Robot: Part Two ends where Part One left off, with Sarah Jane Smith seemingly being encroached upon by a huge robot called K-1. K-1 refuses to attack her. The Robot explains its purpose to Sarah, its 'prime directive' being aiding humanity. Sarah relays her story to the Doctor and UNIT, and they act by talking to the previously introduced Professor Kettlewell and send Harry undercover at Thinktank. It is then shown how the Robot is made to act in ways that would seem counter to its prime directive, with Miss Winters and Mr Jellicoe, important figures at Thinktank, identifying a key Government minister with nuclear codes as an enemy of humanity. Sarah attends a meeting by the Scientific Reform Society, an epistocratic group with twisted values for governance and decisionmaking. The Robot returns to Professor Kettlewell, distressed after conflict with its Prime Directive. A trap is laid for the Doctor, where he encounters The Robot.
Part Two of the Robot serial largely follows on from Part One, with most plot points in the episode acting as direct continuation of what had happened previously. The acting continues on the same trajectory as it was going previously, and we are introduced to the driving motive for the Robot, and how its innocent motive gets shaped by the evil plans of its operators and twisted into going against its Directive despite justification being based in the Directive.
One new plot element introduced, however, is the Scientific Reform Society. This is a highly interesting group, which really makes the serial a fantastic watch. They are a fringe group of estranged scientists, tired of being ignored by successive governments, especially on environmental matters (very prescient). Their advocacy is therefore to establish academics as a ruling, decisionmaking class, establishing an epistocratic society. Despite this episode not getting into the meats of political conundrums encountered later on in the serial, interesting conflict arises when Sarah Jane Smith, with her attempt to sneak into an SRS conference, etablishes just how silly the decisionmaking philosophy advocated by the group really is, with their members telling her that she would have no free will in their ideal society, instead being told what to do, for the absurd justification of it being "for the best".
8.8/10. I didn't expect tense political conundrums from my very first classic Who serial. Wow.