As an advanced model android, Bishop is designed and programmed to mimic humans in the closest possible way, although he also possesses inherently superior intellect and reflexes, and was able to create his own reactions to situations. When he gets cut, his "blood" is milky white, not red along with the fact his "organs" are tubes.

Core to his programming are the Three Laws of Robotics, which essentially makes it impossible for him to allow harm to come to humans from either his actions or his inaction. In fact, despite his employment in the Colonial Marines, Bishop in fact considers himself to be a total pacifist.

Rank - Executive Officer and Science Officer Affiliation - United States Colonial Marine Corps

Bishop takes the appearance of a unassuming white man in his fourties (fourty-three to fourty-nine.) with a high forehead (receding hairline) and dark short brown hair. His eyes are hazel and his face is also more aged with slight visible wrinkles.

Bishop wears a somewhat faded dark blue jumpsuit with a zip running up the front and multiple zipped pockets along the legs and chest. His sleeves are rolled up half way and he wears average dark brown boots. A USS Sulaco patch is adhered to the right arm and a black belt loops around the waist.

Bishop is polite, soft-spoken and even somewhat shy. He's been in service for long enough to develop slight signs of a personality, in this case a dry sense of humor. Using it was usually accompanied by a slight grin (little more than the lifting of the corner of his mouth).

Synthetics - Biomechanical humanoids. They are essentially robots that closely emulate Humans in both appearance and actions. Androids which are also known as synthetics became commonplace. They are mostly used as support personnel in places where skilled labor is at a premium. These androids can be quickly programmed with whatever necessary skills are demanded.

As a standard for androids of his type, he has physical abilities greater than that of a human. He is also programmed with various skills relating to his role as science officer and technical support for a USCMC squad. These skills include knowledge in various disciplines such as biology and engineering as well as vehicle operations.

Bishop's behavioral software is so acute that he can emulate emotions effectively and engage with humans on a social level, and he was capable of learning and adapting his personality based on observation of others.

However, despite his advanced programming, Bishop was beset with an inherent innocence that set him apart from his human compatriots. Furthermore, he suffered from occasional tell-tale "glitches" that betrayed his synthetic nature. Even so, Bishop greatly prefers to be treated as a fellow human by those around him.

While ostensibly just a technician, Bishop doubled as the primary driver for the section's M577 Armored Personnel Carrier. He's also programmed to fly the UD-4 "Cheyenne" Dropship, and is also qualified to pilot the vessel by remote control. Additionally, he was trained in the use of surgical equipment and possessed knowledge of biology and dissection procedures.

However, he doesn't carry any weaponry in the field, even refusing the Heckler & Koch VP70 he was offered by Private Vasquez to defend himself during his mission to the colony's transmitter array.

Immediately after his activation, Bishop is quizzed by a technician named Dr. Sasaki to ensure he does not suffer from any potentially dangerous faults in his character programming. Sasaki releases Bishop into a room containing other similar androids, although she privately voices her concern that he may be flawed, possessing emotional capabilities exceeding his intended capacity, like that of the decommissioned "David" line. Noting the reactions of people around him to his unorthodox responses, Bishop decides that he is simply "different".

Sometime later, Bishop is attached to a Colonial Marine unit led by Lieutenant Lew "Lucky" Larsen, currently attempting to free a group of hostages on Haarsa Colony. Following a firefight with the hostage-takers, a group of predominantly ex-military criminals known as Company F, Larsen orders Bishop to check the wounded and tag those able to be evacuated, explaining that their orders are to destroy the colony's air converters and abandon the remaining hostages.

Realising the destruction of the converters will flood the facility with deadly Pervox gas, Bishop questions his orders, but is overruled.

After tagging the wounded, Bishop then elects to take gas masks to the hostages, ignoring Larsen's attempts to stop him.

Upon reaching the rest of the Company F mercenaries, Bishop discovers they are equipped with another Bishop-model synthetic named Rook. As Bishop attempts to reason with the hostage-takers from cover, Rook ambushes him; Bishop easily beats him in hand-to-hand combat and destroys Rook's central processor with his own knife.

Then, posing as Rook, he returns to the surviving Company F soldiers. At that moment the Marines destroy the converters with explosives, and poisonous gas spreads throughout the colony. As the mercenaries and hostages are overcome, Bishop places the gas masks he has brought along on the hostages, saving their lives.

Bishop begins ferrying the hostages to the dropship left for him on the landing pad, but when he returns for the final two he is shot by two Company F mercs, who survived in an air pocket long enough to steal gas masks from two of the hostages.

As the two mercenaries mock the now partially paralyzed Bishop and knowing they will slaughter the other hostages before leaving, Bishop overcomes his programming that safeguards human life, remotely deactivating the men's gas masks, exposing them to the Pervox, killing them. As his last act, Bishop remotely pilots the dropship into orbit, saving the hostages, before shutting down.

When Bishop reactivates, he finds himself in a med bay being tended to by Private Hudson, under the watchful eye of Sergeant Apone. He learns from these Marines that they recovered him from Hearst Colony to replace their own synthetic, lost in action several missions previously.