History Recap / DoctorWhoS12E1Robot

The Doctor decides to end this all quickly: he must be more than a little miffed that the Robot has messed up his day-saving '''and''' kidnapped Sarah Jane in one fell swoop. In minutes, the Doctor whips up some of Kettlewell's magical anti-metal formula and splashes it all over the Robot. The Robot dissolves horribly and Sarah Jane is saved. Sarah is a little broken up about it, but the Doctor offers her a Jelly Baby and some words of consolation, show that he still ''cares''. It works well, and thus the Doctor has now started a new tradition in giving out candied snacks that puts smiles on people's faces. But the Brig wants the Doctor to go through a lot of rigmarole to clear up the robot rampage, and he's in no mood for it. So he's acting childish on a whim and going off in the TARDIS posthaste for some exploration of the cosmos. Sarah prepares to join him, but Harry walks in on them about to leave and finds the idea the Doctor's got an interstellar time-travelling police box preposterous. Wanting to prove him wrong, the Doctor indoctrinates him as a companion. To celebrate, the Doctor and Sarah Jane drag Harry into the TARDIS and fly off into the night.

* StockEpisodeTitles: 10 uses

Armed with the stolen launch codes Winters initiates a countdown, the nations of the world have thirty minutes to meet her demands - if they refuse, she will trigger the missiles. Once he realizes she's not bluffing, Kettlewell has a change of heart and tries to stop the countdown. Jellicoe pulls a gun on him, but he is subdued by Harry and Sarah Jane, who had managed to free themselves in the interim. The three of them flee the bunker and attempt to talk down K1. The K1 Robot apparently wants none of this talking stuff, despite waffling back and forth, and [[CombatPragmatist just plain shoots Kettlewell]] (as a result of helping the SRS, his character lost his sympathetic light with the audience, which gave him immunity to being killed off, and so [[KarmicDeath karma has its way with him]]). The Robot doesn't take this nicely, however, as it decides to suffer a nervous breakdown from killing its father and pulls a [[VillainousBreakdown blue screen of death]] long before it was popular.

* ActuallyThatsMyAssistant: Sarah Jane makes this mistake while visiting the Think Tank.
* AIIsACrapshoot - Well, the poor robot was under a lot of stress. You'd probably be a bit upset too, in his situation.

* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe

* ButNowIMustGo: The Doctor takes off in the Tardis rather than be forced to attend dinner at the Palace with the Brigadier. In any other hero, this would indicate a humble nature.

** The Fourth Doctor's bizarre choices for new outfits. It establishes him as [[CloudCuckooLander completely loopy]] and with an [[HumansThroughAlienEyes alien attitude towards humanity]], but note also that the outfits he chooses are 1) [[HornyVikings a Viking]] (e.g. a warrior whose tactic is to land a ship somewhere, burn everything down and leave) 2) a King (a noble, similar to a Lord) and a 3) a ridiculous [[CommediadellArte Pierrot]] clown with [[SadClown tears painted on his cheeks]]. This pretty much sums up each side of the Fourth Doctor's personality.
** Harry is introduced bursting in on the recently regenerated Doctor with an offer of help - the Doctor finishes his self-quotation - "...and stupid!" just as he enters.

* HumongousMecha: The robot at the climax.

* MakeMyMonsterGrow: What happens when the Brigadier shoots K1 with the disentegrator gun, and the living metal absorbs the energy.

* PlotTailoredToTheParty: During the episode two cliffhanger fight, the new Doctor shows off his personality by using all the comical parts of his new outfit as a weapon against the K-1 - he uses the hat to block the robot's vision, the scarf to trip it up, and the contents of the oversized pockets to distract it.
* PuttingOnTheReich: SRS.

* ScriptWank: The story is about a robot whose users consider to be an emotionless object [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot clearly and constantly making decisions based on emotion and love rather than on logic, which it doesn't seem to understand]], showing special favour towards Sarah Jane, the only person who respects that it has feelings. The Doctor, recently regenerated, now has a strange childlike personality and appears totally clueless most of the time - but his actions also display striking maturity and a pattern of underlying logic, the combination of which eventually saves the day. The ending of "Robot" consists of a conversation where the Doctor and Sarah Jane discuss that even though killing the robot was necessary, the robot was a thinking and almost human being ("insane, capable of the greatest good, and the greatest evil... yes, I suppose it could be considered human"). This also implies a PlotParallel to the Doctor's [[FreakOut brand-new]] [[ManChild childish]] and [[CreepyGood rather]] [[UnscrupulousHero darker]] personality, and segues into him informing Sarah that he ''is'' grown-up - he is just also childish sometimes.

** The story contains several resemblances to ''Literature/IRobot'' and ''Film/KingKong''.

* TanksForNothing: K1 makes short work of the tank sent to stop it.
* TastesLikeFriendship: After K1 is destroyed, Sarah turns down a jelly baby as ComfortFood, but accepts one after agreeing to run off with the Doctor in the Tardis.

* {{Understatement}}: Harry Sullivan's first response to the Tardis being BiggerOnTheInside is merely an incredulous, "I say..."

* VillainousBreakdown: "I have killed the one who created me!"

* WholePlotReference: To ''Film/KingKong'', particularly towards the end.

The Doctor decides to end this all quickly: he must be more than a little miffed that the Robot has messed up his day-saving '''and''' kidnapped Sarah Jane in one fell swoop. In minutes, the Doctor whips up some of Kettlewell's magical anti-metal formula and splashes it all over the Robot. The Robot dissolves horribly and Sarah Jane is saved. Sarah is a little broken up about it, but the Doctor offers her a Jelly Baby and some words of consolation. It works well, and thus the Doctor has now started a new tradition in giving out candied snacks that puts smiles on people's faces. But the Brig wants the Doctor to go through a lot of rigmarole to clear up the robot rampage, and he's in no mood for it. So he's acting childish on a whim and going off in the TARDIS posthaste for some exploration of the cosmos. Sarah prepares to join him, but Harry walks in on them about to leave and finds the idea the Doctor's got an interstellar time-travelling police box preposterous. Wanting to prove him wrong, the Doctor indoctrinates him as a companion. To celebrate, the Doctor and Sarah Jane drag Harry into the TARDIS and fly off into the night.

* {{Corpsing}}: Sarah has to stand still and look serious while the Doctor interrogates Kettlewell about the robot he thinks is killing people. Their conversation is serious but the Doctor is pulling ridiculously intense, bulging-eyed faces in order to make Sarah laugh, which she can't resist, and which he clearly gets a lot of pleasure out of.

Written by Creator/TerranceDicks. This serial first aired December 28, 1974-January 18, 1975.

** The DVD special features explains why: part of the [[SpecialEffectsFailure problem]] with ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E2InvasionOfTheDinosaurs Invasion of the Dinosaurs]]'' was compositing dinosaurs shot on video with the humans (and Time Lord) on film. Since scenes with the giant robot would be shot the same way, they went with video.

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: The new Doctor's ranting at Harry Sullivan is clearly supposed to be an announcement to the viewers that [[CharacterRerailment even though he's different to his predecessor he's closer now to how he was originally intended to be]]:

* {{Padding}}: Part Three's reprise of the cliffhanger from Part Two is ''massive'', featuring the entire fight sequence between the Doctor and K1 in its entirety.

** (The "wait, what?" beat that Nicholas Courtney throws in is brilliant)

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Thanks to production scheduling, Creator/JonPertwee's producer Creator/BarryLetts was forced to produce it instead of the producer lined up for the new Doctor, Philip Hinchcliffe. Having the difficult task of establishing the new Doctor as different from Pertwee while having no idea what Hinchcliffe planned on doing with the character, Creator/TerranceDicks wrote the Doctor as a broad clownish comedy character (with some inspiration from [[Creator/TheMarxBrothers Harpo Marx]]) but establishes that he's in a loopy, unsettled post-regenerative state for almost the entire story, only indicated as settling down into his real personality at the very end of the final episode where the Doctor [[BrickBreak injures his hand on a brick]] now that his overdriven physical processes have worn off. While a lot of the Fourth Doctor's quirks are established in this story (such as the natural funniness, the [[ManChild childishness]], the bottomless pockets, his fondness for jelly babies and his resentment of all authority) Hinchcliffe took the character into a more GothicHorror influenced direction, giving the Doctor a brooding and [[ByronicHero Byronic]] side to add an edge to his funniness, and playing his capriciousness and unpredictability [[PlayedForDrama For Drama]] at times as well as for cheap laughs. Even when he became a comedy character again later, he became a playful wit rather than a clown.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Thanks to production scheduling, Creator/JonPertwee's producer Barry Letts was forced to produce it instead of the producer lined up for the new Doctor, Philip Hinchcliffe. Having the difficult task of establishing the new Doctor as different from Pertwee while having no idea what Hinchcliffe planned on doing with the character, Creator/TerranceDicks wrote the Doctor as a broad clownish comedy character (with some inspiration from [[Creator/TheMarxBrothers Harpo Marx]]) but establishes that he's in a loopy, unsettled post-regenerative state for almost the entire story, only indicated as settling down into his real personality at the very end of the final episode where the Doctor [[BrickBreak injures his hand on a brick]] now that his overdriven physical processes have worn off. While a lot of the Fourth Doctor's quirks are established in this story (such as the natural funniness, the [[ManChild childishness]], the bottomless pockets, his fondness for jelly babies and his resentment of all authority) Hinchcliffe took the character into a more GothicHorror influenced direction, giving the Doctor a brooding and [[ByronicHero Byronic]] side to add an edge to his funniness, and playing his capriciousness and unpredictability [[PlayedForDrama For Drama]] at times as well as for cheap laughs. Even when he became a comedy character again later, he became a playful wit rather than a clown.

* CostumeTestMontage: A viking outfit, colorful court garb, and a bright jester costume, before settling on the iconic scarf, hat and jacket.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Thanks to production scheduling, Creator/JonPertwee's producer Barry Letts was forced to produce it instead of the producer lined up for the new Doctor, Philip Hinchcliffe. Having the difficult task of establishing the new Doctor as different from Pertwee while having no idea what Hinchcliffe planned on doing with the character, Creator/TerranceDicks wrote the Doctor as a broad clownish comedy character (with some inspiration from [[Creator/TheMarxBrothers Harpo Marx]]) but establishes that he's in a loopy, unsettled post-regenerative state for almost the entire story, only indicated as settling down into his real personality at the very end of the episode where the Doctor [[BrickBreak injures his hand on a brick]] now that his overdriven physical processes have worn off. While a lot of the Fourth Doctor's quirks are established in this episode (such as the natural funniness, the [[ManChild childishness]], the bottomless pockets, his fondness for jelly babies and his resentment of all authority) Hinchcliffe took the character into a more GothicHorror influenced direction, giving the Doctor a brooding and [[ByronicHero Byronic]] side to add an edge to his funniness, and playing his capriciousness and unpredictability [[PlayedForDrama For Drama]] at times as well as for cheap laughs. Even when he became a comedy character again later, he became a playful wit rather than a clown.

* LargeHam: This is to be expected from Tom Baker's first episode.

** The Brigadier says that everything's quiet just before the MonsterOfTheWeek stomps its way into the episode.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** The story has an OedipusComplex theme, backed up by PhallicWeapon and CompensatingForSomething visuals. For instance, after killing his "father," the robot collapses outside of the rather yonic base door with the disintegrator (a large gun with a pink tip) lying on its groin, and the Brigadier touches it. Later, after the Doctor explains to Harry about Freudian psychology and "compensation," we see the Brigadier about to fire the disintegrator from the hip in an extended and very phallic shot.
** The Brigadier tells Sarah Jane that he's 'old-fashioned'. Sarah responds, "[[DoubleEntendre oh, nonsense, Brigadier, you're a swinger!]]"

** Sarah compares Harry to Franchise/JamesBond when he volunteers to some espionage. [[Series/TheAvengers He even wears a bowler hat]].

* LoopholeAbuse: The Robot is programmed to protect humanity, not attack it. SRS gets around this by convincing it that certain individuals are a threat to humanity as a whole, and must be eliminated to the human race as a group. This does not do good things for K1's mental health.

* ImmuneToBullets: TropeNamer.
** Also lampshaded by the Brigadier: he says he'd be happy to face an alien that is ''not'' immune once in a while.

* UsefulNotes/NuclearWeapons: SRS's plan is to start a nuclear war.

* OffTheShelfFX: The tank UNIT sends to destroy K1.

* ApologyGift: In the {{Denouement}}, the Doctor realises that Sarah Jane is angry with him (for being [[TheNthDoctor suddenly different]], trying to leave in the TARDIS without her, going off to fight despite being in a manic post-regenerative state, and [[ShootTheDog killing]] a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds that loved Sarah) and tries to talk to her. When she doesn't respond positively he takes a bag of sweets out of his pocket and [[NoSocialSkills rather awkwardly]] asks her "Would you like a jelly baby..?" Amazingly, this works, and offering jelly babies to people becomes one of his standard ObfuscatingStupidity moves ever after.

Picking up with a flashback to where [[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E5PlanetOfTheSpiders the previous episode left off]], the Third Doctor [[TheNthDoctor regenerates]] into the Fourth. He wakes up and madly babbles quite a bit, worrying Sarah Jane and TheBrigadier before he's taken away by the new castmember: Doctor Harry Sullivan. However, a few scenes later, the Doctor has wrangled his way out the infirmary and ties up Harry in a jumping rope (in a rather funny moment) before leaping off into the TARDIS.

Haha, no. As it turns out, the robot ''absorbs the energy from the gun'' grows into a giant robot.