Bishop (Aliens)

Infobox character
colour = #6B8E23
name = Bishop 341-B


caption = Bishop in "Aliens"
first = "Aliens"
last = "Alien 3"
cause =
nickname =
alias = Bishop
species =
gender =
age =
born =
death =
reborn =
occupation = USCM spaceship "Sulaco" executive officer
title = Executive Officer
family =
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children =
relatives =
episode =
portrayer = Lance Henriksen
creator = James Cameron

Lance Bishop 341-B, portrayed by Lance Henriksen, is a character from the science fiction films "Aliens" (1986) and "Alien 3" (1992). Bishop is an android created by the Weyland-Yutani corporation. In "Alien 3", Henriksen also plays a character named Bishop II who claims to be the android's designer. In "Alien vs. Predator" (2004), which serves as a prequel to the "Alien" series, Henriksen plays Weyland Industries chief executive officer Charles Bishop Weyland.

Depiction

"Aliens"

Bishop is executive officer of the Colonial Marine vessel "Sulaco", which is ordered to investigate the loss of contact with a terraforming colony on LV-426, with Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) serving as an adviser on the mission. In the previous film, "Alien" (1979), Ripley is attacked by her android crewmate, Ash (Ian Holm); Ripley is at first disturbed by Bishop's presence, but comes to accept and trust him.

The Marines from the "Sulaco" — along with Ripley, Bishop, and company executive Burke (Paul Reiser) — set down on LV-426 and discover that Aliens have killed almost all of the colonists. The Aliens then kill Burke and most of the Marine contingent. Bishop does not engage in combat, however, instead acting as a medic and tending to other support functions. Bishop saves Ripley, Newt (Carrie Henn), and Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn) by piloting their dropship out of the exploding atmosphere processing station. However, upon landing on the "Sulaco", Bishop is ripped in half by the Alien queen that had attached itself to the dropship. When Ripley opens the airlock to expel the Alien queen into space, Bishop saves himself and Newt. Afterward, he is placed in hypersleep with Ripley, Newt, and Hicks.

"Alien 3"

In the opening scene of "Alien 3", a fire aboard the "Sulaco" causes the four survivors from "Aliens" to be launched in an Emergency Escape Vehicle (EEV) while still in hypersleep. Ripley is the only survivor when the EEV crashes on Fiorina "Fury" 161, the site of a penal colony. The prisoners indicate that Bishop was smashed beyond repair, but Ripley partially repairs his speech and memory functions. He reveals the events that followed the conclusion of "Aliens", including that an Alien facehugger was aboard the "Sulaco" and that a fire was the cause of the passengers' ejection. He then asks Ripley to disconnect him permanently, saying, "I can be reworked, but I'll never be top of the line again. I'd rather be nothing." Ripley complies with his request.

Bishop II

In the final scene, a squad of Weyland-Yutani soldiers arrives to retrieve Ripley. With them is a man identical to the android Bishop, also played by Lance Henriksen and listed in the film's credits as "Bishop II". Ripley believes him to be another android; Bishop II claims to be the man who designed the Bishop series, sent by the company to show Ripley "a friendly face." Mr. Aaron (Ralph Brown) attacks Bishop II with a monkey wrench, calling him a "fucking android". The "Assembly Cut" released with the "Alien Quadrilogy" boxed set in 2003 shows Bishop II bleeding and groaning, with additional footage of the flap of ear and skin hanging from his face. He reasserts that he is human by screaming, "I'm not a droid!". This portion, however, was cut from the film's theatrical release. In Alan Dean Foster's "Alien 3" novelization, the character is named "Michael Bishop" and indicated to be a human.cite book|first=Alan Dean|last=Foster|title=The Complete Alien Omnibus|date=1993-10-13|publisher=Time Warner Paperbacks|pages=648|quote=The pipe landed hard on Bishop II's head. The impact was spongy. The man staggered, twitching, and his troops shot the acting superintendent down. Real blood poured from Bishop II's cracked skull. 'I am... not a... droid,' the bleeding figure mumbled in surprise as it crumpled to the floor.|isbn=978-0751506679] According to Henriksen, the studio at the time kept the issue open as to whether Bishop II was human or android because they did not yet know what they would do with his character in the future.cite web|url=http://movies.ign.com/articles/513/513443p1.html|title=Interview: Lance Henriksen|date=2004-05-11|first=Steven |last=Horn|publisher=IGN|accessdate=2008-07-28] Henriksen believes Bishop II was an "advanced model" android.

Charles Bishop Weyland

Henrickson plays Weyland Industries chief executive officer Charles Bishop Weyland in "Alien vs. Predator". He and his team search an ancient pyramid under the ice of Bouvet Island. Terminally ill, Weyland views the discovery of the pyramid as his last chance to make his mark on history. When Aliens attack, he refuses to abandon the high-tech guns the team acquired earlier because he feels that "too much has been lost to leave with nothing". He is killed by a Predator while distracting the creature from pursuing the rest of the team.

In academia

Bishop has been the subject of literary and philosophical analysis as a high-profile android character conforming to science fiction author Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics and as a model of a compliant, potentially self-aware machine. [cite conference | first = G | last = Buttazzo | year = 2000 | month = May | title = Can a Machine Ever Become Self-Aware? | booktitle = Artificial Humans, an historical retrospective of the Berlin International Film Festival 2000 | editor = R. Aurich, W. Jacobsen and G. Jatho| location = Goethe Institute, Los Angeles | pages = 45-49 | accessdate = 2007-01-10] The portrayal of androids in the "Alien" series — Ash in "Alien", Bishop in "Aliens" and "Alien 3", and Call (Winona Ryder) in "Alien Resurrection" (1997) — has been studied for its implications relating to how humans deal with the presence of an "Other", [cite journal | last = Nishime | first = LeiLani | title = The Mulatto Cyborg: Imagining a Multiracial Future | journal = Cinema Journal | volume = 44 | issue = 2 | pages = 34–49 | publisher = University of Texas Press | date = Winter 2005 | accessdate = 2007-01-10 ] as Ripley treats them with fear and suspicion, and a form of "hi-tech racism and android apartheid" is present throughout the series. [cite conference | first = Anton Karl | last = Kozlovic | title = HAL-o-phobia: Computer Horror in the Pre-1990 Popular Cinema | booktitle = Sincronía | date = Spring 2004 | accessdate = 2007-01-10 ] This is seen as part of a larger trend of technophobia in films prior to the 1990s, with Bishop's role being particularly significant as he redeems himself at the end of "Aliens", thus confounding Ripley's expectations. [cite journal | last = Kozlovic | first = Anton Karl | title = Technophobic themes in pre-1990 computer films | journal = Science as Culture | volume = 12 | issue = 3 | pages = 341–373 | month = September | year = 2003 | doi = 10.1080/09505430309008 | accessdate = 2007-01-10 ]

References