h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Doctor Who Enemies: Raston Warrior Robot - A87872052
Author: Bluebottle - Parkrun Centurion - U43530

A Flea Market Rescue of:
Article: Doctor Who Enemies: Raston Warrior Robot - A1090144
Author 1: CYBERHUMAN (U186831)
Author 2: spook (U183955)
Original Subeditor: GTBacchus - U166086

Cyberhuman and Spook wrote this for the Doctor Who Uni Project: A664184. It went to GTBacchus to be subedited along with the rest of the project, but stalled and didn't make it into the Edited Guide.

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Original Subeditor: GTBacchus - U166086 does not belong in the author list of your rescue.

I'll pop back and read it through when I return from my day at Mum's

GB

I think he should receive some form of recognition, as we don't know how much of the original he influenced. If he shouldn't be listed as an author, we can give him an 'Additional Research By' credit at least. Would you agree with that?

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Hi BB.

This entry seems to be more about "The Five Doctors" than it is about the Robot. Do you think it needs to be renamed and restructured?

Is it true that Tom Baker wasn't available or didn't want to be in The Five Doctors so they wrote him out of the plot and had him imprisoned in a vortex?

Kieth Hodiak --> Keith Hodiak

Equipped with circular blades, razor-sharp javelins, thick rope-like thread that could wrap around its victims and incredible in-built sensors that could detect the slightest movement or sound. The Raston Warrior Robot would...

-- the first sentence here is a sentence fragment. It could be joined to the second one with a comma, but that would make the resulting sentence rather long.

"the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane used the Cybermen's timely distraction to find an alcove nearby that was filled with more of the weapons. Any counterattack would instantly be detected by the robot's sensors, resulting in it vanishing and re-appearing elsewhere, catching its enemy off-guard."

The sentence about the counterattack is out of place because it comes after the description of the Doctor's and Sarah Jane's actions, so it sounds as if it is commenting on them. Swap these two around.

over fifty novelisations for the twentieth anniversary special -- since I assume that the novelisations were not for the 20th Anniversary special, there should be a comma after novelisations.

There should be "and" before Wendy Padbury since she is the last element of a list.

"ancient huge" doesn't sound right. Change it to "huge ancient". (I've never figured out why some orders of adjectives just don't work.)

would actually be given exactly what they desire, but not necessarily how -- this is a bit clunky. They are saying that they would be given what they desire but not given how they desire. You could phrase it as:

would be given exactly what they desire, but not necessarily in the way that they wanted it.

Thanks for your consistently thorough read-through

This entry seems to be more about "The Five Doctors" than it is about the Robot. Do you think it needs to be renamed and restructured?

I can't deny that the Raston Warrior Robot was a bit of an odd choice for the original 'Doctor Who' project – it only appears for 3 minutes in one episode, has no dialogue, no explanation as to its origin or backstory is given and it isn't even trying to kill the Doctor specifically, instead is hunting anything that passes.
That said, it looks cool.

However, though the Raston Warrior Robot would not have been my first choice to write about with regard Doctor Who enemies, I've no reason not to finish what was started and try and get it into the Edited Guide. Though the episode it appears in is indeed mentioned a lot, I still feel the focus is definitely more on the robot than the episode overall.

Is it true that Tom Baker wasn't available or didn't want to be in The Five Doctors so they wrote him out of the plot and had him imprisoned in a vortex?
Yes, that is true – I've added a footnote about that now.

I've also tweaked the other sentences as suggested.

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Hi BB!

I would also say that, interesting thought it is, the section on The Five Doctors isn't needed and is more like it's own entry than one on the RWR. I think without it if could be a short, snappy article on one of the coolest cameo enemies. As fore the Five Doctor's material, it would be a shame to lose it, maybe this is a separate article, or (if there is already an article on this episode) maybe this material could be used to update it.

I also noticed one typo:

"In more than 50 years' of Doctor Who" should I think be "In more than 50 years of Doctor Who"

without the apostrophe. It would make sense if it were "more than 50 years' Doctor who" like "more than 5 years' teaching experience" but this would be a bit awk, I think it works better with he of but without the apostrophe.

good luck with it!

Beeblefish

Oh! Also, I wonder if the RWR has appeared in any of the books, it might have more information about it's origins (is Raston a race, a planet?)

Hello – thanks for the read-through. I'm beginning to suspect that I'll write another entry containing 'The Five Doctors' bits – if someone else says it I will… Please note – I'm NOT going to write an entry on every 'Doctor Who' story – the 20th Anniversary Special can be an exception.

As far as I know, the Raston Warrior Robot hasn't had a book dedicated to it, but it is briefly mentioned in Terrance Dicks' 'The Eight Doctors' and 'The Doctor Trap' by Simon Messingham. I'll see if I can find the pages it is mentioned on and see if they give any more information about it. It also briefly appears in computer game 'Destiny of the Doctors', but I'm afraid I've not played that. I've mentioned it in the entry now.

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I think it is valid to provide a description of the episode, since it is the only one in which the Warrior Robot appears. I just think you should reduce the amount of information you provide about it, so that it doesn't outweigh the sections about the Warrior Robot.

I've trimmed that bit with a rotavator rather than a strimmer - let me know what you think.

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That's much better.

Definitely much better! Given that there are parts not for more than one appearance, and maybe a further coming in the 8 Doctors, maybe those are all subsections of an "Appearances" section?

I also think a bit more could be moved to the Five Doctor's entry if you do it as stand alone including these bits:

– the Credits section

– the 2 casting footnotes

One other bit could be cut, as it strays into a different topic:

– Some of the words in the novelization intro, maybe reading instead:

The Raston Warrior Robot is introduced in the Terrance Dicks–written novelization on page 77 and is described as...

--

This article is really coming together!

A 'Other Appearances' section is a good idea – it'll stay separate to 'The Five Doctors', though, as that is the robot's principal ('canonical') appearance.

If there is a standalone 'Five Doctors' entry, there's no reason why this information can't be in both, as we can't assume that the reader has read this entry; a degree of repetition is permissible, if not taken to extremes. (In a dedicated 'Five Doctors' entry, I'd be going into more detail in any case).

I also don't want to trim all the original entry out, though

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You're right. We don't want it stripped back to just a list of facts. There should be enough information around the topic in question to make it an interesting read, even if this means duplication.

I've tweaked this to add more information about the other books it is mentioned in.

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Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Well done CYBERHUMAN and spook

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