Dr. Noreen "Nora" Wakeman is the deuteragonist of My Life as a Teenage Robot (2002-2006).
She is a brilliant scientist specializing in robotics, Jenny's mother, and creator of the XJ series.
Background
It is shown in the episode Armaggedroid (2004) that Dr. Nora Wakeman used to work for Skyway Patrol in "The First Intergalactic War", and was on many magazine covers, venerated as a renowned scientist. After Armaggedroid was defeated, she started the XJ series.
Appearance
Dr. Wakeman appeared in the pilot My Neighbor Was A Teenage Robot (1998) as an aged woman with styled blonde-gray hair, wearing clear stylized glasses with a white button-down lab coat and turtleneck.
In the 2002 series, her appearance is amended to her characteristic white updo, pointed nose, red lab goggles, black turtleneck, and yellow button-down lab coat with matching heels.
Personality
Dr. Nora Wakeman comes off as a lively and exciteable woman, devoted to her robotics science and defending Earth from intergalactic terror. She is typically seen building gadgets, reading science articles and newspapers, drafting plans, or testing Jenny's robotic abilities. When in danger, she's usually the first to jump into action, standing her ground without hesitation.
Relationships
Jenny
Nora has always treated Jenny more like an actual daughter instead of simply a robot she invented. She serves as a typical loving mother to Jenny, concerned for her safety and well-being, but often calling at inopportune times for Jenny to save the Earth, and inadvertently embarrassing her in front of her friends. Initially, Wakeman kept XJ-9's existence a secret, insisting that the young robot remain in her room while not defending the planet. But Jenny's loneliness and misery soon prompted Wakeman to change her mind. As a result, she enrolled Jenny in high school to learn alongside other teens and make friends.
As the series progressed, Nora treated Jenny more and more like a normal teenager (while still acknowledging that Jenny is technically robot and not a human).
Brad and Tuck
Dr. Wakeman is often rather annoyed with Jenny's next-door friends for constantly distracting her from her mission as a superhero. Nonetheless, she respects Brad and Tuck and understands that they are close and dear friends of her daughter, and approves of her socializing and adventuring with them on a regular basis as long as she doesn't abandon her duties.
Sheldon
Dr. Wakeman and Sheldon both care deeply about Jenny, and have used their advanced scientific talents to assist her in fighting villains, especially the Cluster. They worked together to create a portal device in Escape from Cluster Prime (2005) in order to recsue Jenny.
In Attack of the 5½ Ft. Geek (2002), Wakeman sees Sheldon and tells Jenny that she approves of her "dating" Sheldon.
In Good Old Sheldon (2005), an aged Sheldon flirts with Dr. Wakeman, developing a crush on her.
Marty Rossian
A boyfriend of Dr. Wakeman who appeared in Mama Drama (2005). Wakeman liked Marty very much and enjoyed her dates with him, but after Jenny misunderstood his eccentric personality and convinced her that he was an evil psychopathic villain with intentions to harm her, she allowed Jenny to attack him. It turned out that Marty wasn't evil at all; insulted by Jenny and her mother's false and paranoid accusations, he deems Nora's family "too creepy" for him, and breaks up with her.
Phineas Mogg
Dr. Wakeman's rival, a fellow scientist who is often competing with her to create better inventions and robots. Wakeman has a rather bitter rivalry with Mogg, and often accuses him of stealing her inventions.
Appearances
Season 1 (2002)
# | Title | Year |
1a | It Came From Next Door | 2002 |
1b | Pest Control | 2002 |
2a | Raggedy Android | 2002 |
2b | Class Action | 2002 |
3a | Attack of the 5½ Ft. Geek | 2002 |
4a | Ear No Evil | 2002 |
4b | Unlicensed Flying Object | 2002 |
5a | Party Machine | 2002 |
5b | Speak No Evil | 2002 |
6a | See No Evil | 2002 |
7a | The Return of Raggedy Android | 2002 |
8a | Sibling Tsunami | 2002 |
8b | I Was a Preschool Dropout | 2002 |
9a | Hostile Makeover | 2002 |
10a | Dressed To Kill | 2002 |
11a | Daydream Believer | 2002 |
11b | This Time With Feeling | 2002 |
12b | Tradeshow Showdown | 2002 |
13a | The Wonderful World of Wizzly | 2002 |
13b | Call Hating | 2002 |
Season 2 (2004-05)
# | Title | Year |
14 | Victim of Fashion | 2004 |
15b | Mind Over Matter | 2004 |
16a | Future Shock | 2004 |
16b | Humiliation 101 | 2004 |
17a | Love 'Em or Leash 'Em | 2004 |
18 | A Robot For All Seasons | 2004 |
19a | Pajama Party Prankapalooza | 2004 |
19b | Sister Sledgehammer | 2004 |
20a | Dancing With My Shell | 2004 |
20b | Around the World in Eighty Pieces | 2004 |
21a | Armagedroid | 2004 |
21b | Killgore | 2004 |
22a | A Pain In My Sidekick | 2004 |
22b | Crash Pad Crash | 2004 |
23a | Designing Women | 2004 |
24b | Mama Drama | 2005 |
25a | Toying With Jenny | 2005 |
25b | Teenage Mutant Ninja Troubles | 2005 |
26 | Escape from Cluster Prime | 2005 |
Season 3 (2005-06)
# | Title | Year |
27b | There's No Place Like Home School | 2005 |
29b | Never Say Uncle | 2005 |
30a | A Spoonful of Mayhem | 2005 |
31a | Girl of Steal | 2005 |
31b | Mist Opportunities | 2005 |
33a | Teen Idol | 2005 |
33b | Good Old Sheldon | 2005 |
34a | Infectious Personality | 2006 |
36a | Puppet Bride | 2006 |
37b | Labor Day | 2006 |
39b | Turncoats | 2006 |
Foreign voice actors
- Spanish (Latin America):Edilú Martínez
- France:Claude Chantal
- German:Liane Rudolph
- Polish:Małgorzata Kaczmarska
- Russian:Lyudmila Ilyina
- Portuguese (Brazil):Melise Maia
Trivia
- Wakeman has a New Ager sister named Wisteria Wakeman, gifted with an ability to manipulate plants, and a nephew named Glenn that happens to be a swamp creature.
- Wakeman's physical age is unknown seeing as she uses the youth machine to skim off a year or two every now and then.
- People outside of the scientific-world (mostly Jenny's friends and schoolmates) often call her "Mrs." Wakeman rather than "Miss" or "Dr." Wakeman.
- As far as anyone (including Jenny herself) knows, Nora presumably has never been married. Though in the episode Mama Drama (2005), she revealed that she has had many boyfriends (including Marty Rossian).