The Robot Revolution (2025) and its traditional formula

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Ncuti Gatwa’s emergence as the Doctor and Russell T Davies' return in Season 1 of the Disney involved show had a lot of promise with some very creative, innovative episodes. The flaw was in the clunky structure of the season, which hindered its overall success. With Verada Sethu coming in as Belinda Chandra, there is an opportunity for an interesting and refreshing relationship and conflict with the journey of trying to get Belinda home and a very exciting season. How did the Robot Revolution succeed as an opener? Let's delve in.

The story begins with Belinda going about her daily life as an A&E nurse as the Doctor is after her for some reason. A bunch of robots in a rocket come to take Belinda and claim her as their queen as her star certificate, which her ex-boyfriend gifted her 17 years ago, has become the foundation of their society as she is taken back to Missbelindachandraone to unite in marriage with the AI generator. Belinda must help the Doctor to avert the crisis between people and robots on this planet and stop the chaos.

There is a fun to a season opener of Doctor Who. Russell T Davies thrives at creating a strong blend between a whacky silliness, pleasing science fiction and creativity and character focus to be able to grip audiences. Stories like Rose and Partners in Crime were perfect for accessibly introducing new people to the show. It brings you into the madness and imagination of Doctor Who by putting an ordinary character at the centre of the chaos and showing the storyline through their eyes. It’s a very effective method, and it’s a way of telling a story which Russell T Davies really thrives at bringing alive. He can mix a mad creativity and human elements very successfully. The Robot Revolution gets this, and it has the feel and essence of the writing of Russell T Davies.

I like the way Russell T Davies has a different companion every one of his seasons because it gives an audience a different jumping on point and a chance to start anew constantly, which I love. The Robot Revolution has a comforting and reassuring feeling and a neat balance of tone. You have an absurd silliness to the idea but a blend of science fiction, humour and also an underlying and disturbing darkness to the writing which elevates the whole thing. When judging a story, it should be all about whether the idea has potential and there is plenty of juice to extract out of the idea of Belinda being claimed as a queen because of her star certificate. To compare to last season, I don’t think the idea of talking space babies ever had much value to it and just felt needlessly immature. However, whilst the idea from the Robot Revolution is a very silly one, it is one that has science fiction potential written all over it. Some of the best science fiction is the kind which takes absurdities and fleshes them out to become something meaningful.

The value in an idea a lot of the time can be judged by the instinct and gut feeling of the audience. Space Babies was always a kind of off-putting concept, whereas the Robot Revolution has something very compelling and interesting about it. Once you get into the meat, drama and depth of the main story itself, you become lost in it, and you forget about the silliness of the thing altogether. When there is power in a story, you will be able to be drawn into it. There are levels and depth to the Robot Revolution and the lack of simplicity makes it gripping for fans to watch. The Robot Revolution is a story with a variation of tone. You have character drama, comedy, darkness, stakes and an interesting twist. The story progresses, evolves, and there are multiple aspects to enjoy within it. This stops the storyline itself from feeling bland and singularly defined. Russell T Davies takes the concept and then allows it to thrive.

The Robot Revolution plays upon the humour of the concept itself. It feels like a traditional Russell T Davies script in a lot of ways in the way gags are incorporated and I particularly enjoy the cleaning robot, who is very amusing and reminded me a lot of the mouse droids on the Death Star in Star Wars. There is a perfectly played ridiculousness merged with relatability that has the essence of Douglas Adams. It isn’t far-fetched because it has a relatable and meaningful essence about it, which is rooted in heartfelt drama. The situation is absurd, but Russell T Davies puts an ordinary and relatable character into the middle of it reacting to the absurdity which makes the whole bizarre nature of the situation both believable and relatable. The audience latches onto Belinda as they imagine how they would react if they were in this scenario. What works is that the comedy does not hinder the drama or darkness. There is darkness and stakes which are prevalent and believable throughout and if anything, the silliness of the situation elevates the drama and is meshed together seamlessly.

What Russell T Davies also manages to do is cleverly use the basic setup of the story as an opportunity for time travel mechanics and world-building. The Robot Revolution follows a story formula that was very common in the original series of Doctor Who but has become less common in the modern iteration. It’s the kind of story where the Doctor turns up at an oppressed world and planet and helps the people to rise up and rebel against their oppressors and start a revolution. This was particularly common during the William Hartnell era. The Robot Revolution reminds me of stories like the Daleks, the Savages, the Sun Makers, the Pirate Planet and the Happiness Patrol. The Doctor helping a group of marginalised people build a better world and society is a very comforting story formula, and I enjoyed seeing it return.

I can understand why modern Doctor Who has moved away from this story formula with more expectations on the visual effects of science fiction and as a result alien planets are more difficult to pull off. However, with the funding of Disney, these kinds of stories are possible again. Missbelindachandraone has a vastness and a wonderful design, but the story does not feel defined by the visuals and still tells a very isolated story. The idea of the star certificate becoming a foundation myth for a whole society and how that influences their world is an effective piece of world-building. You can see throughout the story how this misinformation and absurdity has caused chaos and a difficult relationship between people and robots. Whilst the concept has a silliness, the reality of the conflict is felt through the world-building.

The time travel aspects keeps the story engaging and interesting, with Belinda’s star certificate being in the hands of the robots for many years and the time fracture aspect of the storyline. It, for the most part, works very well for the story and gives it a lot of interesting twists and turns to play with.

The robots are a kind of generic force, but they function for their purpose. They are a pleasing metallic enemy for the Doctor and the rebels to fight against. The stupidity of the robots is a kind of commentary on the stupidity of AI, but it doesn’t run particularly deep. This is mainly because the story is framed to appear to be a story about AI, but it's about something else altogether. The downfall of this is that the moral on AI and purpose of the robots falls flat.

Alan Budd is the twist villain of the story played by Jonny Green. He is set up at the start of the story as Belinda’s ex-boyfriend, who gave her the star certificate many years ago. I like the fact that hints on Alan’s misogynist beliefs are set up at the start of the story, with him reinforcing women’s traditional role and relationship to men within society, and he talks down to Belinda in a very patronising and belittling manner. The nature of the forced union with the AI generator is an indicator of the true menace behind this. There is the undercurrent of someone with Alan’s mindset, which is cleverly baked into the setup. I like the melding of human and robot, and it feels believable that someone like Alan would view death, destruction and robots as a game to take control. In a world of radicalised and normalised online misogyny, Alan’s motivations and reasonings ring true and feel very believable for him as a villain. He spent his relationship with Belinda scolding her and trying to control her, and the coercive control of a whole society feels like an extension of those same behaviours and toxic traits. The way he tries to force himself and Belinda together defines him as a character stripping Belinda of her agency and forcing her to conform to a world of his sexist desires. The thought process of Alan comes together naturally.

The problem I have is that the twist means that Alan is never really explored as a character. The meat of the villains' motivations and the ideas the story is exploring never have a full opportunity to be delved into and taken advantage of with any great depth or meaning. There’s certainly a lot they could have done with Alan as a character with sympathy and pity given to him and what has drawn him off course. The end conclusion and wrap-up of his character is also rather rushed and could have been handled better.

Ncuti Gatwa returns as the Fifteenth Doctor and proves how brilliant he is in the role. He has a charismatic, daring and an eye-catching presence with the carefree and open take which he brings to the character of the Doctor. He brings a fun personality and energised vibe which makes the performance. I really like the time travel situation which the Doctor involves himself in during the Robot Revolution. There is a sense of mystery to the Doctor’s adventures with things having happened off screen which adds a sense of intrigue to the Doctor’s character. I like the timey wimey nature of the Doctor having been on Missbelindchandraone for six months helping the rebels fight against the robots. It represents the long and hard work of what revolution takes, but it also plays into an interesting part of the Doctor’s character in the entangled and complex nature of their relationship with time. The Doctor comes in and out of people’s lives and operates on a larger and different scale, which is very intricate and difficult to understand. However, the simple fact of the Doctor having spent time on Missbelindachandraone adds a sense of unseen adventures which adds to the Doctor in a lovely way and to the scale of their adventures. We also know that the Doctor was already on the case of Belinda before the episode began. We are likely to find out the reason for this as the series goes on, but I love the setup. Having unknown and uncertain aspects of the Doctor’s motivations makes him feel morally complex and dubious and plays into his alien nature and mysterious feeling.

The Doctor’s time on Missbelindachandraone also allows for some emotional impact with the loss of Sasha 55. She was clearly someone who meant a great deal to the Doctor with a deep sense of companionship and it adds a sense of real history. The emotional aftermath of her death has a sense of severity and rawness in Ncuti Gatwa’s performance. The Fifteenth Doctor is able to control situations and dazzle people with his charm, humour and personality, but underneath there is a darkness. I love the way Belinda exposes this in the Doctor’s character and the way the Doctor is using Belinda for an adventure, and she sees the recklessness of his dangerous lifestyle. It challenges the Doctor’s true motivations and more insidious nature behind the likeable charm of the Fifteenth Doctor’s persona, which gives the character further depth.

You have the introduction of Belinda Chandra played by Verada Sethu, who is an incredibly refreshing companion and brings something brand new to the show. Verada Sethu previously played Mundy Flynn in Boom last year and I’m excited to see her back in a more dominant and important role. There is an automatic self-assurance and independence to Belinda, which Sethu carries wonderfully. This comes from her older sense of maturity and her care and compassion as an A&E nurse. The genius of Belinda is that the story puts her right into the thick of it. Seeing her kidnapped by robots and in the middle of an insane and deadly situation forces Belinda to grow and evolve. It sees her react to the situation in front of her and you learn about her as a character as a result. You grow to Belinda as a result of what the situation makes of her. What’s interesting is that Belinda is a victim in this situation. She is thrust onto this planet and becomes the centrepiece of this weird conflict through no fault of her own and Varada Sethu shows organic fear in the role combined with dominant strength. The way she argues with robots, stands for herself and rejects the Doctor’s attempts to defend her in a quite tense situation shows her confidence and ease as a person. It doesn’t mean she isn’t scared, but she has a likeable and brave personality where she is willing to stand up for herself. You also see her caring nature and abilities as a nurse as she automatically gets involved in helping out the injured rebels in the undercity, which makes her a very likeable person and bonds her and the Doctor together. Her conflict with the Doctor is what I love. She just wants to get back to her own life with her own priorities. It's very relatable and a great contrast to the way Ruby was constantly dazzled by the Doctor. That relationship was at times too amicable, and I’m really interested to see where things lead with the Doctor and Belinda and her journey back home across the series.

I think the main guest cast of the story are very under-written. Sasha 55, played by Evelyn Miller, makes for a nice presence and ally towards the start of the story, but the other characters don’t contribute much. Manny, played by Max Parker, is simply a device for antagonistic conflict and isn’t much of a character.

The story is directed by Peter Hoar who previously directed A Good Man Goes to War during the Matt Smith era and after working with Russell T Davies on It’s a Sin and Nolly has made a return to the show. I love the simplicity of the way Peter Hoar directs and makes the story his own. There is a sense of intent to the directing and the story as he frames everything through and around Belinda’s perspective, making the story feel like it belongs to her as a character. The scene of the rocket landing is all framed within Belinda’s perspective and focuses upon her reaction to it all with great tension and a cinematic feel. The action sequences are made to feel fun, energetic and exciting. The parts of the Tardis zooming after the rocket and the action sequence with the robots has a lively energy and is well put together. It's to the credit of Peter Hoar that the story doesn’t fixate on the grander scale of things. The grander stakes are there, but the camera and energy of the story is focused inwardly on Belinda with very singular and individual camera movements through the adventure. There is spectacle to the story but little flare which makes it relatable.

So, how did I feel about the Robot Revolution? I thought it was a really strong way to open Season 2 and a very promising beginning. It seemed to iron out and readjust some of the weaker aspects of Season 1 and set the show up for a lot of excitement. Russell T Davies thrives with the imagination and the mad silliness of the storyline, which is mixed well with a strong sense of darkness and character conflict between the Doctor and Belinda. You have a traditional Doctor Who story in a lot of ways that feels very comforting and evocative of some really great stories. The world-building, creative story development and twists that are offered are to be admired. It puts Belinda in the middle of an adventure and sees her shaped. You do have issues with its rushed ending and how much it delivers on its key themes and points, but it's exactly what the story needed to be.