Doctor Who: The Robot Revolution

Firstly, I've never watched a new episode of Doctor Who this early in the day, and I watched it five hours later than I might have done. Frankly, it's absurd. Is it better or worse than last season's midnight release? I suppose it's better for kids but worse for me, and I still don't see why they can't release it on iplayer at the same time as the actual god damn broadcast. But anyway, this is meant to be about the episode itself.

And the episode was… fine? I don’t know that I have particularly strong feelings about it. I think it was quite messy and unclear and tonally inconsistent, but it wasn’t awful. The robots and the whole idea of Missbelindachandra were extremely silly, but it was interlaced with some really dark things. Of particular note is Sasha 55, who I immediately really liked because the actress was giving such a great performance, then she told the Doctor to take her to the stars and I knew she was toast. Really pretty bleak stuff, and quite cruel to introduce us to a would-be companion like that and then immediately kill her. I’m glad the Doctor has a moment to mourn her, but although Ncuti’s acting is as good as ever, it still felt somewhat hollow. People used to accuse the Chibnall era of having Now Pause For Emotion sections, and it kind of felt like that here. We didn’t have enough time to get to know her, even though I really liked what we saw of her, for that moment to feel like anything but a reason to have the Doctor stand there and shed a single tear. Great performances all round, as noted, but even so I wasn’t fully sold on it.

Speaking of being sold on things, I really wasn’t at all sold on the story until the every ninth word thing started happening. I picked up on it immediately, and then was miffed that I could have been paying attention to the main sentences instead of constructing the secret one in my head, given that they recap just the ninth words immediately afterwards, but still! It was a fun and intriguing bit of storytelling. It somewhat fell apart at the end, though. I didn’t really understand how Alan’s every ninth word being truthful could possibly be related to the robots not hearing every ninth word. Also, as soon as it's revealed that Alan is also leaving nuggets of truth every ninth, it seems to cease being true. As I said, messy.

Speaking of Alan, he was an okay villain, if extremely cartoonish. He’s like a caricature of the misogynist abusive boyfriend, who then also decides to overthrow an entire planet just for the fun of it. I liked the idea there, but the execution was just a bit silly. Even this idea that he’s secretly in pain is not explored enough for it to hold any weight.

The time fracture is also extremely confusing. It apparently goes back variously 6 months, 10 years, and 5,000 years. Huh? We really do not get enough explanation of how and why the time fracture worked or happened. The Doctor says he’s closed it now, but surely that’s not it… I’m guessing this is going to be part of the series arc, but I don’t know that it’s seeded particularly well because I’m actually not sure. Maybe this is all the explanation we are going to get. At least it’s confirmed that the mystery of how the certificate got back there is yet to be explained. I think I need to watch it again, because I’m now wondering if the time fracture (allowing for the 6 month and 10 year gaps) happened because of the star certificate already being 5,000 years ago… The Doctor did say something like that, but at the time I took it to mean that it went back in time because of the time fracture. Hmmm… Anyway, either I’m an idiot or it’s really poorly explained, or possibly both.

The solution of using the paradox of the star certificate was nicely foreshadowed, I suppose, but paradoxes have never worked this way before. Ah well, it was fine. Alan becoming a sperm and an egg did make me laugh.

I should talk about Belinda herself, since I’ve barely mentioned her so far! I like her. I like that she’s a nurse. I especially loved her immediately switching into nurse mode as soon as she reached the rebel base and saw that there were people who needed care. Varada Sethu makes her very likable, and special shout out to her saying “Am I six?” to the Doctor’s time-wimey explanation; that made me laugh.

I also like that she’s a reluctant companion. We don’t usually get that in the modern show and I suppose it’s because of the fact that, this series, the TARDIS can’t land where the Doctor wants it to (as in the classic series). It’s fun! It looks like she will get more into the idea of adventuring from the next time trailer, but I like the idea of having a bit of an Arthur Dent figure who just wants to go home but can’t. (It’s also rather Arthur Dent – and Amy Pond, I suppose – that she spent the whole episode in her pajamas.)

I don't love the trope of the companion being the mystery coming back again, but at least the Doctor’s being open with her about it this time. And, more importantly, she's confronting him about testing her DNA in secret! That’s a huge improvement on Amy and Clara. Again, I’m not overjoyed about her being Special TM, but at least the way they’re going about it is maybe less gross?

There’s also the final shot, explaining why they can’t land. Did the Doctor and Belinda just not see all of that debris when they looked out the doors? It’s a bit of a contrivance for all of these famous landmarks to be floating around in one spot, and I can’t say I’m overly invested in worrying that Earth will be forever destroyed (because obviously it won’t be), but, as I’ve said, I do love the more Classic Who vibe this storyline lends itself to, so I’m definitely on board for a fun time.

So, yeah. Overall, it was a bit messy and confusing. I’d say it was a mediocre to poor episode, but with promising elements for the series to come.

Random thoughts:

Wild how the new game changer episode is basically just Taskmaster, specifically the original version of Taskmaster that went to the fringe