 This story is considered by many fans a classic and arguably one of the show’s most popular stories.
"The Robots of Death" was written by Chris Boucher, who had also penned the previous story, "The Face of Evil", and was inspired by Frank Herbert’s novel "Dune" as well as the "Robot" series by Isaac Asimov. In particular the human/robot police duo Elijah Bailey and R Daneel Olivaw from "Caves of Steel" and its sequels may be the inspiration for the Chief Mover Poul/D84 pair. Prominent mention is also made of Isaac Asimov's First Law of Robotics: ‘A robot may not harm a human being, or through inaction allow a human being to come to harm’.
Commander Uvanov's name is a reference to Isaac Asimov, while Chief Mover Poul is a reference to Poul Anderson. While the villain of the story, Taran Capel, is a reference to Karel Capek, who is credited with first coining the word ‘robot’.
The murder plotline also owes a great deal to Agatha Christie - notably her novels "Ten Little Indians" in which several people on an island are murdered one by one.
David Collings, who plays Chief Mover Poul, previously appeared as Vorus in the 1975 story "Revenge of the Cybermen" and would later appear as Mawdryn in the 1983 Fifth Doctor story "Mawdryn Undead". He also played the part of an alternative incarnation of The Doctor in the Big Finish Productions’ Doctor Who Unbound audio drama "Full Fathom Five".
Pamela Salem, who played the part of Toos, had been a finalist for the role of Leela. She would later appear as Professor Rachel Jensen in the 1988 Seventh Doctor story "Remembrance of the Daleks".
Brian Croucher, who plays Borg, became more renowned for his portrayal of Travis in Blake’s 7.
Russell Hunter, who plays Commander Uvanov, is well known for his role as Lonely in the counterespionage series Callan.
Michael Briant had only reluctantly returned to the show to direct this story, and although Graham Williams (the Producer of Season Fifteen) was eager for him to helm another story, Michael Briant resisted all such entreaties - so bringing his Doctor Who career to an end. Michael Briant went on to direct episodes of Blake’s 7, Secret Army, Howards’ Way, and the Emmy Award-winning 1980 version of A Tale of Two Cities.
Designer, Ken Sharp, based his concept, for the look of the Sandminer and the robots, on an art deco style. This idea was also carried forward into the make-up and the costumes for the human crew.
There are three ‘classes’ of robots: Black ‘Dums’ that cannot speak which are used as a general workforce, the more intelligent pale green ‘Vocs’, and a silver ‘Super Voc’ (SV7) which controls all the ‘Dums’ and ‘Vocs’. It is revealed that the robots have over one million circuit constrainers to prevent them from harming humans. Deactivated robots are returned to construction centres bearing deactivation disks (nicknamed ‘corpse markers’). The corpse markers are actually bicycle reflectors.
Robophobia, an irrational fear of robots, is at one point referred to as ‘Grimwade's Syndrome’. This was an in-joke reference to Production Assistant Peter Grimwade (later to become a director and writer on the show) who had bemoaned the fact that the stories on which he was assigned to work almost always involved robots.
Peter Grimwade directed, uncredited, all the film insert sequences for this story.
This story includes the famous scene where The Doctor tries to explain why the TARDIS is dimensionally transcendental to Leela. However, his demonstration, using two differently sized blocks at varying distances, turns out not to be very helpful, indicating more of the nature of optics than physical space.
Although it was not realised at the time, this story marks the final appearance of the wood-panelled secondary TARDIS Console Room which had been introduced in "The Masque of Mandragora" at the start of this season. The set was not required for the next story, "The Talons of Weng-Chiang", and so was placed in storage. However, it was discovered that the wood had become damp and warped before the start of recording in Season Fifteen, necessitating its replacement. The Big Finish Productions’ Companion Chronicles audio story "Empathy Games", written by Nigel Fairs and released in October 2008, gives a possible explanation for its loss.
The music played to the crew in part one is "None but the Weary" by Tchaikovsky and "Girl with the Flaxen Hair" by Debussy.
Listen out in the scene where Leela throws her knife at an attacking robot. It makes a cartoony ‘shhhh doinkk!’ noise.
Though not named the planet being mined is one of many such worlds. The precise setting of this story has been disputed by fans. Some expanded universe material places it on Io, one of the moons of Jupiter, despite the fact the story suggests the atmosphere outside the Sandminer is breathable and the presence of a vast sandy desert is somewhat integral to the plot (neither of which would be the case on Io). One story places it on the planet Kaldor. However, the Kaldor City spin-offs do not name the planet where the city is located. (see the Virgin Books’ The New Adventures novel "Legacy", written by Gary Russell, and the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip "Crisis on Kaldor").
The Sandminers travel across the shifting deserts, extracting minerals such as Zelanite, Keefan and (most importantly) Lucanol.
It is revealed that The Doctor’s has an immunity to the vocal-altering effects of helium. It is not clarified whether this is due exclusively to Time Lord physiology (such as his respiratory bypass system), or to a technique he learned (like Venusian aikido).
Mention is again made of The Doctor having two hearts and respiratory bypass system. This was previously referred to in the 1970 Third Doctor story "Spearhead From Space" and the 1975 Fourth Doctor story "Terror of the Zygons".
Robophobia, an irrational fear of robots, is at one point referred to as 'Grimwade's syndrome'. This was an in-joke reference to production assistant Peter Grimwade (later to become a director and writer on the show) who had bemoaned the fact that the stories on which he was assigned to work almost always involved robots.
It is mentioned that V35 to V40 are the robots who searched the ore hoppers. Despite V35 spending the entire story in the robot storage bay.
The Tenth Doctor 2007 Christmas special "Voyage of the Damned" references this story with the look of the Hosts’ faces, various scenes from this story such as the Hosts’ chanting ‘Kill’ and the scene of a Host having its hand caught in a door and then having it fall off.
There is also a similar story construction between this story and in the 2006 Tenth Doctor story "The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit" where the Ood are a slave race (albeit living ones this time) turning on their masters after being manipulated and like the robots, the Ood's eyes would also glow red when under this influence.
Writer Chris Boucher, who was instrumental in the writing and production of the BBC series Blake's 7, wrote a sequel to this story, the BBC Book’s The Past Doctors Stories "Corpse Marker", as well as commissioning the Kaldor City series of audios produced by Magic Bullet Productions - although these stories do not feature The Doctor. In the Kaldor City audios Russell Hunter reprised his role for four stories until his untimely death in 2003. These audios also revive a Blake's 7 character, inexorably tying the two shows’ universes together for the first time.
This story was repeated on BBC One as two compilation episodes in 1977/78. Part one was 50 minutes in length and part two was 45 minutes.
A novelisation of this story, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in May 1979. This novelisation was the shortest released in this range. This novelisation is also infamous for featuring the character of Cass attending a meeting after being murdered in the previous chapter.
This story was released on DVD on in November 2000. It marked the debut of the ‘roundel’ template that at first didn't prove popular with fans. Strangely in the subtitles while actor Tom Baker is speaking he is credited as ‘Doctor Who’ instead of ‘The Doctor’. Also it was intended that the Continuities were to be a hidden ‘Easter Egg’, but an error was made and they were included as a regular menu item.
Episode 1 of this story was released on DVD in 2006, as a promotional item in a cardboard case with The Sun newspaper.
A sequel to this story, titled "Robophobia", was released by Big Finish Productions in July 2011.
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The Firsts:
The first trip in the TARDIS for new companion Leela played by Louise Jameson.
The first story released on DVD using the ‘roundel’ template for its cover artwork.
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(Position = 5 out of 159)
(Position = 9 out of 200)
