Trivia / Doctor Who S12 E1 "Robot"

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• Actor-Inspired Element: Professor Kettlewell's Einstein Hair was a suggestion from Edward Burnham, as his hair actually did go like that naturally if he grew it out long enough.
• Corpsing: Sarah has to stand still and look serious while the Doctor interrogates Kettlewell about the robot he thinks is killing people. Their conversation is serious but the Doctor is pulling ridiculously intense, bulging-eyed faces in order to make Sarah laugh, which she can't resist, and which he clearly gets a lot of pleasure out of.
• Development Gag: The recently regenerated Doctor is happy to see his new nose, regarding it as an improvement. Terrance Dicks added this in as a friendly jab at Jon Pertwee, who was hugely sensitive about his big nose and refused to be shot from certain angles because of it, so that Tom Baker's own beaky nose was still an improvement.
• First Appearance: Of Harry Sullivan.
• Inspiration for the Work: Terrance Dicks was inspired by King Kong to write a story about a sympathetic monster.
• Prop Recycling: The King of Hearts outfit that the Doctor wears in his Costume-Test Montage originates from a 1972 musical version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, although he's wearing it with the hat worn by the Knave of Hearts (presumably because of his unusually large hat size).
• Reality Subtext: Much as the Fourth Doctor enjoys fighting the robot, he is clearly bored out of his mind with having to be in UNIT, snoozing with his hat over his eyes or talking over everyone else during the exposition scenes and even having a mini-meltdown at the end about how he refuses to go on like this. The creators were getting sick of how UNIT limited the space-time travel premise of the show, and the Doctor's boredom is a metaphor for their own boredom and a plea to get the audience back into space again.
• Recycled Script: Terrance Dicks drew on The Avengers episode "The Mauritius Penny", which he co-wrote with Malcolm Hulke, most notably for the scenes in which Sarah Jane infiltrates the meeting of the Scientific Reform Society.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Graham Crowden was the first choice for the Fourth Doctor before the casting of Tom Baker. However, Crowden turned down the offer as he didn't wish to commit to a long-running series. Crowden would later go on to portray Soldeed in "The Horns of Nimon".
    • Jim Dale, Michael Bentine, Fulton Mackay and Bernard Cribbins were also considered for the role of the Fourth Doctor before the casting of Baker. Mackay and Cribbins previously played Dr. Quinn and Tom in “Doctor Who and the Silurians” and Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. respectively. Cribbins would go on to portray Wilfred Mott in the modern series.
  • Colin Baker was considered for the part of Arnold Jellicoe. Baker would go on to portray the Sixth Doctor.
  • Tom Baker thought it would be a great idea for the robot to sing "There's An Old Mill by the Breeze", as the actor, Michael Kilgarriff, had a lot of knowledge of music hall songs. He decided against suggesting this to Barry Letts.
  • Harry Sullivan's character came about because the original intention for the Fourth Doctor was to go back to the First Doctor's archetype, a much older "thinker," who needed the help of the younger characters. Indeed, Richard "Mr. Pastry" Hearne was at the top of the list. When the 40-year-old Tom Baker was cast, however, the character of Harry slowly fell into irrelevance.
• Working Title: The Giant Robot.
• You Look Familiar:
  • Ian Marter had previously played Lt. Andrews in "Carnival of Monsters"
  • Edward Burnham (Professor Kettlewell) previously played Professor Watkins.
  • The part of the K1 robot is played by Michael Kilgarriff, who had played another robotic part as the Cyber Controller in "The Tomb of the Cybermen".
  • Alec Linstead (Arnold Jellicoe) previously played Private Osgood.

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