We’re well into Ncuti Gatwa’s era as the fifteenth Doctor, and a new series kicks off with The Robot Revolution. With Ruby Sunday having departed at the end of the last series, the Doctor is about to meet a new companion who he can take on even more adventures through time and space. There is much to dissect from the new series opener of Doctor Who, but it’s full of the hallmarks you’d expect from a Russell T Davies series opener. A low stakes singular adventure that helps us to get to know the new arrival.
The Robot Revolution opens with our introduction to the new companion Belinda Chandra, played by Varada Sethu, sitting on a bench beneath the stars with her boyfriend Alan. He gifts her with a certificate showing he’s named a star after her. An inconsequential emotional beat in any normal TV show, but something with far greater implications in Doctor Who as we move forward to the present day. Belinda is working as a nurse and the Doctor lands at her hospital trying to find her. As is customary by now, he crosses paths with her but doesn’t quite meet. This whole sequence gives off a similar vibe to that of season 3 opener Smith and Jones where the Doctor and Martha Jones meet for the first time. Almost as if destiny is drawing them together but not quite yet.
So Belinda returns home after a long day of working where she is interrupted by a landing spaceship. She is subsequently kidnapped by a pair of robots who know who she is. She is whisked away on a spaceship to a planet named after her called Missbelindachandra, but not before there’s a small cameo from Mrs. Flood who has been appearing here and there since the start of Gatwa’s era. We last saw her in the series 1 finale on top of Ruby Sunday’s house giving full Mary Poppins directly addressing us once again to tell us that the Doctor’s story is to end in misery. And here she is once again, on the fringes of the main narrative threatening to impose further. This writer is certain we will find out exactly who she is come the two part finale.
The Doctor chases after Belinda as she is being whisked away to her own personal planet, but comes up against a snag. A time fracture that splits them up. As Belinda arrives on the planet she is greeted by Sasha 55 who explains to her that she has been summoned to become a cyborg queen to rule over the planet’s inhabitants. Amongst a line up of people in the throne room, the Doctor stands and explains to Belinda how he has been there for six months, after the time fracture split them up, integrating into the world and reveals that the people are part of a rebellion against the robots taking over.
A fight ensues between the robots and the rebels and the Doctor and Belinda manage to escape, but Sasha 55 doesn’t make it. Sasha 55 is an interesting character despite her short screen time because she acts as a potential companion to the Doctor. Her subsequent death in front of Belinda acts as a warning to her that being around the Doctor is dangerous. Already at this point the development between the Doctor and Belinda feels leagues ahead of the development between him and Ruby last series. Ruby was an unquestionable traveler through their adventures together, so to see doubt cast through Belinda’s head so early on feels like a fresh change.
The pair’s first proper interaction after the events in the throne room shows off the chemistry between Gatwa and Sethu. There’s a palpable feeling between the two of them that again feels different to the dynamic between the Doctor and Ruby. As Belinda realises that the robots won’t stop until she surrenders, she gives herself up. This is where the episode takes some timey-wimey paradoxical turns and explains that the time fracture is to blame for the robot revolution as Belinda had mentioned her ex-boyfriend Alan. The robots had picked him up and taken him to missbelindachandra and offered for him to rule over the planet.
Belinda reveals to the Doctor why she had broken up with Alan, and it was due to him being controlling and mean. At this point the episode leans into some social commentary, and the word incel is even dropped into the dialogue. Such is the nature of Doctor Who that something as important as a dialogue on coercive control and entitled men could be dropped into what feels like a fluffy alien planet episode. It doesn’t give too much time to the idea however, leaving it a little bit shallow. But the fact it even got mentioned on something like Doctor Who is enough for decent marks.
The best bit of The Robot Revolution comes in the TARDIS at the end when the Doctor tries his usual gambit to get Belinda to join him on adventures. He even scans her body to relate her back to Mundy Flynn, Varada Sethu’s character in the Series 1 episode Boom, but Belinda is repulsed by the gesture. She makes it clear that she just wants to go home, she doesn’t want to travel with the Doctor. He eventually obliges and sets the TARDIS in motion to take her back, but they can’t get there. And thus Belinda is forced to stay with the Doctor whether she likes it or not. Either way this established tension is already making for a more interesting Doctor/companion dynamic and it will be interesting to see how it plays out as the series continues.
Doctor Who, Season Two is now streaming on Disney+.
Learn more about the show, including how to watch, on the official site for the title.
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