Robot Part Three

The one where Professor Kettlewell reveals his true colours...

After a lengthy reprise lasting 2 mins 20 secs, the giant robot breaks out onto location to fight back against Benton's UNIT troops, and it looks mighty impressive too. Despite the fact visibility must have been next to zero for actor Michael Kilgarriff, he manages to strike an imposing figure as the robot smashes its way (tentatively) out of Kettlewell's lab. So what if he stumbles a little at one point, the robot is a design triumph and looks just as awesome on film as it does video.

Kettlewell mentions that the robot is made of a new invention, something he calls "living metal", which can grow like a living organism. So basically the professor has invented validium, the living metal created by Rassilon and Omega as the ultimate defence for Gallifrey, all by himself. What a genius he must be!

Genius, yes, but a misguided one too. In an unexpected twist, Kettlewell proves to have been a traitor all along, a member of the fascist Scientific Reform Society and Miss Winters' partner in crime. He's misguided, rather than outright evil, because he's sided with the baddies for what he sees are the right reasons, that of trying to save the ecological future of Earth. He says he's been trying to tell people for years to look after the environment, but with the power the SRS can bring him, he'll be able to force them to do as he says. He basically wants to force everybody to recycle, like a particularly strict local council. There's rarely been a more benign reason for wanting to become a dictator.

The SRS has run rings around not just UNIT, but the entire world, but then the entire world has been rather stupid. In one of writer Terrance Dicks' most implausible scenarios, in a quest for international peace, the three superpowers - the United States, Russia and China - have entrusted all of their secret nuclear codes to a supposedly neutral country, that of course being Great Britain (the rest were all foreigners). I'm not altogether sure Great Britain could be classed as completely neutral, seeing as in the early 1970s PM Edward Heath had put President Nixon's back up by edging closer to membership of the EEC, and Anglo-Russian relations were clouded by a little something called the Cold War (although there is a line in this episode to suggest those days are gone).

The silliest thing of all is that the secret nuclear codes for the entire world were kept in a safe in the house of a doddery old Cabinet minister in the Home Counties, from where they could be easily stolen (I don't care whether the safe was made from dynastreem or not, nothing's indestructible). On the face of it, Great Britain is probably the last country that should be entrusted with the world's nuclear codes.

But now, thanks to the K1 robot, Miss Winters and her right-wing cronies have the codes, and can summon nuclear armageddon at any moment if their fascist demands are not met. Do as I say or I'll blow up the world, sort of thing. The scenes set at the SRS meeting are great, with Patricia Maynard ramping her Hitler up to Level 12 in a frighteningly convincing manner. Despite the Brigadier raiding the meeting, UNIT balls it up again, managing to lose Winters, Jellicoe, the K1 robot, Sarah, Kettlewell and the nuclear codes (plus, Harry's been rumbled and imprisoned too!). The Doctor is not a happy man: "You'd better find them, Brigadier - and fast!" he glares.

The scene where the K1 robot makes its way from the SRS meeting hall to the waiting van outside is laughable. Not only does Alec Linstead (Jellicoe) have to guide the robot down the steps, he then manages to avoid every single one of the myriad bullets the UNIT troops are firing at the metal giant. And why don't the UNIT men shoot the van's tyres out the moment they know it's an escape vehicle (there's plenty of time to do it, seeing as the robot is such a shambling fellow). As ever, UNIT puts on a poor show all round.

And it just gets worse. The Doctor, the Brigadier and friends follow Winters and her cohort to a nuclear bunker, which is heavily defended. They knock out the bunker's machine gun nests and the Doctor disables the motion sensor bombs (the series of explosions he sets off are impressive), but nothing can prepare the viewer for the might of UNIT's toy tank! "I brought along something that will deal with it," says the Brigadier as the fearsome K1 robot emerges with his disintegrator gun. "I very much doubt it, Brigadier," says the Doctor, saying aloud what everybody watching is thinking when they see the Dinky die cast toy roll into view. Director Christopher Barry boobed royally with this fatal decision, thinking the magic of perspective would trick us into thinking it was a real full-size tank, there on location at Wood Norton!

Oh dear Brigadier...

First broadcast: January 11th, 1975

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The fact Kettlewell is a traitor too is an unexpected twist.
The Bad: The toy tank.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 00

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: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/06/robot.html

Robot is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Robot-Tom-Baker/dp/B000NVI2C4