Editing Robot (Doctor Who) (section)

=== Reception ===
[[File:Kingkongposter.jpg|thumb|150px|''Robot'' is considered to have been influenced by the 1933 film ''[[King Kong (1933 film)|King Kong]]'']]
Viewer reaction was mixed as defined in an ''Audience Research Report'' conducted by the BBC. About 30% felt the show was "definitely enjoyable" with a lower percentage being "distinctly unimpressed". A number of viewers thought the new Doctor would "take some getting used to", but most younger viewers gave positive comments about the serial.<ref name="BBC staff 2007" /><ref name="Howe 2004" /> As with all of the Doctors, Baker received some criticism by the audience, who felt he was a "loony" and presented as "stupid".<ref name="Doctor approvals">{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8616413.stm|title=Doctor Who regeneration was 'modelled on LSD trips'|publisher=[[BBC News]]|date=12 April 2010|access-date=19 January 2013}}</ref>

Writing for ''[[Doctor Who Bulletin]]'' in 1988, Jonathan Way felt the serial was fun,<ref name="Way 1988" /> and for the same publication, Robert Cope praised Baker's performance as the new Doctor, also noting that the relationship between Baker's Doctor and Sladen's Sarah worked well.<ref name="Cope 1991" /> [[David J. Howe]] and [[Stephen James Walker]], writing in ''The Television Companion'', admired the performances of Nicholas Courtney and Elisabeth Sladen and felt Marter's debut as Harry Sullivan was promising. They also commended the K1 robot costume, but criticised the use of CSO ([[colour-separation overlay]]) effects for a number of shots involving the K1 robot, as did Robert Cope.<ref name="BBC staff 2007" /><ref name="Howe 2004" /><ref name="Cope 1991" /> In ''Doctor Who Episode by Episode'', Ray Dexter described Baker's "over-the-top" performance as "compelling" but the plot as "a little lazy and derivative, with some terrible science." He considered the dialogue "some of the best we've seen" but added that "the story falls into the typical Dicks trap of just having baddies being bad because they're bad, and a logical robot behaving utterly illogically". He also thought the location work on video "cheapens the look of the show" and criticised the effects as "not good enough, not even for this era".<ref name="dexter">{{cite book |last=Dexter |first=Ray |title=Doctor Who Episode By Episode: Volume 4 Tom Baker |date=2012 |publisher=Lulu.com |isbn=9781291174076 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IAI4CgAAQBAJ&q=philip+hinchcliffe+cambridge&pg=PT29}}</ref>

Mark Braxton of ''[[Radio Times]]'' awarded the serial three stars out of five, praising the introduction of Baker and Marter, as well as the K1 concept. However, he felt that the villains were stereotypical and wrote that ''Robot'' "boasts perhaps the show's worst visual effect ever".<ref name="Braxton 2010"/> [[IGN]] reviewer Arnold Blumburg gave the story a rating of 7 out of 10, attributing its success to Baker. He too criticised the effects, feeling that it made the story "[fail] when trying to present an epic conclusion".<ref name="Blumberg 2007" /> [[DVD Talk]]'s Nick Lyons wrote that it "may not be the most original episode, but it is one of the stronger episodes of the Baker years simply because it never drags and is a breezy action-adventure. It doesn't hurt that the robot itself is a nifty villain". He gave the serial three and a half out of five stars.<ref name="Lyons 2007"/> In 2010, ''[[SFX (magazine)|SFX]]'' named the scene where the Doctor tries on many different costumes as one of the silliest moments in the show's history.<ref>{{cite web|first=Steve|last=O'Brian|url=https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/doctor-whos-25-silliest-moments/|title=Doctor Who's 25 Silliest Moments|work=[[SFX (magazine)|SFX]]|date=November 2010|access-date=21 March 2013}}</ref>

Reviewing the serial in 2007, literary critic [[John Kenneth Muir]] noted several influences on the writing of ''Robot''. Kettlewell's K1 robot is programmed so that it cannot harm humans; Muir traces the inspiration for this directly from the [[Three Laws of Robotics]] devised by [[Isaac Asimov]] in his 1950 story collection, ''[[I, Robot]]''. He also considers the relationship of Sarah Jane Smith with the K1 robot, its transformation into gigantic antagonist (holding a captive [[damsel in distress]], Sarah, in its claw) and its tragic destruction by military force as an [[analogue (literature)|analogue]] of the 1933 film, ''[[King Kong (1933 film)|King Kong]]''.<ref name="Muir 1999" />