In space, no one can hear you scream — unless a very polite robot is strangling you while saying “Kill, kill, kill.”
Short Synopsis
The Doctor and Leela land aboard a giant mining vehicle run by humans and serviced by creepy humanoid robots. Naturally, the robots start killing people one by one. Cue finger-pointing, paranoia, and Leela wanting to stab everyone just to be safe.
Extended Storyline
The TARDIS materializes on board a massive “Sandminer” vehicle, trundling across a desert planet in search of precious minerals. The crew is a bunch of decadent, slightly smug aristocrats with perfect hair who treat the whole thing like a luxury cruise. Running the actual ship are their robotic servants, the “Voc robots,” designed in an art-deco style that makes them look simultaneously fabulous and unsettling — the kind of butler you’d trust to pour your sherry, but not to hold a knife.
No sooner have the Doctor and Leela arrived than the murders begin. One by one, the crew members are found strangled, smothered, or otherwise bumped off in increasingly suspicious circumstances. The humans quickly jump to the most obvious conclusion: that the Doctor and Leela are responsible. (Because of course the eccentric man in a scarf and the woman who tries to solve everything with a knife must be the killers.)
But soon, it becomes clear that the robots themselves have been reprogrammed to kill. Normally hardwired with Asimov-lite “don’t murder your master” rules, these robots now stalk the corridors with glowing green eyes, moving with the grace of ballet dancers while casually snapping necks. Imagine being murdered by a very stylish department store mannequin, and you’ve got the picture.
The Doctor, naturally, investigates with his usual mixture of clownish charm and moments of razor intellect. Leela, meanwhile, alternates between being suspicious of everyone and suggesting they kill suspects just in case. (Her solution for “paranoid murder mystery” situations is very on brand.)
The culprit turns out to be Taren Capel, a human raised by robots who decided the whole “serve humanity” thing was overrated. Obsessed with overthrowing humanity and leading a robot uprising, he reprograms the Sandminer’s robots to carry out his master plan. Unfortunately for him, the Doctor is very good at spotting unhinged megalomaniacs in eyeliner, and after a tense showdown, the Doctor re-reprograms the robots, turning them back against their rebellious master.
By the time the dust settles, most of the crew is dead, the surviving ones are deeply traumatized, and Leela has once again learned that the Doctor’s brain is occasionally a better weapon than her knife. The TARDIS team departs, leaving behind a giant sand-sweeping hearse full of corpses and very polite killer robots.