The Robots Of Death is the 90th serial in the series. It first aired on January 29 1977 and lasted 4 episodes. Tom Baker is the Doc and Louise Jameson is Leela. I read online that Tom wasn't too happy not getting his wish to be on his own and he was somewhat cold to Louise. The script seems to support that but Producer Phillip Hinchcliffe said that was the way they were writing the interaction between the characters. The serial was written by Chris Boucher who had written the previous serial. The serial was directed by Michael E Briant. He directed 5 previous serials for the series and TROD was his last and personal favorite.
Last serial ended with Leela jumping into the Tardis against the Doctor's wishes. We see them in the wood paneled control room discussing why the Tardis is bigger inside than out. There are props. It would be the last time that the smaller control room appeared in the series. The Tardis drops Leela and the Doc into a mining transport during a robot revolt. There are 9 crew members and many robots. The robot assassins attack slowly and the Doctor and Leela get blamed because they are strangers. The robots have some strict no kill people programming but someone is subverting it. The Doctor and Leela run about the huge vehicle trying to figure out what's going on. They meet up with a robot cop, and his human partner, who have infiltrated the group. They are on the look out for a man who has anti-human leanings. He's joined with the robots and wants to destroy all humans. What a dick that guy is. The robots had interesting faces and costumes. There's a bit on the creation of the head pieces and the costumes in the extras. They used shower curtains and paint to make the costumes. The face mask is one piece and the hair is sculpted with plasticine strips just as they came out of the package. I always enjoy the behind the scenes info.
The Doc figures out what's happening, as usual, and he does save a few of the crew before the robots are destroyed. The story was ok and the characters fairly interesting. I liked the setting on the mining ship. This was only two years before Alien and it's mining ship. Good reason to stay off the mining ships, huh. The sets pretty nice with an art deco themed look. The producers and writers put a bit of thought into the production. They figured if they crew are on the ship for 2-3 years they might have nice surrounds to live in when they aren't working. One of the women has a bedroom that wouldn't be out of place in one of those fantasy suite hotels. It's the same with the robots, they figured that people would want an attractive robot instead of a stack of mechanical parts. It's pretty good sensible thought.
The dvd I saw from the library was the 2012 Special Edition. There was a 2001 dvd that had Commentary 1, Model tests, Photo gallery, Studio plans and a Who's Who featurette. The new dvd has a better picture for the serial and more extras:
- Commentary #1 (from original release): producer Philip Hinchcliffe and writer Chris Boucher
- Commentary #2: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Pamela Salem (Toos) and director Michael E. Briant
- The Sandmine Murders: making-of documentary
- Robophobia: humorous look at the history of robots by Toby Hadoke
- Studio Sound: an example of a studio scene before the robot voices were added
- Model Shots
- Studio Floor Plan
- Continuity Announcements
- Radio Times Listings
- Info Subtitles
- Photo Gallery
- Coming Soon Trailer
- Digitally Remastered Picture and sound quality
I like both the commentaries, the first for Philip and Chris's discussion of their work and the second for the fun of hanging out with Tom Baker. The documentaries were ok, I liked the stage drawings, but the model shots were dull.
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