DOCTOR WHO, 15.1 – ‘The Robot Revolution’
When robots from outer space kidnap a nurse, The Doctor embarks on an epic intergalactic quest to get his new friend back home to Earth.
After a season that revived general interest in Doctor Who, thanks to new actors, the return of Russell T. Davies as showrunner, and a bigger budget thanks to the BBC’s co-production deal with Bad Wolf and Disney, this fifteenth season (or “Season Two”) is arguably in a trickier position. And matters aren’t helped thanks to criticism of last season, especially in terms of its flailing arc and mysteries that either went unanswered or, worse, were answered badly. Perhaps that’s why Millie Gibson’s companion Ruby Sunday has been pushed aside, making way for a new character in the form of nurse Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu). After all, having someone new on an adventure always opens up fresh angles and storytelling possibilities.
In “The Robot Revolution”, we meet Belinda as she’s gifted a star by her boyfriend Alan Budd (Jonny Green) in 2008, before jumping forward in time 17 years to witness her getting kidnapped by giant red robots that land a rocket ship in her back garden. The robots believe she’s the queen of their homeworld, Missbelindachandra-1, and whisk her away to rule —where she discovers a high-tech citadel where humans in utilitarian overalls have been subjugated by their robots for the past decade, led by the almighty ‘AI Generator’. Luckily, The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) saw Bel get taken by the robots and manages to arrive on the planet six months earlier, where he joined the resistance alongside friend Sasha 55 (Evelyn Miller), with a plan to help Bel escape back to Earth.
This premiere is very much in the spirit of what Russell T. Davies tends to do with his flashy openers; it delivers a fast-paced and highly comedic adventure with the fizzy energy of someone with a great idea as a starting point (“what if the residents of a planet orbiting a star you bought online thought you were their leader?”), and feels like the rest is mostly a stream-of-consciousness exercise that strains to make it all come together. For such a silly show primarily aimed at children and families, it’s often frustrating how much exposition and flashbacks are required to make things at least seem to make sense. And even then, I’m not sure it works to paper over the cracks.
The big reveal over how the “star certificate of ownership” founds its way into the mists of time, and how Bel’s creepy ex-boyfriend Alan ends up being more directly involved, don’t really come together in a way that feels logical and cohesive. It felt rushed and forced, without enough planning and careful delivery of clues the audiences needs to feel like there’s a fair level of drip-feed discovery before a clever twist comes.
As is often the case with such frantically written Doctor Who episodes, you spend the hour latching onto the fun stuff happening around the edges more than engaging with it intellectually. Ncuti Gatwa remains a lot of fun thanks to his charisma, mega-watt smiles, and high energy, and it’s always entertaining when The Doctor has to ingratiate himself with a new companion and reveal he’s a two-hearted Time Lord with a bigger-on-the-inside TARDIS. It’s stuff we’ve seen countless times, but there’s always a lot of pleasure in seeing it done with a few tweaks. I also enjoyed how the robots have a glitch where they can’t hear every ninth word (as stupid as it is), for how it was used to drop hidden messages in conversations between Bel and The Doctor.
The real interest of “The Robot Revolution” was meeting the new companion, of course, and first impressions are good for Varada Sethu (Andor) as Bel. She’s clever, professional, independent, fiery, beautiful, confident, and scenes where she doesn’t get drawn into The Doctor’s charm offensive offered signs that RTD may have found a fresh angle to play on. The companions are often delighted to travel with The Doctor through Time and Space because their ordinary lives are so dull (Rose, Amy, Ryan, Ruby), but Bel just wants to get home and she recognises the ways in which The Doctor’s sparkling personality is often hiding some darker impulses or selfish motivations. We’ve had companions who are mysteries before (most notably “Impossible Girl” Clara Oswald), but when Bel realises The Doctor is fascinated by her identical 51st-century descendent Mundy Flynn (from last season’s “Boom”, also played by Sethu) she calls him out on not wanting to be an excuse for his own adventure. She thinks he’s dangerous, not enticing.
It’s a pity the story is the singular weakness of this episode, as everything else working in its service was great. The production looked notably high in many places, and I loved the visual effects applied to the image when Bel was travelling inside the rocket ship, or when two versions of the star scrolls touched and caused a Timecop (1994)-style event which was brilliantly portrayed with weird colour grading, deep bass, slow-motion, and trippy cutaways. It was a reminder that an episode’s director, Peter Hoar in this case, can often deliver the most memorable moments with a bit of style and ingenuity in how they choose to portray something.
The robots themselves felt like a mix of ones we’ve seen before —they’re basically King Hydroflax from “The Husbands of River Song”, or the dup from “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship”, but with screens that show emoji like the bots in “Smile” —but they were nevertheless fun. And I loved the shiny golden makeup for the A.I. Generator once his cyborg form is finally revealed, which stirred nightmarish childhood memories of the automaton woman in Superman III (1983). Quite an unnerving sight for younger viewers! I’m sure it inspired some ‘behind-the-sofa’ moments across the country.
Naturally, there were seeds of bigger mysteries sown into the episode that we’ll be returning to later. The last shot reveals the Earth’s been blown up and it’s likely tied to 24 May 2025, a date the TARDIS keeps bouncing off. There was a time when I’d be excited and inclined to start theorising what may have happened and how it’s related to Bel, even if we have too little to go on, but having been bitten too many times by unfulfilling answers (especially in seasons RTD is overseeing), I’m not expecting great things. It’ll just be a nice surprise if things come together well. And there was also the brief return of Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson), a frustrating holdover from last season, whose character keeps breaking the fourth wall (annoyingly), who is now Bel’s neighbour just as she was Ruby Sunday’s. That’s actually more intriguing than a date the TARDIS can’t approach, to me, but we’ll see if RTD has a satisfying explanation for who or what Mrs Flood is.
Overall, “The Robot Revolution” was entertaining hokum, but another episode that lacked clarity and precision in the story it was trying to tell. Once it started crowbarring in real-world issues like generative A.I., abusive boyfriends, coercive control, and incels, it just felt like a deeper and more serious story was needed if you’re going to tackle that sort of thing with the delicacy and insight they really need. And maybe Doctor Who just isn’t the best place for it. Tonally, it doesn’t work if you’re seeing a cute roomba bleating “Polish! Polish!” one second, and then being asked to contemplate misogyny and toxic masculinity.
UK | 2025 | 46 MINUTES | 16:9 HD | COLOUR | ENGLISH
Cast & Crew
writer: Russell T. Davies.
director: Peter Hoar.
starring: Ncuti Gatwa, Varada Sethu, Anita Dobson, Evelyn Miller, Jonny Green, Max Parker, Thalía Dudek, Jeffin Kunjumon, Belinda Owusu, Tom Storey, Robert Strange, Nicolas Briggs (voice), Charles Sandford, Lucas Edwards, Caleb Hughes, Stephen Love, Nadine Higgin & William Ellis.
