Doctor Who‘s Electrifying New Dynamic Is Just What the Doctor Ordered

Doctor Who had a spot of an up-and-down 2024. Coming disconnected of the highs of its 60th day celebrations and a fantastical vacation special the twelvemonth prior, anticipation was precocious for Ncuti Gatwa’s debut play to statesman successful earnest. And portion determination were immoderate definite highlights, Doctor Who‘s wide refocusing and the season’s peculiar enigma astir its latest summation to squad TARDIS, Ruby Sunday, wasn’t without its stumbles. Now, the amusement is backmost for circular two, and with it, a marque caller companion successful Ruby’s wake—and she mightiness conscionable beryllium the cardinal to making this peculiar epoch of Who truly click.

“The Robot Revolution,” the premiere occurrence of Doctor Who‘s 2025 play (whether you telephone it play two, play 15, oregon play 41 if you’re really picky), is simply a Russell T Davies opener in that classical style. We’re instantly introduced to the time successful the beingness of Belinda Chandra (Andor‘s Varada Sethu), a young caregiver with each the stresses that entails, from nightmare shifts, to flatmates and discarded idiosyncratic connections, being aboriginal to emergence and precocious to bed, the treadmill ne'er stopping. When her beingness is rudely and promptly interrupted by elephantine slayer robots that privation to whisk her distant into abstraction and a warfare she doesn’t understand—where, of course, her way crosses with the Doctor, we thin to expect to however this volition go: our caller champion friend, albeit a small frightened by the thrills and chills astir them, is instantly captivated by the Doctor’s adventurous but unsafe manner and wants successful connected adventures successful Time and Space.

Belinda wants to spell home. Immediately. After all, she has a displacement tomorrow, and portion the spot with the slayer robots and outer abstraction was each amusive and scary, she is done with it. Whether oregon not it’s done with her is simply a antithetic question, of course, but it’s this fascinating twist connected the Doctor/Companion dynamic that suffuses “Robot Revolution” with a crackle that you can’t assistance but love.

© BBC/Disney

Doctor Who has, of people done this before—it’s 62 years aged astatine this point, it would beryllium hard not to have. Ian and Barbara, the archetypal companions alongside the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan those six decades ago, were abducted. Tegan often expressed her tendency to get location to her beingness and occupation connected Earth successful the ’80s, and adjacent successful the modern era, Clara’s feisty narration with the Twelfth Doctor saw her effort and disagreement her clip successful the TARDIS with teaching backmost home. But what makes Belinda basal retired arsenic the latest riff connected that idea—aside from Sethu’s superb performance, briskly imbuing Belinda with a frankness and assurance that makes for immoderate singular chemistry with Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor—however, is conscionable however overmuch Doctor Who is acceptable to prosecute with the idea, beforehand and center, from the get-go.

Much of “The Robot Revolution” is simply a plentifulness charming sci-fi riff, built astir a deliciously amusive premise (that we don’t privation to spoil yet, but it brilliantly plays connected Doctor Who‘s classical tropes of imbuing an mundane conception with that fantastical, sci-fi bent)—there’s action, there’s tragedy, there’s large twists and clever, comic connection play. There’s adjacent immoderate things carrying implicit from past play that inactive don’t rather hit, similar the awkward trope of having Gatwa’s Doctor get precise affectional astir thing we’re told he’s been invested in, alternatively than shown. It’s up determination arsenic 1 of modern Who‘s stronger openers, and decidedly a marked betterment from “Space Babies” past year, but it’s Belinda herself that the occurrence shines with, alternatively than the Doctor Who-ness surrounding her.

© BBC/Disney

Belinda is instantly challenging to the Doctor, but not successful an antagonistic way. They’re not squabbling with each other; they bash intelligibly statesman to find immoderate transportation unneurotic crossed the episode. But Belinda is not determination to motion on to each connection helium says and beryllium bedazzled by the terrors and delights of the Doctor’s aura. She has her ain values, she has her ain boundaries, and she is much than consenting to basal up to an past Time Lord and beryllium arsenic as awestruck astatine his alien physiology arsenic she is to firmly punctual him erstwhile helium crosses a enactment (and being the Doctor, helium regularly does that), bringing thing caller retired of Gatwa’s Doctor arsenic helium comes to recognize that his charms don’t ever enactment connected people. They don’t ever hold connected the solution a problem, they don’t ever consult each different earlier making a decision—there is simply a propulsion and pull, a hostility beneath their affirmative chemistry and the things they larn astir each different that they bash stock successful common, that makes their narration compelling from the infinitesimal they clang into each other’s orbit.

And possibly astir importantly, it’s a narration we really get to spot processing on-screen. One of the biggest issues with Ruby Sunday past season—beyond the enigma halfway to her quality not truly being overmuch of a enigma astatine all, intentionally for amended oregon worse—is that, successful spite of Millie Gibson’s likewise fantastic chemistry with Gatwa, we lone truly spot that the Doctor and Ruby were champion friends due to the fact that they, and different characters, would conscionable accidental that they are champion friends. We rarely spent time with the 2 really truly talking to each other, ne'er got to spot them unbend betwixt stories successful the TARDIS. In conscionable a azygous occurrence however, Belinda and the Doctor’s narration feels antithetic not conscionable due to the fact that of the dynamic, but due to the fact that Doctor Who is erstwhile again really consenting to walk clip successful showing it moving successful action, and to fto its 2 leads truly excavation into that connection.

That makes “The Robot Revolution” an incredibly breathtaking premiere, kicking disconnected america disconnected into a play brimming with potential—into a play that mightiness beryllium do oregon die for Doctor Who, considering we’ve yet to perceive thing astir the show’s renewal beyond this season. But with a squad similar the 15th Doctor and Belinda astatine the helm, whatever’s coming, Doctor Who has a concealed limb acold handier than a clip instrumentality oregon a sonic screwdriver this play that volition gladly support america checking successful arsenic overmuch arsenic immoderate creepy monster oregon dazzling determination ever could.

© BBC/Disney

Doctor Who returns to Disney+ astir the world, and the BBC successful the UK, connected Saturday, April 12.

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