Robot: Part Three

The bigots want to take over the world, they have a cunning plan and it starts to be unfurled, a bit of hoodwink trickery, sets their path to victory, threats of violence are unleashed, propelled and hurled.

Review of all 4 episodes:

In the first episode of this story we see the regeneration from Jon Pertwee's third Doctor into Tom Baker's fourth Doctor which occurred at the end of the final Pertwee episode. Baker arrives in full exuberant form with no effort to allow viewers time to adjust to the huge change in personality for their hero. There is a lot of humour and mad eccentricity on display and Baker is marvellous right from the start. Throughout the story he displays hilarious wit and energy but also a good dose of brilliant intelligence and grit. He is electrifyingly good right from the start.

The story itself is of secondary importance to the introduction of the new Doctor and the re-drawing of his relationships with Sarah Jane and the UNIT team. All the regulars are great as usual: Lis Sladen is a joy as Sarah Jane, just take for example how she reacts to being confronted by the menacing robot when unlike so many companions she does not scream she, as usual, shows some strength. She is independent, takes action and is both brave and clever. Nicholas Courtney is his usual wonderful support as the Brigadier and Jon Levene is endearing as ever as Benton. The new arrival, Harry Sullivan, is very well acted by Ian marter and is a very good addition.

The Doctor and UNIT have to deal with a powerful robot that is being used by scientists to give them the opportunity to gain control of the world's nuclear weapons so they can take control and run the world the way they believe it should be run. There are some strong guest characters, all very well acted and there is plenty of action and fun. The robot itself while not appearing that special to look at, is actually a quite impressive creation for the day as it moves and acts pretty effectively. The robot is also given a lot of character as it struggles with its orders which contradict its prime directive not to harm humans. Only once or twice does this seem a bit imperfectly done, mostly it is done well and is strangely touching.

There is a lot of very good dialogue, both funny when required and serious the rest of the time. There is a nice element of the villains not intending to be evil but being willing to cause mass death in order to achieve a world they think is better.

From the excellent first episode and the really strong second and third episodes, the fourth episode of the story becomes a little less impressive with the slightly silly and pointless idea of the robot increasing to giant size and a few ambitious attempts at effects which do not look all that good. Character actions and events are also a bit less convincingly done in this final part. It is still a fun and exciting episode but not as great as it could have been.

Overall the debut of Tom Baker with such a dazzling performance from him is a shining highlight and with plenty of other good stuff too this adventure is very strong.

My ratings: Episode 1 - 10/10, Episodes 2 & 3 - 9/10, Episode 3 - 7.5/10.

The Doctor is set to be destroyed by the Robot, but Sarah bursts in and averts his fate. The Robot escapes and is attacked by UNIT, to no avail. Kettlewell is discovered hidden in a cupboard and he relays how Miss Winters re-programmed the Robot. He explains about his creation and how it was made out of living metal. Ketlewell smuggles Sarah Jane into an SRS meeting, Hilda (Winters) addresses the meeting with true vigour and Sarah learns the truth about Kettlewell. UNIT dive in, but Sarah is taken away by Hilda to an underground bunker.

Patricia Maynard is brilliant once again, very strong performance, I love how Hilda addresses the meeting. Hilda is the true villain of the piece.It's Tom that steals the show, he is utterly and totally entertaining. No wonder he's so well thought of.

It's quite a slick episode. Sarah once again plays a big part, she rescues the Doctor for a change. The Brig is on fine form too, he has some great scenes with the Doctor, it's all done with such sincerity. I like the concept of the SRS, again it feels like a concept that would have belonged to the Pertwee era, but it works.