Doctor Who: The Robots of Death Special Edition

The TARDIS, carrying the Doctor and his new companion Leela, arrives aboard a huge sandminer on a deserted world. The small human crew relies almost entirely on robots to carry out their every task and whim while they mine the planet's rich minerals.

Suddenly, one by one, members of the team start to disappear. The time travelers discover that someone or something is murdering the crew - but, of course, nobody believes it could be the robots.

The TARDIS materialises on board a massive sandminer vehicle combing an alien world for precious minerals. The miner is run by a small human crew with the aid of numerous robots split into three classes: Dums, Vocs and a single controlling Super Voc. The crew are being picked off one by one by an unseen killer.
The Doctor and Leela immediately come under suspicion but are able to convince two undercover government agents - Poul and his robot associate D84, a Super Voc posing as a Dum - that they are innocent. The real culprit is one of the human crew, Dask, who is in truth the scientist Taren Capel. Raised by robots, Capel regards them as superior to humans and has been reprogramming those on board with orders to kill the other members of the crew.
He is tricked by the Doctor into outlining his plans for conquest while a helium canister discharges itself into the room, and is consequently killed by one of the robots as it can no longer recognise his voice.

Directed by Michael E Briant
Written by Chris Boucher
Produced by Philip Hinchcliffe < br> Original Music by Dudley Simpson
Costume Design by Elizabeth Waller

First Transmitted
1 - 29/01/1977 18:20
2 - 05/02/1977 18:20
3 - 12/02/1977 18:20
4 - 19/02/1977 18:20

Russell Hunter, well known for his role as Lonely in the counterespionage series Callan, plays Commander Uvanov.

Brian Croucher, now renowned for his portrayal of Travis in Blake's 7, plays Borg.

Robophobia, an irrational fear of robots, is at one point referred to as 'Grimwade's syndrome'. This was an in-joke reference to production assistant Peter Grimwade (later to become a director and writer on the series) who had bemoaned the fact that the stories on which he was assigned to work almost always involved robots.

Peter Grimwade directed, uncredited, all the film insert sequences for this story.