1x02 His Maker's Name

[7.3/10] Another good early effort from the show. I worry about Zeta needing to save someone’s life every time he needs to convince a person that he’s not evil, but it worked here. There’s a good setup to this one, with Zeta and Ro trying to find a scientist who worked on the titular project and Bennet and company tracking down the same scientist after realizing who Zeta’s after. It’s a nicely-structured conflict that puts the scientist in an enviable position and gives reason for another skirmish between our heroes and their pursuers.

I like where the episode takes it. Bennett and the NSA use the scientist as bait, essentially, but when his life is in danger thanks to the Feds’ trap, Zeta saves his life by shielding him from some exploding bolts(?). The episode builds the tension of the EM field and its effect on mechanical items nicely, and the scientist’s reaction to Zeta saving him is one of relief and understanding. With his mind-changed, the scientist gives him the name of the key visionary behind Zeta’s construction, which helps move our eponymous robot’s quest for freedom and to convince the world he can be peaceful along.

There’s some other fun bits to enjoy here. It’s a great Ro episode. For one thing, I got a big kick out of her disdain for the hippies (I’m sorry, “spaceys”). The way she mockingly repeats their slogans and pushes back at their ideas is a laugh and a half. Admittedly, the cartoonish depiction of the future hippies is a little to 1960s Star Trek for me, but there’s some good if easy to gags that the show wrings from it.

I also like that she comes to appreciate Zeta’s mix of a variety of different sodas and Zeta’s amusingly bot-like literalism about her beverage request. I also appreciate Ro’s epiphany here, that the scientist being willing to meet Zeta must be a trap because people don’t change their minds that easily. The show does a nice House M.D.-esque job of having Ro’s criticisms of the hippies’ M.O. spur her to realize what’s really happening with her friend.

Otherwise, there’s some good laughs here, like Zee and Ro sneaking into the Dynacore building by jointly posing as a pregnant woman. And Zee’s plea to the scientist is a touching one.

Overall, this is another solid episode, which devolves into fireworks and corny hippie-bashing here and there, but which has a good structure and notion at its center.