Doctor Who returns, Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu star, with The Robot Revolution getting us started. Lots of spoilers here.
Last warning: spoilers lie ahead…
Such is the current discourse around the future of Doctor Who, it’s been easy to lose sight of the eight incoming episodes of the show. Ncuti Gatwa’s second season run as the Time Lord gets down to business in relatively quiet fashion then with The Robot Revolution. It’s from the pen of showrunner Russell T Davies, and – as had been widely trailed – Millie Gibson’s Ruby Sunday is left behind (for now) as Belinda Chandra, played by Varada Sethu, is set to travel along with him.
The Robot Revolution introduces Belinda as she tolerates her boyfriend, but it’s a gift that he buys her – a star named after her, presumably bought off someone on eBay with low ratings – that brings her to the centre of a space-based plot. Namely on a planet that appears to be named after her.
It’s a setup that allows Davies to have a bit of fun with some low-hanging targets. This time, AI is sort of in his crosshairs, while he continues to have – rightly – little shrift with culture wars. Sure, there’s bound to be a few YouTube reaction videos from people overlooking the longer history of the show, but by the time Davies had typed out the worlds ‘planet of the incels’, it’d be fair to say it wasn’t his key concern.
The introduction of a new companion is traditionally seen as a chance to recruit in some more viewers too, a fresh entry point into the show for those giving it a try for the first time. That said, the bigger on the inside stuff is bashed through – Belinda might not have seen it before, we certainly have – and there’s a pace and energy in The Robot Revolution that serves it well.
It feels like a middleweight Doctor Who story, enlivened by not really wanting to outstay its welcome, and a jaunty, accessible narrative. It’s also a notable step up from this time a year ago, when Space Babies kicked off season one (I’m resigned to the new naming conventions for seasons and episodes) by – in hindsight – giving us the worst episode of the new run.
But also, I’d suggest it’s helped by the slightly different mechanic between the Doctor and Belinda. She has a core drive to, well, simply get home. I’m all for lowering the stakes to things that actually mean something – see how impactfully tiny Davies ultimately made Ruby Sunday’s story last year – and it’s interesting again having something with little curiosity about the Doctor, and someone not to some degree of awe of him.
Ncuti Gatwa, of course, continues to dominate the screen when he’s allowed near it. You may or may not like his take on the Time Lord, but every time I watch him in the TARDIS, it’s evidently clear why Davies was so keen to cast him. There’s a charisma and presence to him that’s bundled with star Wattage. I’m not quite getting the mystery of, say, the later Sylvester McCoy era from him, but he is a joy to watch.
The actual story of The Robot Revolution around all of this I found perfectly fine.
The AI/Al Generator turnabout was nicely done, and the robots themselves looked gleaming and expensive (is it a criticism to say a little too gleaming?). Director Peter Hoar deserves a shout out for maintaining the momentum of the episode, returning to the show over a decade since he helmed A Good Man Goes to War. Yet in the end, he’s telling a story that seems built from pretty familiar ingredients, with an enjoyable side turn or two.
There’s some underlying, longer-term stuff here, not least why Belinda is played by the same person who portrayed Mundy back in Boom. There are hints of troubles for Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor too: I wonder if the threads of a Doctor weakened by the battles of his previous generation will be further explored. There are also moments of steel, and not in the Cyberman sense. But as the credits rolled, I was more interested in what was coming next week, than going back and watching it again.
Podcast | The TARDIS Crew – 2×01: The Robot Revolution
In terms of longer term, the lingering curiosity for me is Anita Dobson’s Mrs Flood, who’s slowly gone from a harmless neighbour who happens to know what a TARDIS to, well, something of a mystery herself. She’s likely to find herself a far bigger part of the Doctor Who jigsaw this year, and no complaints from me there. I’m still not entirely bowled over by the whole Sutekh thing at the end of the last season, and she’s a far more interesting potential antagonist to my eyes. Unless the Kandy Man is getting a revival.
I didn’t take anything particularly memorable away from The Robot Revolution, short of it being an episode of Doctor Who comfortably get season two (nnngh) of the show back up and running. It’s also one that sets the Doctor and Bel on a journey to get her home, that – given the marketing for the new season – suggests won’t be a particularly straight route.
An unassuming start for the latest collection of adventures, then. But I’m glad Doctor Who is back, I’m glad it’s likely to annoy the people it’s supposed to annoy, and I’ll be back for more next week.
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