Home :: DVD :: Television :: TV Series  

A&E Home Video
BBC
Classic TV
Discovery Channel
Fox TV
General
HBO
History Channel
Miniseries
MTV
National Geographic
Nickelodeon
PBS
Star Trek
TV Series

WGBH Boston
Doctor Who - The Robots of Death

Doctor Who - The Robots of Death

List Price: $24.98
Your Price: $22.48
Product Info Reviews

Features:
  • Color


Description:

By Tom Baker's third season in the role the actor had become firmly established in the minds of many fans as the definitive Doctor. First broadcast in early 1977, "Robots of Death" follows on directly from "Face of Evil," which was writer Chris Boucher's debut and also that of Louise Jameson's Leela, the Doctor's most shapely companion (a kind of Neanderthal Seven of Nine if you will). Boucher's second Who story concerns an isolated mining ship on which a series of inexplicable deaths takes place--although as the Doctor opines, "nothing is inexplicable, only unexplained." The Doctor and Leela inevitably become embroiled in events, which soon turn into a sci-fi murder-mystery: imagine Isaac Asimov crossed with Agatha Christie in a Dune-like setting. Add an undercover robot sent by "the company" and the claustrophobic, not to say deadly, setting of the mining ship, and there is a fascinating foreshadowing of Alien, too. It is tightly plotted, intelligent Saturday afternoon entertainment (something that was possible then but is now an unthinkable oxymoron) with a typically strong cast of redoubtable thespians in supporting roles (not to mention extravagant costumes and garish makeup). There may be no Daleks or Cybermen, but this is vintage Who nonetheless. --Mark Walker
© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates