Doctor Who Series 15 Episode 1 Review: The Robot Revolution

Warning: contains spoilers for Doctor Who: The Robot Revolution

Following greatly exaggerated reports of its death, Doctor Who is back – and feeling pretty confident. The season premiere successfully establishes new companion Belinda Chandra (the excellent Varada Sethu) and her compellingly spiky dynamic with the Doctor, though the surrounding story – in which a seemingly innocuous gift from a controlling ex-boyfriend leads to Belinda unwittingly becoming the queen of a planet in turmoil – is somewhat less effective. Spoilers ahead.

When someone has as much history with Doctor Who as Russell T Davies, it becomes very difficult not to compare new efforts with older ones. “The Robot Revolution” is the sixth season opener he has penned for the show, and while certain quirks feel very much of this current era, the overall approach is pretty familiar. A brief, efficient sketch of the new companion’s working and domestic lives, à la “Rose”. Some hospital-based action as a handy shortcut to establish a certain type of competence and pragmatism, like “Smith and Jones”. And some broad sci-fi larking about as a backdrop for the main event – the new Doctor-companion pairing – as seen in “Partners in Crime” and even last year’s “Space Babies”.

This doesn’t help with the feeling that this second RTD era is more a refinement of previous approaches rather than something truly new, but it’s hard to complain too much, because the approach broadly works. The episode is at its most effective when setting up the character of Belinda, showing us why she is distinct from Ruby, and giving us reasons to like and empathise with her. It also does great work establishing the relationship between her and the Doctor, particularly with their extended conversation in the makeshift infirmary after he rescues her from the robots, probably the episode’s best scene.

It’s the first time that “The Robot Revolution”, which has been borderline frantic to this point, really slows down and lets a scene breathe, and it’s a great opportunity for Gatwa and Sethu to go toe-to-toe. Their dynamic shifts naturally through a few different shades before eventually landing on something disquietingly ambiguous – not quite antagonistic, but certainly mistrustful. By the end of the episode, Belinda is pretty firm on one thing: she does not want to travel with the Doctor. She thinks he’s dangerous, and she wants to go home. And while one of the key joys of Doctor Who is the companion embracing the possibility of limitless adventure, it’s hard to say Belinda’s reaction doesn’t make sense after what she’s just been through.

All of which makes the climax, where the Doctor realises he cannot pilot the TARDIS back to May 24^th 2025, that much more compelling. Here we have a new companion who quite emphatically doesn’t want to be one, but has no choice in the matter. This is one aspect of the episode that does feel fresh, and it’s a fascinating setup for a season arc – a mystery that will no doubt offer the opportunity for big weird timey-wimey pyrotechnics, but whose consequences are first and foremost character-based.

It’s especially interesting to do this with Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor, arguably the most emotionally open, heart-on-sleeve incarnation of the character we’ve had in years. Back when Clara found herself unsure about the Doctor, it was because he had just regenerated into Peter Capaldi, a consciously spikier, more closed-off version. It made sense that it took some time for her to acclimatise.

But taking Gatwa’s extroverted, carefree portrayal, with that supernova smile, and twisting it into something unsettling is a really intriguing choice. It frames his hedonism as something reckless and alien, unthinkingly scanning Belinda’s DNA without permission, being briefly racked with grief over the death of Sasha 55 before pinwheeling along to the next thing. It’s not a condemnation of the Doctor as such, more a different perspective on his actions, and brings a lot of dramatic potential.

It’s a shame the episode around it is a bit wobbly. In a technical and production sense, the show is firing on all cylinders – it looks great, the retro-futuristic design of the robots, rayguns and rockets is delightful, and there are some dynamic directorial choices from Peter Hoar, like the moment when the two scrolls touch at the end. The combination of extreme slow motion, subjective cutaways and extreme colour grading, combined with those screeching bass throbs, feels like the show pushing itself to find new visual approaches, which is welcome.

Unfortunately, it’s the story that doesn’t quite come together. Tonally, the episode never finds the right balance between the fundamental absurdity of its premise and the emotional impact it clearly wants to have. The character of Sasha 55 doesn’t make much of an impression, so her death is a damp squib and the Doctor’s grief feels over-egged, and Manny and the others giving Belinda a hard time is incredibly frustrating because, as she correctly states, none of this is her fault! She’s just as much a victim of circumstance as everyone else, so the rebels just come across as annoying idiots, especially Manny. “You’re as bad as the robots”? What are you talking about?

This also means that Belinda’s choice to sacrifice herself, while the “correct” character decision in story terms, doesn’t feel natural. Her internalising the rebels’ criticism and deciding the situation is in fact her fault is wrong. It’s victim blaming. You could even call it gaslighting.

And speaking of carelessly deployed buzzwords…

Back in my “Space Babies” review, I said that it was nice to see Doctor Who take an unequivocal stand against bad things. We are no longer in the era of “Kerblam!”, and it feels right to have the Doctor drop into a new world and immediately roll up his sleeves to help overthrow a tyrannical regime. But while it is broadly positive to be anti-incel culture and anti-coercive control, the episode doesn’t really have anything substantive to say about those issues, so it all feels like vaguely topical window dressing – especially when Belinda’s dialogue specifically (and awkwardly) calls those things out. The titular revolution doesn’t feel like it extends naturally from Alan’s particular pathology, it just feels like generic rebels vs evil robots stuff, so beyond the reasonably effective twist reveal of the AI Generator’s true nature, he’s a real wet blanket of a villain. The pretty weak guest performance doesn’t help in that respect, unfortunately.

Now, maybe Alan is supposed to be rubbish. Maybe the intention is to show that abusive men are often just pathetic dweebs with superiority complexes. OK, sure! But even if you make something rubbish on purpose… it’s still rubbish. It doesn’t make it any more compelling to watch.

And ultimately, this contributes to the episode feeling tonally at odds with itself. It’s a broad sci-fi romp that also wants to call out a specific culture of misogynistic abuse, and while one of the unique joys of Doctor Who is its ability to synthesise wildly disparate elements, I don’t think it threads that needle here.

But happily, one of the other unique joys of Doctor Who is that if a particular story doesn’t work, we can just fly off with the Doctor and their companion and forget about it. And reservations about the episode aside, this new pairing feels exciting and rife with potential.

Plus, that Mrs Flood is still lurking. Oh, and somebody might have blown up the Earth?

Don’t threaten me with a good time…

Doctor Who returns on Saturday April 19 with “Lux”.

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