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| Marvin the Paranoid Android | |
|---|---|
| The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy character | |
.jpg) Costume used in the TV series, on display at Gunnersbury Park Museum in 2023 | |
| First appearance | Fit the Second (1978) |
| Last appearance | Fit the Twenty-Sixth (2005) |
| Created by | Douglas Adams |
| Portrayed by | David Learner (television) Warwick Davis (film) |
| Voiced by | Stephen Moore (radio and TV) Jim Broadbent (2018 radio series) Alan Rickman (film) |
| In-universe information | |
| Gender | Male design |
| Occupation | Servant |
Marvin the Paranoid Android is a fictional character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams. Marvin is the ship's robot aboard the starship Heart of Gold. Originally built as one of many failed prototypes of Sirius Cybernetics Corporation's GPP (Genuine People Personalities) technology, Marvin is afflicted with severe depression and boredom, in part because he has a "brain the size of a planet"[1] which he is seldom, if ever, given the chance to use. Instead, the crew request him merely to carry out mundane jobs such as "opening the door". Indeed, the true horror of Marvin's existence is that no task he could be given would occupy even the tiniest fraction of his vast intellect. Marvin claims he is 50,000 times more intelligent than a human[2] (or 30 billion times more intelligent than a live mattress), though this is, if anything, an underestimation. When kidnapped by the bellicose Krikkit robots and tied to the interfaces of their intelligent war computer, Marvin simultaneously manages to plan the entire planet's military strategy, solve "all of the major mathematical, physical, chemical, biological, sociological, philosophical, etymological, meteorological and psychological problems of the Universe, except his own, three times over", and compose several lullabies.
- ^ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Chapter 11, Wikiquote
- ^ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. p. 92.