ziggy

Calavicci's_Girl

Project QL Intern
Aug 7, 2006
21
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england
is ziggy classed as male or female? because in series 1 Al refers to ziggy as "he" and yet he/she has a female voice.
im confused :help
 
That's something that has always confused me as well. Whenever Ziggy would talk I got the impression he was a she. Perhaps since the English language considers computers to be more masculine than feminine, it was easier for them to call Ziggy a 'he'. But I do tend to think that Ziggy is a she. At the very least, he/she has the grouchiness/stubborn factor of a woman (which I can seriously relate, because I am one grouchy and stubborn woman. Hehehe). :D

But that's just a guess.
 
I was too thinking about this, and I figured that Ziggy is a computer, so, IT has no gender. I refer to Ziggy as a he, like the guys in the show do.
 
As far as I recall - and I'm sure one of our resident experts will correct me if I'm wrong - the 'official' line is that originally Ziggy was called "He" without much conscious thought.

Then in one of the later seasons, Don Bellisario just decided that Ziggy should be a 'she'. Normally he PCR'd such decisions - post-creative rationalisation, 'it changed because....' but in this case he just said 'so what, it changed'.

In the fanfiction I have written, my PCR is that whenever Gushie/Gooshie tweaked Ziggy's systems to optimize performance, it adjusted the voice synthesizer so that Ziggy sounded masculine at times, and feminine at others, depending on how Gushie had been tinkering.

From Al's point of view, I gave him a somewhat sexist perspective. He called Ziggy He when the computer was being efficient and reliable, and 'she' when Ziggy was being temperamental or unforthcoming.

Later fictions tend to have formed a concencus on the female Ziggy.
 
In seasons 1 - 4, Ziggy was referred to as a he, despite having a female voice in The Leap Back.
Then for some reason, in season 5, they started referring to her as a she. Maybe they decided that with his/her personality (or computality as you might put it) combined with his/her voice, the female gender suited Ziggy better.
 
naggindragon said:
In seasons 1 - 4, Ziggy was referred to as a he, despite having a female voice in The Leap Back.
Then for some reason, in season 5, they started referring to her as a she. Maybe they decided that with his/her personality (or computality as you might put it) combined with his/her voice, the female gender suited Ziggy better.

Interestingly enough, even in "The Leap Back" while Sam had a conversation with Ziggy, he says: "Why did I give him Barbara Streisand's ego?" From the show's perspective, I'll have to agree that Ziggy is truly an "it," and that Sam simply found it easier to refer to Ziggy as a male. As far as his Swiss-cheesed mind is concerned, however, he may have forgotten which gender he referred to "her" as (around Season 5) and Al just played along as to not reveal more information.
 
Ziggy was a 'male' computer in the beginning of the series, but was later changed to a 'female' computer.

TV shows seem to do this a lot, start out one way and finish another. Like in the Cosby show, in the first few episodes they only had four kids, then later on they have five. (I forget the eldest daughter's name that wasn't in the beginning)

The_P_Man
 
I noticed that line in The Leap Back while recently watching that episode too. I have always been confused by this too. Also the change in hand link always left me wondering. I had the theroy that Sam's Leaping caused a change in the timeline resulting in a different handlink and change of Ziggy's gender. Now that Leap Back line has me confused again.
 
Yeah, it was in the episode where Sam leaped into the Magician, The Great Spontini, Al was in the court proceeding and hit the handlink hard enough to kill it. The next episode had the Gummi Bear Handlink.

And from what I noticed, Ziggy was refered to as a he until The Leap Back. Then from there on, he was a she. Makes sence that she would be a she though with Barbara Strisands Ego
 
In The Great Spontini, Al punches and smacks the handlink numerous times, causing a spectacular "death", complete with a sound effect of mass shutting down of components. He then says, "Uh, oh. I think I killed it, Sam."
 
(apologies for necro-post)
Ziggy was refered to as a he until The Leap Back. Then from there on, he was a she.
No, it's worse than that. In "The Leap Back", the first broadcast episode of the fourth season, Ziggy not only had a female voice (Deborah Pratt's), but also a feminine personality. Remember these lines when Sam and Ziggy were flirting?:
Sam: "Ziggy!"
Ziggy: "Yes, Doctor?"
Sam: "Give me what I want, baby."
Ziggy: "Ooh, if you weren't my father..."
But just a little earlier in the same episode, Sam said, "Why did I give him Barbra Streisand's ego?" (emphasis mine). How odd would that flirting scene have seemed if Ziggy had a male voice?

In several later episodes, including "Permanent Wave", "Unchained" and "A Song for the Soul", Sam, Al or both continue to refer to Ziggy as "he" or "him".

In the last broadcast episode of the fourth season, "A Leap for Lisa", Sam calls Ziggy "him" once, but then later both Sam and Al call Ziggy "she" or "her" for the first time since... ever. During the brief time that Sam's actions created an alternate future in which Al had been executed in his youth and was replaced at PQL by Edward St. John (Roddy McDowall), the parallel hybrid computer was called Alpha and referred to by St. John as "it".

So apparently the writers took the entire fourth season to reconcile their scripts with the change that was made way back in the first episode of the season, and even when they did so they missed editing one of Sam's lines.
 
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Deborah Pratt has answered this conclusively:

Ziggy is a machine, and does not have a gender. It can be whatever you want it to be :)
 
So, all in all, no matter in what timeline you are in, Ziggy could theoretically be a he or a she. It honestly doesn't matter. I think that somewhere in The Virtual Seasons, I think that someone addressed this. I can't say for sure without going back through and re-reading all of the stories, which could take a while since there are so many of them.

Irregardless of that though, I'm glad that there is still a discussion! I love/d watching the shows and coming up with new places for Sam to go... that's why AJ and I created TVS! We wanted it to keep going!

This is truly bringing back a LOT of memories!

Thanks all!
MJ
 
A) A computer like Ziggy could probably change its own voice to however is wanted (b) we are funny, us humans and would struggle to accept a "male" computer with a female voice and (c) I always kinda liked those little changes, errors or not, it showed that Sam's leaps were having an effect on the "original history"

Anyone else think Ziggy was totally in charge of Sam's leaping all the time? I think the authors of the books published seemed to think this.
 
Ziggy -- Male right up until the decision was made for Deborah Pratt to voice her. :p