Tik-Tok

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For the novel by John Sladek, see Tik-Tok (novel).

Tik-Tok is a fictional character from the Land of Oz books by L. Frank Baum. He is one of the first robots to appear in literature, though that term was coined two years after Baum's death in 1919.

Tik-Tok (initially spelled Tik-tok) is a mechanical man that runs on clockwork springs which periodically need to be rewound, like a wind-up toy or clock. He has separate keyholes for thought, action, and speech. If any of these run completely down, Tik-Tok is unable to wind them back up himself. He becomes frozen or mute or, for one memorable moment in The Road to Oz, continues to speak but utters thoughtless gibberish. As Baum repeatedly mentions, Tik-Tok is not alive and feels no emotions. He therefore can no more love or be loved than a sewing machine, but as a servant he is utterly truthful and loyal.

Tik-Tok was invented by Smith and Tinker at their workshop in Evna. He was later purchased by the king of Ev, Evoldo, who gave him the name Tik-Tok because of the sound he made when wound. The cruel king also whipped his mechanical servant, but that simply kept Tik-Tok's round copper body polished.

Tik-Tok first appears in Ozma of Oz (1907) where Dorothy Gale discovers him locked up in a cave, immobilized. He becomes Dorothy's servant and protector, and, despite his tendency to run down at crucial moments, helps to subdue the Nome King. That novel also introduces Tik-Tok's monotonic mode of speech: "Good morn-ing, lit-tle girl."

Later Baum published "Tik-Tok and the Nome King," a short tale in his Little Wizard Stories of Oz series (1913); The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, a stage musical loosely adapted from Ozma of Oz; and an adaptation of that play back into a novel called Tik-Tok of Oz (1914). While Tik-Tok is a major character in that latter book, he in no way drives the plot. Tik-Tok also appears in most other Oz novels as a notable inhabitant of the Emerald City, most prominently in The Scalawagons of Oz.

Tik-Tok was one of the main characters in the movie Return to Oz, adapted in part from Ozma of Oz. In the movie, he is the entire royal army of Oz, ironic considering his generally helpless nature. In an interview for the VHS release of the movie, Fairuza Balk described the Tik-Tok costume. An acrobat, Michael Sundin, was upside down inside of Tik-Tok with his hands operating the legs and his feet tucked behind his head. He used a monitor inside this costume to navigate.

A somewhat sinister version of Tik-Tok is a minor character in Gregory Maguire's revisionist Oz novel Wicked. In the novel, tiktok is used as an adjective for any mechanical or robotic being. The character Madame Morrible has a tiktok servant, called Grommetik, whose description matches Baum's Tik-Tok; however, this character's speech key is never wound. It is strongly implied that this tiktok servant kills Doctor Dillamond, on Madame Morrible's orders.

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