The Robots of Death Part One

The one where the Doctor explains dimensional transcendentalism...

I'll be honest from the get-go: The Robots of Death is one of a handful of stories I had on VHS back in the late 1980s when I was developing rapidly as a fan, and I absolutely adored this serial. I played that tape so often I'm surprised it didn't snap. The Robots of Death, along with The Talons of Weng-Chiang, Spearhead from Space, Terror of the Zygons, Pyramids of Mars and Death to the Daleks, were the Doctor Who stories I built the foundations of my fandom on, so in reviewing this story, I'm going to try my hardest to be objective.

But it's so hard when you've got such fabulous, rich material like this. There's no denying that it's bloody good, and right from the start too. Actually, I'd quite forgotten just how impressive that opening model shot of the barren, windswept alien landscape is, with the beautifully designed Sandminer rolling inexorably across the tundra. It looks so epic, and I love the establishing shot of the bridge seen from the outside too (done so much better than a similar shot of the Hyperion III a decade later!).

Everything about the aesthetics of this story is marvellous. The first thing we see are the beautiful art-deco robots (a silver Super-Voc, golden Vocs and dark green Dums), which elegantly glide around the bridge in perfectly choreographed motion, looking like the type of people who frequented the New Romantic Blitz Club in the early 1980s. Costume designer Elizabeth Waller played a blinder with those robot costumes, and in fact all of the costumes in this story.

The costumes worn by the human crew are equally as gorgeous, even if they are tinged with a little more evidence of their glittery 1970s origins than the robots'. I love the ornate, elaborate headwear - especially the one worn by Toos, which takes on a spider's web look - and the flowing materials Waller uses adds to the overall sense of decadence aboard the ship. You can well believe these people have their own culture and aesthetic, which is all added to by Kenneth Sharp's tremendous set design and Ann Briggs' make-up (reflected in the design of the robots). These people instantly have believable existences, which makes believing the story that unfolds so much easier.

We meet the Sandminer's crew while they relax, playing board games, reading, or - in the case of bare-chested Borg - having a massage. Chub teases Borg by telling him of the time a Voc therapist tore the arm off a human it was treating, and it very quickly becomes clear that young Zilda and commander Uvanov are not the best of friends. It's great to have an ensemble cast, in the best traditions of an Agatha Christie murder mystery, because that's what we're seeing here, but with space clothes. Their names are fab too: the word "Uvanov" is so unusual, but names such as Zilda, Borg, Toos, Dask, Chub, Cass and Poul are all great too. Spending time with these people gets you straight into the story too.

When the Sandminer detects an oncoming storm (no, not that one), the humans leap into action, because a human crew can collect much more zelenite and lucanol than a robot crew can (and lucanol = money, which is very important to these people). However, down in the stores, troublemaker Chub gets strangled to death by a robot (making this more a case for Columbo than Poirot, because we already know whodunnit), but the robot does take the time to play a recording of one of the most remarkable human screams I've ever heard, so that anybody hearing will assume it's Chub. But that instantly raises suspicion, because Chub was strangled, so wouldn't have been able to scream. I'm not sure what the point of the recorded scream is, but I remain open-minded.

Instantly, fingers begin to point between the humans, in particular toward Borg, who had that run-in with Chub over the massage. Russell Hunter is fantastic as the antagonistic Uvanov, whose mind is more on the money than the murder, and who has a particular dislike for prim Zilda, apparently a member of the Twenty founding families. Just dropping this into the script unexplained is just as enriching to the characters and setting as Russell T Davies casually mentioning the cyborg caravans of Sto, or the Ambassador of Thrace. We don't need to understand what it all means, but we can guess, which keeps us engaged.

As soon as the crew discovers intruders ("ore raiders") have been found in one of the scoops, Uvanov assumes they are the killers, and instructs everybody to get back to work. Again, Hunter is so strong here, and when Borg defies Uvanov's instruction ("give it to a robot"), Hunter slides menacingly close to Croucher and says, threateningly: "What did you say...?" If you've ever seen Russell Hunter in other roles you'll realise what a range this man obviously had. He was most famous for the unassuming Lonely in Callan, but his guest turn as one of the timid lodgers in daytime serial Rooms is equally as impressive - neither anything like the strident Uvanov.

Elsewhere, the Doctor and Leela have arrived. I've kept them separate because they pretty much are separate to everybody else throughout the episode. In fact the only humans they encounter are both corpses (Chub and Kerril). Their first scene sees Leela getting used to being in the TARDIS (the fact of which she seems to accept remarkably quickly for a savage), amusingly believing that keeping a yo-yo going will also keep the TARDIS in flight!

Then we get an explanation from the Doctor about how the TARDIS is bigger on the inside than the outside, and it makes both perfect sense and also no sense at all (as Leela says, "that's silly"). He demonstrates by using two boxes, the larger of which he places further away, and the smaller of which he holds close to Leela's face. He then states that if you could keep the larger one further away it would appear smaller than the smaller box, and so would fit inside - as long as you could have it both further away, and inside the small box. It makes no sense (even less sense the way I've written it), but it also kind of does. It's Time Lord technology, apparently, so who are we to question it?

The Doctor and Leela explore their metallic surroundings, which turns out to be one of the Sandminer scoops, into which is headed a flesh-stripping sandstorm. The effect of the Doctor and Leela looking out at the barren landscape, and then the approaching storm, is done really well with an effective mix of modelwork and Colour Separation Overlay (CSO). When CSO works, it works really well.

They end up being asked to wait in a plush lounge, where a robot quizzes them as to their presence on board. "What were you doing in the scoop?" asks SV7. "Trying to get out," replies the Doctor. I love that exchange, I've loved it ever since I was 10 years old watching it on VHS. I also love the way Louise Jameson makes sure Leela sits on the sofa awkwardly, forward on her knees, as Leela would not be used to such elegant luxuries as sofas (although bizarrely, it's the second settee she's sat on in as many stories!). But my greatest question arising from this scene is: where's the Doctor's scarf? It's completely absent when he arrives at the cabin, but when they escape and return to the corridors, it's back!

Exploring the Sandminer, Leela gets distracted by looking in the stores and finding Chub's body, while the Doctor gets distracted by looking in a scoop and finding Kerril's body. Suddenly, a hatch in the roof of the scoop opens and tonnes of mineral ore pour in on top of him, burying him alive!

First broadcast: January 29th, 1977

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The design! Of everything, from the costumes to the sets to the make-up, even the modelwork!
The Bad: When you've got such strong actors as Russell Hunter and Brian Croucher, the shortcomings of others (such as Tania "Zilda" Rogers) are more apparent.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 06 - the Doctor does eat a jelly baby, but doesn't offer any.

NEXT TIME: Part Two...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part Two; Part Three; Part Four

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: https://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-robots-of-death.html

The Robots of Death is available on BBC DVD as part of the Revisitations 3 box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Revisitations-Cybermen-Doctors-Robots/dp/B006H4RB6O/