Robot

“In the Bleak Miss Winters”, “Doctor Who and the Iron Man”, “The Doc Calling the Kettlewell Black”

“The One With the Pointy Haired Scientist” (USA), “Metal King Kong Attacks Tokyo” (Japan)

Doctor Who meets a giant robot who is in major need of therapy.

*** - It gets the Tom Baker era off to a start.

SRS Man : “Miss Winters - when we emerge from the bunker we will have to repopulate the world.”

Miss Winters : "Is this the time to mention that I'm a lesbian?" (cut because "lesbian" still meant "happy" in 1974 and Miss Winters didn't seem a very happy person)

"You know, just once I'd like to meet some pants that weren't immune to bullets"

The Robot's design was inspired by some American football that was picked up by a BBC satellite dish during a pornographically motivated experiment.

Tom Baker officially became as mad as a hat stand as early as episode two of this tale.

The Robot's lumbering walk and lack of intelligence were also inspired by the American football picked up by Television Centre's satellite unit.

Professor Kettlewell's hair received a separate credit at the end of episode three.

The Tetley Tribune commented "I like Pertwee's new face" while the Lancaster Vulture's culture reporter remarked "I could no more explain that plot than I could say my own job title three times after a pint of bitter."

...is that there is a reason why mad scientists are called mad scientists and it isn't just because they're scientists.

Si Hunt

"Story 4A marks a crucial turning point as I'm sure the sensible ones amongst you will be aware. For it was thanks to story 4A that Ian Devine first clasped Felicity Bobbins to him and proclaimed his love. Naturally there was a perfectly simple explanation for this contemptible exhibitionism. Ian Devine, Felicity Bobbins and myself were playing a quiet game of charades (also known by the lower caste as "Give Us a Clue with Lionel Blair and Una Stubbs (later replaced by Liza Goddard)". Ian Devine's turn came and he chose to mime story 4A by performing what appeared to be a bandy legged version of the motion picture "King Kong". He grabbed a startled Miss Bobbins and began waving her around like she was made of cloth, alternately clasping her lovingly and displaying her triumphantly. He then foolishly tried to convey the metal eating virus and landed me with a sizable bill to have the curtains dry cleaned and some new support beams welded onto the base of Ian Devine's arm chair. With hindsight he needn't have gone to all that trouble as I'd already guessed that he was performing Story 4A. Charades isn't the best game for the committed telehistorian as we feel compelled to stick to the correct broadcast order. So as soon as my mime of Gareth Hunt concluded it was rather obvious what would come next. I don't think the inventors of charades thought their idea through and I've half a mind to write them a letter of complaint."

Robert Robbins, writing in "Brig-a-doon", wrote a carefully considered and superbly argued piece about how the change of lead actor would refresh the series. He pointed out that Pertwee had been running on autopilot for much of his final season, how the familiarity of the UNIT family had begun to become as annoying as his own family, the loss of several characters would be impossible to adequately replace and that the changes behind the camera would bring a new set of heads to the table. Sadly, all his good word was undone when a subscriber noticed he'd called Tom Baker "Tim Baker" throughout the article.