Erik Adams
This review contains full spoilers for Doctor Who season 2, episode 1, “The Robot Revolution”
“The Robot Revolution” kicks off Doctor Who’s second season (which is also the 15th of the revived era, and 41st of the series overall) with all the subtlety of a glitter cannon. It’s loud, bright, and begging you to have fun. It opens strong, racing through a pulpy rescue mission filled with bellowing red robots who shout “Behold!” like they’re auditioning for a live-action Thundercats reboot, and introduces a charmingly absurd polishing droid that deserves its own Star Wars-esque merch line. There’s visual invention to spare, and campier instincts that are proudly leaned into. But for all its spectacle and self-aware chaos, this premiere rarely pulls itself together into something emotionally or thematically solid. The pace is frantic, but the plot is hollow, and the initial spark fades quickly, leaving a forgettable story where a flagship return should have been.
Nowhere is that hollowness more obvious than in the central twist: The reveal that Belinda’s ex, Al (with a lowercase “l,” short for Alan), is actually the AI (with an uppercase “I”) Generator controlling the robot horde doesn’t so much twist as it unravels. It’s another of Russell T. Davies’ increasingly worn-out wordplay gambits, a spiritual cousin to last season’s Sue Tech/Sutekh gag and the ongoing parade of Susan Twist cameos. And like those, it doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. Al shows up for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it intro, vanishes for 40 minutes, then returns as the “surprise” villain with all the dramatic impact of a Windows error message. The AI Generator itself looks like it stumbled out of a garish Fallout mod, all cartoon menace and flickering CRT pomp, but even that fizzles once the punchline lands. The problem isn’t just the twist itself, but that it mirrors a larger issue: It’s content to coast on style and quirk without giving the story anything to chew on.
Despite the limp plot and undercooked villainy, “The Robot Revolution” isn’t a total loss. Its best asset, by far, is its character work, which offers a promising glimpse at the season ahead. Belinda Chandra, played with disarming charm and quiet authority by Varada Sethu, isn’t exactly new. She first popped up in “Boom” as Mundy Flynn, a military medic in one of last season’s better standalone episodes. Here, we get a resolution to that setup: Belinda and Mundy are simply related, and separated by thousands of years. It’s not exactly the first time Doctor Who has had to account for an actor cast in multiple roles, and it does add just enough narrative gravity to Belinda’s TARDIS debut.
Better still, she arrives fully formed. Belinda’s got opinions, she pushes back, and she doesn’t let the Doctor get away with his usual verbal sleight of hand. That alone already sets her apart. While I appreciated Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday last season – her energy with Ncuti Gatwa was electric – she sometimes felt more like a tag-along rather than a co-lead. So, it’s refreshing to see someone arrive with momentum and bite. With a Doctor who’s spent the last run veering between whimsy and wistfulness, a companion to properly bounce off in the TARDIS could be exactly what Doctor Who needs.
It also helps that the TARDIS finally starts acting like a character again. It’s not just a glossy teleportation pod: It’s temperamental, tactile, and responsive, and the Doctor doesn’t just pilot it, he negotiates, pleads, and wrestles with the console. “The Robot Revolution” gives Gatwa ample opportunity to showcase his physical performance skills, and he shines in those moments, injecting a raw drive and frustration into the scenes. The increased TARDIS action is a welcome shift, and its lavish, yet sterile, new design is finally made use of. It’s still missing the kind of lived-in charm it had back when Amy and Rory were knocking around in it, but getting to spend more time with its ravishing glowing panels will have to do for now.
Visually speaking “The Robot Revolution” throws everything it’s got at the wall. Time fractures shimmer, transitions snap into gear, and the robots, while one-note, benefit massively from those bulky, theatrical, practical suits. The production’s gunning for cinematic flair: Sometimes it lands, sometimes it looks like the green-screen footage was finalized at the 11th hour. The ambition’s admirable, even if the execution wobbles – which, to be completely fair, isn’t that unusual for Doctor Who sets.
For the most part, “The Robot Revolution” feels like mid-season filler dressed up in premiere clothing. There are flashes of fun, such as the episode’s humor, that occasionally manage to cut through its visual and narrative chaos. The throwaway “planet of the incels” line stands out as one of the few sharp moments that sticks. And while the rest of the plot is rather forgettable, there’s some semblance of narrative direction by its resolution. The Doctor and Belinda are being blocked from reaching Earth in 2025, nudging them toward a longer, stranger road home. It’s a modest hook, but enough to give the season a spine. If Doctor Who leans into that structure and continues building on the sharp chemistry between Gatwa and Sethu, there’s still time and space to grow.
So no, “The Robot Revolution” isn’t a knockout. But it’s a fast, intermittently funny, and mostly empty slice of sci-fi that may just be laying the groundwork for something more. If season 2 manages to focus on its new TARDIS team, and maybe even dial back some of the universe-ending theatrics, that journey back to Earth might be worth taking.
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