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 Robots of Death is far from the only Doctor Who story to be patterned after the classic Agatha Christie formula. It could be debated that it isn't even the best. But it makes a strong follow-up to The Face of Evil. And with a taut pace and some very suspenseful moments, it manages to continue Season 14's winning streak in solid, if imperfect, form.
THE GOOD
The story moves quickly, with the characters in the thick of things almost immediately. Within minutes of materializing inside the mining ship, The Doctor and Leela find themselves in danger of being smothered by the sand that is about to be sucked into the ship. They narrowly escape that danger, only to find themselves in more trouble--accused of two murders that were committed just before their arrival.
I don't know whether it was design or accident that had Chris Boucher writing Leela's first two scripts back-to-back. Whatever the case, it works in the character's favour, providing strong character continuity and showing us several new facets to Leela.
Leela is very alert and suspicious; and although she does not understand much of the technology that surrounds her, she is consistently shown to be intelligent. She is also highly pragmatic. Early in the story, she shows disinterest in some of The Doctor's long explanations of various technologies. But later, we see that it isn't because of a lack of intelligence or curiosity. Leela wants to know things because they will help her in a situation or keep her alive. Information that won't directly help her is not useful, and therefore a waste of her time.
Louise Jameson continues to impress in her performance as Leela. But hers is only one of several good performances in this serial. The crew of the mining ship is generally well-acted, and the characters are nicely defined. Though the viewer is deliberately manipulated to suspect the profit-driven Captain Uvanov, several characters are given possible motives for the killings. Much like in Blake's 7 (a show Boucher would go on to script edit and write for) the crew is made up of many ruthless people, most of whom are shown to harbor varying levels of violent dislike for each other.
Of course, it would be impossible to review this story without mentioning the title characters: the robots themselves. The robot design is wonderful. Their faces are frozen in a single expression throughout, one that is beneficent and sinister all at the same time. The "speaking" robots talk in a polite, soft-spoken manner, managing to keep a servitors' tone even in the midst of murder. There's a scene where a robot corners an intended victim in her cabin. When the woman pleads for her life, the robot gently explains that it has to kill her, that is its program. Its tone continues to suggest genteel servitute, even as it violently strangles her. The contrast between the robot's actions and its manner makes for a genuinely chilling moment.
THE BAD
Robots of Death is a good story. It may even be a very good story. But it is also an overrated one, with several weaknesses.
The story is presented as a murder mystery. According to the DVD commentary by producer Philip Hinchcliffe and writer Chris Boucher, the production team even referred to it as "the Agatha Christie story" of the season. Given this, my first and most obvious complaint is that it is a laughably easy mystery to solve. I knew who the killer was by midway through Episode Two; I'm sure some people guessed the villain's identity in Episode One.
Also, as the story goes along, the timeline of the killings gets extremely muddled. At least two characters are killed off-screen, with very little indication as to when or exactly where they were killed. Since one of these off-screen murders ultimately provides a vital clue for The Doctor, it seems like nothing so much as sloppy writing to make this particular murder a non-event.
There are also plot devices that Boucher apparently didn't even attempt to disguise. A big one occurs in Episode 2, when Zilda searches Captain Uvanov's quarters. She finds something that apparently incriminates Uvanov, but we never get much detail as to what this evidence is. In fact, Zilda's big "discovery" is never even mentioned again, serving only as an excuse for confining Uvanov to his quarters through most of Episode 3.
Since Uvanov's cynical self-interest was a highlight of the early episodes, it is all the more disappointing when his character becomes inconsistent at the end. In Episode 4, when Boucher decides he's done trying (unsuccessfully) to make us think the greedy Captain is the killer, Uvanov returns to the main action. Actually, I should say that the actor returns to the main action. Because the character who returns for the final episode is simply not the same Uvanov we saw in the early part of the story. No longer greedy, or even particularly self-intersted, this Uvanov is watered-down to the point of blandness.
Still, at least that actor does as well as he can with the material. Which is more than could be said for Tom Baker, who delivers maybe his least energetic performance since his introduction. It's not that he's bad. He even has some very good moments, early on. But for most of the story, it feels like Baker is just going through the motions. After his generally excellent performances in the season's first four stories, I expected better than a competent walkthrough. It's rarely a good sign in a story when the companion outshines The Doctor.
Despite these problems, Robots of Death remains an entertaining 4-parter. It is never boring, and Chris Boucher's script manages to tell a tight story while developing the working relationship between The Doctor and his newest companion. It will never be one of my favorites. But it's well worth seeing, just the same.
Rating: 
» Review by J. Paul Halt, Copyright 2003.
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