The Robots of Death
090 – The Robots of Death | |||
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Doctor Who serial | |||
Cast | |||
Others
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Production | |||
Directed by | Season 14 | ||
Running time | 4 episodes, 25 minutes each | ||
First broadcast | 29 January 1977 | ||
Last broadcast | 19 February 1977 | ||
Chronology | |||
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The Robots of Death is the fifth serial of the
In the serial, the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and Leela (Louise Jameson) arrive on a sandminer whose crew, from a robot-dependent civilisation, are being murdered.
Influenced by the works of Agatha Christie, Isaac Asimov and Frank Herbert, The Robots of Death was the second script written for the series by Chris Boucher, Philip Hinchcliffe's penultimate story as producer and Michael E. Briant's final contribution to the series as a director. It has been described by Radio Times as a "fan favourite", "suspenseful" and "beautifully designed" serial featuring Tom Baker "in his prime".[1] It was chosen to represent the era of the Fourth Doctor at the British Film Institute's 50th anniversary celebration of Doctor Who.[1]
Plot
The Fourth Doctor and Leela arrive in the TARDIS inside "Storm Mine 4", a large sand-crawling mining vehicle used to gather valuable minerals that are brought to the surface of a desert planet by powerful sandstorms. They find the vehicle has a minimal human crew that oversee the menial work done by numerous robots, which are divided into three classes: dark-green-coloured "Dum" robots that cannot speak, gold-green-coloured "Voc" robots that can interact with the human crew, and a silver-coloured "Super Voc" robot, SV7, who manages the other robots.
The Doctor and Leela arrived shortly after the discovery of the corpse of one of the human crew, meteorologist Chub, recently murdered. The Doctor offers to help to find the murderer and prove their innocence. During the search, Leela comes across D84, a Dum who is secretly a Super Voc who is able to speak. The investigation is cut short when two more of the crew, Kerrill and Cass, are found killed, and the Doctor and Leela are secured in the robot repair section. However, crew member Poul is doubtful of the Doctor's or Leela's involvement, and when Poul finds Commander Uvanov standing over the corpse of yet another victim, he allows them to go free, convinced that Uvanov was guilty.
The vehicle's engines go out of control, threatening the crew, and they find the ship's engineer Borg appears to be another murder victim. The Doctor helps to regulate the engines to get them out of danger, while an engineer called Dask stays behind to repair the damage to the controls. The Doctor and Leela continue to investigate the murders, with the Doctor convinced one of the robots is behind it. Leela takes him to meet D84, and D84 explains that he and Poul were planted on the vehicle as a precautionary measure against a robot revolution that may be initiated by Taren Capel, a scientist that had been raised by robots and with delusions of power. D84 joins them to search the vehicle, and they discover a secret laboratory where the other robots have been reprogrammed to kill humans. Suspecting that Taren is aboard, the Doctor requests all the humans to meet them on the bridge. Poul, however, having discovered a damaged robot in the repair shop with a bloody left hand, realizes that the robots are responsible for the murders, goes mad, and shelters in the shop.
However, Dask refuses, and reveals himself as Taren; he shuts down all of the robots except those he had reprogrammed (excluding D84), and orders SV7 to start hunting down the remaining humans. As D84 retrieves Poul, the Doctor and Leela return to the robot repair section, and find the damaged robot with Borg's blood on it; the Doctor surmises that Borg had been strong enough to put up a struggle against his robot assassin, and that this discovery had driven Poul insane. The Doctor uses the spare parts to construct a deactivator that will shut down all robots in close range, and then instructs Leela to hide with a canister of helium gas to use when Taren returns.
Taren is lured to the laboratory by the Doctor and D84, however D84 sacrifices himself to use the deactivator to shut down the Voc guard in the laboratory and itself. When SV7 arrives to kill the remaining humans, Taren begins to give SV7 orders to kill the Doctor, but the helium released by Leela causes Taren's voice to become high-pitched and unrecognisable by SV7. The Super Voc then kills him. The Doctor helps to shut down SV7 and revert Taren's programming. After ensuring that Poul and the others are safe and help is on the way, the Doctor and Leela take their leave.
Production
Early titles for the script included Planet of the Robots and The Storm-mine Murders.
The treatment of robots in this serial has many intentional nods to Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. The villain of the story is named Taren Capel, which is a reference to Karel Čapek,[2] who is credited with first coining the word "robot". Uvanov's name is a reference to Isaac Asimov,[3] while Poul is a reference to the science fiction writer Poul Anderson.[2] The script several times refers to Robophobia (the irrational fear of robots) as 'Grimwade's Syndrome', an inside joke reference to Peter Grimwade, a production assistant who directed some of the filmed scenes in the episode. Grimwade had frequently lamented that he was always working on material involving robots.[4]
The sandminer was derived from Dune.[4]
Cast notes
Russell Hunter was allegedly cast against the intention of the script, which implied that Commander Uvanov should be a physically imposing man, much in the mould of an eighteenth-century
Broadcast and reception
Episode | Title | Run time | Original air date | UK viewers (millions) [7] |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Part One" | 24:06 | 29 January 1977 | 12.8 |
2 | "Part Two" | 24:15 | 5 February 1977 | 12.4 |
3 | "Part Three" | 23:51 | 12 February 1977 | 13.1 |
4 | "Part Four" | 23:42 | 19 February 1977 | 12.6 |
Episodes 1 & 2 and Episodes 3 & 4 were combined into two 50-minute episodes for repeat on 31 December 1977[8] and 1 January 1978,[9] reaching 10.0 and 7.0 million viewers respectively.[10]
Commercial releases
In print
ISBN 0-426-20061-6 | |
A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in May 1979. This novelisation was the shortest and notable for featuring the character of Cass attending a meeting after being murdered in the previous chapter.
Home media
This story was released on VHS in omnibus format in April 1986 and in episodic format in February 1995. It was released on DVD on 13 November 2000. A special edition of the DVD, with new bonus features, was released in the UK on 13 February 2012 in the third of the ongoing Revisitations DVD box sets.
References
- ^ a b Mulkern, Patrick (13 February 2013). "Doctor Who at 50: BFI announces The Robots of Death for April". Radio Times. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
- ^ ISBN 0-426-20442-5.
- ^ Hunter, Russell. "J' adore Kaldor!" (Interview). Interviewed by Alan Stevens. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
- ^ a b "BBC - Doctor Who Classic Episode Guide - The Robots of Death - Details". www.bbc.co.uk.
- ^ "BBC One - Doctor Who, Season 12, Revenge of the Cybermen - the Fourth Dimension".
- ISBN 0-7806-8517-2
- ^ "Ratings Guide". Doctor Who News. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
- ^ "Dr Who: The Robots of Death: Part 1". The Radio Times (2824): 63. 22 December 1977 – via BBC Genome.
- ^ "Dr Who: The Robots of Death: Part 2". The Radio Times (2824): 68. 22 December 1977 – via BBC Genome.
- ^ doctorwhonews.net. "Doctor Who Guide: broadcasting for The Robots of Death".
- ISBN 978-0-563-40588-7.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ Braxton, Mark (7 September 2010). "Doctor Who: The Robots of Death". Radio Times. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
- ^ Jane, Ian (9 April 2012). "Doctor Who: The Robots of Death". DVD Talk. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
- ^ Anders, Charlie Jane (30 August 2012). "Old School Doctor Who Episodes That Everyone Should Watch". io9. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
- ISBN 978-1849015875.
External links
Target novelisation
- Doctor Who and the Robots of Death title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database