Madeleine Dawnay

Professor Madeleine Dawnay was a supporting character originally featured in the short-lived 1961 British sci-fi program A for Andromeda where she was played by actress Mary Morris. Dawnay appeared 4 of the 7 episodes of the original series as well as all six episodes of the 1962 sequel, The Andromeda Breakthrough. The character was re-imagined in 1972 for the Italian adapation of the series called A come Andromeda. In the 2006 television movie A for Andromeda, the role of Madeleine Dawnay was played by actress Jane Asher.

Biography
Madeleine Dawnay was a biophysicist assigned to a top secret project at Thorness, Scotland by the British Ministry of Defence. The scientists at Thorness, which included Professor Ernest Reinhart and Doctor John Fleming, developed a highly advanced supercomputer based upon designs that originated from deep within the Andromeda Galaxy. The computer outlined the design for the creation of living cell tissue and Dawnay experimented with the designs, successfully synthesising a primitive protoplasmic life form. Due to the single eye that the life form developed, it came to be known amongst the staff as "Cyclops".

Madeleine's research assistant, a young woman named Christine, suffered a fatal electrical shock when she came into contact with two of the computer's terminals. The computer then demanded the synthetic creation of living embryonic cells. Doctor Dawney obeyed the supercomputer's demands and began cultivating live human embryos. The embryo grew at an alarming rate and assumed the physical likeness of Christine. This veritable clone was dubbed Andromeda and interfaced directly with the computer.

As time passed, Dawnay began to have doubts about the motivation behind the computer as well as Andromeda. She began to understand that the computer intended on subjugating humanity. At the behest of Doctor Fleming, who had already expressed grave concern about the project, She agreed to assist him by entering a program into the computer to convince it that Andromeda was dead. However, Andromeda discovered the program and reversed it. The computer reacted to the tampering by corrupting the enzyme formula, making Dawnay and her assistants gravely ill. Forutnately, Doctor Fleming was able to determine the correct formula to counteract the effects of the enzyme and save his colleague's life.