I love Robots of Death, its one of the best murder mystery stories written for DW imo and some great cliff hangers too!

But one thing has always bothered me...the absolutely awful and illogical uniforms and make up worn by the crew.

Is there a point to it I have been missing all these years?

Well, we've all looked back at past fashion disasters, this is just a case of looking into the future! It's an art deco revival!

And it's very silly. See here
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpaceClothes

Noticed Zilda's outfit was recycled for one of the many Romanas in Destiny Of The Daleks.

That society was just going through it's Glam phase.

Pamela Salem looked pretty hot in hers.

Whenever I've watched ROD on DVD, I've always thought that her headgear looked like a giant pretzel!

I'm really surprised anyone dislikes those costumes - the art deco feel of the whole design is so much more interesting than if it had a standard industrial look.

And yes there is a point - this is a society that has delegated all the physical labour to their robot slaves - even the crew of a sand miner can lounge around in impractical clothing because they have the robots to do all the hard work for them which feeds into the whole theme of the story.

I thought the Art Deco costumes and scenery looked quite unusual and distinctive. I quite liked it. What I do find annoying is that in episode one when the doctor and Leela arrive in one of the scoops he is wearing his scarf. Next scene he is escorted by a robot down a corridor with no scarf then next he's in the lounge with his scarf again!!

Have you noticed in Pyramids of Mars, that in one scene, the Doctor is wearing his hat, then he takes it off, and once he and Sarah are outside, he is wearing it again? I have. He leaves his hat on the table, then walks outside with it still there, and he wearing it again, once outside.

That is what you could call a continuity error.

I liked the whole glam Art Deco, slightly over the top clothes and make up. If it's objective was to give a futuristic and/or alien culture then I believe it worked. As one of the above posts mentioned, it was a great costume for Pamela Salem.

I loved the look! I suspect our clothes would look pretty odd to someone from an alien culture.

Can a uniform be illogical?!

Slightly going off track with the uniform debate, when i first saw the Ood, i thought they were some kind of instant rip off of the ROD with the red eye thing. Or is that just me??

It's not just you - the Ood's calm measured voices owe a lot to the similar robot voices in RoD too. Can't be a coincidence.

I see it from two different points of view.

From a designer pov, I think it was great they tried to do something different and give the non regulars a distinctive look rather than being normal looking humans in a sandminer. For that, they should be congratulated.

From my pov, I thought they went over the top with the silly hats and the eye make-up. Though the costumes weren't quite as bad. Do like the design for the robots though.

I also agree, hat aside, Pamela Salem looked hot in her costume.

Pamela Salem looks great in ROD and ROTD. Heck, Blakes 7 put her in what looked a bit like a sack and she looked great.

I think we can therefore agree that Pamela Salem looks great generally. Very good actress....lovely voice too.

there was talk of her character joining the tardis wasn't there?

their costumes are similar to the ones in the capital in the hunger games. they're so OTT to show what sort of society they are. they just seem to sit around whilst the robots do all the heavy work.

Not sure but I thing she was short listed for the role of Leela.

I've been catching up with the Doctor Who episodes recorded by the series link on my Tivo, and just finished watching The Robots of Death.

I agree with those here who think that the costumes and makeup are part of what makes the episode unique, together with the robots themselves, of course (having never seen this story before, the robots' expressionless faces reminded me greatly of the Heavenly Host in Voyage of the Damned).

Or if you had watched them in the proper chronological order, the Heavenly Host would have reminded you of the Robots in The Robots of Death.

there is even a bit in voyage when someone knocks one of the host's hands off when it is trapped by a sliding door. just like pamela salem does in robots...

Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey...

This is the first time I have ever heard anyone express dislike of the Robots of Death costume/make-up! I love the story, and one of its stand-out aspects is the unusual and OTT design. I reckon that if everyone was in beige, it would be a less interesting story.



Wash your mouth out with soap and water!

There was, but it was a bit of opportunistic profile-raising by her agent, rather than anything seriously contemplated by the production team.

It's hard to imagine how subsequent stories would have worked out with Toos as well as Leela in the Tardis. I can't help feeling she'd have been a bit of a spare... lemon in, say, Horror of Fang Rock.

She looks wonderful in this, though (even when wearing The Hat). The costumes are not the problem with The Robots of Death: the real problem is a couple of astoundingly bad performances from other members of the guest cast, which ruin what could otherwise have been a great story.

Get out all of the old pictures of yourself (this is aimed at everyone) from the 70s, 80s, 90s, whenever. Don't you look bloody stupid? The truth is most people, from any time period, are victims to fashion.

I get far more annoyed by the more modern episodes where we see thousands of years into the future and everyone looks and talks and acts like they're from 2005.

It's the only reasonable way to do it. There's no way to realistically portray the future, so they go with the least jarring version of things, and only change the things that are needed for the story to work. In other words, introduce the technology that's required for the plot, or incomprehensible slang if the companion is required to be baffled and disoriented.