In praise of… the Raston Warrior Robot

You would have to have a heart of stone not to find something to enjoy in the glitzy extravaganza of The Five Doctors. My favourite scenes are those with the Raston Warrior Robot – Doctor Who’s tribute to Monty Python’s Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog.

Ironically, for a brief one-off appearance, Terrance Dicks created possibly the most formidable fighting creature ever seen in the series. Moving “like lightning” and launching javelins and razor-discs that can eviscerate Cybermen, it’s hard to imagine how it could have been defeated if it had been a story’s main adversary.

Coupled with actor (and ballet dancer) Keith Hodiak’s distinctive gymnastic postures and elegant moves, the simple but sleek design effectively conveys the idea of a sophisticated android. Indeed, the Raston Warrior still looks futuristic 30 years later, as if Apple had branched out into killer androids (the iWarrior – just give it a year or two).

The origin of the Raston Warrior is left mysterious, with no backstory given to explain where it came from. ‘Raston’ could denote the species that created it, the planet it hails from or a company that manufactured it. Raston might simply be a leading supplier of robotic devices. What else is in their catalogue? The Raston Butler Robot? The Raston Carer Robot? The Raston Dancer Robot, most likely.

The design appears to have been inspired by the very similar body-stocking and blank mask used almost as successfully for the Cybermen’s own androids in the previous year’s Earthshock. It begs the question of whether the two are related. Did the Cybermen buy up some bargain basement Raston stock – perhaps an obsolete model, hence their less impressive performance (the Raston Guard Robot, for when you don’t need to go full-on Warrior)?

But the final question has to be: what’s it doing with all that steel cable in its cave? Maybe on quiet days it doubles as a Raston Cable-Laying Robot.

Image © BBC

This is an updated version of an article originally published in Panic Moon in May 2014.