Toaster Reference- Star Trek vs. BSG
- Thread starter Ro_Laren
- Start date
No.
The only other reference I can think of is Talkie Toaster from Red Dwarf. Howdy doodly do...
As with most things in SFTV, it's not a question of "which series did it first," because it's a usage that stretches back much further. I can't cite a source for earlier usages of "toaster" as a slang term for a robot, but I'm sure I came across it well before TNG or BSG existed. Or rather, it's more generally used in contrast to the sophistication of a robot, in phrases like "It's not just a toaster." A toaster is a long-standing cultural symbol for a simple, familiar, inert technological device, so it would tend to be used as a counterexample; you'd acknowledge the complexity or defend the sentience of a robot by saying it's not a mere toaster. Conversely, if you wanted to be dismissive or derogatory, you would say it was a toaster. In "Measure of a Man," Louvois was saying "Okay, I'll rule that Data's a mere appliance we can do with as we will." In the case of the Cylons, it's taking that familiar meme and employing it as a "dehumanizing" racial slur, dismissing the Cylons as simple, disposable household appliances.
Do you really think they still have toasters in the 24th century? Or any food related appliance? Don't replicators automatically cook your food?
There's also the wide, thin eye slit that looks like the slot in a toaster. That was the first use in the show, Baltar telling Six "The last time anyone saw a cylon, they looked more like walking chrome toasters!"
Hm. I wonder if soldiers in the first war took trophies from dead centurions and hollowed out the headpieces to use as toasters (sort of like making an aquarium out of an old Mac Classic). It's a little more domestic than a necklace of teeth, but I've seen more shocking war souvenirs in civilized society (I'm thinking specifically of a Life Magazine photo of a '40s gal fawning over the bleached skull of a japanese soldier that her fella fighting overseas had sent to her).
We no longer have cannons that can roll around loose on the deck of a ship, but we still use the expression "loose cannon." Language often retains anachronistic phrases.
I believe I remember John Byrne refering to the Vision as a toaster during his (mercifully brief) West Coast Avengers run.
Don't put the cart before the horse.
In a related question, does "skinjob" date back to Blade Runner, or does that have an earlier origin as well?
David cgc said:
Christ, that's macabre. At least she didn't play kemari with it.
As far as I can determine with a quick check of the OED's SF terminology citations page and less than a minute of Googling, "skin job" or "skinjob" actually did originate with Blade Runner (or at least had no prominent occurrences before then), and Galactica's use of it was a deliberate homage. Keep in mind that Edward James Olmos was in Blade Runner.
John Byrne was referring to the mindset of the average man in the Marvel Universe, not his own. And his tenure on Avengers West Coast(a title change brought about during his run) was by far not long enough. He's a far better writer than anyone currently working for Marvel.
I have those issues. I'll have to dig them out and look for the reference.
Off-topic, the problem with Byrne's run on AWC was that he appeared to be stirring the pot just for the heck of it-- disassembling the Vision, shoehorning U.S. Agent into the team, doing away with Wanda's kids, reintroducing the Human Torch, etc. There wasn't the feel that he was really going anywhere with it. A lot of these were good ideas, mind you, but with no real plan behind them.
And the characters were saddled with horrific (and sometimes out-of-character) dialogue, usually to drive home some subtle point with the finesse of a sledgehammer. (Yes, we know Iron Man is not supposed to be Tony at this point, but nonetheless keeps making references to events that only Tony would know about. The other characters have remarked on it six times already, and still don't seem to be getting the hint. Honestly, if Tony was this careless with his secret ID in his own book, he would have been outed in 1964.)
I kept these issues because I like the art, that's it.
Off-topic, the problem with Byrne's run on AWC was that he appeared to be stirring the pot just for the heck of it-- disassembling the Vision, shoehorning U.S. Agent into the team, doing away with Wanda's kids, reintroducing the Human Torch, etc. There wasn't the feel that he was really going anywhere with it. A lot of these were good ideas, mind you, but with no real plan behind them.
And the characters were saddled with horrific (and sometimes out-of-character) dialogue, usually to drive home some subtle point with the finesse of a sledgehammer. (Yes, we know Iron Man is not supposed to be Tony at this point, but nonetheless keeps making references to events that only Tony would know about. The other characters have remarked on it six times already, and still don't seem to be getting the hint. Honestly, if Tony was this careless with his secret ID in his own book, he would have been outed in 1964.)
I kept these issues because I like the art, that's it.
John Byrne doesn't believe in decompressed writing. The six times you mentioned were not over the course of a day. There was about one per issue.
And he had plans. Go to his forum and do a search in the faq.
And he had plans. Go to his forum and do a search in the faq.
There was one episode of the original BSG that the cylons were called tin cans. It has been a very long time since I've seen any of them, but it was an episode that had a bunch of kids in it and I think the heroes were attacking some sort of cylon outpost.
No.
The only other reference I can think of is Talkie Toaster from Red Dwarf. Howdy doodly do...
The original show tried harder to make Colonial culture clearly distinct from Earth than the new show did, changing all the terminology as much as possible (such as using yahrens, centons, etc. instead of years, minutes, etc.). So I doubt they would've had the characters refer to toasters; it's too mundane a term.
But if they had it would have been seen as hopelessly cheesy and dated and Ron's use of the term would have been ironic.
People must just still see 'toasters' as the quintessential mechanical appliance. Now that you mention it, it is odd that it would still be so in the 24th century.
NuBSG used 'Toasters' more as a reference to the fact the original cylons had been compared to toasters.
NuBSG used 'Toasters' more as a reference to the fact the original cylons had been compared to toasters.
