Robots of Death (stage play)

Robots of Death was a stage play set within the continuity established by the Kaldor City series. It was adapted by Alan Stevens and Fiona Moore from the Doctor Who story of the same title as originally written by Chris Boucher.

Publisher's summary
Adapted from the classic Doctor Who story The Robots of Death, Iago and Blayes are thrust back in time to the scene of Kaldor City's most infamous crime. Before they can rewrite history... they must simply survive it.

Cast

 * Kaston Iago - Marlon Solomon
 * Elska Blayes - Kate Millest
 * Uvanov - Jessica Hallows
 * Toos - Leni Murphy
 * Poul - Gerard Thompson
 * Dask - Clara James
 * Borg - Miranda Benjamin
 * Cass - Cliona Donohoe
 * Kerrill / Robots - Daniel Thackeray
 * Chub - Chris Tavner
 * Voice of the Robots - Will Jude Hutchby

Crew

 * Producer - Gareth Kavanagh
 * Director - Kerry Ely
 * Script Editor - Ian Winterton
 * Voc Masks supplied by Terry Cooper

Reception

 * Speaker to Animals praised Marlon Solomon's Iago for "wisely choosing not to imitate Paul Darrow", and Leni Murphy's Toos as "a finely judged comic performance". It also highlighted Terry Cooper's robot masks to be"an excellent approximation of those on TV". However, it did not consider this adaptation to be a total success citing its main failing as deviating from Chris Boucher's original concept:
 * "On TV the Doctor had to investigate the mystery, then improvise an ingenious solution when Taren Capel was revealed. Here, Iago and Blayes are aware of Capel's presence from the start, and the story concludes in an unsubtle hail of plasma bullets. Worse, the last few minutes unveil another, previously unhinted-at force behind the events; it's the equivalent of gathering all the suspects together in the library, only to reveal the killer is from an entirely unrelated  story before spraying the room with a machine gun. The play itself has been made strange."
 * The Fiction Stroker declared the production to be a "fine re-creation of a classic... retaining much of what made the original enjoyable as well as adding new layers... this new version works free of the constraints of the Doctor Who format to the story's benefit.". Speaking of the two leads it said "Solomon's initially foppish Iago gives way to a more steely performance in the latter stages of the play whilst Millest's convincing performance is impressive. Millest knows how to work an audience and is captivating to watch." It also noted that the staging of the production at Fab Café to be, "for the most part, impressive".