ROBOT WARS
BBC2, Friday nights
As the autumn TV schedules attack our screens, one programme which is guaranteed to conquer a large audience, especially the young lads, is the fourth series of Robot Wars. Presented until now by Charles Craig and Philippa Forrester, it is one of the rare shows where the amateurs take the limelight of stardom.
If you have never watched it, I should explain the set-up. Small groups of friends or relatives build a remote-controlled robot - usually of the wheeled or tracked variety. These are equipped with various weapons, which can include anything from a circular saw, or a vicious hammer, to a wedge with which to overturn an opponent. During the heats these robots fight one another in single combat in a specially-designed arena, in front of a crowd of baying enthusiasts, until a winner emerges. The arena includes a number of traps and the predatorial house robots like Dead Metal or Sir Killerlot which can turn on either of the competitors if they come in range.
Live event
At present the show has rocketed in popularity with many of the robots and their teams having almost a cult status. During the summer there was a well-attended 'Robot Wars Live Event' in a warehouse complex near St. Albans. Some of the star robots, like 'Plunder-storm' and 'Razer', were on show and the teams available for conversation. Preliminary rounds for the coming TV series took place before audiences of around 700 parents and kids to wild acclaim. The new addition to the house robots, 'Refbot', put in an appearance. There was also an exhibition from the Royal Engineers Bomb Disposal robots, a robotic lawn mower and the presence of not a few folk in their wheelchairs was another reminder of the possible more useful applications for robotics.
What makes Robot Wars so popular? I think, as already indicated, that its amateur status is a big plus. Working away in garden sheds and garages, the team, often of dads and lads, have the opportunity to show what they can come up with to take on the world. Many is the sketchy drawing we have found around our house from a youngster who has been working on his latest crazy design for an invincible robot! Though there is competition, there also seems to be a great camaraderie and respect among the participants - a spirit which is often lost in today's professionalism in sport.
A male thing?
However, perhaps the most striking feature is that enthusiasm for Robot Wars seems to be predominantly a male thing. No doubt, today's social reformers will ascribe this to girls being put off engineering by society's expectations, and this robot mayhem being an expression of male competitiveness which needs to be eradicated in today's PC world. But I wonder. Perhaps the appeal of Robot Wars is an expression (doubtless a fallen one) of the God-given differences between male and female which go back to creation.
Not too long ago, I came across a spoof test for maleness. It goes like this: 'Alien beings from a highly advanced society visit the earth and you are the first human being they encounter. As a token of inter-galactic friendship they present you with a small but incredibly-sophisticated device capable of curing all disease, providing an infinite amount of clean energy, wiping out hunger and poverty, and eliminating oppression and violence over the entire earth. Do you decide to: (a) give the device to the Prime Minister? (b) present it to the Secretary-General of the UN? Or (c) take it apart to find out how it works?!!
JEB
John Benton
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