Robby the Robot robot designed to care for children. In "Tom Swift on The Phantom Satellite" (1956), it is also the name given to a small four-foot robot designed by Tom Swift Jr., the boy inventor in the "Tom Swift Jr." science fiction novel series by Victor Appleton II. Robby the Robot originated as a character in the 1956 MGM science fiction film "Forbidden Planet". The story centers on a crew of space explorers from Earth who land their starship, the C57-D, on the planet Altair IV, ruled by the mysterious Dr. Morbius. Robby is a mechanical servant that Morbius has designed, built,
Forbidden Planet Altair IV. The screenplay by Irving Block and Allen Adler, written in 1952, was originally titled "Fatal Planet". The later screenplay draft by Cyril Hume renamed the film "Forbidden Planet", because this was believed to have greater box-office appeal. Block and Adler's drama took place in the year 1976 on the planet Mercury. An Earth expedition headed by John Grant is sent to the planet to retrieve Dr. Adams and his daughter Dorianne, who have been stranded there for twenty years. From then on, its plot is roughly the same as that of the completed film, though Grant is able