'The Robots of Death' Trivia Quiz

Answer: Transdimensional engineering

Transdimensional engineering is behind the TARDIS being larger inside than outside, as the Doctor explains to Leela using two black plastic boxes to illustrate how the further one looks smaller than the near one so should fit inside it. "But that's silly," says Leela. Indeed.

We find out about block transfer computation in 'Logopolis', and briode nebulisers don't feature until 'The Two Doctors'. While reversing the polarity of the neutron flow got the third Doctor out of many a scrape, it can more accurately be described as a key scriptwriting discovery than a key Time Lord discovery.

Answer: The Doctor's yoyo

"You said I had to keep it going up and down - I thought it was part of the magic!" bemoans Leela to the Doctor. K9 doesn't join the TARDIS until the following season.

Answer: Chess

"Mate in eight moves, commander," says the robot. Uvanov is horrified, but Dask assures him that robots are unbeatable, in a hint of things to come.

Answer: The TARDIS

The TARDIS is moved out of the way, leaving Leela and the Doctor trapped in the scoop until the robots come to collect them.

Answer: Scientist

"Scientists! I never should have let him on board!" exclaims Uvanov when Chub is found dead. Chub had been attempting to send up a weather balloon to take readings of the sand storm.

Answer: Uvanov

Uvanov has made his money from being a miner, not from inheritance, and he delights in ridiculing members of the twenty founding families like Zilda, Cass and Chub. He clearly resents them for what he sees as their sense of superiority and because he thinks they always stick together.

Answer: Cass

It's hard to write a 'Robots of Death' quiz without mentioning the wonderful costumes for this story. Not only do they add to the atmosphere of opulence and civilisations falling, but if you pay enough attention to them you can work out who the murderer is before the end. In one early scene we see Dask's shoes and trouser bottoms as he instructs a robot to kill Zilda.

Answer: Creepy mechanical men

As soon as she meets her first robot she observes how disconcerting it is that robots look human, but have no body language. This, we learn, is the basis of robophobia. 'Electronic moron' is Chub's term, while 'walking dead' is what Poul calls them after he has lost his mind.

Answer: Zilda's

"She really hated me you know," says Uvanov over Zilda's dead body. "Still I did think when this trip was over and I was really rich... "

Answer: Uvanov

Zilda has broken into Uvanov's quarters and is looking at the records of his previous trips. What she is actually accusing Uvanov of is killing her brother, but she is murdered by a robot before this becomes clear to the rest of the crew, and they assume she is accusing him of being the murderer on this trip.

Answer: D84

D84 has been placed on board to spy disguised as a dum, but unlike other dums, he can talk.

Answer: Vraxoin

Vraxoin is a drug transported in the later story 'The Nightmare of Eden'. Zelanite, Keefan and Lucanol are all mined by the sandminer. There is no doubt that the prospect of Lucanol causes the most excitement when Toos announces it.

Answer: All of these

Bicycle reflectors were used as the props for robot deactivation disks, colloquially known as corpse markers.

Answer: Scars

She says this to Toos when she is bandaging her burnt arm. The influence of Chris Boucher, the writer of 'The Robots of Death', can also be detected in the character of Cally in the BBC science fiction series, 'Blake's 7', for which Boucher was script editor. "My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken," says Cally.

Answer: Grimwade's syndrome

It was named after the story's production assistant Peter Grimwade, who had "bemoaned the fact that the stories on which he was assigned to work almost always involved robots" (BBC website). The other options are named for John Nathan Turner who produced 'Doctor Who' later, Gregory de Polnay who plays D84, and Chris Boucher who wrote this story.

Answer: fist snowflake

A wonderful quote that adds to the magic of this story. "No handyman should be without one", says the Doctor.

Answer: Borg

Toos and Uvanov come out of the episode alive. Poul also lives but as Leela says, "His mind is broken." Borg is the second last crew member to die, but we only find this out when Dask reports it over the intercom. Dask/Taren Capel himself is the last killed.

Answer: It doesn't recognise his voice

Leela is in a cupboard with a canister of helium, altering the resonance of Dask's/Taren Capel's voice so he can no longer tell the robots what to do.

Answer: The writer who first coined the term robot

Taren Capel was named for Karel Capek, whose play 'R.U.R.' introduced the word 'robot' (BBC website). The BBC studios are in fact not at 'Trane Place' - we made that up.

Answer: Mouse

"Will somebody let me out?" squeaks Leela from the cupboard, in which the helium has made her voice squeaky. "A mouse in the wainscoting!" replies the Doctor, who reiterates the nickname in the last line.