Why did David call Vickers "mother"?

I think its due to him watching Lawrence Arabia all the time. Does anyone know how the David robots were created? They are obviously modeled on Peter Waylin but possibly Vickers also?

LMFAO!!! Its "MA'AM", not "Mom", "Mum" or "Mother". Unless there was a part in the movie where he literally uses the word "Mother" that I somehow missed...which would be hilarious if he did! Its "Ma'am".

I was under the impression that David 8 called Vickers 'ma'am' (pronounced 'mum') in the way one might address somebody especially distinguished - like the Queen of England. I assumed this was his attempt/programming to act more like a servant or butler. Because she is the authority figure on board the ship, he addresses her in this fashion. If he and Vickers WERE in any way related, I would have speculated they were an odd sort of sibling pair with Vickers possibly being a robot also. Why? Well, for starters they look very similar, they also both see Weyland as a 'father'-figure, and Vickers is physically strong enough to shove David harshly against a wall. No human would be strong enough to do this to a synthetic person. This is just my opinion, though.

Folks, he said "Ma'am" and the ' is there to indicate a letter removed... in this case a "d" so it pretty much means "madam" not mother.

I agree with Lindsaycaz. The Brits have lots of merged slang terms. Just look up the book Pygmalion. The doctor guy bragged he could tell from what street a person lived by hearing them speak. Its what everyone calls the queen in respect. This is pure speculation but I am increasingly thinking Vickers is an early prototype. Probably clone technology. Peter Waylins first attempt at immortality by having children... of a robotic nature. But seeing hes a cold hearted.... he found searched out a creation story and decided to prolong his life and become immortal. With this in mind he needed to create a new emotionless robot but realized it wasn't accepted by humans so he had to slowly add back emotion simulation.

lol

Was it really that bad? I'll be quiet now.

He was calling her "Mum".....The English version of "Ma'am".

Yanek: if you can't do a real one, do a synthetic hehe

Awesome! I always wondered why they said "mum" in British comedies. I always thought it was a token of affection. Never occured to me that it was their pronunciation for "maam". Thanks guys! Learn something new everyday!

If Vickers was an android why was she in hyper sleep with the rest of the crew, and not awake with David for the journey. I believe Vickers is Weylan's actual daughter who is expecting to inherit the company or at least a controlling share. There is dialog to support this. The company board would never take orders from an android anyway. Vickers is simply jealous of David because he is favored by her father and has greater access to him through the helmet with the yellow visor. It plays out like sibling rivalry because they are both Weylan's creations.

I agree with all your points. Plus the captain toyed with the idea she was, seemed like a good way to causally inform the audience she is not. I am drifting away from that a bit. She acted like the rescue pod was for her then we later found out it was for Waylend. She was in a stasis pod but I would have assumed David would have watched her dreams more than anyone elses. David wanting to be a real human boy or at least understand it would have lead him to watch Vickers dreams. Seems very odd that he did not. Also, if there was more to the Ma'am comment that would be an allusion to her being a forerunner model/being. Also there could be a theme that unnatural life wants their parents to die and despise siblings. Natural children want their parents to live. I would assume if Waylend wanted an Heir he would have concealed that Vickers was a synthetic. All of this is conjecture, I'm still lost to what any part of this movie means. I do like being left wandering... but the seriously better give us some conclusions or some plot development in the next movie or I will be done with the series. Mystery is a great story telling device but wielded by bad directors it is diminishing to any form of art and expression.

Being a Brit myself, I'm glad that David did not study any Scouse (Liverpool dialect ), or he might have referred to Vickers as 'Our Kid'. Now that would have thrown a spanner in the works. Hollywood is not keen on English dialects in Sci-Fi films, which is why Darth Vader does'nt have a Brummie accent and James Earle Jones did the voice over.

Although it could be Ma'am, It is interesting that the computer in Alien was called Mother, and it would make a logical way for her to come back, and Wayland seemed like the type of Guy who would make android kids.

Vickers was acting CEO of "The Company" that gave birth to David. Or perhaps it's Ridley's inside joke in reference to "Mother" (Nostromo's computer). Both are cold, calculating machines.