The Robots of Death (TV story)

Synopsis
The The Doctor and Leela land in the cargo hopper of a Sandminer, whose crew are being murdered one by one. Suspicion falls on the two visitors, but they are freed by Poul. He reveals that he is an undercover policeman sent to locate a mad roboticist named Taren Capel, whom he believes to have infiltrated the Sandminer. Unfortunately, Poul suffers a nervous breakdown upon learning that the murders are being committed by robots reprogrammed by Capel. It is revealed that Capel has assumed the guise of Dask, the ship's engineer. However, the Doctor manages to trick the robots into killing Dask by using helium to alter the madman's voice, so the robots don't recognize him...

Plot
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Cast
The Doctor - Tom Baker

Leela - Louise Jameson

Uvanov - Russel Hunter

Toos - Pamela Salem

Dask/Taren Capel - David Bailie

Chub - Rob Edwards

Borg - Brian Croucher

Cass - Tariq Yunus Poul - David Collins

Zilda - Tania Rogers

SV7 - Miles Fothergill

D84 - Gregory de Polnay

Robots - Mark Blackwell Baker, John Bleasdale, Mark Cooper, Peter Langtry, Jeremy Ranchev, Richard Seager

Uncredited Cast

Crew
Producer - Philip Hinchcliffe

Script Editor - Robert Holmes

Writer - Chris Boucher

Directors - Michael E Briant, Peter Grimwade

Designer - Kenneth Sharp

Costume - Elizabeth Waller

Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson

Story Notes

 * This is one of the few stories which goes some ways to explain (in relative simplicity) how the TARDIS is dimensionally transcendental. (using a demonstration with two boxes)


 * There have been several influences suggested for Robots of Death including:
 * This story was obviously based on Isaac Asimov's Robot mysteries, such as I, Robot. In particular, the human/robot police duo Elijah Bailey and R Daneel Olivaw from Caves of Steel and its sequels may be the inspiration for the Poul/D84 pair. Promiment mention is made of Asimov's First Law of Robotics: "A robot may not harm a human being, or through inaction allow a human being to come to harm."


 * Another inspiration for the story was Agatha Christie's novel, Ten Little Indians, in which several people on an island are murdered one by one.


 * The Sandminer setting is based on Frank Herbert's Dune.

Ratings
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Myths
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Location Filming
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Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors
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Continuity

 * This episode is the last one in which the wood-panelled TARDIS control room appears.


 * The characters from this episode reappear in several of Chris Boucher's later novels, starting with Corpse Marker, and continuing in the Kaldor City spinoffs.

DVD and Video Releases
Robots of Death was released on DVD in 2000 by BBC Worldwide.

Target Novelisations
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