The Robots of Death Part Three

The one where the robots go on a killing spree...

So, Commander Uvanov has form when it comes to murder. Ten years previously he left a crewmember outside to die so that he could maximise his lucanol haul. Rather than being reprimanded and punished, the company he worked for just gave him a slapped wrist and forgot about it, simply because he was the best, and most lucrative, sandminer pilot they had. Profit before morals. The man left out to die was none other than Zilda's brother, which is why she hated him so. Makes sense now. And two of the three people aboard this sandminer who know all this are now dead (Zilda and Kerril), so watch your back Poul!

But for some reason, the Doctor does not trust Chief Mover Poul. Maybe it's something to do with the fact Leela says he moves like a hunter, always watching and listening. The Doctor thinks he's lying (but about what isn't clear), so charges Leela with the task of following Poul, watching the watcher, hunting the hunter. Sadly, Poul's too clever by half and manages to lock Leela in the lounge, giving her a much-reduced role in this episode.

At the robot infirmary, Dask examines an irreparable robot which has had its head smashed in, and has lashings of gory blood and fleshy matter all over its left hand (is this Doctor Who, or Saw?). It's not clearly explained how the robot got to be this way. Whatever happened, it was violent, but reading between the lines I assume it was the robot that killed Borg, a character who was killed off screen in episode 2. Borg was the kind of guy who would have put up a fight, and might have damaged the robot before it managed to do something very nasty to him. In his novelisation, Terrance Dicks states that the robot was damaged when the Sandminer keeled over, and that instead of the gory mess we see here, the robot had a simple "red smear" of blood on its hand. However, in part 4, the Doctor confirms it's probably the work of Borg, which I think works much better.

It's puzzling that Dask leaves the robot in that state, with blood all over it, but when Poul sees the gory hand, he seems to have a total mental breakdown. He doesn't react well at all, and by the time Leela finds him much later in the episode, he's a gibbering wreck. All very intriguing...

Writer Chris Boucher and director Michael Briant continue to pretend the viewer doesn't know who the villain is, which is quite frustrating. First we see the "mystery villain" speak to SV7 via a videolink, his face supposedly obscured by interference, but actually it's perfectly obvious it's Dask. Then Dask decides to dress up in some weird ceremonial robes while he begins modifying the robots' programming, even though there's nobody else around to see him (shades of the Master dressing as Kalid for no good reason in Time-Flight!).

The whole idea of the robots turning bad is quite sinister though. When SV7 is modified, it has jet black eyes, and in trying to process its new programming, it stutters. "Orders accept- accept- accepted," it struggles, making it clear that the robot finds the orders difficult to process, as they go directly against its fundamental programming not to harm humans.

Later, when the ridiculously shrouded Dask is injecting a robot with a Laserson probe, the way the faceless robot's hands writhe in panic and anxiety is unsettling. When I first saw this at the age of 11 or 12, that high-shot, of the robot on the table being processed, and Dask trying to calm its frantic hands, really stuck with me. I felt sorry for the robot, it was in some form of pain, made all the more disturbing by that ever-serene voice: "Priority red! Programme violation." That moment still gives me shivers 30 years later.

Meanwhile, the Doctor discovers that D84 is actually a robot detective, sent undercover by the company after it received letters threatening a "robot revolution". Those letters (nice to think they still send poison pen letters in the distant future) were written by a mad scientist called Taren Capel, who went missing some years ago, and was an expert in robotics. Capel is like a sci-fi Tarzan of the Apes, having lived since he was a child purely with robots. So that's why we hear Dask refer to the robots as his "brothers". He really is loopy.

How can you not love D84 though? Gregory de Polnay gives such a compelling and endearing performance, mostly vocally but also with telling body movements which add so much character to the robot. When D84 realises he may have overlooked the fact Taren Capel is on board masquerading as somebody else, he deems it a failure and it's so sad to see him downhearted. The Doctor tries to cheer him up by inviting him to join him in his investigations - "Would you like to come with me?" / "Yes please!" - and straightaway I'm thinking D84 is great companion material. Just like sweet little Bellal in Death to the Daleks, I really think D84 would've made a cracking companion, joining the Doctor and Leela on their adventures through Season 15. OK, he'd be difficult to weave convincingly into stories such as The Talons of Weng-Chiang and Horror of Fang Rock, but he'd be great in The Invisible Enemy, The Sun Makers and Underworld, and probably more practical than K-9!

There's a great scene where SV7 orders robots to kill the humans. He assigns V6 the task of killing Toos, V4 is set on the Doctor, and V5 on Leela. And it's left tantalisingly open when SV7 confirms he will kill "the others", and has two corpse markers in his hand. We know there are three "others" on board - Dask, Poul and Uvanov - and so again, Boucher is trying to get us guessing who the "safe" third person is. BUT WE ALREADY KNOW IT'S DASK!

V5's attack on Leela is well staged, the robot implacable in its pursuit of the savage, but the tension is totally unravelled by the use of the awful B-DOING! sound effect when Leela throws the knife at the robot. It's obviously done to try and soften the violence and to "cartoonify" it, but all it does is make you laugh, which completely undermines the scene. This is Doctor Who, not Bugs Bunny.

Properly scary is when V6 goes after Toos in her cabin, trying to force its way through the door, which she promptly closes, trapping its hand in the process. But V6 is undaunted, and merely unscrews his hand to escape. "The door is not a barrier, Commander Toos," says V6 calmly, continuing to try and break through the electronic lock. It's all so chilling, and Pamela Salem's panic really cranks up the tension.

As V4 catches up with the Doctor and goes to strangle him, the stage is set for a final episode in which the least mysterious mystery villain comes out of the shadows to perfect his robot revolution. I can't wait to pretend to find out who Taren Capel really is...

First broadcast: February 12th, 1977

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The robot's writhing, panicked hands when being operated on by Taren Capel.
The Bad: The cartoon sound effect when Leela knifes V5.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★☆

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 07

NEXT TIME: Part Four...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; Part Two; 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/