Doctor Who Season Two, Episode One
“The Robot Revolution”
Posted by Kim
I always have a great sense of optimism when I sit down to watch a season premiere of Doctor Who. To borrow a phrase from Anne Shirley, “a new season is always fresh with no mistakes in it.” The regenerative nature of Doctor Who really lends itself to this kind of mentality – if you didn’t like a previous season, chances are there’s a new Doctor or a new companion or a new showrunner or a new batch of writers and directors that can win your affections in the next. I may have had (many) issues with the way the first season of the RTD2 ended and I may have found the Christmas special to be inoffensively mid with ten minutes of brilliance, but I am ALWAYS excited and hopeful when I sit down for a new episode of Doctor Who. I always WANT to love it because this show has meant so much to me for so many years and brought so much joy to my life.
So how did I feel once the credits began to roll on “The Robot Revolution”? I enjoyed it as I was watching. I continue to enjoy Ncuti Gatwa’s take on The Doctor, his boundlessly chaotic energy and deep sense of empathy really making the performance something special. I thought the production values were lush and the cinematography was gorgeous. (They’re spending that Disney money correctly!) I thought it was a sensational debut for Varada Sethu and I fell in love with Belinda immediately. And I thought that the more that I thought about it, the more the plot began to unravel. I thought that the episode skated by on pizzazz and the charisma of the performers without really SAYING anything. So basically, I felt a lot like I did with most of last season.
Sigh.
I don’t know, guys. Maybe I just need to rethink the way I engage with Doctor Who and my relationship with it. Maybe I just need to stop thinking about it critically and meet it where it is, taking it at face value. Because this is not fun, you know? It’s not fun when I have to say “I promise I enjoyed it but–” every time I engage in episode discussion. It’s not fun being a dissenting voice that brings all the excitement down.
Frankly, I feel like I’m going a little insane because Russell’s writing used to be better than this, right? RIGHT?!?!? Am I crazy?? Or have my expectations as a fan just changed? All I know is that last summer, I binged the back half of Series Four with a friend who was watching for the first time and those episodes still made me feel the same way I did when I watched them for the first time. I just don’t foresee myself ever feeling that way about the new series. And for me, it all goes back to the writing. I think those scripts from back in the day, even when they were somewhat silly, hold up to analysis in a way that the new scripts just don’t. And that makes me sad because like I said, every time I sit down to watch Doctor Who, I WANT to love it. I really do.
Anyway. On to this episode and the “I liked it, but–” of it all.
I DO think it’s kind of crazy that it took more than sixty years for Doctor Who to take on the idea of being able to buy naming rights to a star and whether or not that could have real life consequences. I thought the whole rebellion setup on Missbelindachandra felt like it belonged in the Star Wars universe in the most complimentary way. At first it seemed like the great villain of the episode was generative AI, which as someone who won’t even use Siri, I was very much in support of. My eyes rolled all the way to the back of my head at the Alan reveal though. Not because it came out of nowhere, because the seeds were planted for it in the very beginning. Anyone would eyes could see that Alan gave Belinda the Ick in that opening scene – we didn’t even really need that additional scene where Alan was telling Belinda how to dress and not to text after 8 PM to know that.
My issue is that I don’t even know what Russell was trying to say about incel culture with this? Why include that bit about Alan apparently not being able to live with himself, that his mind was speaking the truth every nine words saying that he was in pain? (“Help me, save me, pain.” to be exact!) Why, if you are wanting to point out the humanity that’s buried deep within him do you immediately pivot to the Doctor saying that Alan won’t stop and that his anger will go on and on? What are you trying to SAY here, Russell??? And as satisfying as it may be to see an incel be reduced down to literal microscopic size, I feel like the moment was played for laughs with Polish Polish immediately sucking him up off the floor and destroying him.
I don’t know. In 2025, when we are seeing the effects of the right-wing radicalization of men on the daily, when women can lose their fucking lives because they tell the wrong man the word no, this whole storyline being played for humor just lands with the thud of a fucking boulder. It just screams of a middle aged man writing about incels not even understanding what it’s like for the women who actually deal with it. And that’s all I have to say about that.
As for Belinda Chandra herself – welcome to the TARDIS, girl!!! It’s so good to meet you. Varada Sethu clearly made an quite impression with her appearance as Mundy Flynn in last season’s “Boom!” and she makes an equally good and completely different impression here. While I appreciated Millie Gibson’s acting skills, I never felt like I fully connected with Ruby Sunday, so Belinda feels like a breath of fresh air. I don’t know if it’s because I just spent the past fifteen weeks falling in love with the doctors and nurses of The Pitt or that I deeply related to that desire to just go HOME and get in your comfies, but I felt like I KNEW Belinda immediately. I love that she’s a 30-something – it’s such a different VIBE for when you have a companion with a fully-formed frontal lobe. She’s a grown ass adult with an important job and responsibilities who forgets to go grocery shopping and has roommates she definitely hates but has to have so she can make rent. I love how she immediately goes to work helping the wounded rebels and I love how she’s not DAZZLED by The Doctor and his speeches about time machines and seeing the stars. I love that she calls him on his bullshit and his lack of asking for consent but she is kind about it. I think she and Ncuti have fantastic chemistry, their diametrically opposed energies really balancing each other out. I don’t know the last time we had a RELUCTANT companion and I can’t wait to see where we go with her.
But.
I AM SORRY THERE *IS* A BUT.
After the mystery of Ruby Sunday’s origins dominated the last season, to its great detriment in my opinion, my hackles were IMMEDIATELY up when it became clear that Belinda is at the heart of yet another mystery for the Doctor to solve. Sure, it might be a different KIND of mystery from last season, but it’s a mystery nonetheless. I mean, the Doctor is tracking Belinda from the very start of the episode, much as he was tracking Ruby in “The Church on Ruby Road.” He goes to her place of work and to her house trying to find her before the robots kidnap her. (As an aside, I love that Belinda’s ICK detector was up, calling The Doctor out on going to her HOUSE. This is a woman who has dealt with terrible men her whole life.) He’s very cagey about WHY he was looking for her, only saying that SOMEONE told him about her and that he’s got to be careful about timelines, but she’s important. And not important as in he’s “never in his 900 years not met somebody who’s important” important, but IMPORTANT important.
I DO appreciate that the Doctor is being somewhat transparent with her by telling her about Mundy Flynn (more than he did for Clara in the beginning!), but he still doesn’t tell her why he was looking for her. And yeah, yeah, before you’re like, “Well, they are setting up the arc for the season, they can’t give away the whole farm in the first episode,” I KNOW that. I get that the mystery of it all is REALLY going to be why the TARDIS won’t take her back to May 24th, 2025. But STILL. Belinda is at the center of the strange circumstances that apparently lead to the Earth being blown to smithereens. I’m just asking why do we have to do this with the companion again? Especially one who feels so sharply drawn already? She doesn’t need a mystery to make her more intriguing. Can’t we just let companions be completely normal people who discover through their time with The Doctor that they are capable of doing extraordinary things?
I am willing to wait and see where we’re going here, because as I’ve said over and over in this post I am ALWAYS going to give Doctor Who the chance. Even I feel so very recently burned by unsatisfying companion mysteries that I can’t help but let my skepticism rule the moment. I hope I’m wrong. I want to be wrong! I want to be able to say I loved an episode without immediately having to say BUT. It’s all I want!
Timey-Wimey Observations
- EXCUSE ME DID WE HAVE TO KILL A CAT?
- Mrs. Flood is back and I’m TIRED OF IT ALREADY.
- However, to steal a joke from a friend of mine — perhaps Mrs. Flood is the greatest villain of all: a landlord.
- The radiation free X-Ray blankets were hella cool and we need them IRL immediately.
- I like, want to be amused that they can only describe this Time Fracture as a “schwap,” but I can’t be. Haven’t we done this crack in reality storyline already????
- I did immediately make “Polish Polish” friendship bracelets to add to my stockpile for the next Gally.
- Belinda’s rejection of being referred to as “Miss” has led many (including me) to speculate as to whether or not she might identify as non-binary. However, given that all the marketing for the season has the tagline “Get Her Home,” I would certainly hope they would be sensitive to the character’s pronouns. I lean more towards her rejection of “Miss” being more towards hatred of the way a patriarchal society categorizes women based on their marital status. Team “Ms.” for life, amirite?
- Obviously Manny had a name, since I just typed it out. But mainly I referred to him as “ARMS.”
- I need Belinda’s yellow coat.
- Ncuti can still do a single tear like no one’s business.
- It’s making me CRAZY that Belinda called the TARDIS by name on sight when The Doctor had only ever referred to it as his spaceship. I rewound the episode thirty full minutes when I rewatched it just to be SURE the word TARDIS was never said, and it NEVER WAS. Some people have been like “he must have said it to her in a deleted scene” and to that I say…that’s a PRETTY big detail for a showrunner and script supervisor to miss in the final edit. Some are saying that she knows the name because of the Time Fracture, and it just has me asking whether or not we are bending over backwards to find an explanation for this when the simple answer is that it may just be sloppy writing?
- It says something for how QUICKLY and EASILY this Doctor falls in love that he’s known Belinda for like five minutes and he’s already calling her “Bel”.
- I am SEATED for a companion who has a low tolerance for the Doctor’s nonsense.
- My friend Tom bravely voiced a theory that Missbelindachandra was actually Gallifrey and I was like OMG OKAY THANK YOU I THOUGHT IT LOOKED LIKE GALLIFREY TOO.
- I DO love The Doctor being forced into the role of the Historian. “You will witness events, not participate.” That’s the real curse of the Time Lords.
What are your thoughts on “The Robot Revolution”? Let us know in the comments.
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