House robots Dead Metal, Sir Killalot, Matilda and Shunt make their return to TV.BBC

Up and down the UK, the geek inside every 90s kid had (awkwardly) danced an excited jig when they heard news of the revival of Robot Wars. For many, this was a show that represented a well-earned escape from a week of hard graft dodging bullies in the playgrounds of primary school; and it was not uncommon to find the figurines of the legendary ‘Razer’, ‘Sir Killalot’ and ‘Hypnodisc’ standing guard upon the bookshelves in many a child’s bedroom. The reboot, fronted by Dara Ó Briain and Angela Scanlon, was a chance to satisfy a hunger for robot destruction that had persisted for twelve long years.

While over a decade of craving is hard to satisfy, the time which has passed has brought with it everything that has made this revival worth waiting for.

This is 2016 after all – it is not just all those 90s kids who have grown-up.

Indeed, during a fascinating little segment, head judge (and Professor of something-which-sounded-jolly-exciting-but-obscenely-complicated at the University of Sheffield) Noel Sharkey explained that new developments in robotics and other technologies now mean that every robot is even more destructive and ferocious than it was before. New batteries, new weaponry and new armour mean that #BeastMode can be engaged by these robots to an even greater extent than it was before.

And this was all deliciously evident as the spinning disc of ‘Carbide’ – a weapon that can cause an impact 60 times more powerful than a bullet shot from a sniper rifle – ripped a wheel clean off ‘Nuts’, and tore a deep gash into the armour of ‘Behemoth’. This was a robot that had apparently never been tested in battle before, with its team confessing that they felt to do so was too dangerous. Earlier, Carbide’s designer had explained that he had “been designing robots for 15 years, and this one scare(d)” him.

It was an absolute delight to see why.

The return to the fray of Robot Wars’ legends such as ‘Terrahurtz’, Razer and Behemoth, alongside the re-introduction of new, improved, and now seemingly unbeatable House Robots was a purist’s delight. Add in the electrifying commentary of Jonathan Pearce and the long-awaited throwback was complete; Pearce’s shrieks of delight as Behemoth’s flipper sent a ‘microbot’ six feet into the air, and his cries of shock and dismay as competition-favourite Razer plunged into ‘The Pit of Oblivion’ in the first round were surely emulated in living rooms everywhere.

However, this Robot Wars reboot was far from a mere ploy to take advantage of feelings of saudadic nostalgia for robot annihilation among twentysomethings. Indeed, there were noticeable changes that will undoubtedly ensure a new generation of fans will be transfixed for the episodes to come. The combined effect of many of these new alterations was the admirable reinforcement of the human element of Robot Wars that had made the original show so popular and inspirational for many young viewers. Segments examining the backgrounds of the robots’ designers, alongside the discussion with Sharkey that intrigued even this die-hard fuck-science-for-being-too-hard law student, helped hammer home the impressive engineering feats that each and every one of these robots are.

And while the iconic Scouse accent of Craig Charles riling up the studio audience until they were baying for steel blood was no more, the warmth and good-heartedness brought to the studio by Ó Briain and Scanlon instead highlighted the show’s endearing sense of its own silliness. This will hopefully offer a refreshing change to the oft-distasteful tendency of other TV talent shows to prey on the successes, or more typically the failures, of their contestants.

Furthermore, the removal of the music that had accompanied battles in the original series now rendered audible the sheer scale of the impact of the collisions between the robots. As diamond-edged axe smashed into titanium armour, bowsaw cut effortlessly through reinforced plastic, and Carbide’s spinning disc produced its ‘death-hum’ upon reaching 2300 RPM, the utter devastation these robots could cause was increasingly, and fantastically, obvious.

It cannot be stressed enough that the real stars of the show – stunningly captured from a countless array of angles – were the robots. The complete ridiculousness of the outlandish creation that was Nuts spinning around causing absolutely no damage with its flailing chains contrasted beautifully with the potency of the piercing beak of Robot Wars’ icon Razer, the crashing axes of Terrahurtz and ‘Shunt’, and the fearsome spinning discs of ‘Dead Metal’ and ‘The General’.

As the camera cut to a sign in the crowd which read “Sir Killalot is Bae”, the vast majority of long-time Robots Wars fans will have let out a collective sigh of a relief. Unlike another recent high-profile BBC revival, Robot Wars has managed to strike the right balance between the old and the new.

A perfect formula has been found: maintained was all that which made the original show so adept at creating an electrifying spectacle of carefully designed and delicately crafted hunks of metal smashing against each other. Yet added in were all of the advancements – scientific, technological or otherwise – necessary to unleash high-octane, unadulterated, maximum carnage.