Doctor Who returns for its 15th Series with the Doctor on a retro sci-fi adventure with his new companion.
Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) is a nurse who has a star named after her by an ex-boyfriend. It turns out Belinda is the queen of the planet Missbelindachandra One, and she is abducted by giant red robots. Missbelindachandra One has been taken over by an Artificial Intelligence called The AI Generator. Fortunately for Belinda, she has an ally, the Doctor, who had been working with the rebels on the planet.
The Doctor Who revival has been on TV for the past 20 years, and it has seen as many ups and downs. Any show that has lasted that long runs the risk of creative stagnation and recycling ideas, even a show with Doctor Who’s wide canvas. “The Robot Revolution” does have some of these issues through the new companion.
Belinda was a combination of Martha Jones and Clara Oswald. Belinda and Martha both worked in the medical profession, whilst, like Clara, The Doctor did meet another version of the character. Sethu had previously appeared in the episode “Boom,” where she played the soldier Munday Flynn. This piques the Doctor’s curiosity. Series 14 already had a mystery about Ruby Sunday’s parentage and subverted expectations since Ruby wasn’t a magical companion like Amy Pond or Clara Oswald.
“The Robot Rebellion” also sets up several mystery boxes with its cliffhanger. Russell T. Davies loves using mystery boxes, and there was intrigue, but it does suggests that Doctor Who’s idea pool has become stale.
Whilst there were some structural issues, the primary focus of “The Robot Revolution” was to introduce the new companion, and on that level, it did the job well. Belinda was shown to be a kind and caring person who liked to build a rapport with her patients on Earth, and despite the danger to life on Missbelindachandra One, she was willing to help injured members of the rebellion. Belinda was also selfless since she was willing to put herself in danger if it meant protecting the innocent. Some of my favorite scenes in superhero movies involved heroes sacrificing themselves for the greater good, so Belinda won me over quickly. Finally, Belinda was willing to call The Doctor out for some of his actions, which meant she wasn’t emanated like some of The Doctor’s previous companions. Belinda was older than Ruby, so she had more life experience, and considering what has happened to the nurse, her hostility to The Doctor was understandable.
“The Robot Revolution” aimed to be a lighter, kitschy episode. The titular robots were big, bright red, and cumbersome, with the look and vibe of a pulp novel, Silver Age comic, or a 1950s B-movie. The episode was fun and silly, if a bit restrictive to a few rooms. A joke involving a cat being shot did hit me the wrong way because of my love for cats.
“The Robot Revolution” attempted a bigger theme about toxic relationships. Belinda was in a toxic relationship, and it came back to haunt her a second time. This is an important issue, and it has been explored in recent media like Companion and the fifteenth season of Waterloo Road. Companion showed a story about toxic relationships in an entertaining manner. However, in “The Robot Revolution’s” case, it felt like Russell T. Davies wanted to give the episode some deeper meaning. This social commentary came out of left field, instead of being organically a part of the story like in “Boom” and “73 Yards.” It was more like “Space Babies,” where the team tried to inject social commentary about refugees and asylum, an episode that was notorious upon its release.
“The Robot Revolution” worked best as an introduction to Belinda as a character. She gave a good first impression and is someone fans would like to spend more time with. The actors did excel in an episode that was going through the Doctor Who motions.
