Robot (Doctor Who)

075 – Robot
Doctor Who serial
The Robot prepares to take Sarah captive
Cast
Doctor Tom Baker (Fourth Doctor)
Companions Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith) Ian Marter (Harry Sullivan)
Others Nicholas Courtney — Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart John Levene — RSM Benton Edward Burnham — Professor Kettlewell Patricia Maynard — Miss Winters Alec Linstead — Jellicoe Michael Kilgarriff — The Robot Timothy Craven — Short Brian Fellows — Soldier
Production
Directed by	Christopher Barry
Written by	Terrance Dicks
Script editor	Robert Holmes
Produced by	Barry Letts
Executive producer(s)	None
Incidental music composer	Dudley Simpson
Production code	4A
Series	Season 12
Length	4 episodes, 25 minutes each
Date started	28 December 1974
Date ended	18 January 1975
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → Planet of the Spiders The Ark in Space
List of Doctor Who serials

Doctor Who and the Giant Robot

Author	Terrance Dicks
Cover artist	Peter Brookes
Series	Doctor Who book: Target novelisations
Release number	28
Subject	Featuring: Sarah Jane Smith, the Brigadier, Harry Sullivan
Publisher	Target Books
Publication date	13 March 1975
Pages	124
ISBN

Robot is the first serial of the 12th season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 28 December 1974 to 18 January 1975. It was the first full serial to feature Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, as well as Ian Marter as new companion Harry Sullivan.

Following his third regeneration, the Doctor briefly becomes delirious and then falls unconscious in front of Sarah Jane Smith and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart of UNIT. The Brigadier has Lieutenant Harry Sullivan take the Doctor into his care. Soon, the Doctor wakes, eludes Harry, and tries to sneak off in his TARDIS, but the Brigadier and Sarah Jane stop him, convincing him to help in finding the culprit in the theft of top secret plans for a disintegrator gun. The Brigadier takes the Doctor to the Ministry of Defence advanced research centre where the plans were stored, where the Doctor observes crushed flowers and a rectangular footprint. UNIT sets to protect factories where critical parts for the gun are manufactured, but find the culprit is able to outwit them, including burrowing up underground to collect the final component necessary for the weapon.

Meanwhile, Sarah Jane investigates the National Institute for Advanced Scientific Research, colloquially known as the "Think Tank". There, she finds that director Hilda Winters and her assistant Arnold Jellicoe are developing a robot, Experimental Prototype Robot K1, to be used to perform tasks in hazardous locations in place of humans. Sarah Jane learns that K1 was originally built by Professor J.P. Kettlewell, a former member of the Think Tank who has now turned his sights on alternative energy. Kettlewell attests that he had disassembled K1 after finding its thought processes were growing too quickly, and further asserts that Winters, Jellicoe, nor anyone at the Think Tank have the capacity to program it correctly, and that if they have tampered with its programming, the robot is likely suffering an existential crisis. Sarah Jane takes sympathy on the robot. Later, K1 appears at Kettlewell's residence and attempts to kill him, but when the Doctor, Sarah Jane, and UNIT arrive, the robot becomes confused and escapes.