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Mild spoilers comply with for Doctor Who season 2 episode 1.
Doctor Who is, in some ways, the last word consolation meals for sci-fi fanatics. There are occasions when the enduring British TV present will shock you with its storytelling, character evolution, and/or thematic exploration. By and huge, although, you recognize what you are going to get with Gallifrey’s biggest export: a principally fun-filled romp throughout time and area.
For higher or worse, that is a well-established method that Doctor Who season 2 (or, for these of us who’ve watched it since its 2005 revival, Doctor Who season 15) does not tamper with. This season’s opening chapter, titled ‘The Robot Revolution’, is not as narratively revolutionary as its title suggests. Still, whereas season 2’s premiere is predictable in its make-up, I largely had enjoyable with what its 46-minute opener needed to provide.
Paranoid android
Season 2 opens with the titular Time Lord (Ncuti Gatwa) racing to search out Belinda ‘Bel’ Chandra (Varada Sethu), a London-based nurse, for unknown causes.
Unfortunately, no sooner does The Doctor monitor her down at her residence, he can solely watch as Bel is whisked away by a gaggle of menacing robots – who, for causes that’ll turn into clear, declare she’s their planet’s Queen – to their residence world.
Long story brief: Bel is taken to a planet the place every part is bizarrely named after her. That consists of the world’s moniker (Miss Belinda Chandra-1), its race of people (Belinda Chandra-kind), and its major metropolis (Belinda Chandra-Ville).
Bel’s ties to a world that she has no recollection of are the least of her worries. Indeed, she’s been kidnapped to marry this world’s de-factor ruler and be totally assimilated as a human-robot hybrid not like traditional Whovian villains The Cybermen (extra on this comparability later). So a lot for a peaceable night.
Hope is at hand, although. The Doctor has not solely infiltrated Miss Belinda Chandra-1, but in addition teamed up with a gaggle of human freedom fighters seeking to overthrow their android oppressors. Cue a sometimes audacious rescue mission to avoid wasting Bel and work out what’s truly occurring.
For those that acknowledge Sethu’s Bel however cannot fairly place her, permit me to assist: Sethu additionally performed Mundy Flynn in ‘Boom’, which was arguably season 1/season 14’s greatest episode. She additionally appeared in season 1 of Andor, FYI, and can achieve this once more in Andor season 2, which arrives on Disney+ later this month.
But I digress. Unlike Peter Capaldi and Karen Gillan’s supporting roles in season 4 episode ‘The Fires of Pompeii’ earlier than they secured central roles in later seasons, Sethu’s casting as Bel is deliberate.
Season 2 does not conceal the truth that Bel and Mundy are associated. Indeed, The Doctor confirms as a lot throughout an expository sequence the place discussing a so-called Time Fracture that is a temporal border situation between Miss Belindra Chandra-1 and planet Earth. Continuity in a 70-year-old-plus TV sequence could be tough to keep up, so solid additions like this – the place an actor can play two variations of the identical character – in any challenge is most welcome.
I’m happy that unfastened plot threads from the present’s first season on Disney+ have not been totally discarded
As Doctor Who season 2’s first trailer teased, its large thriller is not simply centered on Bel. It’s additionally immediately linked to the overarching narrative involving Gatwa’s fifteenth Doctor that, so long as Gatwa is in for the lengthy haul, ought to run for a number of seasons and, hopefully sooner or later, clarify who or what the returning Mrs Flood is.
This is not a novel inventive and storytelling strategy for Doctor Who. Other multi-season tales, comparable to these involving Matt Smith and Jodie Foster’s iterations, have been structured equally with their breadcrumb path narratives that finally result in a grand reveal in direction of the top of every Doctor’s existence.
Nevertheless, I’m happy that unfastened plot threads from the present’s first season on Disney+ have not been totally discarded with the introduction of The Doctor’s newest companion. Instead, it seems season 2 will construct on the foundations laid by its predecessor and supply a semblance of storytelling pay-off amid this season’s main directive; one which’ll see The Doctor try and take Bel residence.
Companion items
To achieve this, he’ll should take the great distance residence. No spoilers for the premiere’s ending and one in all Doctor Who season 2’s large mysteries, however everybody’s favourite charismatic but emotionally-damaged Time Lord will want greater than a date and easy TARDIS handle-pull to get Bel safely again on terra firma.
The lengthy journey residence will present ample alternative to point out Bel is a incredible foil to the fifteenth Doctor, too.
The duo’s dynamic already has the air of a spicy but respect-laden relationship. Bel has a charismatic, compassionate, and capricious character to match that of her modern, and he or she’s not afraid to talk her thoughts (and put The Doctor in his place) if she disagrees with him.
The duo’s dynamic already has the air of a spicy but respect-laden relationship
One episode in, the pair’s collaboration is extra of a wedding of comfort than a bona fide friendship, however I anticipate that to alter as this season progresses, and I can not wait to see how this dynamic evolves because it does so.
Predictably, I’ve grievances about episode 1 of the most effective Disney+ exhibits’ sophomore season. Aside from its villain-in-chief, who’s truly one of many extra terrifying Doctor Who antagonists we have seen shortly, The Doctor and Bel’s robotic foes are largely unoriginal. In reality, I’d say, distinctive design however, they’re an uninspired amalgam of two of essentially the most infamous enemies in Doctor Who‘s rogue gallery – these being, the Daleks and Cybermen.
‘The Robot Revolution’ additionally strikes at a break-neck tempo. Episodes of Doctor Who are famend for being breezy, but it surely seems like this one is especially responsible of barrelling via its story with out stopping to take a breath. That does not permit its most pertinent story beats to have the emotional affect they require.
I used to be hesitant about together with this for concern of being labeled ‘woke’, however I’ll applaud the season 2 premiere for tackling the tough and uneasy matter of poisonous masculinity in a considerably child-friendly method. This is a family-first present, in any case. Nonetheless, it is one other courageous and completely legitimate examination of present-day themes that support the story and do not, as some might declare, spoil Doctor Who as a visible and/or narrative expertise.
My verdict
Watch On
‘The Robot Revolution’ does not break new floor for Doctor Who as a franchise, however there’s lots that’ll entertain households and die-hard Whovians alike.
Visually, I’m desperate to see season 2 preserve – and even perhaps construct on – the trippy aesthetic that permeates its premiere. Story-wise, I hope it pushes the boundaries of the present and does not befall the identical destiny as previous seasons.
Indeed, its forthcoming animated episode suggests the previous will often occur however, even at this early stage, I’m praying that the pay-off from season 2’s large thriller is best than final season.
Otherwise, it will do the traditional Whovian factor of promising a lot and delivering little. This is a sequence that explores all of time and area, in any case, so let’s examine a few of that wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey magic return to the fore with growing regularity, quite than being the exception to the norm.
Doctor Who season 2 premieres on Disney+ (internationally) and BBC One/BBC iPlayer (UK) on Saturday, April 12.
