Doctor Who is nothing without its companions. Without ordinary humans to marvel at the wonders of time and space, the adventures of the Time Lord known as the Doctor wouldn’t have quite the same kick to them. In the (somewhat petulant) words of the 11th Doctor, “I am being extremely clever up here, and there's no one to stand around looking impressed! What's the point in having you all?”
So it stands to reason that episodes introducing a new companion are just as important as a new Doctor’s debut. Within 45 minutes, we have to get to intimately know and love this character because they’re about to be the audience surrogate for the next 10 episodes or so. And Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) is immediately lovable — perhaps because she doesn’t instantly love the Doctor.
Belinda is introduced in the Season 2 premiere of Doctor Who’s Disney+ era, “The Robot Revolution,” which is penned by showrunner and executive producer Russell T Davies. And it’s not hard to see how Davies pulls from past formulas that have worked for him — like the third season of his 2005 reboot (which introduced savvy medical student Martha Jones), Disney+’s Season 2 introduces Belinda as a hard-working medical professional just trying to get through her day, until an army of robot aliens literally crash-land into her life. Kidnapped by the robots who hail from the planet “Miss Belinda Chandra” — a star that was named after her as a gift from a demanding ex-boyfriend — Belinda is unhappily whisked away to be the ruler of the planet. But becoming ruler of Miss Belinda Chandra requires a shocking sacrifice to its AI tyrant, leading Belinda to get swept up in a revolution led by none other than the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa).
As a writer, Davies does not often plot too many complex narratives — his episodes frequently combine a high-stakes, world-saving situation with a goofy alien antagonist for maximum campy popcorn entertainment.
Of course, there are exceptions, like the no-frills Stephen King-esque thriller “Midnight” and last year’s ambitious folk-horror episode “73 Yards.”
And now, “The Robot Revolution” can be added to that list of exceptions, with Davies putting his signature maximalist mark on a twisty time-travel episode that feels like something Steven Moffat might’ve dreamed up. But despite its sci-fi-forward narrative (in that its plot hinges on several nonsense sci-fi twists), “The Robot Revolution” is all goofy, silly heart — deftly balancing the emotional stakes with its high-stakes planetary revolution.
“The Robot Revolution” speeds through its plot at a breakneck pace, giving us a flashback of Belinda’s brief relationship with the aforementioned bad boyfriend and even giving us a glimpse of her very normal, very average life as a stressed-out nurse living with several roommates. But in less than 15 minutes, we’re already on the planet Miss Belinda Chandra, and Belinda has barely had time to react to the fact that aliens exist. “The Robot Revolution’s” pace is so fast that it almost undercuts itself, but it’s by the strength of Varada Sethu’s grounded performance that the episode starts to be able to breathe. And when she and Gatwa’s 15th Doctor finally share the screen, they share the kind of electricity that only all-time great Doctor-companion pairings have been able to achieve.
What Doctor Who Season 2 (of which critics received the first two episodes) manages to miraculously pull off, and which Davies struggled with in the early Season 1 episodes, is balance its particular brand of sci-fi camp with genuine emotion — a balance that is difficult to maintain when both your lead characters are equally breathlessly excited about everything they encounter. So when Belinda immediately pooh-poohs the Doctor’s advice and does what she wants, it completely changes up the Doctor-companion dynamic. Suddenly, there’s conflict, and suddenly, it feels like we have gravity where before we were floating up in space. And while it’s nice to be in awe of the cosmos, it also just makes for good storytelling when that awe is paired with a little cynicism.
With the refreshing pairing of Sethu and Gatwa, it feels like this new era of Doctor Who has finally found its rhythm. Sethu’s Belinda grounds and pushes back against the Doctor, and as a result, Gatwa’s Doctor feels more real and flawed. His happy-go-lucky persona was already starting to wear away during the events of last year’s Christmas special, but he finds the perfect foil in Sethu to bring out the 15th Doctor’s hidden depths. And Gatwa seems more settled in the role — shining and charismatic, even when Belinda berates him.
Where the show seemed to be uncertain of its audience and tone in the previous season, Season 2 charges confidently ahead, experimenting with form and social commentary in bold, exciting new ways. “The Robot Revolution” might be a typically silly and goofy episode of Doctor Who, but it feels fresh because of how the pieces — from the actors to the plot twists — all come together in unexpected ways. It really does make it feel like we’re on the cusp of a revolutionary new era for Doctor Who.
