Robot - Episode 4

This is the final episode of this story which isn’t really a fourth Doctor Adventure. A stat for you to think about and that is this is the 128^th and last episode to be produced by Barry Letts. Letts’ first episode was episode one of Doctor Who and the Silurians and its no exaggeration that he was one of if not the person responsible for saving Doctor Who and ensuring that he leaves Doctor Who in a better shape that when he found it. It’s just a shame that his final story is nowhere near as good as his first. That said it’s time to focus on this episode and there were some serious problem with the episode and that were some of the rather cheap and rubbish things shown on screen such as the toy tank placed right in front of the screen to imply that it was a big tank.

There is a line where Miss Winters says that Harry and Sarah will have to be “disposed of”. Quite an odd choice of words, surely kill would have carried off more dramatic weight that disposed of. I think that Winters takes much less of an important part in the story in this episode as the robot takes the centre stage. Jellicoe does have a brief moment where he develops a spine but sadly it comes too late.

Kettlewell has a sudden change of mind which seems to come at a very odd moment. It happens just before he is killed by the robot in what has to be the campest death on Doctor Who so far. This leads to a major development as far as the robot is concerned because by killing Kettlewell it decides that its going to take his friendship with Sarah to the next level (whatever the robotic version of that is) and reset the countdown. He decides to restart it at 300 instead of the more logical idea of 002 which it was when the Doctor stopped it.

I like the moment with Benton and the Brigadier when they think that they have defeated the robot before it grows to the size of King Kong. Speaking of King Kong there has been this theme running through the last few episodes and the effect used is rather disappointing because whilst it initially might be a good idea to have a massive robot but its let down by the doll used to replace Sarah. There is something that seems a tad bit excessive. After the robot puts Sarah on top of the building, the UNIT soldiers decide to throw grenades and rockets at the thing not thinking about whether they damage the building or somehow kill Sarah. A bit reckless in my opinion. The scenes where the giant robot is quite well realised and there was the one shot where it squashes a UNIT soldier and it was surprisingly well done considering the budget of this show.

It’s quite interesting how the robot had affected Sarah. I think this is the moment where the feminine journalist is written out of the show and the more traditional companion takes centre stage. The final scene is quite nice because it shows how good the Doctor and Sarah will become. The inclusion of Harry Sullivan at the end did feel like it was added on at the last minute. The episode was a breathe of fresh air after the rather flimsy middle two episodes. I think that the rest of the season is going to be stronger because Philip Hinchcliffe is now in control and what the so-called gothic era starts to begin in the next episode and I am looking forward to this portion of the show. Robot is a goodbye to a portion of the show’s history that served a purpose at the time and suited Pertwee’s Doctor but with a new Doctor and a new actor that style isn’t going to do anyone any favours and one thing is for sure and that is the show is going in a new direction and the show goes up another level.