Doctor Who: The Robot Revolution: Review

The second season of Ncuti Gatwa's tenure as the Doctor sees a reinvention of sorts - a new companion in the form of Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu), a new set of mysteries to solve and more.

But in the first episode, The Robot Revolution, writer and showrunner Russell T Davies returns to his own obsessions in many ways, pulling together a yarn that starts off grounded on Earth, but ends up in the stars.

Chandra is a nurse at the local hospital, who spends her shifts saving the doctors and generally doing a good job. When the Doctor shows up just as she's finishing, he demands to find out where she lives - for reasons that seem shady at best. But within moments of arriving on her doorstep - albeit a little too late, trouble is already brewing with Chandra being kidnapped and whisked off to another planet.

To say more about The Robot Revolution is to rob the story of its edges, and while it's fair to say that this tale is set on another planet, its roots are very much in the world we currently live in and the social conversations which are being had.

Fears this is a ripoff of the David Tennant yarn Smith & Jones persist early on with a feeling that of deja vu, but what quickly becomes clear is just how much of a duo Sethu and Gatwa are. Reminiscent of Tegan Jovanka's antagonism toward the Doctor for essentially kidnapping her, there are elements which old school fans will feel are somewhat familiar. 

Yet Sethu is no ripoff of what has happened before - sure her character apparently has connections to the Boom outing, but she's no cypher or anyone's punctuation to another story. There's an incredible scene late in the episode where Belinda unleashes on the Doctor for doing something he shouldn't have done without permission - it's an astounding moment and particularly in the aftermath, it's clear she's not in his thrall. It's in these moments that Sethu nails what the companion vibe should be with ease.

And it's not to dismiss Gatwa to say he's as good as he was last season - bouncing from grief to excitement to doing what the Doctor always does, it's another reminder of the incredible magnetism he has in moments that count - particularly when the writing is strong enough to pull him in.

A note must be made of the retro-futuristic look of the world too. It's reminiscent of both 1960s Lost In Space and Fallout's recent visual vibe, complete with Dan Dare edges and derring do. It's the small details here that stand out, rightly so.

It's too early to say what the eight-episode season will bring - but in terms of launch, this has pace and just something about it from the start that is enthralling, enticing and exciting - but expect some pushback to the central mystery of this first episode by those already angered by some of what was laid in Gatwa's first season.

Doctor Who airs on Disney+ from April 12.