Rate "The Robots of Death"

The Doctor and Leela arrive aboard a huge Sandminer, a vessel which mines a planet as it moves along its surface. But this is not an opportune time for our Time Travelers to have arrived: someone is killing the crew of the Sandminer off one by one, and the Doctor and Leela are the obvious suspects. The truth, however, is a bit more sinister than that. The robotic staff of the Sandminer are the ones responsible for the murders, as they've fallen under the influence of the crazed scientist and inventor Taren Capel. And Capel has plans to have his robotic creations replace humanity altogether.

So what did you think of the penultimate story for Season 14? Did it hit a valuable streak or was it merely fool's gold?

Wonderful stuff. A whodunnit in the most extraordinary setting. Brilliant script, amazing costumes and set design, splendid performances all round. A gold star 5/5 story.

I think the last time I saw this was about 15 years ago. The sets were certainly well presented on camera, and as a murder mystery plot, it certainly gave us a brilliant twist on the notion that the butler did it. But I can't bring myself to give it a 5 only because the pacing struck me as a bit uneven in places. So Robots of Death gets a 4 from me.

Patrick wrote:I think the last time I saw this was about 15 years ago.

Fule, watch it now!

Is it available on the BBC's YouTube channel?

Why don't you look? Failing that, it's on Daily Motion.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x12qx3k_the-robots-of-death-1_shortfilms

I shall watch the daily motion video, and indeed explore the Tube of You, to re-watch this episode. Back in the 90s, BBC-America used to show early Tom Baker episodes at 5:30 in the morning. They would go from Robot through The Talons of Weng-Chiang and then start the loop over. When I sent an email asking why they didn't show any other Doctors or any other of the Tom Baker years, they response I got was that they didn't hold the rights to show those. That always struck me as really odd. How can the BBC not own the rights to a show they produced?

This is the BBC we're talking about. The same BBC that doesn't know that it's launching BBC Store soon.