Doctor Who is back on TV screens with the Season 2 premiere, “The Robot Revolution”. The start of star Ncuti Gatwa’s second season in the TARDIS, this time with a new companion, Belinda (Varada Sethu), in tow. There are rockets, evil robots, lasers, and a timing malfunction, all staples of the franchise. But is it enough to be the breath of fresh air the show needs? After a divisive finale last year, the show needs to hit the ground running.
So, what do these evil space robots want with a random nurse? Can the Doctor get to her in time? Is a new companion and series arc enough to refresh the series? And why is Belinda’s neighbour so familiar? Please read below for our full spoiler review of the Doctor Who Season 2 premiere, “The Robot Revolution“!
WARNING – Spoilers below for Doctor Who “The Robot Revolution”
The Doctor and the Nurse
The episode opens without an overlong introduction, dropping the Doctor straight into chasing down Belinda. How we got to this point is unknown, but he’s determined to find her. Also on the hunt for Belinda is an army of space robots, proclaiming her as their queen. It’s a cool way to start the episode, and the season as a whole. The robots collecting Belinda are really comical, with the house destruction getting a rise out of me.
Of course Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson) appearing as Belinda’s neighbour, breaking the fourth wall, and running at the sight of the Doctor is intriguing. Perhaps the plans she alluded to at the end of last season are about to come to fruition? I understand we’ve been promised answers about Mrs Flood, so there’s little doubt she’s central to this season’s wider story. It’s a short, but sweet moment that no doubt sets up the absolute terror we were promised.
Meanwhile, time dilation effects aside, the proper meeting of the Doctor and Belinda is awesome. Belinda’s star certificate being the story device is a funny, but very Doctor Who way of story telling. It turns Belinda into a very reluctant space traveller, kidnapped from her home and desperate to go back. It’s not unlike Tegan (Janet Fielding) from the Classic Series. Belinda, at least in this episode, challenges the Doctor. I loved their chemistry instantly, and really can’t wait to see more of it.
Miss Belinda Chandra
Keeping the first meeting of the Doctor and Belinda to after her arrival on Missbelindachandra was a genius choice. It keeps Belinda swept up in alien stuff through the whole episode, discovering the Doctor as just a part of the whirlwind adventure. That first scene with the rebel attack in the throne room was awesome. The amount of action onscreen felt unreal, as did the awe-inspiring wider shots of the city.
Naturally, Doctor Who is a big show, that over the years has been many things. But firefights on alien worlds and running down corridors is such an iconic part of it. With Daleks nowhere in sight, this could well be the closest Gatwa gets. However, for every Doctor Who staple, the episode throws a curveball like the adorable polishing droid, or more often, it falls victim to the faults of last season.
While not exactly episode breaking, the Doctor makes a big deal out of the death of Sasha 55 (Evelyn Miller). Other people died in that fight, and she had mere minutes of screen time. Yet it’s carried through the episode, perhaps grossly overestimating emotional engagement in minor characters. Not to mention, seeing this Doctor cry loses its impact when it’s been in almost every episode. It’s almost eyeroll-inducing at this point.
AI Generator
The episode’s threat revolving around, what at first, appears to be an artificial intelligence is really timely. Knowing how far in advance these episodes were written and filmed, the fact it feels so poignant is praiseworthy. The war on Missbelindachandra feels just like what would happen if AI did go rogue. But, in a clever twist, the rise of AI isn’t the only thing Davies is criticising with this episode.
It was telegraphed earlier in the episode, but the AI overlord of Missbelindachandra is Belinda’s ex-boyfriend Alan (Jonny Green). Behind this evil artificial intelligence is a controlling, abusive man, who’s masculinity is based in subjugation. A man who gleefully started a war to make it more like a videogame. It’s a scathing criticism of the patriarchy, in particular the idea of hypermasculinity. Not only is he a villain who’s easy to hate, but the prosthetics make him positively menacing.
The final defeat of Alan, as a timey-wimey paradox is created, was visually epic. I hope the series does more sequences like it, conceptual stuff tops CGI messes and explosions every time. Although the Doctor almost delighting in his death is a marked departure from what we’ve seen of Davies’ writing of the Doctor in the past. It doesn’t sit quite right with me at the moment. However, if this is the start of a darker Fifteenth Doctor, then that could be interesting.
Get Her Home
The end of the episode is where things really get crazy. Time distortions between Earth and Missbelindachandra are only the beginning. Trying to get Belinda back home, the TARDIS cannot get Belinda back to the day she left from. It’s quite the setup for the season’s arc, a mysterious force repelling them from returning to 2025. A connection to Mrs Flood, who somehow appears as Belinda’s neighbour, is an obvious candidate for the reason why.
But there’s also the question of what brought the Doctor and Belinda together. The Doctor mentions getting her name from someone, and there’s of course the other connection to Mundy Flynn from “Boom”. I’m not quite as sure that this story’s going to go anywhere, but there’s the rest of the season left to explore. The show’s reused stars plenty of times, why this one feels the need to be special is anyone’s guess.
A season of episodes that, for the most part, avoids contemporary Earth is really exciting. Given how grounded much of the revived series in particular has felt, I hope the alien worlds flesh out the series’ universe. Grounding this exploration in the series story arc is an interesting approach, though. Even if I do prefer the look of this season’s arc over last year’s, the characters’ desperation to get back to the familiar stomping ground of modern Earth could easily be a detriment.
Conclusion
Like last season’s “Space Babies,” the episode leaves us with a lot of questions. A quality judgment on the episode’s final moments is impossible until we get those answers. The rest of the episode, however, is a pretty fun one, complete with dodging laser fire while running down a corridor. One of the most unique Doctor-company dynamics in recent memory led this. It’s such a joy to watch, with some well-done social commentary.
It feels like a classic Doctor Who adventure, even if it falls victim to some of last season’s flaws. Perhaps it’s the fact I didn’t personally go in too optimistically, but I’m so glad to have enjoyed this. Nothing revolutionary, but good fun, that leaves an exciting toybox for the rest of the season to play with. It feels like such a step up from last season, leaving me cautiously optimistic for the next 7 weeks. This cycle starts with “Lux”, episode 2, which looks like a cartoony riot. Bring it on!
Doctor Who is released weekly on Saturdays on BBC iPlayer across the UK. Episodes also air on BBC One on Saturday evenings, where available. Internationally, the series is released on Disney+ simultaneously with the iPlayer release. Follow us here at Nerdgazm for all the latest news and reviews about all your favourite franchises.
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