Having recently obtained a blu-ray copy of Tom Baker's first season as Doctor Who I thought it was a good chance to revisit those stories.Robot doesn't mess around with the laboured regeneration crisis of later Doctors and plunges the Doctor and the UNIT crew into a mystery around various thefts with a hi-tech theme. It's a good showcase for Tom's new Doctor as demonstrates his Holmesian detective skills, his ability to confuse enemies as well as...erm...card tricks and speed typing.
Elsewhere, Sladen as Sarah Jane gets to do some actual investigative journalism, while Marter's Harry seems to bumble around like a spare part who is clearly out of his depth. A special word also for Burnham as Professor Kettlewell. His hair is quite extraordinary!
The Robot is well realised - even if it does appear to have rather weak wrists. Special effects wise, chromakey is the order of the day and probably a bit too ambitiously used to be truly effective.
Storywise, it draws upon influences as diverse as King Kong, Asimov's three laws of robots and the earlier Doctor Who serial, Invasion of the Dinosaurs.
It's not the best Doctor Who story, or even of this season, but it serves as a safe introduction to the fourth Doctor. Weirdly, the story with its trappings of UNIT and Earth bound nature feels more like a Pertwee setup than typical of Baker's era.
The blu-ray is a nice step up picture and audio quality wise with much of the compression noise in the picture disappearing. You'll never be convinced that this is HD, but within the limitations of the camera and production technology - this looks about as good as it ever will.
Verdict: The fourth Doctor arrives in a third Doctor story.
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