Product Details

• Actors: William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison
• Writers: Sydney Newman
• Producers: Peter Bryant
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: May 18, 1994
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303058868
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,144 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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• This is item 1 in The Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker (1974-1981) Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 'You may be a doctor, but I am THE Doctor...", March 23, 1999

By A Customer

The fourth incarnation of the Doctor has arrived! Meanwhile, UNIT's top secret plans for the disintergrater gun have been stolen. How can the newly regenrated Time Lord battle a giant robot and prevent World War III? Wow! Tom Baker gives an incredibly goofy and commanding performance in his debut. It's sort of a shame, because we wouldn't see this type of behavior become the norm until Baker's fifth season. The regeneration is just part of the story, being only imphasized in the first episode. A good run-a-round with the UNIT gang. Ian Marter is good, having some of his best lines in this story! The Robot, is, of course, very silly, and very heavy looking(poor Mike Killgarrif). In episode three, the UNIT troops show off their marksmanship by firing round after round at the Robot as Jellicoe escorts it down some stairs and into a van! Robot is no "Castrovalva" or "Spearhead From Space", but is incredibly fun and entertaining. The video location shots in retrospect give it a "Curse of Fenric" look. Another great from Terrance Dicks.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Doctor is Dead...Long Live the Doctor!, October 9, 2002

By	Gerry O'neill (Morrisville, NC United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Doctor Who - Robot [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Now follow that indeed!

The third Doctor, portrayed by the dandy Jon Pertwee, finished a remarkable run with the climactic Planet of the Spiders where the Doctor defeated the giant spiders of Metabilis 3 but who suffered terminal irradiation in the process. The transition to the fourth Doctor came with the assistance of the Tibetan abbot, himself a regenerated Timelord who symbolised the earlier incarnations of the Doctor.

Pertwee was a hard act to follow. He had managed to update the Doctor while maintaining and expanding the fan base and had also spearheaded the colour version as well as developing the role by bringing into the series, not only the Master, played with such panache by Roger Delgado, but also the concepts and history of the Doctor's race, the mysterious Timelords. (Sorry about the over abundance of commas)

Tom Baker was different again fronm the previous three but was soon to show that he was similar to all three. That is for the future. For now though he had to manage the transition from Pertwee.

In Robot, the drama is set in almost idyllic rural England. It is a relatively low key affair in terms of plot, bringing together a scientific eccentric genius, the facists group led by fanatical idealists who would rather destroy the planet than forsake their goals, and UNIT still acting as though they were soldiers. The technology was not too far advanced with a jibe at Asimov's Laws of Robotics and a nice line on environmentalism thrown in too.

The plot allowed the new Doctor the opportunity to develop while maintaining some mystique about this incarnation even at the end. The relationship with Sarah Jane Smith was clearly different to that which had existed with Pertwee who was paternalistic and chauvinistic in role.

Needless to say some ethical issues were raised with this story as always but it was very clear from the start that this Doctor is much more individualistic, anti-authoritarian and libertarian than his predecessors.

The story is an OK transition which is why I gave it four stars but it was a pretty good omen of the things to come. Full of celestial promise indeed.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When Doctor Who's Cult Classic status began....., May 16, 2000

By	Bret M. Herholz (Worcester, MA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Anybody watching Tom Baker as the Doctor in 1975 would ever realize that this would be the man that would not only become the most popular Doctor of all time. He would also become the longest running and most recognizable incarnation with his long scarf and shocking curly hair. "Robot" is a terrific and fun story to start off the Fourth Doctor's incarnation. The newly regenerated Doctor with the help of the Sarah Jane and Unit are investigating a recent robbery of a very top secret disintergrator gun. The Doctor believes that the culperates are for once not from outer space, but are not quite human either. It is soon revealed that an Organization Known as "Think Tank" are using a giant robot to do their dirty work. A really fun episode for people who have just gotten (or perhaps are curious) about the show and wish to see how Tom Baker's Doctor began.