The second story to feature Leela as the companion and it’s the second story in a row to be written by Chris Boucher. This is his better story out of the two by a clear mile. The story is about some Robots that cause the deaths of humans. The story benefits from the fact that it is entirely studio based and is in an isolated environment. I always love a story that got an single setting with no chance of help (Tenth Planet for example). The sand miner has a human crew that treat robots like slaves and don’t have any respect for the them or the other crew. They spend the early part fighting and arguing with Uvanov. We are constantly told that Robots cannot harm humans. This is built into their core programming but as the title suggests and within the first ten minutes of episode one we are shown that this clearly isn’t true. The humans that we meet in this story are not particularly nice people and so when their demise starts then I’m not totally sad to see them go. Only Pamela Salem’s character was the right side of nice to warrant me to want to see her saved. Uvanov (Russell Hunter) redeemed himself at the end but it was too late in my opinion. D84 is the robot that has been put in this story to prove that not all robots are evil. D84 is a detective robot who is becomes the Doctor’s assistant when Leela isn’t around. I’m not sure if the person in D84 is the same one who is delivering the lines but if it is then Gregory de Poinay came across like he was child like which might explain why he came across as the nice robot.
David Collings is very good in this story and his character suffers a mental breakdown or Robophobia (hence the 2011 Big Finish story featuring the Robots). Another name for this condition if Grimwade Syndrome named in honour of Doctor Who writer/director Peter Grimwade who had worked as a production assistant on this story and had directed some of the scenes for this story. Collings is the first one of the crew to seem to want to trust the Doctor and Leela. However his greed (along with everyone else’s) is the thing that gets in the way of me caring about Collings’ character.
Taren Capel is the person that we learn is responsible for the robots going a bit mental and it then becomes part of the story to find out his laboratory and more importantly who he is. The revelation of the true identity of Capel turns out to be Dask (played by future Celestial Toymaker David Ballie). Ballie is the best of the supporting cast as he does a very good job of being in the background whilst the build up is taking place and then when its time he shines and despite the slightly dodgy make up he still manages to come across as a effective if slightly flawed villain. If I had a tiny issue in this area then it would be with a scene where we see this physcadelic screen and its meant to hide the human that we are told is Capel but its clearly Dask which slightly ruins the revelation.
Of the main performances, both have changed significantly since the previous story. Tom Baker was less comedic in Robots though there was the right amount of humour and drama. Louise Jameson’s performance was much stronger in this and that is largely because she has a female co-star which was lacking in Face. My favourite line came from Jameson when she was describing Paol as he was entering the role.
There are some quite gruesome moments, obvious the sight of robots killings humans but perhaps the strongest was in episode four when Uvanov stabs V4 in the back of the head. This is heading towards the end of the Philip Hinchcliffe era and whilst it might not be as dark and gothic in tone as other stories but there is still a lot to enjoy. For the second story running some of the people have to wear ridiculous outfits. The humans have to wear some stupid head gear along with some weird lines on their face. I don’t know that it was the 1970’s but that excuse can only work for so long. The design of the robots is quite good but it’s the heads that impress me the most. They look very sinister and I find it creepy.
The Robots of Death is a very good story but I’m not sure it’s the best story of this season. It does have some very atmospheric scenes and the story itself is far stronger than Face of Evil. The penultimate story of this season is a return to form for the series.
David Collings is very good in this story and his character suffers a mental breakdown or Robophobia (hence the 2011 Big Finish story featuring the Robots). Another name for this condition if Grimwade Syndrome named in honour of Doctor Who writer/director Peter Grimwade who had worked as a production assistant on this story and had directed some of the scenes for this story. Collings is the first one of the crew to seem to want to trust the Doctor and Leela. However his greed (along with everyone else’s) is the thing that gets in the way of me caring about Collings’ character.
Taren Capel is the person that we learn is responsible for the robots going a bit mental and it then becomes part of the story to find out his laboratory and more importantly who he is. The revelation of the true identity of Capel turns out to be Dask (played by future Celestial Toymaker David Ballie). Ballie is the best of the supporting cast as he does a very good job of being in the background whilst the build up is taking place and then when its time he shines and despite the slightly dodgy make up he still manages to come across as a effective if slightly flawed villain. If I had a tiny issue in this area then it would be with a scene where we see this physcadelic screen and its meant to hide the human that we are told is Capel but its clearly Dask which slightly ruins the revelation.
Of the main performances, both have changed significantly since the previous story. Tom Baker was less comedic in Robots though there was the right amount of humour and drama. Louise Jameson’s performance was much stronger in this and that is largely because she has a female co-star which was lacking in Face. My favourite line came from Jameson when she was describing Paol as he was entering the role.
There are some quite gruesome moments, obvious the sight of robots killings humans but perhaps the strongest was in episode four when Uvanov stabs V4 in the back of the head. This is heading towards the end of the Philip Hinchcliffe era and whilst it might not be as dark and gothic in tone as other stories but there is still a lot to enjoy. For the second story running some of the people have to wear ridiculous outfits. The humans have to wear some stupid head gear along with some weird lines on their face. I don’t know that it was the 1970’s but that excuse can only work for so long. The design of the robots is quite good but it’s the heads that impress me the most. They look very sinister and I find it creepy.
The Robots of Death is a very good story but I’m not sure it’s the best story of this season. It does have some very atmospheric scenes and the story itself is far stronger than Face of Evil. The penultimate story of this season is a return to form for the series.
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