Doctor Who: 5 Best & 5 Worst Creature Designs From The Original Series

Best Creature no. 2: Raston Warrior Robot (The Five Doctors)

Ah, the Raston robot; the definition of a great villain which was sadly underused. Whilst the named robot only appeared in one episode, some very similar-looking dudes had showed up in Earthshock the year before and it may have been from these that the concept originated from. He looks pretty menacing, and the absence of any notable features means there's nothing that can really go wrong. Since he can move like lighting he appears to literally vanish before popping up somewhere else. The only problem with that is that it's not instantaneous, so it's not clear what he's doing in between vanishing from one place and appearing in another- running around in circles very fast, probably. In short, it's a cheap costume with very little in the way of special effects, but one that doesn't look too bad: every special effects designer's dream.

But even a highly advanced killing machine like the robot has its defects. Despite being able to massacre the Cybermen in about ten seconds flat he fails to notice the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane watching it from only a few metres away, barely concealed behind a large rock and moving about considerably as well as talking loud enough to easily be heard (surely it would have acute hearing as well as sight?). That aside it's still a bad guy to be reckoned with, and unlike most Who villains there'd be no outrunning this metal meanie.

So it's a shame then that this versatile robot was only used in a few minutes of a very large episode which was trying to stuff in as many monsters as possible. Just imagine this guy taking on an army of UNIT troopers! They wouldn't stand a chance of course, and I like to think that that is the reason why the idea wasn't used again. The Raston Warrior robot is just too good. It would make mincemeat out of whatever you threw at it, and easily dodge bullets and missiles without necessarily being indestructible (a cliché used far too often in most sci-fi, not just Doctor Who). All the same, I'd love to see a rematch with the latest Cybermen upgrade. Who wants to be in charge of setting up the online petition?