Bishop (android)
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Bishop 341-B is a fictional character from the Alien series of films, an android created by the Weyland-Yutani corporation and played by Lance Henriksen.
Bishop was a synthetic (or "artificial person", as he preferred to be called), a very advanced human-like robot assigned to the Colonial Marine vessel Sulaco. Like other synthetics, Bishop had superior strength and hand-eye coordination, though he did not engage in combat himself, instead acting in a general support role. In Aliens, he is stranded on LV-426 with the surviving Marines when their 1st Dropship is destroyed. His calm, selfless bravery slowly wins Ripley's trust, and is seemingly destroyed saving Ripley and Newt from the Alien Queen. In Alien 3, Bishop makes a brief appearance when Ripley finds his remains and partially repairs his speech and memory functions. Bishop reveals the events that followed the conclusion of the 2nd film, then asks Ripley to disconnect him for good.
The android was modelled after his creator, Weyland-Yutani robotics engineer Michael Bishop who is the "Bishop II" seen in Alien 3, as confirmed in both the Alien 3 novelization and 2003 DVD commentary for Alien Quadrilogy by Lance Henriksen. However, the more recent spin-off film, Alien vs. Predator has ignored this and established its own canon, which implies the Bishop androids were modelled after Charles Bishop Weyland, and therefore the "real" Bishop is another android rather than a human.
This contradictory mythos seems an indication of separateness of the Alien and Alien vs. Predator film series - not designed as part of the same universe, the canon of one series therefore would not linked to the canon of the other. Another option is that Michael Bishop is perhaps a descendant of Charles Bishop Weyland. Neither option has been officially confirmed.
| Alien movie series |
| Alien | Aliens | Alien³ | Alien: Resurrection |
| Cross-overs |
| Alien vs. Predator |
| Relating to the Alien universe |
| Bishop | Ellen Ripley | LV-426 | Nostromo | United States Colonial Marines | Weyland-Yutani | Xenomorph | Yautja |