Ever since Isaac Asimov wrote the anthology I, Robot in 1950 by using the Framing Device of an interview with the robopsychologist Susan Calvin to weld several of his previous robot stories together, there were many attempts to adapt it as a film. In 2004, the film starring Will Smith was finally released... and although it turned out to be better and smarter than many feared, it was much more of a by the numbers Hollywood action film than the original stories.
However, ten years before then, Asimov and Harlan Ellison agreed to publish the screenplay from an earlier attempt that Ellison had written in the late 1970s. Like the others, this attempt fell through because of Executive Meddling. However, as an attempt to raise interest, the screenplay was published in 1994 by a Warner Books imprint with several illustrations by artist Mark Zug.
Like the original anthology novel, this screenplay tells the story of Susan Calvin, as discovered by an Intrepid Reporter trying to interview her after a chance encounter during the funeral of the great statesman Stephen Byerley, "first President of the Galactic Federation".
The original stories included in this adaptation include:
- "Robbie"
- "Runaround"
- "Escape!" (Mentioned as a Noodle Incident.)
- "Liar!"
- "Lenny"
- "Evidence"
- "The Evitable Conflict"
I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay provides examples of:
- Absent Aliens: Averted; Earth has made contact with multiple alien races by the time of the framing story, and humanity is a leader in The Federation thanks to the efforts of Stephen Byerley.
- Arc Welding: Ellison goes above and beyond Asimov's efforts in the original novel to weld the source material into both a coherent story and a character arc for Susan Calvin.
- Composite Character: There are several characters in this screenplay assuming the roles of other characters from one or more of the original stories.
- A young Susan Calvin takes the role of the child Gloria in "Robbie", instead of her cameo in later versions of the short story.
- During the "Runaround" flashback, Susan Calvin was accompanying Donovan and Powell — spaceship pilots and odd-jobs men instead of robopsychologists — to take care of the robot Speedy. She's the one to endanger herself to break Speedy out of the Logic Bomb loop he was trapped in.
- Most significantly to the story, not only is Stephen Byerley revealed to be a secret robot, but he was the malfunctioning LNE "Lenny" robot that Susan Calvin "adopted".
- Driving Question: Are human beings basically good? Susan Calvin didn't think so, which is why she thought our future was better left in the hands of a robot. On the other hand, her actions throughout the story prove that she was both more emotional and more caring about other people than she let on. Bratenahl's Kirk Summation Speech near the end describes Byerley as the embodiment of her hopes and ideals for humanity, who won a Battle in the Center of the Mind with the Machines to set them on a path to watch over humanity in a more compassionate way. In the end, humanity is left in an Ambiguous Situation after both Byerley and Calvin pass away.
- Homage: The plot & its structure are modeled after Citizen Kane.
- The Last DJ: The Intrepid Reporter Bratenahl tracks down Donovan and Powell to learn about their experience working with Calvin. He also learns that the former starship captains are literally the last of their kind with a ubitiquous teleporter network — and that only because they're being used to expand the network.
