The Robots of Death (TV story): Difference between revisions

{{Infobox Story

|adapted into= Robots of Death (stage play)

|image=D84 and Leela.jpg  

|season number= [[Season 14]]

|doctor=Fourth Doctor  

|enemy= [[Taren Capel]]  

|setting= [[Storm Mine 4]]

|writer= [[Chris Boucher]]

|director= [[Michael Briant]]  

|novelisation= Doctor Who and the Robots of Death

|epcount=4

|broadcast date= [[29 January (releases)|29 January]] - [[19 February (releases)|19 February]] [[1977 (releases)|1977]]

|network=[[BBC1]]

|production code= [[List of production codes|4R]]

|clip=Which box is bigger? - Dr Who - BBC sci-fi

|bts2=Special Feature - Mouse - Doctor Who - The Robots of Death

}}

'''''The Robots of Death''''' was the fifth story in [[Season 14|season fourteen]] of ''[[Doctor Who]]''. It saw the [[Super-Voc]], [[Voc]] and [[Dum]] [[robot]]s make their first, and only televised, appearance. The serial was based on the works of [[Agatha Christie]], with a series of unexplained murders.

[[Chris Boucher]] was asked to write ''Robots'' after another serial fell through. He was chosen as his work on the preceding story ''[[The Face of Evil (TV story)|The Face of Evil]]'', had been widely appreciated. It was [[Philip Hinchcliffe]] who pushed the idea of a "robot story", despite [[script editor]] [[Robert Holmes]]' opinion that they were dull. Holmes was confident that he could produce a good script for an enclosed space, as the crew were aware the serial would be a studio bound one. Hinchcliffe suggested a setting akin to the machines featured in the [[1965 (releases)|1965]] sci-fi novel {{wi|Dune (novel)|Dune}}, and so the [[sandminer]]s were created.

[[Tom Baker]] was reportedly highly critical of the script. He complained to Boucher during the initial read through and later voiced his derogatory opinions of the story to director [[Michael E. Briant]]. According to Briant, this was because Baker wanted the Doctor to display certain characteristics of his imagining. ([[DOC]]: ''[[The Sandmine Murders]]'')  

The [[Fourth Doctor]] and [[Leela]] land aboard a [[sandminer]], whose crew are being [[murder]]ed one by one.

On a distant planet, a huge sandminer vehicle, Storm Mine 4, is slowly scraping the surface of a vast, barren desert in search of precious [[mineral]]s. The sandminer is manned by nine humans and numerous robots - black '[[Dum]]s' that cannot speak, pale green '[[Voc]]s', and a silver '[[Super-Voc]]' which controls all the 'Dums' and 'Vocs'. The robots conduct a routine scan of the area and locate a large [[sandstorm]], which the Commander, Uvanov, decides to pursue, as the storm will bring heavier and more valuable minerals such as [[lucanol]] to the surface.

One the crew, the disliked scientist Chub, is going to collect a instrument package.

Uvanov is angered at Chub taking so long, and Poul goes to look for him.

The package is stuck, and Chub sends for a robot. V45 arrives, but is acting strange. V45 strangles Chub, killing him.

In the corridor, Poul hears Chub scream. He finds Chub's body. Poul goes to the control deck, and tells Uvanov about the murder. Uvanov does not want to go to investigate it, as they will loose the storm, but the other crew make him go to investigate. They find a strange object on Chub's hand — a corpse marker.  

At about this time, the TARDIS materialises in one of the scoops. After the Doctor and Leela emerge from the TARDIS, it is removed by a large mechanical arm as it is blocking the scoop. Later, the Doctor and Leela are brought out of the scoop by two robots and locked in a room. The Doctor uses his [[sonic screwdriver]] to unlock the door, and goes in search of the TARDIS, while Leela finds Chub's body being taken away by some robots.

The human crew suspects the two time travellers of murdering Chub, and tensions increase when it is found that they have left the room in which they were locked. The Doctor and Leela are separated, with the Doctor finding a second dead man, Kerrill, in a hopper which starts to fill with sand that buries them both...

The Doctor survives by using a blowpipe poking up through the sand which he breathes through. Both he and Leela, who has found a third dead man, [[Cass (The Robots of Death)|Cass]], and a 'Dum' robot which can secretly speak, are recaptured. Commander [[Uvanov]] orders them to be locked up in the robot storage bay, on suspicion of killing all three humans.

 

Shortly afterwards, the engineer, [[Borg (The Robots of Death)|Borg]], who is responsible for controlling power to the motors is found dead, and the sandminer's engines begin to run out of control, threatening the vehicle with destruction. A frantic [[Toos]] shrieks "She's going!!"

 

The Doctor goes to see the 'Dum' robot that Leela claimed could speak, D84. The robot reveals that it and Poul are undercover agents for the [[Kaldor City Company|mining company]]. They were placed on board the miner as a precaution to threats of a "robot revolution" by a scientist called [[Taren Capel]], who was raised by robots and considers himself to be one. D84 itself is unique in the fact that it can function autonomously from Super Voc SV7's commands, and appears to possess a high level of logical reasoning.  

The Doctor and D84 search for proof that Taren Capel is on board, and find a secret workshop where the robots' programming has been changed to enable them to kill humans. The Doctor arranges for all the remaining humans to go to the command deck. Uvanov arrives after escaping confinement to confront the Doctor, but is surprised to see a robot enter the workshop. It proves to have orders to kill the Doctor, and grabs him by the throat...

The Doctor and Uvanov manage to escape and head for the control deck. Someone (presumably [[Dask]], whose responsibilities include robots) shuts down all of the robots whose programming has not been changed, leaving just the killer robots and D84 operational. Looking around the miner, Leela stumbles on Poul hiding in the storage bay: he has gone mad and is suffering from [[robophobia]]. She then tracks down Toos in her quarters, who has just been attacked by another rogue robot, and takes her to the control deck to join the Doctor and Uvanov. The human crew are surprised by D84's arrival carrying a near-[[catatonia|catatonic]] Poul, but the Doctor explains the pair's real functions as undercover agents. Looking at his Chief Mover, Uvanov sadly remembers another crewmember losing his mind to robophobia years earlier who ran outside to escape them and died; it was Zilda's brother, hence her accusation of murder. SV7 - whose programming has now been changed - tells them to come out and die, but Toos and Uvanov decide to defend themselves.

Dask is later revealed to be Taren Capel, intent on "releasing [his] 'brothers' (the robots) from bondage to human dross" and "programming them with an ambition to rule the world".  

Taren Capel orders his modified robots to destroy the remaining humans and the Doctor and Leela. Uvanov and Toos get to work on modifying some Z9 explosives to destroy the robots. In the storage bay Leela finds a damaged robot with its hand covered in blood - which the Doctor reasons is Borg's. He had been the only one strong enough to even try to fight back, and may even have sabotaged the engine controls in a suicidal attempt to destroy the miner and all the killer robots on board. The Doctor dismantles the damaged robot and creates a final deactivator - a device that will destroy any still functioning robots at close range. In the process, he tries to explain to Leela how robophobia works. Robots do not display any body language, which the sensitive Leela had already picked up - calling them "creepy mechanical men" - and despite the fact most robots are built in humanoid form, some people are so unnerved that they become terrified of them. The pair head back to Taren Capel's hidden workshop, where the Doctor hides Leela with a canister of helium gas, telling her to release it when Taren comes in. The Doctor hopes that this will change Taren's voice, so his robots - unable to recognise him - will not obey his orders and turn on him.

Taren arrives and damages D84, but the robot is able to activate the Doctor's device to destroy a killer robot, knowingly sacrificing itself in the process. Leela releases the helium gas, causing Taren's voice to become high-pitched and squeaky, and Taren is killed by SV7 when it fails to identify his voice. The Doctor then destroys SV7 with a laserson probe.

The robot threat over, and a rescue ship coming to collect the surviving humans, the Doctor and Leela return to the TARDIS and leave the sandminer.

* [[Dask]] / [[Taren Capel]] - [[David Bailie]]

* [[Chub]] - [[Rob Edwards]]

* [[Director]]s - [[Michael E. Briant]], [[Peter Grimwade]]

== References ==

* The Doctor claims to have seen similar 'moving mines' on [[Korlano Beta]].

* The Doctor uses a [[respiratory bypass system]] to avoid inhaling [[helium]]; Leela, however, can't avoid the squeaky-voiced results and is promptly dubbed "mouse" by the Doctor, much to her annoyance.

* The human crew of the ''[[Storm Mine]]'' includes a Commander (Uvanov), a Pilot (Toos), a Chief Mover (Poul) and a Chief Fixer (Dask). Also on board is a government meteorologist (Chub) conducting experiments with weather balloons.

* Zilda is a member of one of the Founding Families, which is apparently in some financial difficulty (Uvanov: "Cheer up, Zilda, I'll make you rich again.").  Her (unnamed) brother died on a storm mine under Uvanov's command years earlier, and she may have joined the crew with the intention of exposing his actions.

* Taren Capel was an important scientist in the field of robotics before he disappeared. He lived with robots as a child, and so thinks of himself as one. He previously sent threatening letters to the Company running the sandminer promising a "robot revolution", which resulted them putting agents D84 and Poul on board the ''Storm Mine'' as a precaution.

* [[Kaldor City]] is mentioned. There are 20 Founding Families, who have higher status than others.

* The unnamed planet (on-screen) is covered in a hundred million miles of rocky uncharted desert.

=== Objects ===

* The Doctor's pockets contain a breathing tube and a pocket-sized torch.

* A satellite distress beacon can be used to contact base from the ''Storm Mine''.

* Explosives are kept on board the ''Storm Mine'' — half a dozen Z9 electron packs, capable of destroying one robot per charge.

* The ''Storm Mine'' is capable of recycling the water on board, but ruins the taste in the process.

=== Robots ===

* Leela's tribe has a saying: "If you're bleeding, look for a man with scars."

* This story is the last one in which the wood-panelled TARDIS control room appears, as the wooden walls warped whilst the set was in storage.

* Robophobia — an irrational fear of robots — is at one point referred to as 'Grimwade's syndrome'. This was an in-joke reference to production assistant [[Peter Grimwade]] (later to become a director and writer on the series) who had bemoaned the fact that the stories on which he was assigned to work almost always involved robots. However, the description of robophobia given by the Doctor in fact coincides with a real-life phenomenon called {{w|Uncanny valley|the Uncanny Valley}}.

* The precise setting of this story is disputed. [[PROSE]]: ''[[Legacy (novel)|Legacy]]'' places it on [[Japetus]], one of the moons of [[Saturn]], despite the fact the story suggests the atmosphere outside the sandminer is breathable and the presence of a vast sandy desert is somewhat integral to the plot (neither of which would be the case on Japetus). [[COMIC]]: ''[[Crisis on Kaldor (comic story)|Crisis on Kaldor]]'' places it on the planet [[Kaldor]], as does the ''[[Kaldor City (audio series)|Kaldor City]]'' audio series. Regarding the year the story takes place (which is never given onscreen), ''[[The Doctor Who Programme Guide]]'' places it circa [[Far future|30,000]], but ''[[The Terrestrial Index]]'' (by the same author) redates it to the [[51st century]]. [[Timelink]] places it in [[28th century|2777]]. ''[[A History of the Universe]]'' and the first two editions of ''[[aHistory]]'' arbitrarily place the story in [[29th century|2877]], but the third edition redates it to 2881, based on evidence from the ''[[Kaldor City (audio series)|Kaldor City]]'' audio series.

* Decades later, the episodes ''[[The Impossible Planet]]''/''[[The Satan Pit]]'' and ''[[Planet of the Ood]]'' would also feature subservient creatures (albeit living ones this time) turning on their masters after being manipulated; like the robots, the [[Ood]]s' eyes would also glow red when under this influence.

* The [[Heavenly Host]] in [[TV]]: ''[[Voyage of the Damned]]'' bear many similarities to the robots in this story. Not only do they look vaguely similar, they also have a habit of chanting, "Kill, kill, kill!", and one even has to remove its hand after getting it trapped in a door.

* The production team considered keeping Pamela Salem (Toos) on as a regular. ''(This was never considered, but Salem's publicist encouraged members of the press to believe it, to gain publicity for his client.)''

* A [[Storm Mine]] is commonly known as a 'Sandminer' . ''(According to [[Chris Boucher]], these vehicles are officially called 'Storm Mines' and 'Sandminer' is just the word the [[Fourth Doctor]] uses. As the Doctor has seen this sort of thing before on [[Korlano Beta]], it is likely that 'Sandminer' is specifically the Korlano name, not used in these parts.)<ref>'About Time, Volume 4: 1975-1979' by Lawrence Miles et al, page 140. Mad Norwegian Press, 2004.</ref>''

On 24 December and 31 December 1977, the BBC repeated ''The Robots of Death'' as a holiday season special during an interval between its broadcasts of [[TV]]: ''[[The Sun Makers]]'' and [[TV]]: ''[[Underworld]]''. The four episodes were edited together to form two approx. 50-minute episodes. This is the earliest known occasion in which ''Doctor Who'' was broadcast in this format, which would be attempted again with [[TV]]: ''[[Resurrection of the Daleks]]'', then again for one season in 1985, and finally become the standard beginning in 2005.

* [[The Doctor's scarf]] vanishes and reappears with little to no explanation twice in the serial: once when he and Leela are detained in part one, and again when he and the crew flee to the command center in part four.

* The characters from this episode reappear in several of Chris Boucher's later novels, starting with [[PROSE]]: ''[[Corpse Marker (novel)|Corpse Marker]]'', and continuing in the [[Kaldor City (audio series)|Kaldor City spinoffs]].

* The Doctor offers Borg a [[jelly baby]]. However, Borg snarls at the Doctor to "Shut up!" and smashes the bag out of his hand.

Released as ''Doctor Who: The Robots of Death'', this was the first 'proper' title in the [[BBC DVD]] range of ''Doctor Who'' DVDs. It marked the debut of the 'roundel' template that didn't prove popular with fans (although it has remained to date as the DVD template) and is the only one in the range not to feature production subtitles. The continuities were meant to be an Easter Egg, but an error was made by the Authoring House and they were included as a regular menu item. This early DVD release lacks subtitles.

:* [[UK]] April 1986

File:4r-video.jpg|1986 VHS UK cover

:* [[Australia]]/[[NZ]] March 1988

:* [[US]] July 1987

 

:* [[Japan]] December 1986

:* [[UK]] February 1995

::PAL - [[BBC Video]] BBCV5521

 

* {{dwrefguide|who_4r.htm|The Robots of Death}}