A Giant's First (Faltering???) Steps... | Robot | Doctor Who Marathon From The Beginning

[@markwalko7418]

This is the first story I ever watched in 1982 in USA on PBS. Now I find Baker driving Bessie horrible. But I didn't know there were other doctors at that point. It was when I got to stay up after my bedtime to watch the 5 doctors that I was introduced to more doctors.

[@robapple1]

I agree wholeheartedly with your review Chris apart from one thing, I quite like the tank.

[@stephennoonan8417]

Nail on head here, Chris! It’s no Spearhead or Eleventh Hour. But that ‘foreigners’ exchange is unquestionably a Highlight - Courtney’s priceless double take…👌😁

[@Howtragicforyou]

"what's the point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes" is one of those Doctor who quotes I use my day-to-day life. Words to live by

[@GenATV33]

I've really enjoyed your videos, as they help me to reflect on how I write. I think this a great synopsis of Terrence Dicks as a writer (and script editor). He's like a cook who makes a meal that has everything it needs for a balanced diet- but sometimes he goes light on is the seasoning, and you feel like there was little pizzaz when he was cooking. Robert Holmes was the total opposite to Terrence Dicks, as is aptly shown by the Five Doctors, because Robert Holmes could not cook a meal with a strict recipe because it would restrict his creative juices. Instead, Robert Holmes worked best when he was simply told to cook. Robert needed no recipe to work with, his cooking style might have even looked chaotic to some, but when he produced meals they were full of pizzaz and flavour (The Deadly Assassin and the Caves of Androzani being two of the episodes in my top 10). I think both styles of cooking work. When I actually cook for real I'm more of a follow the recipe guy, whereas my wife just cooks! But in my writing, I much prefer to write freely and not mechanically. For me writing in a mechanical way restricts creativity. I prefer to keep writing with fluidity- which means writing a Hollywood script on paper, even if its not practical to perform on an amateur level! This is because if I allow practicalities to override the writing process, it will breakdown the fluidity and creativity for me. However, I do think each to their own for writing. Robert Holmes couldn't write like Terrence Dicks, and Terrence Dicks couldn't write like Robert Holmes. And both of them churned out some stunning Doctor Who. Terrence worked on the War Games and the Ambassadors of Death [which for me eclipses Inferno for my favourite Pertwee story], the Horror of Fang Rock is delightful, and the Five Doctors was the birthday party classic Doctor Who deserved. Thank you again for your thoughtful videos, as they help me to become a better writer.

[@strataseeker2981]

Robot is a story I cannot objectively judge. Damn near the earliest memories I have of my life were watching the old VHS tape with The Five Doctors, Robot, and Ark in Space on it. This story is more familiar to me than some members of my family. That said, I can see the flaws, I can see the cheese, but I can also see it as a loving send-off for the UNIT family of old and of the UNIT era. While we'd see them again, this is the last story that really falls in that vein. Kettlewell and Winters are excellent baddies, and the K-1 voice is iconic to me. I do agree that the design is hard to take seriously as a threat or at all practical. Both 4 and Harry arrive almost fully formed. Tom's performance is instantly endearing, and his eccentricity really strikes a change from Pertwee back towards a more Troughton like mischief. It's a little over the top a few times, but I also love those moments like "Nothing, said the iceberg to the Titanic glup glup glup". Harry is possibly the most quintessentially British companion up to this point. He even ends up in a bowler hat, uses every colloquialism, and still manages to be lovable. I love this story even with all it's rough edges. I have to give extra credit to the Radiophonic Workshop because this is when the show's sound design really took a notable leap up for the 70s era. The groan of the robot appearing, the countdown to launch, even the tank sounds help sell what is otherwise a laughable shot. But now, now we're about to head into one of my all time favorites.. Next time

[@jasonchilders9819]

I really appreciate your marathon videos. I have been on my own marathon, just getting to the 60th anniversary specials. (I saw them when they first aired, of course.) I have also included the stories from the Wilderness Years, the spin-off series, the Tardisodes, the Lockdown shorts, and all the other video extras that I've been able to find on KZbin, which I figure you will watch, but not necessarily review. Being an American, and being a little older than you, I discovered Doctor Who during the Tom Baker era, and started watching regularly around the end of the 20th anniversary, and was able to watch the stories at 11 pm on Saturdays after my folks went to bed. I've enjoyed him ever since. There have been a few expanded story videos I haven't been able to find, so I still have a few things to watch eventually, and have been enjoying the 15th Doctor adventures. So I look forward to seeing how your marathon goes.

[@Lethgar_Smith]

Back around 1978 or 79 I went to a small science fiction convention put on by our local college at the student center. There was maybe 150 people there in total for the one day event. There was a small dealer room, they had a costume contest and a couple of rooms set up showing films. One room was showing Doctor Who on a 20" CRT TV in a room with about 20 chairs. I thought, "I read about this show in Famous Monsters magazine, let's check it out." They're showing The Giant Robot, Tom Baker's first story. I come in somewhere in the middle of it. I sit through about 15 minutes and have to get up and leave. Im too distracted, I cant tell what anyone is talking about, the TV is too small and Im too far away, people keep walking in and out, etc. They would eventually show the series on our local PBS station as well, a few years later and I really got into it. To this day, however, The Giant Robot is still my least favorite episode.

[@markstramtrainbuscapades1729]

I vividly remember watching this on Saturday 28th December 1974, just after my eighth birthday and...suddenly, I was a "Doctor Who" fan! Yes, I'd watched some Pertwee, with "Day Of The Daleks" and "The Sea Devils" being the earliest two stories I remember, but something about this goofy, fun Doctor was far more attractive than Pertwee's seriousness (which I would appreciate much later!) Yes, looking at it now, it's a fairly lightweight script but that works to allow the new Doctor chance to breath, as well as Harry, though his turn to really shine comes next! Yeah, I have to say I like it, even if mainly for nostalgic reasons!

[@HudsonMedia]

I remember finding this story boring as a kid. But as I’ve gone on to love Tom Baker’s era and his Doctor. I find this story a fun little romp. Surprised by how much stuff you seem to dislike. But I totally get it.

[@paulhammond6978]

I always enjoy this one. I find the action man in the tank "special" effect cute rather than annoying, and the Robot is charming. Also, a great villain in this one, and it's fascinating to see Tom Baker in a Jon Pertwee unit adventure and to contrast how they approach the role.

[@IanCaiMercer]

Great stuff!

[@TediousMilkshake]

3:33 that's half of season 15, he did that for several target stories around that era!!

[@Harry75]

Given the popularity enjoyed by Pertwee's Doctor, and his then record length as the incumbent in the role, having Baker's debut effectively written as 'business as usual' was, in itself, a sound idea. After all, Sarah had only joined at the beginning of the previous season, so having familiar UNIT trappings may have helped reassure viewers that this was still Doctor Who. That the story itself was a bit lacking unfortunately lends itself to the impression that the previous model had started to run out of ideas (even if I agree with you and love The Time Warrior and Invasion of the Dinosaurs). Fortunately, a new paradigm was about to be established, with this almost serving as an exorcism of sorts, a clearing of the deck before the incoming production team could truly make their mark. And what a subversive presence Tom is in a subpar Jon run-around!

[@johng5859]

I generally agree with your assessment of this one. I don’t think it helps that Terrance Dicks was playing it safe by plonking the new Doctor in a story that his predecessor would have been right at home in. While this does achieve the objective of reassuring viewers that it is still the same show, just with a new lead, coming off the back of the uninspired second half of Season 11 it does reinforce the feeling that Who was getting a bit tired at this point and in need of new creative direction. Barry Letts and Dicks had both done sterling work on the show, but arguably they stayed one year too long and it was definitely time for change in the production office. For me, Robot just feels like a Pertwee hangover; it is with the next story, with the new producer and script editor getting a firm grip of the show, that the fourth Doctor’s era truly begins. Having said that, I think Tom pretty much finds his Doctor instantly, and his anarchic, alien interpretation of the role makes an incredibly refreshing change after Pertwee’s more patrician take, and the feeling I had in his last few stories that he was starting to go through the motions a bit. Tom seizes the role with both hands, and in my view makes it his own more quickly than just about any other Doctor.

[@andrewwood1035]

Keep doing what you're doing Chris! Your reviews are my kind of nutty wokeness

[@chris_stokes]

Oh don't worry Andrew, I'm not planning on changing anything

[@stuartwho]

I was thirteen when Tom made his debut. The previous night we had the omnibus of Planet of the Spiders so regeneration was at the forefront of everyone’s minds even though we didn’t get a Radio Times cover (or indeed ever during Tom's run!!). So I came into Robot with high hopes but 13 year olds don’t like cringe. And we got plenty- the costume changes, the tank, the Sarah doll dangling lifelessly from the robot's pincers all wrapped inside a bog standard UNIT story. Nice touch to leave the tank to the very end of your review. But the script did give us some nice things. The Doctor feels different with some witty reposts - I always like the unsinkable Titanic bit. Sarah and Harry are brilliant and I can’t remember if I knew he was a new companion beforehand. Bet you are glad it wasn’t Yates 😂. The rest of the cast are excellent especially Patricia Maynard as Hilda Winters in her scenes with Miss Smith😅. I love the design and voice of the Robot. It looks real and stands up well at the exhibitions. The fact that he nearly trips a few times is a flaw but I can over come this. I loved the scene when the Brig causes it to grow to giant size. And the fact we feel sorry for the Robot's demise at the end and indeed Kettlewells gives the story a little bit more than just being a runaround romp. As for the future the next story could not be more different in every regard and my all time favourite era will begin.

[@andyElec]

The best part of this story is Harry's reaction to the TARDIS "Oh I say" and Sarah and the Doctor's reaction to it 😄 In that moment through some wonderful physical acting, you know full well Sarah and The Doctor really are best friends, they're on each others wavelength, and they're about to head off on some fun adventures 😊

[@akshaytrayner1960]

Great review mate I enjoy for its cheesy ness here he is a bit rocky but still good

[@gkgd1519]

Pluto tv has the dr who channel here in the USA but they always start at the ark in space and completely skip robot every time , thankfully I’ve got Brit box through prime and so I can watch” robot “ I love the regeneration and love how “ no I’m the real doctor” works out with harry strung up in the closet His outfits are hilarious and Tom baker was my first doctor so I’m completely biased it is a very Jon Pertwee script tv though robot is rather cheesy but isn’t that why we like it ?? 😊 Tom bakers era is the best

[@michaelgraham4234]

The shortest Target novel by Dicks I can think of off the top of my head is Image of the Fendahl.

[@michael_m22]

Another great video, Chris. I'm going to enjoy this era of the show more with your on-the-point reviews. 1975. Britain was on the decline. A Labour government clinging to power, a stagnating economy, and possibly the darkest period at BBC Television Centre. Gary Glitter prancing about on Top of The Pops (wearing that ridiculous sequin jumpsuit); Jimmy Saville gurning on Jim'll Fix It (wearing that ridiculous track suit and jewellery); and then, my hero, The Doctor meeting his most deadliest enemy yet-Tom Baker (wearing that trademark ridiculous scarf). As a child, I hadn't seen Troughton or Hartnell, and so I had no idea what a regeneration was. This meant that for the first couple of episodes, I thought 'Robot' was a continuation of 'Planet of The Spiders' and Sarah would eventually work out this new guy was an imposter, a Metebelis Spider would appear on Baker's back, and we'd see the triumphant return of the real Doctor, Pertwee. On a happier note, I do remember (unless I imagined it?) Mum buying a pack of Kellogg's Cornflakes and getting a little cut-out of The Giant Robot and TARDIS on the back . I'm sure it's around this time, or perhaps a year or so later, that I also discovered the fantastic 'Planet of The Apes'! At least we have the lovely Liz Sladen for a couple more seasons, and we have a few more stories with The UNIT regulars. Sarah and Harry would go on to became my favourite TV Characters by the time we get to 'Genesis of The Daleks'. Strange thing is, I don't remember how Harry left the show. It'll be interesting to find out!

[@chris_stokes]

@@michael_m22 Thanks Michael, always love hearing about watching the stories as kids on first broadcast. Your framing of it as him being an imposter is precisely the sort of viewing many of us will never have! Glad you're enjoying the journey! I can understand why you don't remember how Harry left. Without giving much away, when companion farewells are made a deal of it's no wonder your memory of Harry's is fuzzy!

[@martinhudecek8886]

​Comparing baker to saville and glitter . smh.. x100​@@chris_stokes

[@chris_stokes]

@@martinhudecek8886 I didn't Martin, and I didn't think Michael had either really. I'm sure Michael knows full well what revelations came to light regarding those 2 awful people, but he is discussing his childhood TV memories (which are not mine) rather than saying Tom Baker is cut from the same cloth as them on a personal level. At least I sincerely hope that's not what he was suggesting.

[@leejnew]

I enjoy Robot on the whole but for me you can tell this was filmed way in advance of the rest of season 12. Tom is a little bit all over the place and it’s a performance you never really see from him again, which considering it’s his first story, isn’t necessarily a bad thing?

[@Mark-nh2hs]

I always found the Target Novel of this story better esp as a child. When I finally watched it on Dvd I was sort of Meh. Although I prefer it over the 5th Doctor first story. I always found the 4th Doctors costume jarring in this story. It's a costume he's famous and I was used to him wearing but coming after Pertwee dapper dress sense it's like Woah this doesn't look right lol. I read somewhere they were wanting another older actor as the Doctor and felt they needed a young male companion (a bit like Ben) - then Tom was cast and it was like oh 😂.

[@paulhammond6978]

Yes, I heard that too - Harry was meant to be the Chesterton/Ben younger man for the action scenes in case they cast an older person as the Doctor. Then when Tom was perfectly capable of handling that stuff himself, they wrote Harry out at the start of the next season.

[@antonmassopust568]

Here's a shocker from what I've heard. Tarrant s Dick's sad that it was more or less a left. Over jumper, we script that they had laying around and they didn't know what exactly to do with it. So the band thing that he wanted to do. Was everybody sees the Doctor regenerate? Except for Harry and then he regenerates and everybody knows that he's the Doctor and nobody has to go and ask who that is.

[@jameswhitaker12]

Yeah I agree with you, the whole thing looks a bit cheap, and the decision to put a bunch of departing veterans with no real investment in where the show was going having to introduce the new doctor and do a big exciting season opener, was perhaps not the best one. There's a real sense here of UNIT having run its course and the show needing to move on, and yet this story is mostly just wheel-spinning, workmanlike but uninspiring. Fortunately we very quickly get a new direction for the show and it all gets so much grimmer...

[@stiofanmacamhalghaidhau765]

three stars of nutty wokeness??!! XD yeah I was geared up for 2 stars tbh. this was my first regeneration as a kid and as an 8 year old I felt 'I could write this better.' as you say the people in front of the camera did their job but dammit the script was grim, that silly robot was grindingly embarrassing, and the whole 'soldiers stand in the open firing rifles ineffectually at an unstoppable robot' thing...? on my first rewatch years later I had this sense that this was a terrible embarrassment and I hoped it was just a kid not getting... something. but it was worse second time around because I couldn't get past the awfulness tom and crew had to work with. totally got in the way of enjoying the opener for a great doctor. upside... it's done now. I've gone through this story maybe a half dozen times and it always hurts, but each time the end brings a sense of 'phew! now it gets good again'

[@chris_stokes]

@@stiofanmacamhalghaidhau765 thanks for sharing, that's really interesting! Especially as I didn't care for it when I watched it as a kid either. Admittedly on video 20 years after it aired but still... Something about it made it feel shonky. There's a thing with kids TV where, so the wisdom goes, kids want to "look over the fence". It's why kids TV has child protagonists slightly older than the intended viewer - children don't want to watch kids their own age. Maybe Robot feeling a bit like a kiddified Pertwee story serves to put some children off? I had no idea I'd find so much to say about Robot

[@stiofanmacamhalghaidhau765]

@@chris_stokes the 'bad' (lazy is maybe a better word) ones always generate a load more things to say than the great ones! I'm fully enjoying this series though. I disagree with you maybe 10% of the time (and I'd be harsher with those stars!) but that's the point. challenge your take on it all and see it through someone else's eyes. and tbh I don't know anyone irl who gives a damn or knows about pre-2005 Who, never mind able to understand some of the how and why behind 'joke didn't land' or 'superb pacing' or 'lazy plot'

[@kennethlogan459]

I can clearly remember this on its original broadcast, and i just hated Tom's portrayal of the Doctor. I found his costume change embarrassing ,and I really missed my Doctor, Pertwee, but by the end of Ark In Space, i was fully on board! I agree with you that there are many scenes in this story that grated on me on the first watch ,but now ,even though i still hate the costume scene, I can see the great performance Tom gives in his first story , and how his Doctor just solidified my love for the show over the next few years.

[@Synthpopper]

Well, here we are. #4! I like this one. It's a slightly underwhelming script but 4 gets some absolutely iconic moments (perhaps thanks to Tom). And it seems we have our newest inside joke with the nutty wokeness

[@chris_stokes]

@@Synthpopper I think if there's ever any merch I'd like Nutty Wokeness t-shirts

[@neilmcdonald9164]

Hmm,very minor things seem to bother you disproportionately:the costume try ons,the "gibberish"🎩🙄

[@stephenreed2093]

This has become the norm for regenerations though, so it has a lot to answer for. There must be other ways of conveying how the Doctor recovers. I appreciated how Ncuti Gatwa’s debut just sidestepped this issue.

[@neilmcdonald9164]

Tom is not helped by being in a story completely written originally for Jon (hence Bessie's presence)...wonder how 4 would've worked with your "fave" Captain Yates?🎩

[@johnboren8928]

The nature of creativity is not everything works. A great author has stories which don't quite click. A great singer has an off night. I agree this story is one of the more boring 4th Doctor stories, but who knows what was going on behind the scenes with Dicks at that time.

[@MSDOSProject]

I just found this one to be thurougly average. It does a decent enough job showing how Tom is different woth how he acts around and treats UNIT, but the plot is just big standard. Evil scientisist want to blow up the world just feels like low hanging fruir (and one somehow pertwees era mostly avoided). Its not awful but it feels like a lot of wated potential. Its definitely the weakest doctro premiere so far, although unfortunately i feel like they get worse for each classic doctor after this. Luckily this story is followed by an all time classic.

[@martinhudecek8886]

Castrovalva is clever and haunting. So no.