Richard Milhous Nixon

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"Only Nixon could go to China."

―Captain Spock^[src]


Richard Milhous Nixon
Aliases:	Richard Nixon; Richard M. Nixon
Gender:	Male
Born:	January 9th, 1913
Died:	April 22nd, 1994

Richard Milhouse Nixon was an American politician and former President and Vice President of the United States of America. He was the 36th Vice President and served two terms under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from January 20th, 1953 to January 20th, 1961. He was the 37th President of the United States succeeding Lyndon B. Johnson and served in this capacity from January 20th, 1969 to August 9th, 1974. His years in office are remembered for several noteworthy and controversial events including opening diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China in 1972, orchestrating the ceasefire with North Vietnam in 1973, and the Watergate scandal, which ultimately led to his resignation in August, 1974.

In Sci-fi[]

Futurama[]

Richard Nixon, or rather, Richard Nixon's head has made numerous appearances in the animated comedy series Futurama. Voiced by actor Billy West, he was first seen in the series' pilot episode "Space Pilot 3000". Nixon, as well as several other 20th century U.S. presidents, existed beyond their natural life spans as disembodied heads kept alive in glass jars. Age and resuscitation did not prove kind to Nixon however, for he was more corrupt than ever and suffered from severe mental instability. In the year 3000, Nixon once again took the seat of the highest office in the land when he was elected President of Earth. This was accomplished largely by stealing the body of the robot Bender, taking possession of it, and becoming a giant robot himself, which helped him to secure the robot popular vote. (Futurama: A Head in the Polls)

During his Presidency, Nixon was Commander-in-chief of the Earth invasion force of Spheron I, where he supported the destruction of all robots. Along with the head of Henry Kissinger, he negotiated a treaty with the Spheron leaders known as the Brain Balls. (Futurama: War is the H-Word)

Richard Nixon was tricked into selling Earth to the scammers, thus forcing everybody to emmigrate from Earth. (Futurama: Bender's Big Score)

Doctor Who[]

Richard Nixon appeared in the "The Impossible Astronaut" and "Day of the Moon" episodes of series six of the Doctor Who relaunch series where he was played by actor Stuart Milligan. The story took place in the year 1969 and showed President Nixon receiving numerous anonymous telephone calls from an unidentified child pleading for help. What made the situation more perplexing was the fact that he would receive the calls on his direct line no matter where he was. To complicate matters even further, the time lord known as the Doctor spontaneously appeared in the Oval Office with the TARDIS (his time machine). Nixon's security staff were quick to apprehend the Doctor, but the President gave the Doctor permission to explain himself and in so doing, accepted his aide in solving the mystery of the strange phone calls. (Doctor Who: The Impossible Astronaut)

Nixon was President during the infamous moon landing of July 20th, 1969. The Doctor used the cultural impact of such an historic event as a means of turning humanity against an elusive race of hostile aliens. Before leaving this era, he bade goodbye to President Nixon who asked him if he was destined to have a memorable administration. Without revealing anything about the pending Watergate scandal (still a few years away), the Doctor smiled and said, "Dicky, they'll never forget ya!" (Doctor Who: Day of the Moon)

Star Trek[]

A brief reference to Richard Nixon was made in the 1991 film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country when the character of Spock spoke the line, "Only Nixon could go to China". This was a reference to Nixon's 1972 visit to the People's Republic of China where he met with Chairman Mao Zedong, making him the first U.S. President to ever travel to the PRC.

Transformers[]

Richard Nixon makes an appearance in a flashback scene in the 2011 film Transformers: Dark of the Moon. He was played by actor John Tobin. In the movie, President Nixon was in office during the infamous 1969 maiden voyage of the Apollo 11 space shuttle that made astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins the first humans to ever set foot on the moon. In the continuity of the movie however, the true purpose of the Apollo 11 moon landing was to survey and analyze evidence of a downed spacecraft that crashed on the dark side of the moon in 1961. Mission control reported their findings back to Washington and President Nixon was fully aware of the true parameters of the mission. ^[1]

Notes & Trivia[]

Along with other famous statesmen, Richard Nixon has been lampooned in numerous episodes of Futurama.

Actor Christopher Shyer played the role of Richard Nixon in the 2012 biopic J. Edgar. Shyer is also known for playing the role of alien visitor Marcus on the 2009 V television series.

In the original Transformers animated series, voice actor Michael Chain based the voice of Red Alert on that of Richard Nixon.

In the "Masada" episode of Preacher, the character of Proinsias Cassidy is wearing a t-shirt that reads "Nixon. Now More Than Ever".

External Links[]

Appearances[]

Film[]

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Television[]

Comics[]

Detective Comics 529 (In a photograph only)
Incredible Hulk Vol 2 119
Watchmen 1 (On a campaign poster)

References[]

↑ Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

[1] Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

[1]