Doctor Whohad a bit of an up - and - down 2024 . Coming off of the highs of its60th day of remembrance celebrationsand afantastical holiday specialthe year prior , expectancy was high for Ncuti Gatwa ’s debut time of year to start in solemn . And while there were somedefinitehighlights , Doctor Who‘s broad refocusing and the season ’s particular enigma around its recent gain to squad TARDIS , Ruby Sunday , wasn’twithoutitsstumbles . Now , the show is backfor daily round two , and with it , a brand young fellow traveller in Ruby ’s wake — and she might just be the samara to make this particular earned run average ofWhoreally snap .
“ The Robot Revolution , ” the premiere episode ofDoctor Who‘s 2025 time of year ( whether you call it time of year two , season 15 , or season 41 if you’rereallypicky ) , is a Russell T Davies openerin that classic style . We ’re forthwith infix to the day in the animation of Belinda Chandra ( Andor‘s Varada Sethu ) , a new nanny with all the stresses that entails , from nightmare shifts , to flatmates and discarded personal connexion , being early to rise and late to bottom , the treadmill never stopping . When her life is impolitely and promptly interrupted by giant killer golem that want to whip her away into outer space and a war she does n’t understand — where , of course , her path cross with the physician , we tend to expect to how this will go : our new estimable friend , albeit a slight frightened by the boot and quiver around them , is instantly captivated by the Doctor ’s adventurous but dangerous lifestyle and want in on escapade in Time and Space .
Belinda wants to go home . like a shot . After all , she has a shift tomorrow , and while the bit with the killer robots and outer space was all fun and shivery , she is done with it . Whether or not it ’s done with her is a different question , of grade , but it’sthis enchanting twiston the Doctor / Companion dynamic that suffuses “ Robot Revolution ” with a crackle china that you ca n’t help but love .
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Doctor Whohas , of course done this before — it ’s 62 year old at this stage , it would be hard not to have . Ian and Barbara , the first companions alongside the Dr. ’s granddaughter Susan those six decennary ago , were kidnap . Tegan frequently convey her desire to get home to her living and job on Earth in the ’ 80s , and even in the modern earned run average , Clara ’s huffy kinship with the Twelfth Doctor run across her try and divide her time in the TARDIS with teaching back home . But what reach Belinda suffer out as the latest Riffian on that idea — apart from Sethu ’s brilliant performance , briskly permeate Belinda with a frankness and confidence that makes for some noteworthy alchemy with Ncuti Gatwa ’s Doctor — however , is just how muchDoctor Whois quick to engage with the idea , front and center , from the get - go .
Much of “ The Robot Revolution ” is a plenty wizardly sci - fi riff , built around a pleasurably fun assumption ( that we do n’t want to spoil yet , but it brightly play onDoctor Who‘s classic image of pervade an everyday concept with that antic , sci - fi bent)—there ’s action , there ’s tragedy , there ’s big twists and clever , funny word caper . There ’s even some thing carrying over from last season that still do n’t quite strike , like the awkward figure of having Gatwa ’s Doctor of the Church get very emotional about something we ’re told he ’s been invested in , rather than shown . It ’s up there as one of modernWho‘s stronger openers , and unquestionably a pronounced improvement from“Space Babies ” last year , but it ’s Belinda herself that the episode shines with , rather than theDoctor Who - ness surrounding her .
Belinda is immediately dispute to the Doctor , but not in an antagonistic way . They ’re not brabble with each other ; they do clearly begin to encounter some connection together across the sequence . But Belinda is not there to nod along to every word he says and be bedazzled by the little terror and delights of the Doctor ’s halo . She has her own values , she has her own boundaries , and she is more than willing to digest up to an ancient Time Lord and be as every bit awestruck at his alien physiology as she is to firmly remind him when he crosses a crinkle ( and being the medico , he regularly does that ) , bringing something refreshed out of Gatwa ’s Dr. as he come to make that his charm do n’t always work on multitude . They do n’t always agree on the result a job , they do n’t always consult each other before build a determination — there is a push and pull , a tenseness beneath their positive chemistry and the thing they determine about each other that they do share in common , that makes their human relationship compelling from the moment they ram into each other ’s scope .
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And perhaps most significantly , it ’s a relationship we actually get to see modernize on - blind . One of the heavy issues with Ruby Sunday last time of year — beyond the mystery effect to her theatrical role not really being much of a whodunit at all , intentionallyfor better or high-risk — is that , in spitefulness of Millie Gibson ’s similarly antic chemistry with Gatwa , we only really see that the Doctor and Ruby were upright supporter because they , and other characters , would just say that they are best friends . Werarely spent timewith the two in reality really talking to each other , never got to see them loose between narration in the TARDIS . In just a single installment however , Belinda and the Doctor ’s relationship feels different not just because of the moral force , but becauseDoctor Whois once again in reality unforced to spend time in show it work in activity , and to let its two star really dig into that connexion .
That makes “ The Robot Revolution ” an improbably exciting premiere , kick off us off into a time of year brimming with potential — into a season that might bedo or dieforDoctor Who , considering we ’ve yet to see anything about the show ’s renewal beyond this season . But with a team like the fifteenth Doctor and Belinda at the helm , whatever ’s come , Doctor Whohas a secret weapon far handier than a prison term machine or a sonic screwdriver this time of year that will fain keep us checking in as much as any creepy-crawly ogre or daze placement ever could .
Doctor Whoreturns to Disney+ around the humankind , and the BBC in the UK , on Saturday , April 12 .
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