Before Zoie Palmer was The Android in the SyFy series DARK MATTER, only eight female androids (defined here as sentient humanoids built, not born) were series regulars, but many others appeared as minor characters. Star Trek had several in The Original Series and two in The Next Generation (the most notable being Data’s daughter Lal), but none of those lasted more than a couple of episodes. Voyager’s Seven of Nine is a cyborg, and The Buffybot in Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a non-sentient robot, but neither of those is an android. Here are the eight main character female droids in chronological order. They appeared in one soap opera, three comedies, and four prime time dramas.

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Andromeda (A FOR ANDROMEDA – 1961) — Julie Christie

Scientists decipher a signal from space that contains instructions on how to build a computer, which, upon completion, tells them how to build a human embryo which develops to maturity very rapidly and turns out to be an enhanced clone of a scientist who committed suicide during the project. As Andromeda is a constructed humanoid being, she qualifies as an android, though she is also a clone. Andromeda is forced by the aforementioned computer to attempt a world takeover, but doesn’t want to, and eventually frees herself from the computer’s control. The seven part BBC miniseries was written by astronomer Fred Hoyle and John Eliot. What remains of the original production, as well as the 2006 remake with Kelly Reilley as Andromeda, can be streamed on YouTube.

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Rhoda (MY LIVING DOLL – 1964/1965) – Julie Newmar

The android Rhoda, whose actual designation is AF 709, was built by ‘The Space Agency’, and placed in the care of U.S. Air Force psychiatrist Bob McDonald (Robert Cummings) with the goal in mind of teaching her to interact normally in human society. Rhoda displays signs of emotion in the course of the series, but any serious implications of this are carefully avoided. Rhoda’s controls are push buttons disguised as birthmarks. 26 episodes aired on CBS between 27 September 1964 and 17 March 1965. Ten of those episodes can be streamed on TUBI.

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VICI – (SMALL WONDER – 1985-1989) — Tiffany Brissette

Ted Lawson, an engineer for United Robotronics, creates an android named VICI in the shape of a 10 year old girl, and Lawson and his wife pretend that the android is their daughter. VICI (Voice Input Child Identificant) is incapable of emotion, and tends to take things literally. She runs on atomic power, and has an electrical socket in her right armpit. In the third season, VICI was given an “upgrade” to account for Brissette’s aging. All 96 episodes of Small Wonder can be streamed on YouTube.

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Calliope Jones (DAYS OF OUR LIVES – 1989) — Arleen Sorkin

This is a case of a regular character whose android version took her place for a while. In early 1986, Calliope’s husband Eugene disappeared in a time machine he was working on. He returned in 1989 and hid in Kimberly Donovan’s basement. Eugene had traveled into the future and built an android version of Calliope, which he brought back to the present. Eugene and the real Calliope were finally reunited, but men from the future came looking for the Calliope android and inadvertently took the real Calliope captive by mistake. Eugene managed to free Calliope and the two settled back down. Days of Our Lives has posted “Why We Love Calliope Jones: Arleen Sorkin’s Top 5 Scenes” on YouTube.

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Eve Edison – (MANN AND MACHINE – 1992 ) — Yancy Butler

In the near future, Police Officer Bobby Mann is teamed with an android partner named Sgt. Eve Edison. Mann is a somewhat reckless, wise-cracking cop. The serious-minded Edison tends to take things literally, but knows little about interacting with humans. In this hour-long series, the two detectives learn from each other, while solving an assortment of crimes. In “Billion Dollar Baby” (episode 8), Eve is assigned to care for an infant, and is surprised to discover she has maternal feelings. All 9 episodes can be streamed on YouTube.

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Thelma (SPACE CASES – 1996/1997) — Anik Matern

Seven humanoids (five students, their teacher and the principal of their academy) sneak aboard a strange spacecraft. While on-board they meet an android named Thelma who tells them that they are on a spaceship called the Christa that is half-alive. The ship encounters a spatial anomaly that maroons them in space for seven years (the series lasted only two). Thelma is an acronym for Techno Human Emulating Machine. Thelma’s memory crystal was cracked in episode one, hence she has gaps in her knowledge, and her behaviour is sometimes erratic. Jewell Staite appeared in 15 episodes as Catalina the “Saturnian rainbow-head”. All 27 episodes can be streamed on YouTube.

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Cameron Phillips – (TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES – 2008/2009) — Summer Glau

In this adaptation of TERMINATOR, Cameron Phillips is the young John Connor’s protector. Named after filmmaker James Cameron, she is a class TOK715 Terminator (series unknown). Her living tissue template is based on Allison Young, a friend of John Connor in 2027. Cameron’s eyes are sometimes blue, sometimes red, and sometimes brown. The series is set after the events of TERMINATOR 2, in which John and his mother hide from the government and plot to prevent the creation of Skynet. The series can be purchased from Apple TV or from Amazon Prime Video.

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Zoe Graystone (CAPRICA – 2010/2011) — Alessandra Torresani

Of the eight humanoid Cylon models in the rebooted BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, three (portrayed by Grace Park, Lucy Lawless, and Tricia Helfer) were female. Zoe Graystone, however, was the progenitor of all Cylons. The Battlestar prequel Caprica centers on two feuding families, the Graystones and the Adamas, whose conflict precipitates a breakthrough in artificial intelligence leading to the development of the Cylon. Zoe is killed in a bomb explosion leaving a version of her consciousness trapped in a virtual reality from which it is eventually transferred into the Cylon prototype. Caprica can be streamed on Peacock TV.

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**– Revised. Originally posted on 13 April 2015