Whatever one thinks of "Planet of the Spiders", Jon Pertwee's final scene as the Doctor was exceptionally well crafted and, after leaving the audience for several weeks with that final, hauntingly enigmatic shot as the heroic Doctor we all knew slowly blurs into a new form, the first-time audience for "Robot" part one must have begun the episode very eager to learn more about the new Doctor, and doubtless ever ready to form unfavourable comparisons with his predecessor. With this in mind then, it is both understandable and wise to create as great a contrast between the two as possible. The scenes in the first episode of the new Doctor's wide eyed, disjointed behaviour are unsettling to the Brigadier and Sarah, used to the reassuring, if somewhat eccentric ways of the third Doctor. The result, despite, or perhaps because of a hefty dose of slapstick comedy, is to most effectively underline the Time Lord's alien nature. We laugh with the Doctor at the absurdity of UNIT, we laugh with each other at the ridiculous behaviour of the Doctor, but at the same time Tom Baker never lets us forget that beneath this clown is the hero we have come to respect and admire. "A new body's like a new house. Bound to take a while to settle in."
The rest of the story is far from ambitious in scope, although it is interesting to note Robert Holmes' obsession with all things Frankenstein manages to come into play during his first story as official script editor, and despite its lack of originality is always entertaining. Of particular note should be Michael Kilgarrif as the robot. Kilgarrif, like Stephen Thorne, seems to have spent a sizeable amount of the history of Doctor Who clad from head to foot in prosthetics and shouting, but also like Stephen Thorne, this may be because he does it so very well. Aside from the considerations of physical size necessary to play the Robot in it's vast, physically uncomfortable, but very effective costume, Michael Kilgarrif provides an excellent voice, with an ever present air of childish petulance which perfectly illustrates the personality of the creature, and its ultimate terrible flaw. People have labelled the 'non-regeneration' parts of "Robot" as being "King Kong in a Tin Suit", which whilst partly justified, does really ignore the engaging and intriguing personality displayed by the Robot.
It must be admitted that the SRS (or rent-a-fascist) are rather cliched, and their apparent acceptance of the Doctor's music hall act as being light relief during their secret meeting preparing to take over the world is, frankly, ludicrous, but both Hilda Winters and Arnold Jellicoe are more than competently acted, and the whole story runs quite happily along. Not the most cerebral of scripts, but it's all very good fun.