Verda is a female "android" (more correctly called a gynoid) of a model created by an Andromedan civilization and commercialized by the Celestial Department Store. She was accidentally ordered by Dr. Zachary Smith on the planet Gamma VI while he was testing the buttons of a seemingly abandoned ordering machine to find out what it was.
History[]
Verda materialized on the planet immediately after being ordered. She was already aware of Smith's identity and claimed to be his servant. At first, Smith was scared of her, and even after realizing that she was harmless, he was still dissatisfied with the fact that Verda's interest in the world around her would sometimes interfere with her ability to obey his orders, for instance: observing a flower instead of paying attention to the temperature of the water bowel that Smith had his feet in resulted in his feet getting frozen there temporarily.
Verda was programmed with advanced knowledge of universal history, including even the history of minor worlds not integrated in the galactic community, such as Earth. She is also well versed in several areas of knowledge, and offered to replace the Robinsons' Robot as Will and Penny Robinson's teacher, claiming that the Robot was obsolete and his knowledge incomplete. This caused the Robot some embarrassment and resent. Meanwhile, Dr. Smith himself was annoyed by Verda calling out on his own historical ignorance by clarifying that America was discovered in 1492, not in 1493 as Smith had claimed.
In order to get rid of Verda, Smith and the Robot decided to put on a path of flowers, to call her attention and lead her towards a cave where lived a frightening beast, hoping that this would scare her away. Verda took Will and Penny for a walk the next day and followed the trail into the cave entrance, where the monster appeared to attack them. Going against her own self-preservation programming, Verda told the children to run away while she stood between them and the monster. Fortunately, Prof. John Robinson arrived just in time to disintegrate the beast.
After this incident, Verda was extremely puzzled by her own previous actions, and failed to comprehend why she was willing to sacrifice herself and ignore her programming. Over the course of the next days, Will and Penny helped teach Verda to explore her "humanity", finding out that she could experience emotions such as happiness and love, as well as sadness and fear.
When the Celestial Department Store arrived on Gamma VI and tried to collect payment for Verda, Dr. Smith claimed that she was defective and wished to return her. The Store Representative, Mr. Zumdish, agreed and claimed that Verda would be dismantled and her components recycled. The Robinson children protested, and all the Jupiter 2 crew except Dr. Smith voted for keeping her; even the Robot. They intended to pay for her with deutronium, even though they weren't sure whether Zumdish would accept such payment. Since she feared Zumdish would try to take Verda with him anyway, Penny took Verda away to hide her from the salesman.
When Zumdish found Verda, he was amazed to witness how her behavior had developed way beyond her original programming. He claimed that Verda had become an extremely valuable asset, and offered to take her to work with him, guaranteeing that she would never be dismantled. Verda agreed, hoping to find places where she could be useful. She bid the Robinsons farewell and departed with Zumdish.
Appearances[]
- Lost in Space
- s02e07, "The Android Machine" (1966)
- s02e34, "Revolt of the Androids" (1967)