'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. Of course, it helps a lot that Belinda is awesome from her first moments onscreen, and that this is an hour that gives her plenty of space to stand on her own. 

The story begins 17 years ago, when a much younger Belinda receives a gift from her overbearing boyfriend, Alan: A certificate that designates one of the faraway stars in the sky as her very own. But this is Doctor Who, so the concept of celestial ownership turns out to be surprisingly literal. Viewers of a certain age will remember when these sorts of certificates were all the rage, claiming to allow us each to "own" a piece of the galaxy in a cute and personalized way. (Check your childhood bedroom and see if you too, could possibly rule a distant world!)

In the present day, a grown-up Belinda is now a nurse—capable, empathetic, and kind, even if she is stuck in a share-house with at least three other roommates and no privacy. That all changes when a rocketship lands in her backyard and a pair of large red robots that bear an uncomfortable resemblance to Hydroflax from "The Husbands of River Song" tear into her home, insisting that she must return with them to their planet. She is, after all, Miss Belinda Chandra, and that makes her the queen of the world that bears her name. 

That star Belinda was gifted? Well, it has a planet in orbit around it (Miss Belinda Chandra-1), and that planet is populated by a humanoid-esque species known as Miss Belinda Chandra-kind. Though the people of the planet once lived in harmony alongside the robots (Miss Belinda Chandra-bots), an AI evolved a decade ago that led the machines in revolt and told them to conquer the planet. Now the robots wish to wed their queen to their AI overlord and create a perfect melding of human and machine. Belinda is, unsurprisingly, not into this, and the rest of the episode sees the Doctor working to save her and help the rebels fighting to overthrow the robots.

What's perhaps most interesting about this hour is the fact that the Doctor takes such a back seat in the story. He doesn't officially "meet" Belinda until fifteen minutes into the episode, and though he's technically present on the planet for months, we don't actually see the bulk of the events that took place during his time there. Though his relationship with Sasha-55 mattered enough to the Doctor that he seemingly offered to take her traveling in the TARDIS, we only hear about their relationship in the vaguest of terms. ("She looked after me.")

Insterad, "The Robot Revolution" is Belinda's story from start to finish, a sort of speed-run get-to-know-you hour that puts her at the center of the plot and allows us to see the character at her most determined, caring, and even furious. From her insistence on helping wounded rebels to sacrificing herself to keep the survivors safe, she's capable, brave, and maybe even a little reckless. (Her decision to risk her life in order to take out the AI Generator by essentially paradoxing it to death is certainly something the Doctor would do.) 

Belinda also seems more than willing to stand up to the Doctor when she feels she has to. Even though he helped save her life, she doesn't fully trust him, and seems to find him more dangerous than alluring. She calls him out on his decision to steal and scan her DNA without asking (something I'm not sure Ruby even knows he ever did to her) and questions his obsession with her connection to Mundy Flynn, a woman who happens to look like her three thousand years in the future (and who appeared in the Season 1 episode, "Boom"). Though she's clearly impressed by the TARDIS, she also finds Fifteen's whole deal more than a little bit sus, and isn't shy about saying that she'd rather go home than travel the stars.

On some level, it's kind of nice to see a companion that's not immediately bowled over by the wonders of the TARDIS, the promise of time travel, and the Doctor's effusive charm. Obviously, this is Doctor Who, and we know these two will be besties in no time. But it doesn't hurt to see the Doctor have to earn it for once. And with multiple mysteries swirling around Belinda, it certainly sounds as though he'll have to. 

Not only is an unidentified (and very dangerous) something preventing the Doctor from taking his newest companion home, Fifteen is already searching for Belinda before her kidnapping by alien robots. An unidentified someone told him she'd be important. But who? A mysterious stranger? Someone whose name we'd recognize? Another timeline-crossing version of the Doctor helping himself solve a problem, a la "Joy to the World"? The episode offers few clues, but it certainly seems as though it's something we'll revisit later in the season. 

Overall, some of the premiere is clunkier than it needs to be. The episode's plot is fairly basic, and some of its themes are heavy-handed. The revelation that the AI Generator is a semi-converted version of Belinda's toxic ex, so desperate for control that he's literally made himself into a monster, is a bit on the nose. (And that's without the "planet of the incels" line.) 

But as a debut installment for Belinda? "The Robot Revolution" is a slam dunk, giving Sethu a chance to establish many of the key aspects of the character (her bravery, her competence, her care for others) as things that exist separate and apart from her story with the Doctor. She and Gatwa share a charmingly fearless sort of chemistry and it's nice to see him get the chance to act opposite a companion who challenges him and pushes back against some of his behavior. It should be fun to see where this journey takes them both next. (Since it's clearly not going to be Earth.) 

New episodes of Doctor Who stream on Saturdays on Disney+ in the U.S. and on BBC iPlayer in the U.K.