Doctor Who: The Robot Revolution REVIEW

Welcome back, my fellow Whovians across all time and space. It is time to dive into a new season of Doctor Who. Ncuti Gatwa returns with his new companion, Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu), to journey across time and space just to get Belinda Home.

Everything went “SCHWUP”

What happens when a nurse whose peculiar ex-boyfriend purchases her a star registry and then is abducted by robots? That’s precisely what happens in this first episode of Doctor Who!

The Story is pretty cut and dry; it’s kind of a case of mistaken identity gone way too far. Belinda’s ex-boyfriend purchased one of those star registries just before proposing 17 years ago. She turns him down and life goes on, or so we think…

Cut to the present day, and Belinda is a nurse living check to check in a house with multiple flatmates. One random night, hulking red robots came and abducted her. Early during her shift, The Doctor searches for Belinda only to miss her at the end of her shift. Once again, he misses her as she blasts off with her robot captors.

As the Doctor flies alongside her, trying to chase her down, things go “schwup” (yes, I checked the captions). This was some sort of time dilation that leads to The Doctor landing on the planet Missbelindchandra one, six months ahead of Belinda, who perceives it to have only been a few hours.

The Robots, led by an AI, rule over the inhabitants with an iron fist. The AI wants to “marry” Belinda to become complete. Luckily, The Doctor, having a six-month head start, is working with a group of rebels to prevent this, every ninth word at a time.

The Story

For a season premiere, the story was almost there. The twist that the ex was the planet’s origin story was okay, but the idea of making him an incel-type was very off-putting. Yes, a newer approach versus the tried-and-true unrequited love turns someone to hate. But it just wasn’t for me.

One big thing to take away is the production value! My goodness, the sets, both practical and digital, are stunning! I hope you have a 4k or higher TV to take all this in! The retro-scifi aesthetic was a great change versus the clean cut clinical or gritty dystopian settings we are used to in “Who”.

The big thing to take away is that we will now deal with fractured time and space in a way that, to my knowledge, we haven’t seen in Doctor Who before. The possibilities are endless. Will we see new takes on the old favorites? Are we going multiversal now?

Timey-Wimey Theories

Russell T Davies knows Doctor Who, but we already know that as much as he’s going to plaster back old plot holes. There will be more by the end of the series.

Going back to production value, I wish they might bring it down a bit! Please give me more episodes with more shiny lights and colors. I’m not saying go back to the beginning of “Modern Who” with the 9’s series. But I think if the BBC could scale back to 10 and 11’s seasons that had an outstanding balance of story, substance, and style. We could get more than a smattering of episodes per year.

Let’s talk about Belinda; this is a new type of companion to say the least! As opposed to the last several companions, she is quite the opposite. Varada Sethu is playing a very independent woman who has no problem speaking her mind. What makes her stand out as opposed to the past companions is that she isn’t swept up in the fantastical opportunity of time and space. She just wants to get home for her next shift.

Ncuti Gatwa once again plays the entire gamut of emotions of The Doctor. He wears his two hearts on both sleeves. It will be interesting to see how this next adventure will bear down on his shoulders.

Mrs. Flood completely SMASHES the fourth wall! The Theory Factory online is running amok!

Doctor Who: The Robot Revolution gets an 8.7 out of 10

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