The Robots of Death
Somewhere far off exists a society where all the menial work is done by robots, and humans more or less sit back and watch it all happen. Mineral wealth is gathered by storm mines which drive across desert worlds and refine the ores they catch in airborne particles, and a minimal crew of humans lounges about while the robots monitor the systems. The Doctor and Leela arrive just as one of the humans is found dead, apparantly strangled. Naturally suspicion falls on the time travellers, but as the death toll mounts it becomes obvious that the real culprits are not humans (or Time Lord) but the robots themselves; one of the crew has gone mad and started reprogramming the robots to kills.
Simple plotline, and one of the most atmospheric adventures ever. There is nowhere to run, and no help to call once the robots begin their killing spree. The robots themselves are fantastic; they have sculpted heads like statues and move with an almost eerie precision as they walk. Their voices are calm and polite at all times, even when they're getting their hands around someone's throat. And the shots were just packed with them wandering about on their missions; one could easily believe that the BBC did a mass-hire for the episode and got 20 extras in for the day. A lot of imagination went into the design of the robots and indeed the entire social structure of the society they serve, with Commander Uvanov openly taunting members of his crew who were once part of powerful families who have gone bankrupt and their next generation have to work alongside the real people. The society has a few other problems as well, the chief amongst them being people suffering mental breakdowns after working with robots for so long and developing "robophobia". And those who regard the robots as mere tools can only stand there in shock as they are killed, or, like Pilot Toos, beg pathetically for their lives.
Jay and I enjoyed this one together, and we couldn't help but snigger at some of the more elaborate face painting jobs done on the human occupants of the sandminer. We were particularly amused by the character of dask, who seemed like he would love to follow up some of his lines with "By the way, I'm so pretty," as he lounged about like a cat. We noticed a few breakdowns with the visual effects as well, such as the CSO screen on the command deck obliterating half of the faces of the robots in front of it where they fell into shadow, and some interesting overlap effects where corridors were magically made longer than the sets allowed for.
The Doctor has of course seen almost everything, so none of this phases him, but for Leela on her first adventure away from her home world and thrust into this odd society with what she considers "creepy mechanical men" she does quite well. Even if you can't knife a robot. But she is adept to helping Toos with an injured arm, and when one of the other crew, Pool, starts to succumb to robophobia she handles him quite well.
I remember when I first watched The Robots of Death I was in grade 6. Or something. The show grabbed my imagination and made me wonder if the robots would ever be back. Sadly the BBC never returned the Doctor to that part of space, but many years later a set of audios along the lines of the Big Finish adventures came along under the title of Kaldor City, named after the city where the all-powerful Company runs practically everything. I haven't heard any of these audios myself but the lineup of actors involved looks impressive, with the original Commander Uvanov reprising his role. Sometime after the discs came out, script writer Chris Boucher began to deliver a series of novels that expanded on the relationship between the Doctor and Leela, starting with a return to Kaldor City.
Which is coming up soon.
NEXT EPISODE : LAST MAN RUNNING
Simple plotline, and one of the most atmospheric adventures ever. There is nowhere to run, and no help to call once the robots begin their killing spree. The robots themselves are fantastic; they have sculpted heads like statues and move with an almost eerie precision as they walk. Their voices are calm and polite at all times, even when they're getting their hands around someone's throat. And the shots were just packed with them wandering about on their missions; one could easily believe that the BBC did a mass-hire for the episode and got 20 extras in for the day. A lot of imagination went into the design of the robots and indeed the entire social structure of the society they serve, with Commander Uvanov openly taunting members of his crew who were once part of powerful families who have gone bankrupt and their next generation have to work alongside the real people. The society has a few other problems as well, the chief amongst them being people suffering mental breakdowns after working with robots for so long and developing "robophobia". And those who regard the robots as mere tools can only stand there in shock as they are killed, or, like Pilot Toos, beg pathetically for their lives.
Jay and I enjoyed this one together, and we couldn't help but snigger at some of the more elaborate face painting jobs done on the human occupants of the sandminer. We were particularly amused by the character of dask, who seemed like he would love to follow up some of his lines with "By the way, I'm so pretty," as he lounged about like a cat. We noticed a few breakdowns with the visual effects as well, such as the CSO screen on the command deck obliterating half of the faces of the robots in front of it where they fell into shadow, and some interesting overlap effects where corridors were magically made longer than the sets allowed for.
The Doctor has of course seen almost everything, so none of this phases him, but for Leela on her first adventure away from her home world and thrust into this odd society with what she considers "creepy mechanical men" she does quite well. Even if you can't knife a robot. But she is adept to helping Toos with an injured arm, and when one of the other crew, Pool, starts to succumb to robophobia she handles him quite well.
I remember when I first watched The Robots of Death I was in grade 6. Or something. The show grabbed my imagination and made me wonder if the robots would ever be back. Sadly the BBC never returned the Doctor to that part of space, but many years later a set of audios along the lines of the Big Finish adventures came along under the title of Kaldor City, named after the city where the all-powerful Company runs practically everything. I haven't heard any of these audios myself but the lineup of actors involved looks impressive, with the original Commander Uvanov reprising his role. Sometime after the discs came out, script writer Chris Boucher began to deliver a series of novels that expanded on the relationship between the Doctor and Leela, starting with a return to Kaldor City.
Which is coming up soon.
NEXT EPISODE : LAST MAN RUNNING
Labels: Leela, The 4th Doctor
posted by Sean Hoover @ 6:55 AM
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