'Doctor Who's "The Robot Revolution" Brings a New Companion & Confounding Mystery

In the world of Doctor Who, the only thing that's ever constant is change. Showrunners, stars, and stories come and go, and still the franchise carries on into its sixth decade, travelling hopefully and finding new stories to tell about the indefinable wonders of the universe. Ncuti Gatwa's incarnation of the famous Time Lord has approached this task with a more palpable air of joy than most, but even his Fifteenth Doctor is not immune to the basic rules that govern the Whoniverse. And with Ruby Sunday's (Millie Gibson) decision to trade the promise of time travel for a chance to get to know her birth mother on Earth, that can only mean one thing: It's time for a new companion.

The arrival (or return, if you want to get technical) of actress Varada Sethu as new companion Belinda Chandra means that, although this is the second season of the Disney+ era, "The Robot Revolution" feels a bit like a reboot. This isn't that surprising; the arrival of a new companion often gives Doctor Who a chance to start over, at least in the sense that the series' central relationship is reset and we have to run through some of the basics again about who the Doctor is and how his world works ("It's bigger on the inside!") all over again.

Gatwa's first proper season in the TARDIS was able to hit the ground running, thanks to the fact that the show got the bulk of Ruby's introduction out of the way in the Christmas special "The Church on Ruby Road". His second has to take the long way round, and though the hour still features a battle against space robots in the middle, the premiere primarily exists as a means of introducing Belinda Chandra to both the Doctor's world and the audience watching at home.