Doctor Who: 10 Special Effects That Totally Sucked

9. The Giant Robot

Tom Baker's opening tale is brilliant in terms of Tom and in establishing a new, very different Doctor surrounded by the comforting trappings of the Pertwee era. The K2 prop for the robot is also suitably chunky and formidable (even though poor Michael Kilgarriff could barely walk or see in it), however the section where the robot suddenly increases in size and goes all King Kong clutching Sarah in its claw is absolutely awful. Every fault of Doctor Who effects plays a part here. The Colour Separation Overlay (an early form of what we understand now as 'green screen') makes all the outlines look fuzzy and occasionally see through. In some scenes, the robot is a completely different size from the shot before. Even worse is when the robot lumbers through toy houses and wobbles a Cindy doll standing in for poor Lis Sladen's Sarah Jane Smith, or an Action Man for a UNIT soldier. Let's not even mention the tank.