The Pertwee years are hotly debated to this day by Doctor Who fans, and I can understand both sides.

During most of the Third Doctor’s run, he remained banished to Earth, making the TARDIS more of a prop that could be called upon only when advanced technology was needed. More aliens attempted to invade Earth during this time than any other, and together UNIT and the Doctor saved the day. So while most of the fans really liked Pertwee in the role, a lot of them didn’t like the lack of outer space environments and, being saddled with UNIT, the stories were limited in the directions they could take. This changed toward the end of Pertwee’s run, but an even more drastic change would come as the Doctor approached his third regeneration, becoming a Time Lord of eccentricity, wit, confidence and outrageousness. It all began in Robot.

The first chapter of Robot starts immediately where Pertwee’s last serial, Planet of the Spiders ended. The Doctor (Jon Pertwee) was mortally wounded by the Spider Queen on Metebelis 3, but manages to take the TARDIS back to UNIT HQ where he immediately starts regenerating. Having witnessed the aftereffects of regeneration before (Spearhead from Space) Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) along with the Third Doctor’s companion, Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) are preparing to deal with their new Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker), but they never planed on someone being so drastically different. Straight off the bat Baker plays the Doctor with the same eccentricity, wit and fun that his era became famous for.

The Doctor doesn’t seem to have any desire to stand around with his former companions. Perhaps it’s the never easy regeneration process, but he makes for the TARDIS almost instantly, leaving his new caretaker, Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter) tide up with a jump rope in the closet. But the Doctor does come around quickly after hearing that a series of thefts are occurring around the facility. While the new Doctor is wowing his comrades with his observations, Sarah Jane Smith with help from the Brigadier, investigates the military installation Think Tank, and comes face-to-face with a gigantic robot which the gang believes might be behind the thefts.

They aren’t far off from the truth. The robot was created with the best of intentions by a Professor Kettlewell (Edward Burnham) but its programming has been changed in conflict with its prime directives and is now fully capable of harming people. To make matters worse, many of the Think Tank members are also part of a secret organization called the Scientific Reform Society which believes that the Earth and its peoples should be ruled by a select group of elite thinkers controlling the every decision of those under them. The leader of the SRS, Ms. Winters (Patricia Maynard), is willing to do whatever it takes to make this happen, including using the robot, and stolen nuclear weapons against innocents to prove their superiority. It’s up to the Doctor, his companions and the diaries of Professor Kettlewell to find a solution to stop the SRS and their robot before everything goes Def Con One.

The basic story of Robot is pretty unspectacular. It isn’t much layered at all, and there are only a couple of minor twists that make things interesting. Part of this is no doubt due to a fact that I learned in the extras – the script was written without knowing what kind of Doctor would be playing it. The result of this missing puzzle piece is that the story never really develops our main character, although it does do a decent job using the Brigadier and Sarah Jane Smith. In fact, in many ways it’s a Smith story. She is the one who discovers the robot, she is the one that finds out the truth of the SRS, and it’s her that develops a relationship with the robot which helps lead towards the films surprisingly complex climax. All of this time spent with Sarah does have one major negative though, which is that it completely takes away from the new Harry Sullivan character’s introduction, rendering him completely useless.

This gripe aside, there are some nice touches to the story that actually directs the attention away from the uneven script. First are the bits that any science-fiction fan will instantly recognize as stolen from much better works. The “prime directive” of the robot being that he can not harm a human is an obvious crib from Asimov’s I, Robot. The robot in this film is similarly sympathetic as well since he is shown as truly confused over his actions. The climax has the robot increasing in size, becoming monstrously large (thanks to the preposterously explained “living metal” it was made of) and kidnapping Sarah (the only human to show it compassion) with its claw hand. Allusions could easily be drawn to King Kong and its misunderstood beast. I certainly got a chuckle out of these as I noticed them.

The special effects for this episode are simply awful. I mean that in the nicest way possible, of course. Doctor Who effects were never of the biggest budget and they certainly weren’t during the 70’s – but Robot leaves us with some absolute doozeys. The titular robot is terribly top heavy and cumbersome. It’s hard to believe that it could have any sort of practical use, and it looks like the bastard offspring of Forbidden Planet’s Robbie and the original Battlestar Galactica’s Lucifer. But that’s just a prop. The special effects are even more laughable. When the “living metal” makes the robot grow to huge proportions, some of his body literally disappears into the background from whatever technique they were using to shoot it. An obvious toy tank is used as a stand in for a real one in one scene. My favorite though is in the far shots of the gigantic robot carrying away Sarah Jane, it’s quite evident that she is replaced by a children’s doll. Just about every effect is of this level, but it actually only enhanced my enjoyment of the story. Easily a case of so bad it’s good.

What really elevates this from the average Doctor Who story though is Tom Baker’s presence. For a script that wasn’t written with him in mind, he certainly injects a lot of the personality for which he is now widely remembered. Even the first episode has him jump-roping with Harry, questioning Sarah as to why he can’t do what he wants and trying on a Viking costume before settling on his regular fashions. By far one of the greatest things I’ve heard any Doctor is also included in this story. At one point the Brigadier explains about how the major superpowers have hidden nuclear warheads, and that they devised that a neutral country should know the locations of all of them so that if war broke out, everyone would then know where everything was. The Brigadier further explains that Great Britain was the country selected

The Doctor’s response? “Naturally, I mean all the rest were foreigners!”

Tom Baker always put a smile on my face as a kid and now as an adult he continues to do so. Robot isn’t the best episode, the best of Baker’s, or even the best of the season. But it does make for a fantastic beginning. I can’t recommend it strongly enough.

The DVD Presentation
In DIMP’s previous reviews of classic Doctor Who serials (regardless of the writer) the fantastic restoration attempts of the Doctor Who Restoration Team is always lauded. Robot is no exception to this standard. You can learn more about the process and technobabble here. What actually comes of the disc though is a soft image, particularly during exterior scenes. But it still looks fantastic. The Mono mixes of Doctor Who were rarely impressive, but this audio track is superb with dialog that is perfectly understandable and no extraneous noise that would be distracting. It’s a great presentation as usual.  English language subtitles are thoughtfully included.

And the Extras Are?
Audio Commentary with actors Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen and writer Terrance Dicks –
While I love listening to commentary tracks, it’s rare that I find television commentaries very interesting. I don’t know why this is, but I mention it only because this commentary for Robot is one of the BEST commentaries that I’ve EVER heard. Much like the strong Genesis of the Daleks commentary, the banter between Baker and Sladen provide massive entertainment. This time however Terrance Dicks provides great details on the story, how he ripped off other films and stories, how he wrote the script without knowledge of the new Doctor or his acting style, and the absence of Harry Sullivan. The three are awesome commentators, and I can’t recommend that fans give this a listen.

“Are Friends Electric?’ Featurette – (38:57)
As the main featurette on this set, “Are Friends Electric?” has the difficult job of trying to assemble the origins of not just Robot, but the changes that the show had coming out of the Pertwee era and the selecting of a new Doctor. Interview subjects from just about every important cast and crew member are included, including Baker, Sladen, Terrance Dicks, director Christopher Barry and many others. All of the stories and participants make every minute of the featurette valuable, and rather puts into a different perspective Robot and the rest of the first Tom Baker season (which also includes The Ark in Space, The Sontaran Experiment, Genesis of the Daleks and Revenge of the Cybermen). I’m especially pleased with the musical presentation of this documentary. There are quite a few popular songs included which fit the themes of what’s being discussed. I hope that this is something that will be used with upcoming documentaries as well. This is also makes for a great companion piece to “A New Body At Last” the featurette about the end of Tom Baker’s reign, on the recently released Logopolis DVD.

“The Tunnel Effect” Featurette – (13:47)
The opening titles for Doctor Who were always pretty iconic, and none was more so than the title screen for the Tom Baker era. It’s only fitting then, that on the DVD release of Tom Baker’s first story, that we have a featurette on how this sequence was created. Graphic designer and sequence creator Bernard Lodge does just that. However, as an added bonus we are shown how all of the prior sequences were achieved too. A wonderful featurette for the Doctor Who fan and designers will no doubt find added interest.

Blue Peter Segment – (2:15)
The cast of children’s show Blue Peter which long cross-promoted Doctor Who had to use the UNIT set from Robot since their own studio was unavailable to them. The thing is, with this short running time, nothing about Robot, or Doctor Who for that matter, is discussed. They just talk about dogs and an odd record that was found in a United States pet shop. Kind of a waste, really. Odd they would even bother including such a segment.

Photo Gallery – (4:15)
A collection of a whole lot of photos taken from the production of Robot. Good stuff. I especially dug the incidental music track played behind it.

Radio Times Listings (DVD-ROM) –
With a capable computer, you can access the Radio Times listings for each of the four Robot chapters, as well as a publicity image of Pertwee and Baker.

Information Text –
This feature takes the place of a subtitle track and provides all sorts of interesting information, technical detail, cast tidbits, script alterations, television ratings, etc. It’s a great feature to run while you have the commentary going for a nice healthy chunk of Who history. 

Easter Egg – (0:41)
There is a hidden Easter Egg on this DVD which when found has the continuity ads for the first episode of Robot and the ad for the first episode of The Ark in Space which I presume ran after episode four of Robot.

For a one-disc release, you can’t really be upset with the great extras that are included.

The Bottom Line
Robot isn’t the best of Doctor Who, and it isn’t even the best of Tom Baker – or even this season. However, it’s still damn good and it’s absolutely amazing how successful it is considering it’s the first story of this new era. Robot brings us a bouncing Baker just waiting to take on the world as the Doctor (and he did, since it was his stories responsible for the show’s success in America). It’s a perfectly fun Earth-based UNIT story that nicely transitions out of the Pertwee era. But since the DVD is packed with great features, even Who fans that collect only specific stories will want to add this one to their collections. Robot is a very important story, and once can expect from BBC Video, the DVD is impeccable.