Robot

The Doctor has regenerated again, right before the eyes of Sarah Jane Smith and the Brigadier. The new man before them is not at all like the one they knew before - he seems to take things far less seriously than he used to and is more interested in the obscure than the obvious. While he is recovering, though, top secret plans for making a highly classified weapon are stolen by an entity that seems unstoppable, but is in reality a weapon itself - a huge robot under the control of a scientific elite called  The Scientific Reform Society.  The new scientific regime believe that they have the right to rule the world due to their intellectual advantages over everyone else, and with the Robot, a disintegration weapon and a file full of nuclear codes they are set to blackmail the world. But they never counted on the Doctor.

A new Doctor and a whole new feel to the series! Tom Baker is a huge departure from the more serious tones of Jon Pertwee's Doctor, although despite some of the comic carrying on that he does he is still very much the Doctor through and through. Here is where we see the debut of the insanely long scarf that most people associate with the Doctor, as well as the hat and the big grinning mouth full of teeth and the mad curly hair. This is by far the most iconic of the Doctors of the classic series. And of course the Doctor needs his companions, so here is Sarah Jane Smith at his side to form the most famous companion duo ever. Their chemistry is immediate; he is a new Doctor but they are still best friends right away, and if Sarah accepts him, we will too.

The Brigadier never knew when he was well off now there's a new Doctor - a third for him. But as the third was starting to spend more and more time away from Earth and his role within UNIT, this Doctor is obviously not going to hang around anymore. And equally perplexed by the Doctor is Surgeon Lt Harry Sullivan, finally in the flesh, as a semi unwilling new companion in the TARDIS. As far as televised adventures go his name was mentioned in Planet of the Spiders but the retcon magic of the series made his "new" first appearance happen back in The Face of the Enemy.

Gotta love that Hilda Winters, the head of the SRS. Geez what a cold bitch, but a fanatical one at the same time. The hysterical shouting and podium thumping from her speech at the SRS meeting are the stuff of which maniacs are made. You kinda want to see someone just slap her to put her in her place.

And that Robot. A huge machine, the likes of which we don't always get to see on the show due to its sheer size. But wow what a creation and such an intimidating voice. It's unlikely and somewhat cliche attachment to Sarah evokes King Kong memories, but all for good purposes in the end.

This is just what the series needs here is a fresh start - not that Pertwee was in any way a tired Doctor but the series had gotten so rooted on Earth with the Doctor's exile that it didn't feel like an adventure show so much as it did a crackpot scientist and his crazy sometimes working time machine. With a new version of the Time Lord at the controls, the TARDIS could end up anywhere.

And oh does it ever...

NEXT EPISODE : THE ARK IN SPACE