The good ship Lorelei, carrying a cargo of 157 thousand robotic workers to Kaldor.The Doctor is on board, and bears witness to a murder.
Surely robots can't harm humans out of their own accord, otherwise having 157 thousand of them on a planet without any means to defend itself would be a bad idea. But the bigger question is, how come the robots are becoming victims themselves, and why are the human victims only hit with enough force that a human could muster?
Robophobia contains examples of the following tropes:
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Apparantly played straight, then averted, as the robots prove very helpful, though Farel tries to make it appear they are the villains.
- Call-Back: The episode starts out with a news cast about the events of the Robots of Death.
- The Doctor makes use of his Respiratory Bypass System to fake his death to an assailant.
- Captain's Log
- Colony Drop: Someone's planning to drop Lorelei onto Varellis.
- Computer Voice
- Continuity Snarl: Averted in an unusual case - this episode was written so as to not explicitly conflict with Magic Bullet Productions' Kaldor City series, which feature the further adventures of the survivors of "The Robots Of Death". Certain aspects don't quite match up, but the effort was made.
- Cranial Processing Unit: The Captain believes the robots can't function without a head.
- Failure-to-Save Murder: Farel, whose wife died in a sandstorm despite the robot's attempts to save her. Due to this he suffers from Robophobia.
- Faking the Dead: Farel and the Doctor, both in separate instances.
- Fantastic Racism: A pattern continued from the Robots of Death.
- Frameup: Someone suffers from robophobia and wishes to "expose" them as the murderous monsters "they really are".
- Freudian Excuse: Farel, and Cravnet.
- Government Conspiracy: The Company covered up the Sandminer incident in the Robots of Death.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The robots remain on the ship so it doesn't damage anything else. They don't consider it a sacrifice, as they feel they are replaceable.
- Hurl It into the Sun: When Lorelei is about to crash on Varellis it is set towards the sun, giving the crew enough time to escape.
- I Shall Taunt You: The Doctor towards SV-10, the second time around.
- The Lost Lenore
- Meaningful Name: Lorelei is the name of a nymph that caused the death of others
.- Elysian is named after the Greek mythology for paradise where the dead find their eternal peace.
- Mentor Archetype: The Doctor takes a bit of a backseat in this audio, but he's slipping hints to Liv and Cravnet.
- The Mole: Someone on the ship is a mole for the MegaCorp.
- Noodle Incident: The Doctor is travelling in a black TARDIS. Something that won't be resolved until much later in Black and White.
- Posthumous Character: Tal Karis dies in the Cold Open, but we find more about his character through other characters.
- Pull the Thread: Why are the victims killed with enough force that a human can exert... And not more?
- Red Herring: The Robot in the Cold Open.
- Robotic Reveal: Inverted.
- Self-Serving Memory: Farel. Bad.
- Sequel Episode: To The Robots of Death.
- Shout-Out: The Doctor quotes Alexander Pope by saying "Hope Springs Eternal".
- Soundtrack Dissonance: As the Lorelei is on a collision course, Farel, inside of the only life boat, turns on some classic music as the Doctor and Liv frantically try to make their way down to the bay.
- Talking to the Dead: Farel
- Tear Jerker: I love you today, just as any other day.
- Three Laws-Compliant: The Robots. Gets invoked in story.
- Title Drop: Rrrrrrobophobia.
- The Watson: The Doctor, as he's explaining things to a VOC robot, suddenly realizes he's always explaining things to people.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Brought up by the robots, who consider themselves replaceable, even deciding to remain on the ship before it crashes into the sun to make sure it doesn't endanger anyone.
