DOCTOR WHO-ROBOTS OF DEATH

 

DOCTOR WHO-THE FACE OF EVIL part 4 and THE ROBOTS OF DEATH part 1

 

LEELA: Sometimes you talk like a Tesh.

DOCTOR: Thank you.

LEELA: It was not well meant. Are the mechanical men friendly?

DOCTOR: Robots don't have feelings. It's the people they serve we must hope are friendly.

 

I always thought ROBOTS OF DEATH was over rated but seeing ep1 here again after a few years, I have to admit, despite the old hat plot (and it’s a great one, AND THEN THERE WERE NONE aka TEN LITTLE INDIANS, which almost every series has tried…sort of…such as VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA’s creepy THE DEATH SHIP as well as GET SMART and which the BBC just remade), the style has B*l&s. The sets, the design, the costumes, the premise, the whole world building of the script…something the new series could learn from watching this draw you into it. The characters all seem to have lives outside of this plot and there’s a lot talked about here: the Founding Families, robot factories, corpse markers, the seven suns, etc. Tom’s at the top of his game, not that he’s ever had a down to his game and he speaks science stuff as easily as the stuff Leela thinks is nonsense such as the transcendentalism explanation of why the TARDIS is bigger on the inside than the outside. Part of the joy of DW is seeing how a new companion of the Doctor will take everything, and how she or he will interact with the Doctor. The built in contrast between the Doctor and Leela just carries it all but to be honest, it could have been terrible but Tom and Louise are just so good ---they make it all work. The sandminer is an inspired bit of writing and design and the danger is there and the tension is felt. The cliffhanger has the Doctor trapped in the sand or ore collecting stack where he is buried up to his face and over his head, though I do remember it showing him COMPLETELY buried, on the DVD we don’t see that. I love when Leela thinks she comes up with something special or shows some learning, she gets all joyous like a canine proud of herself.

 

Backtracking to THE FACE OF EVIL part 1, the story could not have had a more satisfying ending. More death, more action, more danger, and everyone is seemingly responsible for killing someone, including the Doctor, well, he’s directly responsible for kicking a controlled Tesh off himself and into the electrified wall, seemingly by mistake. Xoananon kills Neeva who makes such a distraction that the Doctor manages to repair the damage. Xo seems quite magical at the end, however, making a couch appear out of nowhere. I also like Leela’s rushing into the TARDIS after the Doctor tells her he likes lots of people but he can’t go carting them off into the universe with him.

 

Two more fantastic eps of DW. It was an amazing thing to pull off a story about savage killers on basically a family show AND make the Doctor the one responsible and now, to have robots as the killers in a TEN LITTLE INDIANS/AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (the original 1940s movie is GREAT) scenario is brilliant. And everyone, unlike many mid to late 80s stories, plays it with an investment and completely straight.   Who would take over the Tesh/Sevateem leader role?

DOCTOR WHO-THE ROBOTS OF DEATH part 2 and 3

 

I love the Fourth Doctor's rapport with D84: he would have made a great companion. I also like how the robots, calmly give orders to each other and repeat them, "I will kill the Doctor," after "You will kill the Doctor." It's unnerving. It's also great during the attack on Toos as the robot just declares he is there to kill her.

 

I have a confession to make, while I always liked THE ROBOTS OF DEATH I always felt it was overrated. No more. This viewing really drew me in and held me. If not for the major flaw in ep3 of showing the killer on the screen, I wouldn’t have known who was the killer, despite them showing his boots, too. I can’t praise the entire cast enough. Pamela Salem, in what could have been a thankless role, makes an impression as Toos.

 

It occurred to me that, though the Yeti are robots, this is really the first DOCTOR WHO where robots are really starting a rebellion and killing people outright and horribly and IT IS scary. It’s creepy and scary. Louise and Tom, despite Tom, have a good rapport and Tom has some stunningly funny and scary lines, delivering the worst news with a calm and the calm news with a shout some of the time. His “IT’S A GIFT!” to Toos is funny; his jelly baby routine is funny; his comment to Borg is great; and his leaving Leela Velcro-ed up is funny. I didn’t understand on first viewing what was happening to Poul but it’s explained later, though he was just cracking up and the blood on the robot’s hand was hideous (and people complain about…perhaps rightly so…the crushed hand in ATTACK OF THE CYBERMEN). They really did a great job of throwing in a few red herrings such as the commander’s past with the murdered crewman, who I believe later turned out not to be murdered. The cliffhanger to part 2 is FANTASTIC as the sandminer is ready to either blow up or sink into the sand! The cliffhanger to part 3 is the Doctor being choked by a robot. Terrific stuff…

 

The old days had a narrator for Tom’s story from ROBOT to INVASION OF TIME, one Howard DaSilva, great voice (not as great as Tom’s but still great). He used to the voice to CBS’s RADIO MYSTERY THEATER, a fine, long running radio show of mystery, monsters, adaptations and more. Thing is the memory of these is intercut with the cut versions of these stories: they would come on, have a reprise as Howard narrates and then an advertisement block and then the rest of the episode would start. The cliffhanger would lead into…Howard narrating for next week with clips from next week and then the cliffhanger sting music (I clearly remember Toos being choked nearly to death in a cliffhanger). It’s annoying. The DaSilva narrations are only on the American DVDs. Sigh.

 

At times, music from GALLIPOLI would air during black outs where commercials were supposed to be on PBS stations that had no commercials. Sigh.

 

Back to THE ROBOTS OF DEATH. Just brilliant. I love the story told during the REVISITATIONS second commentary where Tom was criticizing the script with hate and as the incoming producer was visiting and was introduced to Tom, Tom changes on a dime to declare it a terrific piece of literature.  

 

The pulse music makes this tense and this would be repeated in BLAKE’S SEVEN’s finale to the third season.

 

What more to say about this terrific classic? Imaginative, world building, good jokes that fit into the plot, and a wonderful structure.

 

In fact, Moffat should have learned from this about story structure.

 

Fabulous DOCTOR WHO!

 

DOCTOR WHO-Robots of Death part 4

Well, the only thing I can say is that I liked all of it. Tom’s coolness as he tells Uvanov that he should come and stand over near him and then moments later, calmness at saying that the next thing depends on which one of them the robot is going to kill is just…so darned cool. In fact, everything about this episode is cool. Of course ABOUT TIME will find LOADS of nitpicking and things that don’t make sense. My one real beef, if I had any, is that after Toos and Uvanov are attacked and downed, it DOES seem and feel like the original idea was for them to have been killed, too. Tom seems to have done a voice over, saying, “You’ll be all right, Toos,” and then he goes and lets Leela out and off they go. He tells her the change of voice gas didn’t affect him because he’s a Time Lord and he’s learned one or two things being alive so long…and he mentions his respiratory bypass system…most of it Tom changing the lines to fit other stories that have come and gone…and originally the line was to include he has three lungs (which would have conflicted with THE WHEEL IN SPACE when Gemma x rays the second Doctor and says it’s completely normal…or was SHE hiding something?).

 

In any case, I really enjoyed ROBOTS OF DEATH this time out and more than I thought I would. It is really good DW despite the flaws (but I also think the same thing about THE TWIN DILEMMA and most fans will block me for that, that’s how petty a lot of DW fandom is).

 

Oh and having D84 “die” is sad and a mistake but  memorable. I wish more was said from the Doctor, Leela and the others about this.