The Robots of Death Part Two

The one where the Sandminer crew starts dropping like flies...

Over the years the Doctor has shown that he carries some pretty wild and wacky things around in his pockets, everything from a tuning fork and a box of drawing pins, to a Polaroid camera and a felt tip pen. But one of the weirdest has to be the blowpipe that he uses here to breathe above the sand. Now, I'd accept it a little better if it was the same one he used in the Matrix in The Deadly Assassin, but then I suppose that wasn't a "real" blowpipe, so he couldn't have had that on him. It's not even the sort of blowpipe the Sevateem might have had.

The Doctor is rescued from the scoop by SV7, a wonderful performance by Miles Fothergill. The fluidity and harmony these robots exude is so cool, and Fothergill does it so well, and with that wonderfully calm and silky voice too. When things start to get very panicked and desperate aboard the Sandminer, it's great to see the robots untroubled by it, just carrying out their duties in their usual serene manner.

Meanwhile, Leela happens across her second corpse of the day when she finds Cass dead in the cabin, strangled like the others. Also in the room is D84, another wonderful performance, this time by Gregory de Polnay, whose voice is a lilting sing-song tone. It's great to see Leela trying to take charge of this "creepy mechanical man", reclining authoritatively and quizzing him. D84 asks that she does not give him away, and very quickly clams up when Uvanov arrives.

Uvanov assumes D84 has captured Leela in the act of killing Cass, and gives the savage a good, hard slap. Not advisable! Leela responds with a good hard kick, and warns: "You try that again and I'll cripple you!" You've got to love Leela, haven't you? She doesn't mess around, she's up front and ready for a fight, especially when she feels personally wronged. When she tries to get D84 to provide her alibi, Uvanov points out that D-class robots cannot speak ("D for dumb"), to which she replies: "Has anyone told him that?" Wonderful stuff!

"Bring that!" spits Uvanov as he orders Leela to be taken to the crew room. Russell Hunter is simply stunning in this story.

The scene in the crew room, where the Doctor and Leela are questioned by the humans, is one of the most wonderful scenes in all of Doctor Who, in my opinion. It's written so well, and performed to perfection by the main players (Tom Baker, Russell Hunter and Brian Croucher). It starts when the Doctor offers Borg a jelly baby, but he just slaps the bag out of his hand in disgust. What really makes this bit is how SV7 tracks the trajectory of the flying jelly babies to the floor, almost quizzically. "A simple no thank you would have been sufficient," mutters the affronted Doctor.

The dialogue between Baker and Hunter is electric, and it's obvious both actors feel in their element. I adore the bit where Uvanov asks the Doctor whether it's a coincidence that he's arrived on board the Sandminer just as people begin to die, but the Doctor doesn't answer, claiming he thought it was a rhetorical question. It's performed beautifully, with perfect timing, and the look of exasperation on Hunter's face is classic.

And then of course there's the bit where the Doctor rather ill-advisedly insults Borg. "You know, you're a classic example of the inverse ratio between the size of the mouth and the size of the brain." Which leads Borg to attempt to strangle him, which in the circumstances is really not very wise. It's great to see Leela leap to the Doctor's rescue before being restrained again too.

The humans are at each other's throats generally now, with accusations flying about left, right and centre. The small group of humans have been antagonistic toward each other from the start really (perhaps the result of spending years in each other's company), but it's not long until we - the viewer - see that one of them is controlling the killer robots. We already knew it was a robot that killed Chub, because we saw it (also, the story's called The Robots of Death!), but not until now did we know someone was making them murderous. Sadly, director Michael Briant ruins any sense of mystery by showing the trousers of the villain (black and grey), meaning we know straight away that the baddie is Dask (we see his full attire in the very next scene). Any idea that this story is a whodunnit goes out the window at the very moment that the robot is ordered to kill Zilda (well, somebody needs to).

Zilda is really annoying. Tania Rogers struggles to give a credible performance, but her ultimate weak spot is when she has to try to emote. She discovers something incriminating in Uvanov's quarters (something that makes her think he's a murderer), but it must also be something pretty personal because she immediately breaks down into tears. Sadly, Rogers is simply not up to the task at hand and it's a blessed relief when she's bumped off.

Tensions are ramped up further when Poul believes Uvanov killed Zilda, and renders him unconscious with one of those classic 1970s lethal shoulder chops. Of course, the viewer knows Uvanov didn't kill her. We know a robot did it under orders from Dask, but it's almost as interesting to see the characters start accusing and counter-accusing each other.

Meanwhile, Poul goes to chat with the imprisoned Doctor and Leela. He doesn't believe either of them are killers, but he's curious as to what the Doctor's theory is. But when he says that the killer could be a robot, Poul immediately dismisses the idea, as it is impossible for a robot to harm a human. Unless someone has found a way to override that fundamental tenet. And that is when the implications of murderous robots becomes clear. The Doctor somewhat melodramatically believes that killer robots could lead to the downfall of this entire civilisation. Really? This is just a few robots on a self-contained Sandminer, it's not as if they're loose in the cities and streets. Yet...

The end of the episode is all quite panicked and desperate as the Sandminer runs into automotive trouble and threatens to blow up unless the Doctor cuts the power. But doing that means the Sandminer will sink, so which is best? I do find it interesting that the Doctor doesn't seem to believe that Leela can have an instinct, when she senses that something is wrong just before something does go wrong. It seems quite dismissive of him to disregard Leela's ability, especially as she is a huntress.

First broadcast: February 5th, 1977

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The scene in the crew room between the Doctor, Borg and Uvanov (with a classic head movement by SV7!) is pure gold Doctor Who, and top notch writing from Chris Boucher.
The Bad: Tania Rogers trying to cry. Thank god Zilda's dead.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★★

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 07 - The Doctor rather memorably offers Borg a jelly baby.

NEXT TIME: Part Three...

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