N.I.G.E.L.
Built by Mendel Craven,
N.I.G.E.L. is a research robot whose name is an anagram for “Next-millennium Intelligence Gathering Electronic Liaison”. Low-tech looking, but high-tech acting, his main function is to go where the H.E.A.T. team can not; the ocean floor, inside an active volcano or near highly toxic fumes… which usually results in the robot getting pummeled, bashed-up or obliterated.
N.I.G.E.L. also serves as a vehicle for Randy and Craven’s ongoing rivalry. Craven programmed the robot with the selfless heroic personality he imagines himself to posssess. Randy is constantly reprogramming N.I.G.E.L’s personality just to drive Craven crazy.
http://www.scifijapan.com/GTScast/tk.jpg
Although N.I.G.E.L. operates autonomously, he is not a pure artificial intelligence. He is an information-gathering machine that does what he’s programmed to do. His “personalities” are the result of tampering with his linguistic codes. Thus, he will inadvertently transmit data in avariety of funny voices, but he will not express emotions or make conscious choices.
Outside of Nick, N.I.G.E.L. is the one member of H.E.A.T. who can get physically close to Godzilla. N.I.G.E.L. proved invaluable in the creature’s early “housebreaking” and can also be dispatched to signal Godzilla when the team needs him most. Godzilla, in turn regards the little robot as somewhere between a pet and a beloved chew toy.
