Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 401: Robot, Episode One

Dear diary,

Last year, the BBC released a special DVD box set containing all of the regeneration stories. I bought a copy - despite having all of the stories in question on DVD anyway - because I liked the packaging. Simple as that. I’m a sucker for nice DVD packaging. Anyway, it’s a nice enough set, and I popped in the DVD of Tenth Planet Episode Four just to take a look at the animation, but since then it’s simply sat on the shelf and looked pretty. But I’ve always thought that it was a bit of a shame that it’s just the regeneration stories - because to me they’re only half the tale. The Tenth Planet certainly sees the First Doctor wearing a bit thin and then collapsing onto the floor of the TARDIS to change his face for the first time, but it’s the events that follow directly on in The Power of the Daleks that I found most interesting. Similarly, the opening of Spearhead From Space gives extra weight to the end of The War Games, because we get to see the Doctor in his new face, just as confused as the rest of us are.

I’ve seen Robot several times before now. I can distinctly recall the very first time I watched it - sat on a beach in Tunisia. It had just been released on DVD that Monday, so I copied the whole thing to my pre-iPad style device to take with me and enjoy in the sunshine. I’ve never really been able to get my head around sunbathing - it’s so boring! What are you supposed to do, just lie there? - so it was a good enough way to while away the hours. I’ve seen it two or three times since then, too, in whole or in part, but this is the first time that it’s ever really meant anything to me.

I’ve often thought of Robot as being a bit of a spare part from the Pertwee era - a leftover adventure with UNIT into which the new Doctor is shoehorned. I’ve also never really thought of it as being a particularly big threat to them - oh, sure, there’s the possibility of a nuclear war before the story is out, but it lacks the sheer scale of a dinosaur invasion of London, or The Green Death, or any of their earlier efforts. It feels like a rather low-key story, and that’s always left it a bit insignificant for me.

But now I’m seeing it in context, it’s clear that the story isn’t supposed to be particularly brilliant. Despite the title, these four episodes aren’t really about the robot, but rather about introducing us to the new Doctor while he’s surrounded by all his old friends. Everything with the robberies, Think Tank, Professor Kettlewell… it’s all just window dressing to allow Tom Baker an opportunity to bed himself in and find his feet in the role.

Thankfully, he doesn’t waste any time doing so. Right from the off, his energy is simply absorbing. The way he bounds around the UNIT lab without ever really touching any of the Third Doctor’s equipment is fab - Pertwee used to be fiddling with some gadget or gizmo, but this new incarnation has no interest in any of that. As he’ll go on to say later in his lifetime - he doesn’t work for anybody here, he’s just having fun. That really is the only way to describe the Doctor in his earliest post-regeneration madness. The look of sheer glee when he turns round and sets eyes on the TARDIS for the first time can’t help but raise a smile from anyone watching, too, and I think it’s probably the moment that you come to completely accept this new incarnation.

I love the way that he interacts with the Brigadier, too. Over the last few months, I’ve become very accustomed to the way that the Third Doctor interacted with what was effectively his boss, so it’s great to see the new guy being completely bored by the man. He doesn’t even really look at the Brig if he can help it, instead choosing to stare off into the middle distance somewhere and steer his companions into the right direction. He’s also go a real dry wit that doesn’t come across quite as forced as it sometimes did during the Pertwee years, and I found myself laughing out loud at a number of moments throughout the episode - all related to the Doctor.

I think what’s surprising me is how little time he’s actually spending with Sarah Jane - his actual companion. She’s the one who, early on, manages to call him back as he tries to escape in the TARDIS, but after that they seem to just go their separate ways. I know that their two stories will dovetail before Robot finishes, but here they don’t seem to have much care for each other. Sarah’s not even present when the Doctor chooses his new costume - that scene is left for the Brigadier. I’ve never noticed it before, but it does seem really odd to keep them so far apart for much of the story. I’m wondering if it’s because chinks of this story were filmed alongside Planet of the Spiders, so Lis Sladen is kept away from the rest of the cast on location as much as possible, to allow double-banked shooting? Whatever the reason, I’m hoping to see it rectified sooner rather than letter, because I want to settle in and watch how this pair develop their relationship in the early days of the new incarnation…