Robots Volume One - High-Tech Robot Toy for Kids & Collectors | STEM Learning, Interactive Play, and Gift Ideas for All Ages

This story is set during the events of the box set Ravenous 2. Liv Chenka (Nicola Walker) spent a year on her home plant of Kaldor and renewed her relationship with her sister Tula (Claire Rushbrook). Kaldor was the setting for the classic Doctor Who story, "The Robots of Death." The Robots series explores the Robots and concepts of artificial intelligence in a broader context in a series of 12 spread evenly over four box sets.The set kicks off with "The Robots of Life" which features a lot of world building during Liv Chenka's year away from the TARDIS on Kaldor. Mostly, it does a solid job. It's a deliberate start, but its never tedious or boring. Its just taking its time and does build to a few plot twists towards the end while also establishing the relationship between Liv and her Sister, and providing a few hints of what's going with the company and this sinister corporation.The only thing that may have taken me out of the story was Tula doing something dangerous just because Liv asked. That's not something I'd expect from her character, but perhaps it'll be justified later on. Overall, this was a decent start.In "The Sentient," Liv is on holiday and goes to help Tula on a project by completing an ESP experiment. Liv learns that the project is a new advanced AI being programmed to served as a daughter for some wealthy Kaldorians. However, Liv becomes alarmed when she learns the AI is altering its own programming and is having conversations about genocide.This is a timely tale that fits well within the world of Kaldor while also providing a cautionary tale that relates to modern concerns about AI. The story does have some good emotional beats and also raises some important issues. While it's predictable at times, it does enough with its characters and concepts to make it an enjoyable listen.After being treated to a race against the clock to save Kaldor in the previous story, "Love Me Not" is a slower character based tale. It ties into the first story as the a brilliant scientist who is the husband of the woman who died at the start of the episode, is the focal point as he mourns and struggles to move on, even while facing pressure to the company to return and seeks a way to deal with his grief.This story works brilliantly because the characters are so well-written and their reactions are realistic. Unlike some genre writers, John Dorney doesn't forget he's writing about real people with real emotions, even if they live on a future world dependent on robot servants.The plot is about Tula trying to be a friend to the grieving widowers while Liv is trying to be a good med-tech to make sure he gets the help he needs. While it seems obvious that we know what's going on, the story never gets boring as its not about the mystery, but helping the man. And even then, it turns out we don't know exactly what's going on and there's some key surprises that turn a few assumptions on their head. The ending does a beautiful job of setting the tone for the rest of the series.Overall, a beautifully written and performed and piece.This is one of Big Finish's best starts a new range. The set is thoughtful without being pretentious and still tells some cracking good stories. Highly recommended.