Talk:Robot (Doctor Who)

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Rollbacks of edits by 81.144.244.11

In case anyone is wondering about the mass rollback, all of them were copyviols, taken from the BBC episode guide and/or in one case the Doctor Who Reference Guide. A quick Google check of phrases from the edits easily revealed this. --khaosworks 14:29, Jun 21, 2005 (UTC)

Picture?

Is the dodgy CSO shot of the robot growing really the best choice of image to accompany this article? —Josiah Rowe 04:32, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

I'll look for a better one tonight when I go through my copy of the story. --khaosworks (talk • contribs) 04:35, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

Thanks, Terence. (I'm completely inept when it comes to image capture, or Photoshop or anything like that.) —Josiah Rowe 04:37, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

Oh I don't know. You could say it is at least representative of the story! :-) Angmering 08:41, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

That is true, but I'm sure there's a better dodgy CSO shot that shows the dodginess more clearly. :) --khaosworks (talk • contribs) 09:12, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

I suppose the King Kong re-enactment is pretty emblematic of the story. I suppose that the giant robot trumps Tom Baker doing jumping jacks? :-) —Josiah Rowe 23:51, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

I'm afraid so, although I did consider him in a Viking outfit... --khaosworks (talk • contribs) 02:08, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

First in a series?

The continuity says that this was the first of a series of adventures following straight on from each other, but this one actually features a reprise from the end of Planet of the Spiders, leading straight from it. Would that make this the second in the series?Andral 08:25, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Robot was recorded at the end of the recording for Season 11, so in some senses is the last Season 11 serial. Should this be mentioned?Biscit (talk) 19:17, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

It was common practice for one (occasionally two) story recorded in one production block to be held over for transmission in the "next" season. This first happened in 1964 with Planet of Giants and The Dalek Invasion of Earth (first production block, second Tx season) and occurred with most (but not all) broadcast seasons until the thirteenth. I believe that Robot was one of the last stories held over in this manner.

The stories making up the bulk of the twelfth broadcast season (Robot excepted) and those making up the whole of the thirteenth broadcast season were produced between 26 Sept 1974 and 16 Dec 1975, and it's hard to identify any large gap in the sequence that might correspond to a division between two production blocks. However, since Terror of the Zygons was the only story in the thirteenth season to feature Harry, it's probable that TotZ was part of the twelfth production block. Another reason for considering TotZ as part of the 12th block is that it would balance the two blocks at 20 & 22 episodes respectively, rather than 16 & 26. From the fourteenth season, production blocks and broadcast seasons match up.

It can be mentioned, but only if a source is found hich explicitly makes that statement. Comparing recording dates (as I have just done) is inadmissible per WP:NOR. --Redrose64 (talk) 20:41, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

You are correct. This is NOT the first story in a continuous sequence. As you correctly identify, it starts with a reprise from the end of Planet of the Spiders and continues directly from that story.TVArchivistUK (talk) 18:55, 21 October 2011 (UTC)

The passage probably needs to be reworded. It's the first story of a story arc (See Story arcs in Doctor Who#The Ark in Space). DonQuixote (talk) 18:56, 21 October 2011 (UTC)

Junior Doctor Who

Under "In print" it is said this was "...one of two Doctor Who serials to have a second novelization written, aimed at younger readers...titled Junior Doctor Who and the Giant Robot." Under "Continuity" when it is stated that this serial is one of two instances where Bessie is driven by a Doctor other than the third, the other is specified. So why not name the other Junior novelization here? I have no idea what it is myself, and in fact Chris Howarth and Steve Lyons' Doctor Who: The Complete(ly Useless) Encyclopedia implied there were more than two, IIRC, but I can get past that easily enough. --Ted Watson (talk) 19:16, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Reference to Asimov's robotic law ?

If i remember well, it is state in one of the episods that the robot can't hurt human because of his programmation. Is this not a reference to the first law of robotic ? 77.193.108.144 (talk) 09:25, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Not necessarily, it could just be a safety feature. DonQuixote (talk) 12:17, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Continuity mistake?

"The Tenth Doctor mentions the giant robot in the 2009 special "Planet of the Dead", citing it as an example of the information in old UNIT files."

In the 2009 special he does not specifically mention which giant robot, and seeing as the next most previous special episode "The Next Doctor" features a giant robot (to which is specifically cited as being "...history, spoken of for centuries to come."), I don't think we can be sure of this link. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.70.84.128 (talk) 21:44, 24 May 2011 (UTC)

Improving this article

I'm going to WP:BOLDly improve this article over the next couple of days to try and bring it more inline with WP:MOSTV and WP:WHO/MOS. I'll also be working on the citations, reformating and adding more. Everybody is free to revert per WP:BRD. If anybody wants to help, especially with citations, it would be much appreciated. Also, if anybody has suggestions, I'm all ears. Things might be a little messy for a while, so I'll be using the {{UC}} tag until I'm done. 64.40.57.53 (talk) 06:06, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

Please note that per WP:WHO/MOS, Robot is not a single episode, but a serial divided into four episodes. --Redrose64 (talk) 12:40, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

Oops, my mistake. Thanks for fixing that and the heads up. 64.40.54.39 (talk) 10:57, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

Trim plot section

The plot section needs to be trimmed from ~2500 words down to about ~1000 words per WP:WHO/MOS. I'm better at adding stuff than removing, so if anybody would like to help that would be great. 64.40.57.53 (talk) 09:55, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

I'm thinking of completely rewriting the Plot section and would like to get some input before doing so. I've also left a note at WT:WHO regarding that. Thanks for any input. 64.40.54.54 (talk) 15:45, 12 January 2013 (UTC)

Citations

I've formatted the references to WP:LDR to make it easier to work on them and add details. Please let me know if anybody objects, or just revert if you like. I've added some stuff to the Writing and Casting sections that I found in other articles like History of Doctor Who but all of it is unreferenced, so I added {{fact}} tags. I'll be looking for references for this stuff, so if anybody has pointers to specific reference works please let me know. Thanks. 64.40.57.53 (talk) 10:12, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

Please would you use DMY dates, not MDY, because this is a British TV production, not American. More at WP:STRONGNAT. --Redrose64 (talk) 12:26, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for fixing this also and thanks again for the help on Shada, it was much appreciated. I hate to ask, but since your you one of the technical wizards here on the project, could you please add a Citations field to {{Infobox Doctor Who episode}} if you think it would be approriate. I notice that other infoboxen have this field and I wanted to cite the data in the infobox. Thanks. 64.40.54.39 (talk) 11:06, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

There seem to be at least four approaches to referencing the data in the infobox:

1. Don't do it - since the infobox is a summary of the article, everything in the infobox should be repeated in the main text, so the refs also belong in the main text;
2. Put refs after the individual data values (as seen with the closure date in the infobox of Chalcombe Road Halt railway station);
3. Use dedicated parameters (as seen at Amsterdam for the area, elevation and population);
4. Use a global parameter (as seen at the bottom of the infobox of NBR 224 and 420 Classes).

The parameters mentioned in items 3 & 4 are variously named "footnotes", "notes", "ref", etc.

It's probably worth bringing this up at Template talk:Infobox Doctor Who episode and also posting a note at WT:WHO pointing to that. --Redrose64 (talk) 14:11, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

 Done and thanks for the help. The discussion is at Template talk:Infobox Doctor Who episode#Should this infobox include a section for citations?. Best regards. 64.40.54.49 (talk) 10:51, 10 January 2013 (UTC)

General

(Copied from Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Doctor Who#Help with Robot (Doctor Who) because I missed this link): Awesome. I'd suggest modelling it after City of Death and Genesis of the Daleks. Also, here are some reviews: Radio Times, AV Club, DVD Talk, IGN, Dreamwatch, and an entry in silliest moments. Those may also be used for sourcing other things--especially DVD release (and the RT article also has filming locations and dates). Also, I think the text on the BBC website is the same from The Discontinuity Guide and The Television Companion (according to the site itself), so both don't need to be sourced. Glimmer721 ^talk 22:24, 13 January 2013 (UTC)

Thanks ever so kindly, Glimmer. There's a lot of good information you've provided there. I'll be adding it as I work my way throught the article. I appreciate the help. Best regards. 64.40.54.112 (talk) 10:33, 14 January 2013 (UTC)

Anachronistic Language

who had been working in construction at the time.

At the time, this would have been called "working as a builder". In fact, in the building industry, it still is. Nuttyskin (talk) 22:05, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

Re: Credits

@86.174.249.74: The current consensus at WP:WHO is to reflect the credits. You should discuss on that talk page or even this talk page to change the consensus. DonQuixote (talk) 22:42, 20 March 2022 (UTC)

If that's the case then shouldn't all the uncredited characters/actors be removed then — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.174.249.74 (talk) 22:52, 20 March 2022 (UTC)

Yes. That was the consensus. It would help if you would trim such things when you encounter them rather than adding more. DonQuixote (talk) 01:11, 21 March 2022 (UTC)

Re: long-standing consensus is not to include uncredited cast in the infobox. Why is adding Jon pertwee onto robot page any different from Tom baker being uncredited on this page

It's not, it just that people unfamiliar with the purpose of infoboxes keep adding them, much like what you're doing, and it sometimes doesn't get noticed and corrected. Please respect the consensus. DonQuixote (talk) 14:01, 22 March 2022 (UTC)

Also pinging @81.153.214.94:. DonQuixote (talk) 14:09, 22 March 2022 (UTC)

You can't notify IPs. See WP:MENTION. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 16:29, 22 March 2022 (UTC)