The first episode with the fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) was Robot.
Mortally weakened by the Spider Queen on Metebelis 3, the Doctor is forced to regenerate. His recuperation is cut short as UNIT investigates a spate of robberies involving components for a top-secret disintegrator gun. The culprit is quickly identified as a highly sophisticated robot built by Professor Kettlewell, being ordered to act against its Prime Directive.
Just how is the robot being used to carry out the sinister agenda of the Scientific Reform Society? Can the Doctor rescue Sarah from the robot’s clutches and avert a nuclear war?
I really like this episode, lots of UNIT action (even if they do use an Action Man Scorpion Tank in one shot).
Many years ago I picked up some Harlequin Miniatures, one of which was the Giant Robot, which (eventually) I got around to painting.
Here is the finished miniature.
Here is my workbench feature on the Robot.
This is the “normal” size of the Robot when we first meet it.
Of course…
Spoiler Alert
One of the plot points in the story is that the Robot does get bigger… that’s the reason the novelisation is called Doctor Who and the Giant Robot!
In that blog post I wrote about the large action figures from the Doctor Who series.
I wish I had bought one of the 7″ Action Figures of the Robot as that would be perfect for the big version. If I see one, I might get one, but I don’t think they make it anymore, which is a pity.
I did though more recently see that Eagle Moss did make a collectible figurine of the Robot and did think about getting one.
Well I was in our local store, MT Games, it sells a range of second hand SF memorabilia, and on a recent visit I noticed they had one of the Eagle Moss Robots, so I bought it.
I need to take some photographs of it another time, but the model is 6” (15cm) tall and I think perfect for 25mm games involving Doctor Who.
It also makes me realise I may need to do a little more work on the 25mm version of the Robot.