“Robot” is the first adventure of the twelfth season of “Doctor Who” classic series which aired between the end of 1974 and the beginning of 1975. It follows “Planet of the Spiders” and it’s a four parts adventure written by Terrance Dicks and directed by Christopher Barry.

The story

Under the eyes of Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney), the Doctor regenerates entering his fourth “incarnation”. Lieutenant Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter), the base medical officer, is put in charge of taking care of the new Doctor (Tom Baker) while he’s recovering.

UNIT has to deal with a case of multiple thefts, in theory, impossible that led to the disappearance of the plans of a disintegrator and some electronic components needed to build one. Sarah Jane investigates the National Institute for Advanced Scientific Research, also called “Think Tank”, an organization whose official aims are scientific and technological research. In their laboratory, Sarah Jane discovers the presence of a robot that could’ve been used for the thefts.

Extras

This DVD has a decent amount of extras. There are typical contents such as production subtitles, Radio Time Listings, and a gallery of pictures from this adventure.

There are comments in the adventure alternative audio track by protagonists Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen and author Terrance Dicks.

Are Friends Electric? An almost 40-minute-long documentary on the production of this adventure focused on Tom Baker’s debut.

The Tunnel Effect. Bernard Lodge explains how he produced the images of the title in the version that’s perhaps the most iconic in the show, with the tunnel and Tom Baker’s image.

Blue Peter. A part of the program “Blue Peter” when it aired from a set of “Robot” because of a strike.

Also included there’s an “Easter egg” but it’s just a BBC continuity announcement.

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In the flyer, there’s an indication of the inclusion of material produced by BBC Enterprises about the eighteenth season which isn’t actually in the DVD.

After the announcement of Jon Pertwee leaving “Doctor Who”, for the role of the Fourth Doctor, producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks thought about choosing another actor of a certain age. For this reason, they decided to introduce a younger man for the scenes with greater action, like Ian and Jamie in the era of the First and Second Doctor. Therefore Harry Sullivan was created as a new companion for the Fourth Doctor.

Eventually, however, Tom Baker was chosen for the role of Doctor, an actor younger than his predecessors. Baker was forty and already had several roles in movies and on TV. In 1972, in the episode “The Millionairess” of the TV show “BBC Play of the Month” he wore a fez, showing how cool he was nearly forty years before Matt Smith. 😉

As it usually happens after a regeneration, the Doctor changes physical appearance and personality too. From the beginning, the Fourth Doctor is revealed as eccentric and more alien than the Third Doctor. The first scenes of the new Doctor have a comedic tone, especially in his choice of new clothes to wear.

The long Fourth Doctor’s scarf was actually a mistake. The person in charge of costumes designing asked a woman to knit a scarf but she used all the wool she was provided. Although the product was different than planned, the scarf was used by Tom Baker anyway and ended up becoming one of the Fourth Doctor’s iconic elements.

The Third Doctor’s debut brought a considerable renovation in “Doctor Who”, on the contrary the Fourth Doctor’s debut kept many existing elements, starting with Sarah Jane and UNIT. In many ways, “Robot” is a the Third Doctor story in which, however, you can immediately see the the Fourth Doctor’s style.

“Robot” isn’t a particularly brilliant story and especially UNIT appears ineffective in its job of protecting the electronic components required to create a disintegrator and dealing with the robot. The various fights between the robot and the UNIT soldiers seem to be added just to try to have dramatic scenes but they’re repetitive.

Very soon it becomes obvious that the weapons used by UNIT can’t stop the robot and yet they not only the soldiers keep on shooting it though they can’t even scratch it but some of them get dangerously close to it for no reason, only to be killed.

Luckily, the level in “Robot” is kept up by a brilliant performance by Tom Baker, well supported by his fellow cast members who were already “Doctor Who” veterans, but also by the robot itself. The artificial creature has its own brain and its ethics program and we can see it in the relationship it develops with Sarah Jane but the people who are handling it use it as a tool for their purposes.

The audience can’t help but feel sympathy for this robot, who is forced to commit a series of crimes that go against its original program. In this adventure, parallels between the robot and King Kong are shown but in terms of personality, there’s a greater similarity with the Frankenstein monster as it was originally described in the novel by Mary Shelley, a character far more complex than he’s generally shown in the several movies based on that story.

Instead, Professor Kettlewell, the creator of the robot, is almost a parody of an eccentric scientist and the reasons for his behavior during this adventure seem rather weak and inconsistent.

“Robot” is an overall a good adventure thanks to its positive elements that compensate for the shortcomings of the story and some dodgy special effects. It represents the beginning of a great era for “Doctor Who” and the extras on the DVD are interesting, so I recommend buying it. It’s available on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada. It’s also included in the Blu-ray box set with the whole Season 12, also available on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.