The Robot Revolution – As this episode of Doctor Who begins, Alan Budd (Jonny Green) talks to Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) about the night sky. He gives her a birthday gift. Alan says the certificate means the star is Belinda’s. She thanks him before they share a kiss. 17 years later, the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) arrives in the Tardis. Belinda works inside the hospital. The Doctor tries to find Belinda. That night, a robot bursts into Belinda’s home. The robot calls Belinda “Her Majesty” and says she’s coming with them. The robot kills a cat before another one enters with the certificate. Belinda is taken away in a spaceship moments later. The Doctor arrives in time to see the spaceship take off. Belinda tries to convince the robots to let her go. She says she hasn’t seen Alan in 16 years. Belinda sees the Tardis and yells for someone to tell her what’s going on.
Belinda is taken to the planet called Belinda. She is introduced to Sasha 55 (Evelyn Miller) who is the People’s Representative. Sasha 55 welcomes their one true queen. She calls the robots their overlords. Belinda learns that rebels in the North Zone started a riot. Sasha 55 pleads with Belinda to help them. The Doctor is among the group watching Belinda take her throne. She’s told the planet will celebrate her royal wedding. The AI generator is going to marry her. The generator will be welded within Belinda. Sasha 55 says the designated historian may explain everything to Belinda. The Doctor steps forward and tells her the planet was once united. It all changed ten years ago because of the robot revelation. The Doctor tries to tell her something privately. He explains that they’re faulty and cannot hear every ninth word. The Doctor says the rebels will fight back very soon. When the humans begin fighting the robots, The Doctor rushes in to protect Belinda.
The Doctor promises to get her out of there. Sasha 55 covers for them while they go. She gets killed though. They attempt to flee with two other humans. The rebels tell Belinda she better be worth it. She quickly says it’s not her fault. The Doctor steps to the side to cry for Sasha. The Doctor has to turn off the polish robot to ensure the others don’t use it to track them down. He tells Belinda they have a world to overthrow. The Doctor helps her to the North Zone. He believes the diploma from the Star Register is dangerous. Belinda begins helping with the injured. The Doctor remembers her from a previous encounter. She talks to the Doctor about his name. The Doctor shows her the X-ray blankets they use. He surprises her by showing her that he has two hearts. The Doctor says he came there to get her because someone told him about her. He told The Doctor her name like she would be important. Belinda insists she’s not important. They talk about the star diploma. The Doctor believes the diploma that the robots have is an identical one.
He asks if she felt anything while she was on the ship. Belinda says she did. The Doctor it’s all out of sync. The border between this world and Earth keeps jumping about in time. He says the robots impounded his ship and he’s been living in the Undercity for six months. Sasha looked after him. Manny (Max Parker) tells the Doctor that Sasha died helping Belinda. The Doctor insists it wasn’t her fault. He tells Belinda that he’s been staying there so he’d be ready for the day of her arrival. He believes the robots got the diploma from the future. When they brought it back to this planet, it traveled back in time 5,000 years and became a foundation myth. An attack occurs so everyone has to take cover. A bit later, Belinda decides to turn on the polishing robot. The Doctor says he needs to get to the memory banks. Manny says that’s top secret and guarded. The Doctor wants to know why the robots and humans turned against each other.
Manny says the robots found them. Belinda immediately blames herself. The robots enter the room and demand their surrender. Belinda tells everyone to put their guns down. She claims she’s saving them. Belinda believes it’s about time she owned this. She orders the robot to leave the people alone and take her. Belinda is taken to the AI generator. The Doctor tries to convince the robots to take him instead because Belinda won’t survive the process. The AI generator claims they will achieve serenity, peace, and joy with it. Belinda asks the robots to stop the war once she’s gone. When she mentions Alan, the robot asks if she’s married. Belinda remembers that was his exact words. The AI generator says she knows him at last. Alan shows himself inside the machine. The Doctor says it’s Al instead of AI. Alan says he’s supreme and beyond pain. He explains that the robots came for him in the night. Belinda blames herself for telling them about Alan.
To get Alan, the robots went through the time fracture. Alan says it was 10 long years ago. He landed before the robot revolution. In a flashback, Alan talks to the robots about it being like a game. He started the revolution. The Doctor asks Belinda why she finished with him. In a flashback, Alan asks her not to wear clothes so tight and no more texting after eight when they’re married. Belinda complains about how Alan would always correct her and roll his eyes. She asks how he can live with himself. The Doctor says he can’t. He says Alan is telling them the truth using every ninth word. Alan is asking them to save him from the pain. Belinda says it’s the planet of the incels. Alan urges her to say yes or the violence will rage forever. The Doctor offers to separate the bio-links. Belinda thinks she has to go with Alan. The Doctor drops the diploma and the polish robot takes it. Belinda retrieves it and touches it to Alan’s diploma. There’s an explosion at some point and it looks like Alan is separated.
When they return to normal, Alan is gone. The Doctor tells Belinda he just went through her entire life like a bullet. He says they go back years. He believes Alan has been turned microscopic. He’s a sperm and an egg. The polish robot gets rid of him. The robots are willing to make amends with the humans. The Tardis is returned to the Doctor. Belinda wants to go home. Mandy says the building will now be called the Citadel of Sasha 55. Belinda isn’t eager to go into the Tardis. She calls it mad. She goes in and asks the Doctor to take her home. The Doctor tells him they don’t have to rush since they’re in a time machine. They’re also something already connecting them. He tells her about Mundy Flynn and how he met her previously. The Doctor suggests they’re meant to be connected. Belinda believes he’s dangerous. She insists she’s not one of his adventures. The Doctor agrees to take her home. Something happens and he’s unable to do that. The Doctor believes they’re bouncing off May 24.
They’re halfway between MissBelindaChandra and Planet Earth. The Doctor tries it again, but something is stopping them from returning. He tells Belinda this is going to be quite the ride.
Doctor Who Review
The opening episode of this series of Doctor Who left a lot to be desired. The episode was much like the series with it starting off somewhat well and quickly descending into genuine horribleness. It’d be easy to blame Ncuti Gatwa for being as over-the-top as possible. It’d also be easy to blame the new character, Belinda Chandra, who is about as dull as a log.
However, the problems here rest mainly on the script which was dismal. The only genuinely clever aspect of the episode was the polishing robot. As for everything else, it’s been done before and most of it was done badly. The episode quickly jumped 17 years in the future, but Alan and Belinda didn’t change at all.
That’s just lazy. We also had lazy plot devices with Belinda making idiotic choices to move the story forward. For instance, she turned on the polishing robot even though she knew it would put everyone else in danger. That was really annoying. Then, the episode got even worse when it traveled down the familiar path with incels, the same typical bad guys, and so on.
At some point, British television writers are going to have to find another boogeyman because people are going to get sick of the mundane, unoriginal writing. There’s only so many incel stories and Tory hatred one viewer can take. On the other hand, there are so many great stories that could be relevant to everyone and not just specific groups.
Stories like this, unfortunately, just further divide an already divided people and immediately render themselves unsuitable for audiences looking for an escape from the politics that already make life unbearable.
It’s hard not to see Doctor Who as anything other than a sinking ship and the scripts haven’t really given Ncuti Gatwa a chance to excel. There are ways to make Gatwa’s Doctor really connect with the audience, but the writers obviously don’t want that and prefer to have a fall man for when the series is canceled.
This episode scores a 4 out of 10. Recaps of Doctor Who can be found here. Find out how to support our independent work at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. Join the discussion at the forum.
Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.