The Robots of Death (DVD)
Science Fiction Video
Written by Chris Boucher
Starring Tom Baker
ISBN: 0-7907-6190-4
Publisher: Warner Home Video / BBC Video, $24.98
In ‘The Robots of Death,’ Tom Baker, one of the all-time favorite Doctors, takes on murder and mystery on a storm mine on a barren planet. This story is one of the more popular ones, and includes a few extra features thrown into the DVD.
The Doctor and Leela arrive on board the Storm Mine 4, a craft in search of valuable metals from sand storms scouring the planet surface. They are immediately captured and accused of murders occurring within the strange mine craft.
During their capture, more murders occur, and the Doctor and Leela eventually join with the remaining crew members to find the killer. It is soon found of course that someone is reprogramming the robots used throughout the ship to kill the human crew members. The only problem is finding out who is doing this evil act. For those who haven’t seen this video, I’ll leave that point unknown. Suffice it to say, the villain is one interesting character.
A wonderful cast of supporting characters from the ship’s commander to various crew members adds quite a bit to the plot and story as it develops. Even the robots, from the non-talking Dumbs to the SuperVoc, are wonderfully designed and make the story even more believable. During the entire four episodes that make up ‘The Robots of Death,’ I viewed only one scene that I considered bad, which was just a bit of overacting by one of the actors who luckily gets killed off early in the show.
One of the best characters in the show is D84, a so-called ‘Dumb’ robot who actually can talk and is much more that he seems. Two of my favorite lines from the movie involve D84. I won’t go into tremendous details here, as it needs to be seen to be appreciated. The first scene is D84 scaring the Doctor after he hears a scream in the background, and the other is a comment when Leela throws a broken off robot hand at D84.
One of the most humorous scenes actually is at the beginning of the film, when they show Leela playing very intensely with a yo-yo. Being the savage that she is, she gets the impression that by keeping the yo-yo spinning, that the Tardis (the Doctor’s time machine for those not familiar with Doctor Who) will stop working. It so amusing when she realizes that the yo-yo has nothing to do with anything, and vents her frustration at the Doctor.
As is the norm on most DVDs, there are some special things on this disc. Some of the extras include: a robot voice test, sand miner test scenes (rather boring), voice intros from the 1978 videos release to TV stations, a Who’s Who section detailing the actors (interesting reading), studio plans (which are very hard to read), and the option for commentary by the original producer and writer (which I found to be rather dull). Not too bad for extras, but I wouldn’t mind more substance in the Specials section. Luckily the film makes up for this lack of extra features.
This is definitely one of the better Dr. Who series out there for new and old fans alike, and worth adding to your video collection. You won’t be disappointed!
(review (c) December 2001 / David Flemming)