Liv Chenka, companion of The Eighth Doctor, is taking a break from traveling through time and space to spend time on Kaldor with her sister Tula Chenka. In The Robots: Volume Two, the sisters have to deal with the technological advancement unfolding in Kaldor city and the implications of a growingly intelligent robot population.
Nicola Walker and Claire Rushbrook reprise their roles of Liv and Tula Chenka. They are joined by David Collings (Ander Poul), Pamela Salem (Lish Toos), Rachel Atkins (Zarda) and Silas Carson (Captain Garlon Rosh).
The three stories are directed by Ken Bentley and produced by David Richardson. You can read the synopsis’ here:
‘Robots of War’ by Roland Moore
A visit to an old flame goes badly wrong for Liv and Tula and soon they find themselves locked down in a military training base, surrounded by traitors and robots designed and built for war. As they attempt to get everyone out alive, is there a chance they’ve missed something important?
‘Toos and Poul’ by Andrew Smith
When a murder takes place in an isolated outpost, there’s only one man who can look into the crime. Investigator Poul, newly reunited with his Sandminer colleague Toos. But can he over-come his fears and prejudices and solve the case?
‘Do No Harm’ by Sarah Grochala
After an incident in a laboratory leads to a tragedy, someone needs to be found accountable. And who better to be prosecuted than a robot? But when complicated ethical questions arise, the outcome of the trial becomes bigger than a single case. What if somebody else is working behind the scenes?
Actor Nicola Walker said:
“I’ve always thought that sci-fi is a genre that, very quietly, is asking relevant, pertinent questions disguised as fantasy. “There’s that brilliant thing that Stephen Hawking said just before he died that the problem with AI is that [robots] will learn so much faster than humans ever can, and we’ve got to get it right first time.”
Producer David Richardson said:
“What we’ve tended to do with this series is to try to steer away from what theTheRobots of Death did on television – chasing people down corridors and killing them. We wanted to explore the idea a little bit more the idea of the future, of what technology means for humanity. “Having said that, I wanted to do at least one episode where we had a good old ‘robots attacking humans and being threatening’ story.”
Script editor John Dorney added:
“There’s an overall plan for where the range is going which should slowly become clearer over the next few sets. It will build into a bigger scale storyline which I think people will get a great kick out of.”
The Robots: Volume Two is available to purchase as a collector’s edition CD box set or as a download on Big Finish website. Listeners can also save money by buying a bundle of all four volumes with the third and fourth volumes set to release in December 2020 and June 2021.
