol (with the novels mentioning that Kurz provided voice clips for the programmers to use). While the novel kept it vague (presumably for legal reasons), the anime just went ahead and confirmed it by casting Creator/YukariTamura as the voice of the A.I.

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

* The BigBad of Season 3 of ''Series/The100, A.L.I.E.'', is modeled on her creator, Becca Franko. However, while Becca usually dressed conservatively, due to working in a lab environment, A.L.I.E. appears as a more idealized and glamorous LadyInRed.
* ''Series/AForAndromeda''. The MasterComputer kills a female operator, then uses the information gathered in the process to create an ArtificialHuman who looks exactly like her. Only blonde.

* In a voice-only example, the Cylon Imperious Leader in ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|1978}}'' is voiced by Patrick Macnee, who later appears as Count Iblis. That their voices are the same is a plot point.

* In ''{{Series/Eureka}}'' the voice of the house AI SARAH is actually a pitched up version of its inventor Fargo (because [fictionally] Sarah Michelle Gellar wouldn't agree to supply the voice).
* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "The Origin of Species", the ship uses holograms of Dr. Martin Nodel and his son Paul, both of whom it had previously absorbed, to communicate with Hope and the six students.
* ''Series/PersonOfInterest''. After spending most of the series with a CutAndPasteNote voice, the Machine chooses the voice of [[spoiler:Root after her death in "The Day the World Went Away". Harold Finch goes along with it because he misses hearing Root's voice, plus he knows [[MachineWorship Root would be pleased that the Machine had chosen her]].]]
* ''Series/RedDwarf''
** The ship's computer, Holly, claims that he chose his face from the millions on offer because it had belonged to the most prolific lover who ever lived. And in an odd twist of the trope, Holly later undergoes a "computer sex change" and assumes the face of his AlternateUniverse [[DistaffCounterpart gender-flipped]] self/lover, Hilly.
** It's claimed in the episode "Beyond a Joke" that the android Kryten was designed as a caricature of his (female) creator's ex-boyfriend. (The episode "The Last Day" features a recorded message from an executive at the company that manufactured Kryten, who was played by the same actor as Kryten himself; this might suggest an alternative explanation, or just be a case of SignificantDoubleCasting. Or maybe that ''was'' the ex-boyfriend.)

** In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', Data (and his brother androids) were modelled after their creator, Noonien Soong.
** Geordi got in quite a lot of trouble when he created an [=AI=] engineer for one episode in the holodeck, developed a crush on her/it, and then came to an abrupt awakening when the "model" visited the ship in a later episode.

** Invoked by Dr. Zimmerman with the Longterm Medical Holographic (LMH) program, based on Dr Julian Bashir, in the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode, "Dr. Bashir, I Presume."

* Played with in ''Series/Warehouse13''; when they accidentally activate a long dormant AI, Claudia questions why it looks like its creator, and [[{{Series/Eureka}} Fargo]] says AI designers often do that. However it later transpires [[spoiler: that it ''is'' in fact, a VirtualGhost of sorts; an artifact-assisted [[BrainUploading upload]] of its creator's right brain]].

[[caption-width-right:336:Donating your face for use as a library information terminal. It's like donating a park bench, except [[UncannyValley way creepier]].]]

* In ''Film/ResidentEvil'', the appearance and voice of the Red Queen's hologram were modeled after the head programmer's daughter. The daughter appears in the sequel, ''Film/ResidentEvilApocalypse''.

[[folder:Other]]
* Einstein and Shakespeare are available as helpers in ''Microsoft Office'' programs.
[[/folder]]

* [=Ma3a=] from ''VideoGame/TronTwoPointOh'' straddles the line between this and VirtualGhost. While she has a distinct (and utterly cryptic) thought process and purpose, it's all but stated that her appearance, voice (yes, it ''is'' Cindy Morgan under all that distortion), and some of her personality was constructed from the deceased Dr. Bradley.

* The BigBad of Season 3 of ''Series/The100, A.L.I.E.'', is modeled on her creator, Becca Franco. However, while Becca usually dressed conservatively, due to working in a lab environment, A.L.I.E. appears as a more idealized and glamorous LadyInRed.

* The BigBad of Season 3 of ''Series/The100, A.L.I.E.'', is modeled on her creator, Becca Franco. However, while Becca usually dressed conservatively, due to working in a lab environment, while A.L.I.E. appears as a glamorous LadyInRed.

* In ''Webcomic/{{SSDD}}'' the Oracle publicly appears as an ambiguous blue orb with triangles for eyes and a nose, but privately he takes the form of [[http://www.poisonedminds.com/d/20050415.html his creator]].

Distinct from VirtualGhost and ReplacementGoldfish in that the resemblance is only skin deep -- the AI has its own name and personality, and is not meant to be a replacement for the person -- although the decision to give it that face may have been influenced by sentimental reasons.

!!Examples

[[folder:Fanfic]]

[[folder:Film]]

* The Kree Supreme Intelligence in ''Film/CaptainMarvel2019'' takes the form of whomever the person speaking to them admires most. [[AmnesiacHero Vers]] sees her former mentor [[spoiler:Mar-Vell]], while in a deleted scene, Yon-Rogg sees himself.

* In Creator/SergeyLukyanenko's ''Literature/LabyrinthOfReflections'', the protagonist uses Windows Home as his computer OS. He keeps the original avatar of the OS, an attractive woman. While in {{Cyberspace}}, he is running away from a mob and runs into a virtual brothel. He then browses through the catalog and is stunned to find a virtual prostitute that looks exactly the same as his avatar. After meeting her, he starts developing feelings for her, which she cautions him against, as she can be a fat guy for all he knows. At the end of the novel, they agree to meet in the real world, and it turns out that this is what she really looks like.

* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'':
** In the ''Literature/NewJediOrder'' series, Lando Calrissian's foray into arms manufacturing creates the Yuuzhan Vong Hunter war droids. Though they have silver death's heads, their voices are one and all based on Lando's (albeit deeper and more masculine).

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

** Later still, in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E9Hide "Hide"]], the interface adopts Clara's form, telling her that it chose the form of somebody whose advice she would respect.

* Played with in ''{{Series/Warehouse 13}}''; when they accidentally activate a long dormant AI, Claudia questions why it looks like its creator, and [[{{Series/Eureka}} Fargo]] says AI designers often do that. However it later transpires [[spoiler: that it ''is'' in fact, a VirtualGhost of sorts; an artifact-assisted [[BrainUploading upload]] of its creator's right brain]].
* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "The Origin of Species", the ship uses holograms of Dr. Martin Nodel and his son Paul, both of whom it had previously absorbed, to communicate with Hope and the six students.

-->'''Bailey''': Yeah. When you erased a file, it would say "I delete data like you on the way to ''real'' errors." Buggy, though. It crashed every half-hour and the error message was about how the galaxy was at stake and you should fix the problem yourself.

* [=Ma3a=] from ''[[VideoGame/TronTwoPointOh Tron 2.0]]'' straddles the line between this and VirtualGhost. While she has a distinct (and utterly cryptic) thought process and purpose, it's all but stated that her appearance, voice (yes, it ''is'' Cindy Morgan under all that distortion), and some of her personality was constructed from the deceased Dr. Bradley.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

[[folder:Other]]
* Einstein and Shakespeare are available as helpers in ''Microsoft Office'' programs.
[[/folder]]

* ''VisualNovel/DanganRonpa'': [[spoiler:Alter Ego is this to [[KilledOffForReal Chihiro Fujisaki]]]].

** In the Literature/NewJediOrder series, Lando Calrissian's foray into arms manufacturing creates the Yuuzhan Vong Hunter war droids. Though they have silver death's heads, their voices are one and all based on Lando's (albeit deeper and more masculine).

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E8SilenceInTheLibrary "Silence in the Library"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead "Forest of the Dead"]]: The computer information terminals in the Library have human faces. The Doctor explains that they're memorials to the faces' original owners, "like donating a park bench". This provides a CliffHanger shocker when a terminal turns to reveal the face of the Doctor's current companion, implying she's been killed.
** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E8LetsKillHitler "Let's Kill Hitler"]], the TARDIS voice control interface can take the appearance of anyone. The Doctor chooses the form of seven-year-old Amelia Pond, since at that point he felt he hadn't screwed her up yet. And this is after rejecting his own form ("''No, no, give me someone I'' like") and that of his previous companions ("''Guilt! Also guilt! More guilt!''").

-->'''The War Doctor:''' ''(scorching his hand on the Moment)'' Argh! The interface is hot!
-->'''The Moment:''' ''(pouting)'' Well, I do my best...

* [=Ma3a=] from ''VideoGame/TronTwoPointOh'' straddles the line between this and VirtualGhost. While she has a distinct (and utterly cryptic) thought process and purpose, it's all but stated that her appearance, voice (yes, it ''is'' Cindy Morgan under all that distortion), and some of her personality was constructed from the deceased Dr. Bradley.