Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor's 15 Greatest Stories

6. The Robots Of Death

You're a classic example of the inverse ratio between the size of the mouth and the size of the brain.

There is nothing like a good murder mystery, and this tale is one of the best. The Doctor and Leela arrive on a mining craft on a distant planet as the crew find themselves picked off one by one. Paying homage to Agathe Christie, the crew are an interesting bunch of characters. There's an arrogant commander, suspicious colleagues and rival families who are also fuelled by suspicion and intrigue as the death toll starts rising. Naturally the unannounced arrival of the Doctor and his companion puts the suspicion on them, detracting from the real killers who walk among them. The title of the episode naturally gives it away but the the fun is in watching the crew slowly realise that their robotic servants - programmed to serve and not harm - are actually the ones behind it all. The robots look fantastic too and fans will be reminded of the more recent heavenly hosts from the Tenth Doctor's Voyage of the Damned. Utterly emotionless behind their vacant masks, the audiences watch as they evolve their programming even if the crew remain ignorant to what's really going on. Robots taking over and killing humanity is a well known story and here that fear is played to great effect in a chilling and well paced whodunit.