Doctor Who: Series 15 (or 40 depending on how you count): Episode 1: The Robot Revolution by Russell T Davies (review).
It just seems like yesterday that we had the Yuletide special. If you have a TARDIS, then it probably is. Do I have any expectations? I try not to. It doesn’t make for any kind of review and can only deal with what’s on the screen because whatever I say, it won’t change anything. According to all accounts, the filming of season 2 took place last year. This suggests that, without the use of special effects, the third season is already underway, and showrunner Russell T Davies is currently searching for the next regeneration, unsure of his future plans. Considering how the Doctor has changed sex and colour, for the future (sic), we need some basic stability, or he risks losing viewers. Saying that, why keep the Doctor looking human? Why not an alien and see how he/she copes with addressing humans looking different from them?
Back to this latest season. Something that has been fulfilled is new writers, although not with the opening story. ‘Doctor Who’ depends on new ideas, so this is an important season. I’m a little more concerned about mixing previous and new companions, although not in the opening episode. The Doctor tends to keep moving forward to keep his own timeline steady and rarely looks back. This is partly due to his frequent appearances throughout time and space, and the TARDIS’s need to conceal his past and, more crucially, future actions. No wonder he rarely considers what will happen after a repair.
Right, I’ll warn you when there are spoilers. Probably from the start, in case you missed it.
The long arm of coincidence with a bought star on Earth 17 years ago by Alan Budd (actor Johnny Green) for his girlfriend Belinda Chandra (actress Varada Sethu) and robots coming to collect her to their named star to be their queen of BelindaChandra. The doctor is also very late getting her and determined to sort things out, even if we aren’t informed how he knows. Even when Queen Belinda is about to be married to a robot. Gods, we’re going to have Whovians speaking in a nine-word code next. Actually, the Doctor was 6 months early, ingratiating himself with the underground rebels and rescuing Belinda. I’m not even sure how the ending of the threat made sense, even watching it again. It feels like you have to watch and not analyse why the events happened as they did.
These robots objectives are very similar to bargain basement Cybermen. Think of that Yuletide episode, ‘The Next Doctor.’. All right, the window dressing is different, but robots wanting to unite organs and mechanics felt awfully similar.
Another series of ‘Doctor Who Unleashed’, explaining the second season was filmed in 2023. There’s a look around Russell T Davies home in 2024 with a lot of Who merchandise around. It does feel like some things but does not explain the episode.
Okay, that’s enough. There shouldn’t be any spoilers up there. It’s pretty obvious the 12-foot-high robots are next Yuletide’s merchandise. If there is a major criticism of Davies, it is that he kicks the pace at speed throughout. Blink, and you can miss the solution to the actual story because he’s moved on to the problem that he can’t take Belinda, or Bella as the doctor keeps calling her, home on time.
Davies admitted that a lack of SF roots surfaces more here, though he throws in the elements with less rationale as to why it happens that way. An SF writer wouldn’t make that mistake, which might explain why I struggled a bit with the pace of the story. Understanding what is happening doesn’t mean the writer has to give it all to the viewer, but the underlying logic will seep over. When it’s missing, it does show. I doubt if there’s anyone in Bad Wolf going to question this because he’s top of the tree, and you don’t attack your boss. Just us SF reviewers who know something about the subject.
I should point out that Varda Sethu is good. Varda Sethu is undeniably charismatic and presents a superior challenge to Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor, who is more established in this area. The Doctor does seem more behind the scenes in this story, but I put that down to the pace of the story and his arriving six months before Belinda and not really in the opening 20 minutes. You mean the Doctor can’t arrive later and still get the people to get behind him? In the old days, a doctor would arrive and have things sorted before Belinda arrived. In that respect, the Doctor is serving the story rather than doing his own thing. Evelyn Miller as Sasha 55 is another potential companion at some time.
Can you sense some uneasiness here and not purely based on my age? I think I’m reacting more as an SF writer than a reviewer here. It works, but I suspect many viewers will be watching it again to take it all in. For me, I have to do this after one viewing, and I think Davies needs some Valium and should slow down a bit.
GF Willmetts
12 April 2025
