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meddowI’ve been at it again with the Doctor Who screencap reviews because I really enjoy doing them. This time returned to my favourite era of the show, the very early Fourth Doctor. In fact, it’s the first appearance of the Fourth Doctor.
Robot is notable for being Tom Bakers’ first serial as the Fourth Doctor. But it’s also Ian Marter’s first serial as Harry Sullivan. Joining the pair of them is Sarah Jane Smith, The Brigadier and Sergeant Benton. Hell, there’s even Bessie. Not to mention a giant killer robot hell bent on destroying humanity. Really, with that line up, it doesn’t need to even have a plot for me to love it.
Though it does have a plot, and I quite enjoyed it. Robot is Doctor Who does King Kong, with Sarah Jane Smith as Ann Darrow and an insane robot as the giant ape. And like King Kong, at the heart of it is a very simple love story:
Robot meets girl,
Robot falls for girl,
Robot grows to enormous proportions and decides to kill all humans except for girl.
And the boys do some stuff too. In fact, there’s also a whole bunch of plot about prime directives and not killing humans and a plot by scientists to take over the world and rule through science. But who cares about plot when you’ve got characters?
Firstly, there’s the Doctor. Isn’t Tom Baker’s grin one of the greatest things in the world? I adore it to pieces. Screw the Robot and Sarah. The real love story is between me and that smile.
It is amazing watching Robot how in the first episode of his first serial, Tom Baker is the Forth Doctor we know and love. It’s not like the First Doctor and the rock incident in An Unearthly Child, the character just is as he is when he first shows up: childish, unpredictable and brilliant. Then again, as Tom Baker keeps on saying in the special features, he’s pretty much just acting as himself. I can't thank the production team enough for letting him do that. A world without Tom Bakers grin would be a very sad one indeed.
Of course there are a few wardrobe malfunctions, and the Doctor trying to escape UNIT. I’m sure some people out there despise the humour of those scenes, but I love it.
So remember in The Christmas Invasion, when everybody panics without the old Doctor, but then the new Doctor arrives on the scene just in time to save the day? Well this is pretty much the opposite, because in Robot the companions and secondary characters get a lot to do plot-wise.
For a start, Sarah Jane is about 25 different kinds of awesome in Robot, and I think a lot of it is because we actually get to see her be an investigative journalist. She spends the first three episodes sneaking around or barging into places she shouldn’t go, saving the Doctor and at no point allowing either the bad guys or UNIT get in the way of her investigation. Plus her investigation carries a lot of the plot. After all it’s her who discovers the robot in the first place.
It occurred to me while watching this that for a companion, Sarah’s pretty unique. She’s the only one I can think of that would still be investigating strange goings on and getting herself into a tonne of trouble and whether she had met the Doctor or not. Travelling with the Doctor just focused her attention towards the extraterrestrial. After all, it’s way she goes about her job and in this serial in particular she’s doing her job independently of UNIT. It’s a coincidence (well, plot contrivance) that she and the UNIT gang are investigating the same plot.
Oh, yeah and Sarah gets to threaten the villainess with a gun, which nearly makes up for the first half of episode 4 of The Hand of Fear. Nearly.
Meanwhile, the Brigadier is as unflappable as ever. Really, Robot is the anti-Christmas Invasion. Where a lot of time in the new series was spent on the regeneration, everybody in Robot just takes it in their stride, particularly the Brigadier who handles matters with a ‘Well, here we go again’ and then just gets on with the business of running UNIT.
However, there is a wonderfully sweet scene between the Brigadier and Sarah in which he tells Sarah top secret information because without the Doctor, he’s go nobody else to talk too. Okay, so telling a journalist classified information isn’t exactly a great move, even when they are as cute as a button (probably particularly if they are as cute as a button), but it’s a lovely scene between too characters I adore and for that I’ll forgive just about anything (take note Torchwood, that’s how you get me to forgive or ignore the rampant incompetence: likable characters).
Plus he gets to say what we’re all thinking: ‘You know, just once, I would like to meet an alien menace that wasn’t immune to bullets.’
And then there’s Harry Sullivan, who blusters into the serial all serious business, but that soon comes to an end when he has to put up with the Doctor’s escape attempts. Then we get to see the lighter side of Harry Sullivan.
I’ve decided Harry is the Neville Longbottom of Doctor Who. It is impossible not to like him. Well at least for 95% of the population. And Sarah Jane makes it known she thinks he just a bit old fashioned, which is made somewhat clear when he decides to wear a bowler hat while doing some supposedly James Bond-esq undercover work. Awww. You’ve got to love him for trying.
Meanwhile (the newly promoted to warrant officer but I’m still going to call Sergeant because it’s stuck) Sergeant Benton (another Neville Longbottom of Doctor Who candidate) is there, being lovely, putting up with all the weirdness and comes up with the idea that saves the day. And we get a big grin, which the Brig quickly puts and end too. But awwww. And I do love it when one of the characters other than the Doctor gets to save the day, complete bonus that it’s Benton.
In the Bad Buy category is actually a female villainess, Ms Winters (Patricia Maynard), who is terrific. There’s a scene at the beginning of the second episode with her using the robot to scare the wits out of Sarah, it’s a very well done. You’re never quite sure if she is actually trying to destroy Sarah, or just prove a point. It’s a wonderfully menacing scene.
The special effects are…well…umm…they get points for trying I suppose (actually, that screencap make’s it look a lot better than it is when you watch it on TV). And they were better than I though they would be
You have to admit though - the Robot does look kind of cool from the waist up. The head is a great design. And while the Robot worked in general, sometimes, particularly during the Robot’s big emotional breakdowns, no matter how much the actor tried it just doesn’t work and you just have to giggle. Also, I thought that Professor Kettlewell (Edward Burnham) was a bit of a waste of time, mainly because the mad scientist performance really started to grind on my nerves.
There was another thing about the serial that really bugged me: the reprise of the second episode at the beginning of the third and the third at the beginning of the fourth went on forever.
And the episode ends with the Doctor’s first ever ‘would you like a jelly baby,’ because that’s the Doctor’s way of dealing with a rather distraught Sarah. I know it a bit boring to adore Four and Sarah these days because they’re the iconic classic team TARDIS. But, you know, there is a very good reason why those two are the iconic Doctor and companion team. The obviously love each other’s company and complement each other so well, plus there’s that mysterious factor that you can’t quite put your finger on, the ‘chemistry’ factor that makes it so incredibly enjoyable watching them travel around time and space together. Those two are my absolute favourite pair.
Anyway, in conclusion, I’m not sure why this serial isn’t rated as one of the best. I loved it, though I'm heavily influenced by a line up containing nearly all my favourite characters. And I hope they put out a box set of season 12 sometime soon, because I’m so there.
Robot is notable for being Tom Bakers’ first serial as the Fourth Doctor. But it’s also Ian Marter’s first serial as Harry Sullivan. Joining the pair of them is Sarah Jane Smith, The Brigadier and Sergeant Benton. Hell, there’s even Bessie. Not to mention a giant killer robot hell bent on destroying humanity. Really, with that line up, it doesn’t need to even have a plot for me to love it.
Though it does have a plot, and I quite enjoyed it. Robot is Doctor Who does King Kong, with Sarah Jane Smith as Ann Darrow and an insane robot as the giant ape. And like King Kong, at the heart of it is a very simple love story:
Robot meets girl,
Robot falls for girl,
Robot grows to enormous proportions and decides to kill all humans except for girl.
And the boys do some stuff too. In fact, there’s also a whole bunch of plot about prime directives and not killing humans and a plot by scientists to take over the world and rule through science. But who cares about plot when you’ve got characters?
Firstly, there’s the Doctor. Isn’t Tom Baker’s grin one of the greatest things in the world? I adore it to pieces. Screw the Robot and Sarah. The real love story is between me and that smile.
It is amazing watching Robot how in the first episode of his first serial, Tom Baker is the Forth Doctor we know and love. It’s not like the First Doctor and the rock incident in An Unearthly Child, the character just is as he is when he first shows up: childish, unpredictable and brilliant. Then again, as Tom Baker keeps on saying in the special features, he’s pretty much just acting as himself. I can't thank the production team enough for letting him do that. A world without Tom Bakers grin would be a very sad one indeed.
Of course there are a few wardrobe malfunctions, and the Doctor trying to escape UNIT. I’m sure some people out there despise the humour of those scenes, but I love it.
So remember in The Christmas Invasion, when everybody panics without the old Doctor, but then the new Doctor arrives on the scene just in time to save the day? Well this is pretty much the opposite, because in Robot the companions and secondary characters get a lot to do plot-wise.
For a start, Sarah Jane is about 25 different kinds of awesome in Robot, and I think a lot of it is because we actually get to see her be an investigative journalist. She spends the first three episodes sneaking around or barging into places she shouldn’t go, saving the Doctor and at no point allowing either the bad guys or UNIT get in the way of her investigation. Plus her investigation carries a lot of the plot. After all it’s her who discovers the robot in the first place.
It occurred to me while watching this that for a companion, Sarah’s pretty unique. She’s the only one I can think of that would still be investigating strange goings on and getting herself into a tonne of trouble and whether she had met the Doctor or not. Travelling with the Doctor just focused her attention towards the extraterrestrial. After all, it’s way she goes about her job and in this serial in particular she’s doing her job independently of UNIT. It’s a coincidence (well, plot contrivance) that she and the UNIT gang are investigating the same plot.
Oh, yeah and Sarah gets to threaten the villainess with a gun, which nearly makes up for the first half of episode 4 of The Hand of Fear. Nearly.
Meanwhile, the Brigadier is as unflappable as ever. Really, Robot is the anti-Christmas Invasion. Where a lot of time in the new series was spent on the regeneration, everybody in Robot just takes it in their stride, particularly the Brigadier who handles matters with a ‘Well, here we go again’ and then just gets on with the business of running UNIT.
However, there is a wonderfully sweet scene between the Brigadier and Sarah in which he tells Sarah top secret information because without the Doctor, he’s go nobody else to talk too. Okay, so telling a journalist classified information isn’t exactly a great move, even when they are as cute as a button (probably particularly if they are as cute as a button), but it’s a lovely scene between too characters I adore and for that I’ll forgive just about anything (take note Torchwood, that’s how you get me to forgive or ignore the rampant incompetence: likable characters).
Plus he gets to say what we’re all thinking: ‘You know, just once, I would like to meet an alien menace that wasn’t immune to bullets.’
And then there’s Harry Sullivan, who blusters into the serial all serious business, but that soon comes to an end when he has to put up with the Doctor’s escape attempts. Then we get to see the lighter side of Harry Sullivan.
I’ve decided Harry is the Neville Longbottom of Doctor Who. It is impossible not to like him. Well at least for 95% of the population. And Sarah Jane makes it known she thinks he just a bit old fashioned, which is made somewhat clear when he decides to wear a bowler hat while doing some supposedly James Bond-esq undercover work. Awww. You’ve got to love him for trying.
Meanwhile (the newly promoted to warrant officer but I’m still going to call Sergeant because it’s stuck) Sergeant Benton (another Neville Longbottom of Doctor Who candidate) is there, being lovely, putting up with all the weirdness and comes up with the idea that saves the day. And we get a big grin, which the Brig quickly puts and end too. But awwww. And I do love it when one of the characters other than the Doctor gets to save the day, complete bonus that it’s Benton.
In the Bad Buy category is actually a female villainess, Ms Winters (Patricia Maynard), who is terrific. There’s a scene at the beginning of the second episode with her using the robot to scare the wits out of Sarah, it’s a very well done. You’re never quite sure if she is actually trying to destroy Sarah, or just prove a point. It’s a wonderfully menacing scene.
The special effects are…well…umm…they get points for trying I suppose (actually, that screencap make’s it look a lot better than it is when you watch it on TV). And they were better than I though they would be
You have to admit though - the Robot does look kind of cool from the waist up. The head is a great design. And while the Robot worked in general, sometimes, particularly during the Robot’s big emotional breakdowns, no matter how much the actor tried it just doesn’t work and you just have to giggle. Also, I thought that Professor Kettlewell (Edward Burnham) was a bit of a waste of time, mainly because the mad scientist performance really started to grind on my nerves.
There was another thing about the serial that really bugged me: the reprise of the second episode at the beginning of the third and the third at the beginning of the fourth went on forever.
And the episode ends with the Doctor’s first ever ‘would you like a jelly baby,’ because that’s the Doctor’s way of dealing with a rather distraught Sarah. I know it a bit boring to adore Four and Sarah these days because they’re the iconic classic team TARDIS. But, you know, there is a very good reason why those two are the iconic Doctor and companion team. The obviously love each other’s company and complement each other so well, plus there’s that mysterious factor that you can’t quite put your finger on, the ‘chemistry’ factor that makes it so incredibly enjoyable watching them travel around time and space together. Those two are my absolute favourite pair.
Anyway, in conclusion, I’m not sure why this serial isn’t rated as one of the best. I loved it, though I'm heavily influenced by a line up containing nearly all my favourite characters. And I hope they put out a box set of season 12 sometime soon, because I’m so there.
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no subject
Date: 2007-09-20 04:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-20 06:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-20 07:21 pm (UTC)I love early Tom Baker stuff. I think his last few seasons weren't very good - the stories are bad and he's clearly just walking through it because he wants a pay cheque but I'd say the first four or five seasons are brilliant!
no subject
Date: 2007-09-21 05:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-21 07:00 am (UTC)I haven't watched a lot of those shows in years -- I remember at the time giggling about how bad the f/x were. I would imagine they're even worse by today's standards.