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 24th 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?
