YMMV / Doctor Who S12 E1 "Robot"

• Fight Scene Failure:
  • Episode 2 has an adorably flimsy-looking Killer Robot chasing the Doctor at a pace best associated with zimmer frames, while Tom Baker zips and flings himself around it effortlessly, trying to look like he's narrowly being missed by its blows and not slightly managing. It's quite fun when the Doctor uses all of his costume gimmicks against it but it's also clear he can only possibly lose the fight due to the fact he has the Idiot Ball lodged in his throat for the whole episode.
  • Episode 3 forces the actor playing Jellicoe to help the robot down some steps while pretending to be hiding behind it, because the actor in the robot costume couldn't see where he was going.
• Just Here for Godzilla: While not outright disliked, "Robot" is considered a fairly tame retread of the kinds of stories that were commonplace during the Third Doctor's era, mainly to ease the transition into a new incarnation. However, many fans agree that the big highlight of the story is its status as Tom Baker's debut as the Fourth Doctor, with his reinvention of the Second Doctor's "mad hobo" characterization being considered the best reason to watch the serial.
• Harsher in Hindsight: One of the Doctor's rejected outfits is a clown costume. Thankfully Sarah Jane wasn't present, since later The Sarah Jane Adventures episode "The Day of the Clown" would establish that Sarah Jane had a phobia of clowns.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The Brigadier complains that he'd "like to meet an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets!" Cue "Terror of the Zygons" just a year later and the Zygons are not immune to normal human weaponry.
  • Sarah comparing Harry to James Bond (both flatteringly and sarcastically) is a twofer.
    • Harry's actor Ian Marter later wrote a novel called Harry Sullivan's War, which saw Harry become a 007-esque spy.
    • The fact that a companion of the Third Doctor compares someone to James Bond is already funny after it came out that Jon Pertwee is likely one Ian Fleming's inspirations for the character, but it becomes hilarious when you take into account it happens in the very first story after the Third Doctor's tenure.
  • Among the Noodle Implements pulled from the Doctor’s jacket pockets is a pass granting "Unlimited Access to the City of Skaro". This would’ve come in handy three stories later, when the Doctor returns to said city.
• Narm: The toy tank's appearance is given an extra layer of unintentional hilarity by the Brigadier's claim that it'll deal with the Robot, which is followed by the Doctor dismissively saying that it won't achieve anything.
• 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.
• Signature Scene: As the introduction to the most iconic Doctor of them all, the Fourth Doctor's entire post-regeneration scene can count as this, from the Doctor locking Harry Sullivan in a cupboard to the Doctor trying on various absurd costumes before settling on his trademark long scarf.
• Special Effects Failure:
  • When the robot grows to giant size, the CSO is absolutely horrible. No attempt whatsoever has been made to make the miniature look like it's actually standing in the footage, with the robot obviously reflecting bits of the yellow screen used (causing parts of it to disappear, notably its legs) and being lit wrong for the backgrounds. Even the characters it menaces have been obviously CSOed onto the backgrounds in some shots.
  • Then there's UNIT using a toy tank and an Action Man doll to fight the robot.
    The Brigadier: I've brought along something that will deal with it.
    The Doctor: I very much doubt it, Brigadier.
  • The tiny doll Sarah Jane in the robot's grabber with its wobbly little legs.

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