445 The Robots of Death Part Two

EPISODE: The Robots of Death Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 445
STORY NUMBER: 090
TRANSMITTED: 05 February 1977
WRITER: Chris Boucher
DIRECTOR: Michael Briant
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who Revisitations 3 (The Tomb of the Cybermen and the Robots of Death)

The Doctor survives by using a blowpipe to breathe and is rescued & captured by supervisor SV7 who identifies the body as Kerral. Leela works her way back to the room they were captured in where she finds Cass' body and is grabbed by a black robot, D84, who interrogates her before turning her over to Commander Uvanov who tells her that D class Dum robots can't speak. Both are taken to the crew room while the crew argue. Few of them even begin to believe the Doctor's story. A robot is instructed by an unseen human to kill Zilda as the Doctor & Leela are imprisoned in the robot storage bay. Poul visits them, but Leela is wary because "he moves like a hunter". The Doctor tells Poul he believes a robot could have killed them in violation of the robotic laws. He frees them to assist him and they re-enact Chub's murder with Poul realising he would need to summon a robot to help him with his task. Zilda breaks into Uvanov's quarters and is distressed by documents she finds, accusing Uvanov of murder. When Poul arrives he finds Uvanov standing over Zilda's dead body. Poul assumes Uvanov killed her and has him confined to quarters, with Toos taking command. The Sandminer's motors jam & overload causing it to rock violently. The Doctor & Leela come to the bridge as Dask reports to Toos that Borg is dead. Toos orders the motors shut down but the robots are unable to comply as the readings head way over the safety margins pushing the Sandminer closer towards exploding.

To paraphrase The Mary Whitehouse Experience: "Dead, Dead, Dead, Chub died first." They're dropping like flies in this story the order being Chub, Kerral (did we even see him alive?), Cass, Zilda & Borg. As far as we know there's just Uvanov, Poul, Toos & Dask left alive so, unless there's someone else on the sandminer we've not seen yet, one of them must be responsible for ordering the robots to kill. Which one is it? Effectively it's Doctor Who's version of a murder mystery, with Ten Little Indians/And Then There Were None frequently sighted as an influence.

Oh look, there's our old friends, the computer panels from UFO again on the sandminer bridge!

Among the departed in this episode is Brian Croucher, here playing Borg, who was Travis in the second series of Blake's 7. So it's time to look at that second series and see who else we know that was involved. Still at the helm as producer & script editor are David Maloney, who'll be directing the next Doctor Who story that we watch, and Chris Boucher, who wrote this one and it's predecessor The Face of Evil.

EPISODE: B1 Redemption

DIRECTED BY: Vere Lorrimer
WRITTEN BY: Terry Nation
BROADCAST ON: 09/01/1979

Sheila Ruskin (Alta One) The Keeper of Traken: Kassia
Harriet Philpin (Alta Two) Genesis of the Daleks: Bettan
Roy Evans (Slave) The Daleks' Master Plan as Trantis, The Green Death as Bert & The Monster of Peladon as a miner


EPISODE: B2 Shadow

DIRECTED BY: Jonathan Wright Miller
WRITTEN BY: Chris Boucher
BROADCAST ON: 16/01/1979

Vernon Dobtcheff (Chairman) The War Games: Chief Scientist


EPISODE: B3 Weapon

DIRECTED BY: George Spenton-Foster Director: The Image of the Fendal & The Ribos Operation
WRITTEN BY: Chris Boucher
BROADCAST ON: 23/01/1979

John Bennett (Coser) Invasion of the Dinosaurs: General Finch & Talons of Weng Chiang as Li H'sen Chang
Scott Fredericks (Carnell) Day of the Daleks: Boaz & Image of the Fendahl: Maximilian Stael


EPISODE: B4 Horizon

DIRECTED BY: Jonathan Wright Miller
WRITTEN BY: Allan Prior
BROADCAST ON: 30/01/1979

William Squire (Kommissar) The Armageddon Factor: The Shadow
Brian Miller (Assistant Kommissar) Snakedance: Dugdale and Resurrection of the Daleks & Remembrance of the Daleks: Dalek voices. Married to Elizabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith)


EPISODE: B5 Pressure Point

DIRECTED BY: George Spenton-Foster
WRITTEN BY: Terry Nation
BROADCAST ON: 06/02/1979

Jane Sherwin (Kasabi) The War Games: Lady Jennifer Buckingham. Former Script Editor/Producer Derrick Sherwin's wife.
Yolande Palfrey (Veron) Trial of a Timelord 9-12 (Terror of the Vervoids): Janet


EPISODE: B6 Trial

DIRECTED BY: Derek Martinus Directed: Galaxy Four, Mission to the Unknown, The Tenth Planet, The Evil of the Daleks, The Ice Warriors & Spearhead from Space
WRITTEN BY: Chris Boucher
BROADCAST ON: 13/02/1979

John Savident (Samor) The Visitation: The Squire
Peter Miles (Rontane) Dr. Lawrence in Doctor Who and the Silurians, Professor Whitaker in Invasion of the Dinosaurs & Nyder in Genesis of the Daleks


EPISODE: B7 Killer

DIRECTED BY: Vere Lorrimer
WRITTEN BY: Robert Holmes The Krotons, The Space Pirates, Spearhead from Space, Terror of the Autons, Carnival of Monsters, The Time Warrior, The Ark In Space, Pyramids of Mars, The Deadly Assassin, The Talons of Weng-Chiang, The Sun Makers, The Ribos Operation, The Power of Kroll, The Caves of Androzani, The Two Doctors, Trial of a Timelord 1-4: The Mysterious Planet & Trial of a Timelord 13 The Ultimate Foe.
BROADCAST ON: 20/02/1979

Morris Barry (Wiler) Directed: The Moonbase, The Tomb of the Cybermen and The Dominators. Appeared in The Creature from the Pit as Tollund


EPISODE: B8 Hostage

DIRECTED BY: Vere Lorrimer
WRITTEN BY: Allan Prior
BROADCAST ON: 27/02/1979

John Abineri (Ushton) Fury from the Deep: van Lutyens, The Ambassadors of Death: General Carrington, Death to the Daleks: Railton & The Power of Kroll: Ranquin
Kevin Stoney (Joban) Mavic Chen in The Daleks' Master Plan, Tobias Vaughn in The Invasion and Tyrum in Revenge of the Cybermen
Andrew Robertson (Space Commander) Pirate Planet: Mr Fibuli


EPISODE: B9 Countdown

DIRECTED BY: Vere Lorrimer
WRITTEN BY: Terry Nation
BROADCAST ON: 06/03/1979

Tom Chadbon (Del Grant) City of Death: Duggan & Trial of a Timelord: Murdeen
Paul Shelley (Provine) Four to Doomsday: Persuasian


EPISODE: B10

DIRECTED BY: Voice from the Past
WRITTEN BY: George Spenton-Foster
BROADCAST ON: Roger Parkes

No Doctor Who cast members involved


EPISODE: B11 Gambit

DIRECTED BY: George Spenton-Foster
WRITTEN BY: Robert Holmes
BROADCAST ON: 20/03/1979

Denis Carey (Docholli) Professor Chronotis in Shada, the Keeper in The Keeper of Traken and the old man in Timelash.
Aubrey Woods (Krantor) Day of the Daleks: The Controller#
John Leeson (Toise) K9 in the Invisible Enemy Onwards
Sylvia Coleridge (Croupier) Seeds of Doom: Amelia Ducat
Deep Roy (Klute) Talons of Weng Chiang: Mister Sin
Paul Grist (Cevedic) Claws of Axos: Bill Filer


EPISODE: B12 The Keeper

DIRECTED BY: Derek Martinus
WRITTEN BY: Allan Prior
BROADCAST ON: 27/03/1979

Bruce Purchase (Gola) Pirate Planet: The Captain
Arthur Hewlett (Old man) State of Decay: Kalmar and Terror of the Vervoids: Kimber
Ron Tarr (Patrol leader) Destiny of the Daleks: Prisoner


EPISODE: B13 Star One

DIRECTED BY: David Maloney
WRITTEN BY: Chris Boucher
BROADCAST ON: 03/04/1979


Gareth Armstrong (Parton) Masque of Mandragora: Giuliano
Michael Spice (Nova Queen Pilot ) Brain of Monster: Voice of Morbius & Talons of Weng-Chiang: Magnus Greel