Raston Warrior Robot

Raston Warrior Robot
Type:	Warrior android
Appearances:	DW: The Five Doctors EDA: The Eight Doctors PDA: World Game VG: Doctor Who: Destiny of the Doctors

Raston Warrior Robots were the most perfect killing machines ever devised. They were silver androids and one of the deadliest players of the Game of Rassilon in the Death Zone.

Abilities

The robots hunted by detecting movement and could move at fast speeds. They would move by jumping in the air and disappearing, then reappearing at its destination - the Third Doctor remarked it "moved like lightning", which might mean the robot did not actually teleport, but rather simply moved too fast to be seen. It had built in weapons and could fire disks and arrows from its hands. It enjoyed toying with its prey. The robot was incredibly powerful and could kill a squad of Cybermen in under a minute. (DW: The Five Doctors)

They were capable of feeding on atomic radiation in the atmosphere, which meant that they never ran down. The loss of their heads did not diminish their efficiency, as they could just simply reattach them. They were also programmed to consider anyone except their makers as their enemy.

They attacked by locking onto the electrical activity of the target's brain (with two people possessing the same pattern causing the robot to jam). The javelins they extruded were generated by the Raston warrior robot, whose entire weapon system was built-in. (EDA: The Eight Doctors)

History

A legend stated that the Raston warrior robots were the product of a race that was old when the Time Lords were young. This race was devoted to the creation of super weapons and then vanished without a trace. (EDA: The Eight Doctors) It was possible that this was a marketing ploy on the part of the Raston Hardware Company, who may have produced the warrior robots (along with cybernetic lap-dancers) in a warehouse on Tersurus Luna. The dancers were considerably less indestructible, particularly against the Krotons. (EDA: Alien Bodies)

When the Death Zone was reactivated and four of the Doctor's incarnations were trapped in the Zone, the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith encountered a warrior robot by a cave entrance and were forced to remain still to avoid detection. Fortuitously, a patrol of Cybermen appeared and the robot attacked them instead, firing a barrage of arrows into their chestplates and killing them all. (DW: The Five Doctors)

Ryoth used the Time Scoop to send this same robot to the Eye of Orion. There it attacked the Fifth Doctor, Tegan Jovanka and Vislor Turlough. The Eighth Doctor joined them and through use of the paradox known as Buridan's ass, they approached it at the same pace so that both were equidistant from it. Unable to decide upon a target the Raston Warrior Robot deactivated. It was reactivated when a Sontaran trooped kicked it. It then killed the entire regiment but was itself killed by Commander Vrag who, in his death throes, ripped its head off. (EDA: The Eight Doctors)

Sebastiene once killed a Raston Warrior Robot and added it to his collection of trophies. (NSA: The Doctor Trap)

Behind the scenes

• Autons were originally planned to appear in The Five Doctors instead of the Raston Warrior Robot but, for unknown reasons, did not.
• Russell T Davies mentioned in the DWM Issue 393 expressed some interest in bringing back the Raston Warrior Robot in the new series of Doctor Who citing DW: The Five Doctors as the finest episode in the series. This did not occur during his tenure.
• The Raston Warrior Robot was played by Keith Hodiak, who was an actor, but is more famous as a professional ballet dancer and instructor.
• David Tennant remarked that you can see the zip on the back of the Raston Warrior Robot's costume.