 "Robot" is the first story of the ‘new era’ of Doctor Who and features the introduction of Tom Baker's portrayal of The Doctor.
This story was also the first to feature new companion Surgeon Lieutenant Harry Sullivan, played by Ian Marter. Despite this being the first on-screen appearance for the character of Harry Sullivan it is assumed he has been around for quite some time - this is just the first opportunity we have had to meet him. This is not the first time Ian Marter has appeared in the show as he also played another role in the 1973 Third Doctor story "Carnival of Monsters".
Because the initial script was written before Tom Baker had been cast as the Fourth Doctor, and because there was initial plans of returning to an elderly Doctor – similar to that portrayed by William Hartnell -, the character of Harry Sullivan was created to carry out the action-oriented roles. Harry Sullivan however, was kept even though Tom Baker was young enough to carry out his own action sequences.
Despite having appeared in the show since the 1968 Second Doctor story, "The Web of Fear", this is the first story which The Brigadier's full name, ‘Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart’, is used. Prior to this story, his middle name had never been revealed.
It is revealed, in the second episode of this story, that Sergeant Benton (played by John Levene) has been prompted to Warrant Officer. However, despite this promption it is not reflected in the closing credits, which continue to give his rank as Sergeant.
This story is the last to feature UNIT as a regular element of a story; although the organisation would play a minor part in three stories of the following season ("Terror of the Zygons", "The Android Invasion" and "The Seeds of Doom"). UNIT would continue to be mentioned throughout the show and in the novels and audio stories.
This story marked the final appearance of Bessie - The Doctor's Edwardian roadster - until the 1983 Twentieth Anniversary Special "The Five Doctors". Its appearance in this story was only one of two occasions (the other being with the Seventh Doctor in the 1989 story "Battlefield") that a Doctor other than the Third Doctor is seen to drive this vehicle.
Behind the camera "Robot" was the first for which Robert Holmes was script editor and the final story that was produced by Barry Letts.
Former Script Editor and the writer of this story, Terrance Dicks, later revealed that two major influences for this story were King Kong and Isaac Asimov's I, Robot.
The director assigned to "Robot" was Christopher Barry, whose last Doctor Who work had been on "The Mutants" two years before. Unusually, Christopher Barry elected to conduct all location recording using videotape rather than the traditional film, due to the heavy use of the Colour Separation Overlay (CSO) technique required to achieve the effect of the ‘giant’ robot in episode four - the first Doctor Who story to have its location material to be shot entirely this way. This was due to it being easier and more convincing to marry the video effects to videotape than to film. The team had learned that lesson during the previous season's "Invasion of the Dinosaurs". The next stories to use OB Videotape for location work were "The Sontaran Experiment" and "The Seeds of Doom". Beginning with the 1986 The Trial of a Time Lord season of stories, videotaping exteriors became standard practice.
Despite the lessons learnt from the problems experienced in the "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" the CSO effects used in "Robot" didn't work so well in this story. The seeming disappearance of the robot's legs when it grows was due largely to a change in the way in which the CSO was achieved. Generally, blue had been used as the background to all CSO shots during the Third Doctor’s era. However, as with the previous story, "Planet of the Spiders", yellow was used instead. While this switch had produced generally desirable results for the shots of the Whomobile in flight, it didn't work so well in this story, due to the fact that the reflection of the studio lights on the silver of the robot's body registered as yellow to the camera. When the growing robot was keyed into the shot with Sarah Jane Smith, the CSO process removed all yellow from the shot, which took away not just the yellow background, but also those parts of the robot's body which the camera saw as yellow.
Parts of this story were recorded at the same time as parts of "Planet of the Spiders". This not only meant that Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker were literally playing The Doctor at the same time, but also that Elizabeth Sladen and to a lesser extent, Nicholas Courtney and John Levene were having to rush back and forth between the two productions.
This story features a revised new opening and closing title sequence, designed by Bernard Lodge which was realised using the 'slit scan' process, but in this instance it features Tom Baker rather than Jon Pertwee and, for the first time, the TARDIS.
The repeat of the regeneration sequence is virtually the same for the Pertwee-Baker transition, although the scenes of Elisabeth Sladen and Nick Courtney were re-filmed.
Part One includes an amusing scene where the Fourth Doctor goes through several costume changes before he finally chooses the bohemian outfit we now recognise.
At one point The Doctor takes a trip in the TARDIS. Exactly where he goes to is never revealed but it has been assumed that he may have travelled to the planet of Xoanon which The Doctor subsequently visits in "The Face of Evil" and discovers an image of himself carved in a rock face. The Target novelisation of "The Face of Evil" suggests that The Doctor's first visit to the planet of the Sevateem takes place early during this story, when Sarah witnesses the newly regenerated and still delirious Doctor starting to leave in the TARDIS, The Doctor returning so quickly and his mind so addled as a result of his recent regeneration that he never consciously remembered his time away until his return in the later story.
In post regenerative confusion, The Doctor is heard to refer to "The Time Warrior" (‘Sontarans perverting the course of human history’), "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" (‘I tell you, Brigadier, the Brontosaurus is large and placid. And stupid!’).
Despite being the first story of Season Twelve "Robot" follows on directly from the end of the previous season’s final story, "Planet of the Spiders", and also leads directly into the opening of the next one, "The Ark in Space". This story is therefore the second of a continuous series of adventures that continues through to "Terror of the Zygons", although the Virgin Books' The Missing Adventures novel "A Device of Death" takes place in a possible brief gap between "Genesis of the Daleks" and "Revenge of the Cybermen", and the BBC Books The Past Doctors Stories novel "Wolfsbane" is set in another such gap between "Revenge of the Cybermen" and "Terror of the Zygons".
In this story it is revealed that Great Britain holds the world's launch codes, as a neutral country. However, in the 2005 Ninth Doctor story "Aliens of London/World War Three" the nuclear launch codes belong to the United Nations.
The Doctor’s disarming the missiles in this story plays a crucial role in the Virgin Books' The New Adventures novel "Return of the Living Dad". In this novelisation a group led by the father of the Seventh Doctor's companion Bernice Summerfield attempt to force The Doctor to give them the missile codes he used in "Robot" as part of a plan to change history.
Sarah is heard to make a mocking comparison between Harry and James Bond, when he ‘volunteers’ to do a bit of espionage.
The Doctor is seen to use his sonic screwdriver to detonate a minefield, much as he did in the 1972 Third Doctor story "The Sea Devils".
In the scene where The Doctor empties his pockets at the Scientific Reform Society meeting, he produces a map from Skaro and references that Alpha Centauri table tennis players have six arms – referring to his meeting of Alpha Centauri in the 1972 Third Doctor story "The Curse of Peladon" and its sequel – the 1974 story "The Monster of Peladon".
The Tenth Doctor is heard to mention the giant robot in the 2009 story "Planet of the Dead", citing it as an example of the information in old UNIT files.
Patricia Maynard (who played Hilda Winters) returned to play the same character in the Big Finish Productions Sarah Jane Smith audio story "Sarah Jane Smith: Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre".
The conclusion of the recording of "Robot" brought Doctor Who's eleventh recording block to an end, and saw Barry Letts earn his final credit as the programme's producer, although he continued to supervise Philip Hinchcliffe for the next two stories. Barry Letts had been producer of the show for five years – helming every story since the 1970 Third Doctor story "Doctor Who and the Silurians". After leaving Doctor Who, Barry Letts continued to produce and direct, with much of his work concentrating on classics stories for BBC1 (sometimes in concert with Terrance Dicks). These included an adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Hound of the Baskervilles", starring Tom Baker as Sherlock Holmes. Barry Letts would also return to Doctor Who as both a director (on "The Android Invasion") and an executive producer (supervising novice producer John Nathan-Turner during Season Eighteen). In the Nineties, he scripted "The Paradise of Death" and "The Ghosts of N-Space", two Doctor Who radio dramas starring Jon Pertwee. Barry Letts later novelised these stories for Virgin Books. He also contributed two Third Doctor adventures to the BBC Books' line of Doctor Who novels: "Deadly Reunion" (co-written with Terrance Dicks) and "Island of Death".
This story was one of two Doctor Who stories to have a novelisation written, aimed at younger readers. Written by Terrance Dicks, this edition was titled "Junior Doctor Who and the Giant Robot".
The audiobook, read by Tom Baker, of the Target novelisation of this story, which was released by the BBC in November 2007, was broadcast, in eight parts, on BBC Radio 7 in April 2010.
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The Firsts:
The first story of Season Twelve.
Tom Baker's first credited appearance as the Fourth Doctor.
The introduction of new companion Harry Sullivan played by Ian Marter.
Robert Holmes' first credited involvement in the show as Script Editor.
The first story where all the location recording was recorded on videotape rather than traditional film.
The first time that The Brigadier's full name, ‘Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart’, is used.
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(Position = 87 out of 159)
(Position = 106 out of 200)
