Doctor Who Series 11: 10 Huge Questions After 'The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos'

In one of the more awkward pieces of dialogue Yaz shouts “sniper bots” in apparent terror. They are immediately dispatched by Paltraki. Earlier Graham and Ryan flanked by the ‘fearsome’ robots can only duck leading their would-be assassins to accidentally destroy each other. Given how advanced the Stenza’s technology is, the sniper bots are pretty hopeless at their job.

It’s not as if the scene is played for laughs. They are introduced as if they are on a par with the Cybermen in the fear stakes. Yet they fail to impress, rather like their gaming equivalents to which they owe their name. Bots are always more predictable, easier to overcome than human opponents. Ryan doesn’t even need to go into a Call of Duty all-out rage mode. Just hit the deck and let them do the job for you.

The odd thing is that they have clearly been successful enough to take all the others hostage. There’s no logical reason for them being so dumb, unless the psychological effect of the planet (which was another interesting concept with limited application or explanation) also works on artificial neurons. Eventually.