The Robots of Death
(DVD)
 

Starring Tom Baker
4 Episodes
1977
95 minutes (color)
Single Disc




 

 

Production Notes
Doctor Who
Tom Baker

Leela
Louise Jameson

Written by
Chris Boucher

Directed by
Michael E. Briant
Produced by
Philip Hinchcliffe

Original Airdate
Jan 29, 1977 - Feb 19, 1977

US DVD Release Date
September 2001

Warner Home Video
#E1120

U.K. Cover




 

 

Cover Blurb
On a distant, barren planet, Storm Mine 4 trawls across bleak deserts and through fierce dust storms in search of rare and valuable metals. On board the Sandminer is a small skeleton crew, who alternate between indulgent relaxation and skilled mining work. The mundane, day-to-day duties of the mine are attended to by a much larger complement of servile robots.

This is a society that is dependant on robots for all areas of life, the people comforted by the knowledge that the strictest safeguards are built into each and every robot's programming. So when one of the miner crew is murdered, suspicion falls on two new arrivals...

The Doctor and Leela arrive on board, and are immediately accused of being the prime murder suspects. But the Doctor soon realizes that perhaps the killer isn't human. More deaths occur - can he persuade the remaining crewmembers that the killer may be a robot?




 

 

DVD Features

  • BBC1 Archives:
This feature includes a mixture of four different items of interest.  

First up is a short continuity announcement from a BBC1 announcer.  

The second part of this feature includes a short clip of SV7, the Doctor and Leela.  The actors voice hasn't been dubbed in yet, and so you can hear his muffled voice through his mask.

Third is a series of model shots (most of which went unused in the final version) of the sand miner.  There is no audio during this section.

Fourth is what is called a continuity slide.  It consists of a picture of Tom Baker and Louise Jameson which would have appeared on the TV screen while a BBC announcer would have introduced the program.
 
 
  • Howard Da Silva Intros:
For the US/Canadian (Region 1) release an additional mini-documentary on Howard Da Silva.  Da Silva  narrated short segments used during the openings and closings of episodes used in the early 80's syndication package.  These intros/outros are included in this feature.  Anyone who was introduced to Who back then (as I was) will get a neat trip down a nostalgic path. 
 
 
  • Who's Who:
A feature unique to the North American DVD releases.  It lists short biographical information on many of the actors involved in the story.
 
 
  • Photo Gallery:
A mixture of color and black and white stills showing many publicity stills from the production of this story.  Many of the pictures are rare or even never before seen.
 
 
  • Studio Floor Plans:
A bit of an odd choice for an extra, but included nonetheless.  When you click on this feature you get to see detailed floor plans for the sets involved in this story.  Mildly interesting.
 
 
  • Commentary:
Commentary is provided by Philip Hinchcliffe (producer) and Chris Boucher (writer).  Many fans consider their commentary to be a bit bland, but I find their discussions interesting (especially their analysis of Tom Bakers' Doctor).
 
 
  • Easter Eggs:
 None.  For a full list of known Easter Eggs and screen grabs of them click HERE.

 




 

 

Additional Notes
  • "The Robots of Death" is one of the first stories that attempts to explain why the TARDIS is bigger on the inside than out.  At the end of the lesson, a dazed Leela looks at the Doctor and says, "That's silly..."
  • David Collings (Poul) makes his second of three memorable appearances in Doctor Who.  His first role on Doctor Who was as Vorus in "Revenge of the Cybermen."  His third and final guest spot was as Mawdryn in the Peter Davison story "Mawdryn Undead."
  • If the actor playing Borg looks at all familiar that would be due to his role as Travis on the popular British sci-fi series Blake's 7.
  • The VHS version of this story was originally released in an edited "movie" (or Omnibus) format.  This means that individual episodes have been cut and pasted together into one viewing.  The BBC released Doctor Who videos like this until the early 90's.  Since then they have gone back and issued "re-releases" of virtually all of their omnibus versions.   In the U.S. they have only done two re-releases "The Brain of Morbius" back in 1997 and "Terror of the Zygons" in 2000.  The DVD release of "The Robots of Death" marks the first time this story has been commercially available in its original episodic format.
  • Because it is considered such a classic by mainstream fandom, "The Robots of Death" was one of the earliest stories released on VHS and is also one of the earliest on DVD as well.
  • This is the first Dr. Who U.K. DVD release after the test release of "The Five Doctors" in 1999.
     
  • Because this is an earlier DVD release, it is a bit thin when it comes to extras.  Most Doctor Who DVD's produced currently have considerably more bonus features than this disc.  Still a great release, though!