A Matter of Conscience

"The human mind cannot cope outside of the body."

Writer: Lisa McMullin

Format: Audio

Released: December 2020

Series: The Robots 3.03

Featuring: Liv, Tula

Synopsis

The Sons of Kaldor are stepping up their anti-robot campaign as Liv and Tula are stepping up their search. But even as they get closer to the survivors of Storm Mine four, their understanding of events on Kaldor is about to change irrevocably.

Verdict

A Matter of Conscience was a very strong episode to conclude the third series of The Robots! I have now reached the halfway mark in this very well renowned spinoff range and at this point it really is easy to see why this is such a well regarded series. I'm so excited to keep moving forward with it now as I do own the next three boxsets thanks to some recent sales and clearances, so it shouldn't take me long at all to get cracking with this one and finish it This felt like a full on detective episode and that was great with Liv leading the guard whilst Tula was still clearly learning the ropes. I thought that was nicely done and their relationship just continues to be wonderful. Tula has accepted that with her travels in the TARDIS off world, Liv has become a little more inquisitive and had her horizons broadened which I think is great. She has experience in this kind of thing and that works out well here. After travelling all the way to Poul's residence, Tula is just accepting that they will have to leave empty handed because he wasn't in! Liv wasn't having any of that which was good. I thought the initiation of Shala into the Sons of Kaldor was fascinating and worked really well. Hearing of the toll of her past and the impact the 'invasion' of the Dums had on jobs and her family. It was scarily reminiscent of feelings today in numerous workplaces and spaces when it comes to AI. The computers are taking our jobs and that sentiment was similar on Kaldor where the Robots were concerned. That's an understandable fear so having the Sons of Kaldor rise up against that was really good. I thought the presentation worked and having communication with them was now potentially seen as an act of terrorism. That was quite the development! The explosion that resulted in the deaths of seventeen people was quite impressive and even members of the Sons of Kaldor already were taken by surprise when it came to Shala's involvement and the extent of her initiation there. It certainly wasn't typical! Finding out that Vash Sorkov was actually Kiy Uvanov was something I didn't see coming but it did explain how Sorkov wasn't anyone who existed on official record! It seems that all things are tying together slowly when it comes to the survivors of the events of The Robots of Death which is an exciting prospect. I do feel like this boxset was good setup again for things to come, and I do hope we get the meetings between the trio and the Chenka sisters in the next one. Uvanov toying with the idea of conscience transfer is a hugely exciting concept, especially on a place like Kaldor! There's so much potential there with conscience into robots and Uvanov achieving it here was pretty darn impressive. He'd been erased from the record but was then an edutech which was good and felt right for his character. I do hope we explore more of his past that led him to this point but the little flashbacks here worked well. The world building for Kaldor City is shaping up brilliantly and I just love how the mystery deepens with each volume. There's still so much to come and I'm hugely excited for it! Overall, a strong finale to another terrific boxset.

Rating: 8/10