THE ROBOT REVOLUTION
Director: Peter Hoar
Writer: Russell T Davies
Main Cast: Ncuti Gatwa, Varada Sethu, Jonny Green, Anita Dobson, Evelyn Miller, Max Parker
Streaming Service: Disney+, iPlayer
(⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
“Is that just chance or something more? I can’t help thinking, Bel, that maybe we are meant to be connected.” – The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa)
“Like, this is destiny?” – Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu)
RTD v2.2
The newest season of Doctor Who is upon us with the premiere of “The Robot Revolution,” written by Russell T Davies, putting us smack dab in the next chapter of this newest era under RTD.
Davies is responsible for bringing the show back twenty years ago this year. So far, under his latest tenure, he’s given us a bi-generation between a new Doctor incarnation of David Tennant and the current Doctor played by Ncuti Gatwa. The return of the Toymaker and Sutehk, two Classic Era villains, a new super important mystery companion, Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), as well as the return of past super important companion, Donna Noble (Catherine Tate), and her super important daughter Rose (Yasmin Finney).
And now for his latest trick, the super important Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu)…
What it’s all about
This episode sees Belinda abducted by a cadre of robots who’ve come from the star system of Missbelindachandra and the planet of Missbelindachandra One. Named such after Belinda was gifted a star on her birthday one year by her then boyfriend, the star of which he called “Miss Belinda Chandra” after her. The Doctor is trying to find her and nearly does when she’s abducted. A time fracture between Missbelindachandra One and Earth causes some timey wimeyness and places the Doctor on the planet six months before she arrives.
They help lead a human revolution against the robots who’ve risen up and taken over as overlords thanks to the all powerful “AL Generator,” which we later find out is her old boyfriend, Al Budd (Jonny Green) who, once again through timey wimeyness was abducted by the same robots and taken to the planet ten years prior and helped begin the titular robot revolution. From there, they defeat him, close the time fracture, and then more mysteries surrounding Belinda begin to pop up as the Doctor is unable to get her home as well as he finds she’s somehow importantly related to the character Varada played in last season’s episode “Boom” before she was cast as the companion. Thus, the wheels begin to turn again…
The Revolution was (kind of) televised
I’m perhaps being too harsh with that opening paragraph and some of my critiques in the quick episode breakdown, as we’ve gotten some great stories out of this new era. I don’t want to undersell that, but so far, the overall plots have been lacking what feels like Doctor Who used to do well: originality, or at the very least, new flavors of the same thing.
I recently watched a video by the incredible Vera Wylde over at Council of Geeks about the “super important” companions of Doctor Who, most of which, if not all, have come from the last twenty years of the show. It reminded me how much this series seems to be spinning its wheels on themes and ideas, putting the mystery box over everything else.
“The Robot Revolution” is fun, but it continues to give us more of the same. Belinda is a mysterious companion somehow related to the Doctor’s past experiences, piquing their interest in her. The individual stories are anecdotal to that core mystery.
As for the episode itself, again, I thought it was fun. I really, really enjoyed the practical effects work on the robots and the AL Generator set, as well as the prosthetic work on Al himself to make him look so robotic. I think those real sets and real aspects are important in allowing the cast to have things to bounce off of when doing their job, so they can make the scenes feel more real.
Additionally, I really like Belinda. Varada plays her really well as a character who is just so annoyed by the mere notion that she’s here and being forced into all of this nonsense. Ncuti is great as ever as the Doctor, and I really hope we get more seasons of him in the role (season three of this new era hasn’t been announced yet). And the supporting cast are, you know, as good as they can be with what they’re working with.
I also liked Belinda calling out her old boyfriend by what he is, and incel who’s destroying people’s lives because he believes everything to be a game and he refuses to connect with others. Although he’s an underwritten villain overall, so I don’t think those moments hit as hard as Davies would like them to. The actual revolution within the story is mostly off-screen because of budgetary restraints, but it never feels very big.
The character of Sasha 55 (Evelyn Miller) is written as someone who could’ve been a potential companion for the Doctor before her death. Ncuti tries his best to sell us how much it hurts the Doctor. Still, while we get one cutaway to Ncuti’s time on the planet of Missbelindachandra One before Belinda arrived, we don’t get any more actual showing us why Sasha 55 was so close to him. Again, much of the information tells us we should care and be invested in what we see, without showing us why we should care or be invested in what we see.
I like how the show looks. Although it feels a bit too polished at points, it has come a long way in looking like a big-budget TV show. There’s an excellent, excellent moment in the episode that gives us some freakin’ cool visuals when two timelines collide at once. Give us more of that, please. I’m super invested in this TARDIS team because I really like these actors, and I’m hoping it’s all building to something really neat.
I didn’t love the season premiere, but I did like it enough.
Thus the wheels begin to turn again…
My hangups on this series right now are that it doesn’t feel like a cohesive story. Sure, every era of Doctor Who has its own flavor and generally doesn’t concern itself with past iterations too much, and that’s fine. However, starting with the later Steven Moffat era as he leaned more heavily into the mystery box concepts, then Chris Chibnall with the franchise altering bombshells that either went absolutely nowhere or put us back in positions we were at twenty years ago, and now currently with RTD’s second era where really interesting ideas are being put forth, but then pushed aside for lackluster ones it feels like the show isn’t innovating anymore and instead being caught within the machinations and tropes of its own making.
This is only the season premiere, however! I must hope that RTD will stick the landing, and at the very least, we’ll definitely get some really good individual episodes out of this season, especially with a bunch of new writers on board.
I’m still intrigued, but so far, I’m not wowed.
Doctor Who Series 14 kicked off on April 12, 2025! New episodes will drop weekly on Saturdays at 12:00 AM PT / 3:00 AM ET.
