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21 hours ago
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If you thought Russell T Davies was going to dial down the messaging in his second full season back running Doctor Who, you can forget it, as this run of eight episodes opens with an adventure on a world that new companion Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) literally calls “Planet of the Incels”.
Ncuti Gatwa is on sound form as the Doctor, but pushed a little into the background in an episode that is all about introducing our new main character. Belinda’s decision to send a signal that will summon the robots, knowing it might bring death to all those around her, felt like one of the most dangerous things a companion has done since Clara was travelling with the Time Lord.
The running joke of everything being somehow named after Belinda raised a smile, as did the unexpected death of the cat. One difference between the way this second era of Davies is written, compared to the first, is that you can imagine a more character-driven version of this story – one where we actually get to see Belinda’s relationship with Alan Budd (Jonny Green) gradually deteriorate, and experience her suffering as he gradually begins to assert coercive control.
Instead what we got was a villain reveal up in space, followed by a very quick flashback to him obviously being a massive jerk on Earth, and then on with the show. It was a superficial way to deal with a serious issue, although the bait and switch of thinking the story was going to be about the risks of AI, to being a metaphor for controlling relationships, did give the third act a kickstart.
Sum it up in one sentence?
What if Doctor Who was like Adolescence?
Life aboard the Tardis
We could be in for a spikier relationship between Doctor and companion than we saw with Gatwa and Millie Gibson’s Ruby Sunday last time out. Belinda, at least so far, is more than insistent that she wants to be returned straight home rather than take a jaunt round the stars, even one named after her. She definitely does not take kindly to being condescended to or having her DNA tested. The Doctor and Ruby acted like best buddies from the off, but Belinda has already declared: “I am not one of your adventures”. This pairing could be more of a slow burn thing.
Fear factor
The robots from Missbelindachandra One may have had a mean streak, but they also had a pleasingly retro-futuristic 1950s look about them, along with their rocket.
The little robot vacuum was the opposite of fear, though. It was the very epitome of the cute factor. Who wouldn’t want a small robot whizzing around excitedly shouting “Polish polish!” as it cleaned your floor?
Mysteries and questions
“You ain’t seen me” was another genius little fourth-wall breaking cameo from Anita Dobson’s mischievous Mrs Flood, who appears to have a habit of living next door to the 15th Doctor’s companions. We are guaranteed to see more of her this season. The duplicate diploma MacGuffin is no doubt propelling the Tardis towards the big bad, and as for the significance of the date 24 May? Well, for one thing, the date the Tardis keeps bouncing off is the day that episode seven of this season, Wish World, is released.
Deeper into the vortex
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From our point of view, this is the second consecutive story where the 15th Doctor has lost access to the Tardis for multiple months, gets stuck, and makes a new potential companion friend (Sasha 55 played by Evelyn Miller in this, Steph de Whalley’s Anita Benn in Joy to the World)
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The Doctor saying “Padam padam” after revealing his two hearts to Belinda with the X-ray blanket is another nod in this era to the 2007 Christmas special Voyage of the Damned guest star Kylie Minogue. Gatwa’s Doctor made Rogue’s spaceship play Can’t Get You Out of My Head last year
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The show makes an explicit plot point out of Seethu having acted as Mundy Flynn in last year’s Boom before taking on her new role as companion. This has happened before, when Freema Agyeman’s Martha mentioned that her cousin, who she had also played, had been killed in an earlier alien battle. The 10th Doctor and Rose explained Torchwood’s Gwen Cooper and The Unquiet Dead’s Gwyneth both looking like Eve Myles as “spatial genetic multiplicity”. And perhaps most famously, Peter Capaldi’s 12th Doctor explained in The Girl Who Died that his latest face looking like Capaldi’s character Lucius Caecilius from Fires of Pompeii a few years earlier was a way “to remind him” to show mercy and do the right thing
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Doctor Who has often had an erratic approach to what happens when the same people and things from different bits of their timeline interact. In 1983’s Mawdryn Undead the Blinovitch Limitation Effect caused an energy discharge when two versions of the Brigadier met. In 2005’s Father’s Day, the presence of Rose at two different ages changing her own history lets the reapers into the universe, while in 2013’s Journey to the Centre of the Tardis, the Doctor was able to throw a big red reset button to his younger self, preventing the whole episode happening in the first place. Confused? You will be
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Belinda feels patronised and says “Am I six?” after the Doctor uses the phrase “timey-wimey”. If you are a longtime fan and don’t want to feel old, look away now. In real life Sethu would have been 15 when David Tennant’s Doctor first used that phrase in Blink, just under 18 years ago
Next time
The 1950s! Miami! Some sharp fashion! The dark of the matinee! Alan Cumming as evil cartoon Mr Ring-a-Ding in a story that is going to mix live action and animation! See you next week …
