Dr. Heywood Floyd

Dr. Heywood Floyd takes a trip to Haley's comet in his one hundred and third year of life. He makes a snowball while on the surface of the comet and throws it into space, thus making his own little comet. While en route to Europa to rescue the crew and passengers of the hijacked Galaxy, he mysteriously sends a part of himself and communicates with his grandson, Chris Floyd. This part of Dr. Floyd tells Chris to leave Europa.

Dr. Floyd becomes close to Yva Merlin, a well-known actress who at first does not impress him but becomes more approachable, when she and he watch old movies together. Meanwhile, the ethereal Dr. Floyd joins David Bowman and HAL in a trinity that continues working with the monolith and Europa, until Lucifer burns out.

The monolith is part of Dr. Floyd's past. He encounters the monolith before...