#18 (2.8): The Reality War.

The new Doctor Who themed "Souls-like" game is looking really weird...

1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 66 minutes. Written by: Russell T. Davies. Directed by: Alex Sanjiv Pillai. Produced by: Chris May.

Note: This review contains spoilers.


THE PLOT:

The Rani has won. As the clock sounds midnight on May 24, 2025, Earth hurtles towards its destruction, with the Doctor helpless to stop it.

Then a door opens. Anita (Steph de Whalley), the hotel manager the Doctor spent a year with before getting her a job at the Time Hotel, uses the hotel's capabilities to rescue him. The doors to the hotel also allow reality to disrupt Conrad's "wish," meaning that the Doctor can quickly restore the memories of Belinda, Ruby, and UNIT.

Conveniently, the Rani needs one more cycle to gather the energy to let the first Time Lord, Omega, into reality, so she has to reset the Earth to May 23 once more before the end. This gives the Doctor and his friends time to zap a bunch of CGI before he returns to her Bone Palace to try to stop her.

But it may be too late for that. The Rani's plans come to fruition (on May 23, squashing any significance to the May 24 date). Omega is returning to reality - but the wish has transformed him as well, and not for the better...


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: In a confrontation with the Rani in which he appears to come out the loser, he actually tricks her into providing data to bypass the Bone Palace's security. He tries to argue against the Rani's plan to bring back Omega, reminding her that the Time Lords of that era were despots, but Mrs. Flood silences him with a single question: "Don't you want to see him?" - and he has to acknowledge that yes, he does. He draws on all his ingenuity to try to protect his and Belinda's "wish" daughter, Poppy, from being overwritten when the wish is broken.

Belinda: The Doctor/Belinda partnership has been a joy, with Belinda's mix of enthusiasm for and wariness of the Doctor helping to make many of this year's episodes sparkle. Her reward... is to spend the finale sidelined, right down to being locked in a cupboard for the climax. I don't object to her being protective of her "wish daughter." Belinda as a mother would be fiercely protective. I object to her entire personality being reduced to only that and nothing else.

Ruby Sunday: Internet rumors suggest that Millie Gibson's Ruby was meant to be the companion for both seasons, with Belinda's presence in Season Two being a change of plans. I don't tend to put much stock in Internet rumors... but if it's true, it makes a lot of sense with regard to how this episode plays out. Belinda, the season's actual co-star, is sidelined, while Ruby plays a key role in resolving the crisis. After the wish is broken, it's not Belinda - Poppy's mother - who insists on the child's reality, but Ruby, with Millie Gibson doing the emotional heavy lifting for the early epilogue scenes. The story would make more sense, both in terms of emotion and plot, if Ruby was Poppy's mother... and given that Ruby was more prominent than Belinda in both of the final episodes, I'm not sure why that wasn't the case.

Recurring Cast: The UNIT crew are all there... and that's most of what there is to say about them. Kate barks orders to facilitate the Doctor's plan and gets a slightly bizarre mini-speech in which she refers to them all as the Doctor's children, while UNIT's role is basically to add to the CGI activity by breaking out big guns to zap monsters that serve no actual narrative purpose. Mel probably gets the best bit, reacting to the Rani with a loathing that would suggest the existence of a much more interesting version of Time and the Rani than the one that aired. All of these characters could be removed entirely. Not only would the story not be harmed, I think their removal would help the episode to feel less overloaded.

The Rani: In one of the few clever bits of scripting, she fully anticipates the Doctor's attempt to trick her. As a result, she's ready when he arrives at the Bone Palace to confront her. She goads him about his compassionate nature, sneering that all he's armed with are "dazzling words, maybe a pun, and then... platitudes." She's eager to use Omega's power to recreate the Time Lords of old...

Omega: ...Except that Omega is a CGI monster who looks like he stepped out of a Dark Souls game. Kind of like Empire of Death's Sutekh. This episode isn't as bad as that one, but the treatment of Omega is actually worse than that of Sutekh. At least the Egyptian god had always been portrayed as a monster devoted to destruction. Omega's main ambition in his two Classic Series stories was basically just to live. Now he's a parasitic creature who wants to "feast upon this world." Sure, there's the excuse that this Omega has been twisted by the wish into the mad titan of legend - but when the character (if you can call him that) bears no resemblance to the original Omega, then I'm left wondering why the script bothers to even call him that. Other than empty fanservice, that is. Oh, wait - I think I just answered my own question.


THOUGHTS:

The Reality War has a few good moments. I enjoyed the Rani and Mel sniping at each other, even if that scene doesn't actually lead to anything. The acting is generally good. Though there's the usual RTD finale "frenetic activity" going on, it is competently structured and is legitimately telling a story, albeit badly, and that's more than enough to make it a step up from Empire of Death.

Which doesn't change that I'd still rank this as a bad episode.

It repeats some of the same mistakes as Empire of Death. When Omega finally appears, he's a cannibalistic CGI monster that looks like it stepped out of a video game. When it speaks (briefly), it's not to bemoan its fate. Instead, it boasts of how it intends to feed. The Doctor doesn't defeat it through cleverness. Instead, it conveniently turns out that the Vindicator gadget he's been playing with all season just happens to double as a big gun. Because nothing says Doctor Who quite like watching the Doctor zap a CGI beastie with a ray gun, right?

Bizarrely, I think the best part of the episode is the epilogue, much of which consists of reshoots that were hastily thrown together after Ncuti Gatwa opted to leave. There's an excellent scene in which Ruby watches the Doctor and Belinda giddily debate their next destination while they forget something that should matter to them.

The scene is pulled off through the simplest techniques: a series of edits, a shift in the performances of Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu, and Millie Gibson's horrified nonverbal reaction. It's by far the episode's best moment, and the follow-up scene in which Ruby persuades the Doctor, Belinda, and UNIT that her memory isn't at fault is almost as good. It's as if Russell T. Davies is able to create something reasonably involving when he's forced to put down his CGI toolbox.

The 13th Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) shows up for the outgoing Doctor's sendoff.

A REGENERATION, A WELCOME CAMEO, AND A MASSIVE MISJUDGEMENT:

In October 2024, while guesting on The Graham Norton Show, Ncuti Gatwa briefly confirmed plans to shoot Season Three in early 2025. Disney delayed making a decision about renewing their co-production deal (as of this writing, they still have not handed down their verdict), and the remarks were edited out before broadcast. By February 2025, Gatwa had decided to exit the role. He publicly cited the physical toll of being the Doctor, but his October remarks indicate that he would almost certainly have done a third season had the show been renewed promptly.

Regardless of the exact reason or combination of reasons, February saw last-minute reshoots that resulted in the surprise regeneration of Ncuti Gatwa's 15th Doctor in an epilogue that was very much bolted onto the end of the episode.

As I've observed, many of these scenes are better than the episode itself. While he's contemplating sacrificing this incarnation, the 15th Doctor receives a visit from Jodie Whittaker's 13th Doctor. I thoroughly enjoyed the interplay between Whittaker and Gatwa. I wouldn't have minded a proper multi-Doctor story with these two, as they're a natural contrast: Thirteen was arguably the most emotionally guarded incarnation, while Gatwa is the most emotionally open. He blurts out that he loves her, which stuns her: "I never say things like that."

The cameo does have one unfortunate knock-on effect, however: Whittaker's appearance makes me realize that I feel more of a connection with her Doctor than with the one who is actually departing. I think Gatwa really needed that third season. He's been good to great throughout Season Two, and for all my issues with this episode, his second season has been generally quite good. But I came into Season Two feeling zero connection. Ultimately, eight episodes, even with most of them being of high quality, were not enough to make up the difference.

The regeneration sequence is mostly decent on its own terms. My issues with this episode's treatment of Belinda aside, the Doctor's goodbye to her is enjoyable in its quietness. I also rather like him choosing to look out into the Vortex as he regenerates.

Then all of that gets overshadowed by what I consider to be a serious misjudgment.


A MISJUDGED ENDING:

The regeneration ends with another surprise cameo, this one seemingly designed to get viewers talking. It worked... if you don't mind that many viewers vocally wondered if the show was disappearing so far up itself that it might just create a singularity.

The credits fudge the exact nature of the cameo, and RTD has indicated that even he isn't completely certain what he's going to do with it. I wish I thought he was just baiting people, as he's done multiple times in the past... but in this case, I believe him. I suspect much of what comes next will be down to one actor's availability whenever the show gets back into production - which doesn't strike me as a recipe for quality or even internal consistency.

Say what you will about Chris Chibnall, but he had the right idea for how to handle a regeneration in the face of a potential gap. Initially, The Power of the Doctor was meant to end with the regeneration in longshot, with viewers not seeing the new Doctor. This allowed freedom for the next showrunner to properly cast and plan, allowing them to either pick up at that moment or well in the future, maximizing creative freedom while maintaining unbroken continuity. It was a good plan, one that became unnecessary once Davies came back to helm the next era... and it was exactly what should have been done here.

Wherever this final turn goes, it cements one of my fears about RTD's return: Looking backward. Doctor Who is at its best when it puts a new spin on its own tropes. "RTD 2" has done this multiple times - in midseason standalone episodes, such as Dot and Bubble and The Story and the Engine. Unfortunately, its event episodes have leaned on the series' worst tendencies, creating empty spectacle that relies on fan buzz in response to references to characters last seen decades ago!

When Doctor Who returns - and I believe that it will, and likely sooner than Internet rage-baiters believe - I fervently hope that the series focuses on moving forward again.


OVERALL:

The Reality War is a bad end to a good season. I almost wrote that it was a "disappointing" end, except that it was pretty much what I expected: lots of activity, urgent pronouncements that the actors seem to be barely managing to utter with straight faces, and too much CGI. The most involving part of the episode is the epilogue, which mostly consists of last-minute reshoots!

It's a poor finale for Varada Sethu's Belinda, who helped to make this season better than the previous one, and who is rewarded by being reduced to a plot device while being upstaged by her predecessor. As if to make that upstaging a theme, the 13th Doctor pops into Gatwa's extended farewell just long enough to make me realize that, for all of her era's flaws, she feels more like the Doctor to me than he does.

The very good set of episodes leading up to this is an excellent argument that Doctor Who has plenty of life left in it... but I have to admit that it's hard to cling to that in the face of this dreary final episode. Ncuti Gatwa deserved better. Varada Sethu deserved better. This season deserved better. And the viewers certainly deserved better.


Overall Rating: 3/10.

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#15 (2.5): The Story and the Engine.

The Barber (Ariyon Bakare) goads the Doctor into telling a story.

1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 46 minutes. Written by: Inua Ellams. Directed by: Makalla McPherson. Produced by: Vicki Delow.


THE PLOT:

The Doctor comes to Lagos, Nigeria to visit Omo (Sule Rimi), an old friend who runs a barber shop. Even before he reaches the shop, he can sense that something's wrong. The street outside is deserted, adorned with "Missing Persons" flyers and signs warning people to turn back. Inside the shop, he finds all the missing people and Omo, but none of them can leave. They are prisoners of "The Barber" (Ariyon Bakare), a mysterious figure who has taken control.

The Barber's technology allows them to exist in two places at once, Lagos and outer space, where his engine propels them toward a destination. The engine is powered by stories, the stories that Omo and his customers tell while receiving haircuts. After each cut, their hair instantly grows back so that they can continue feeding the engine.

Omo offers up the Doctor to his captor in hopes of freeing himself and his customers. Because after all, who has more stories than an immortal traveler in time and space?


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: I think this is Ncuti Gatwa's single best performance as the Doctor. He is nothing short of magnetic from start to finish. He stands up to the Barber and tries to rally the others against him, declaring in the style of a defiant protest leader: "We will leave here!" When the Barber declares his power, the Doctor responds by laughing and poking holes in his claims. He reacts with genuine emotional pain at Oma's betrayal of him. He reveals to Belinda that, in this regeneration, people in certain places and times respond very differently to him than to his white predecessors... but not at Oma's shop. "I'm accepted. I'm able to forget. We... laugh, we tell stories." Oma didn't merely use him - he took away a place the Doctor has thought of as a home.

Belinda: "Hurt people hurt people... The difference between good and evil is what we do with that pain." When her story gets told (by the Doctor instead of her, one of the few nitpicks I have), we see her compassion and dedication to helping others, with her sacrificing her grandmother's birthday in order to save an old woman from what would likely have been a fatal misdiagnosis (in a blatant tipoff that this is science fiction, the hospital doctor actually listens to a nurse telling him that he's wrong). She has no time for the Barber's self-justifications, loudly dismissing his actions as motivated by ego.

Omo: Omo is not in any way a bad man. He genuinely cares about the Doctor, and his guilt at betraying his friend is tangible. At his core, he's likable, as are his customers. When the Doctor realizes that he's been used, the entire group gangs up on him to drag him to the barber's chair to fuel the engine... and the scene is all the more effective precisely because these aren't evil people - They're just desperate.

Abena: The Barber's assistant, Abena (Michelle Asante) is devoted to seeing him achieve his ends. Despite her closeness to their captor, the customers see her as a savior, because she treats them nicely while bringing them food from the outside. Abena resents the Doctor, and we eventually learn that in a prior incarnation, the Doctor abandoned her to a life that she hated. She truly believes that she's serving the greater good by helping the Barber, insisting that when he gains power he will rule with wisdom and justice. 

The Barber: Ariyon Bakare is a compelling presence, the rage that's simmered for centuries visible in his eyes as he glares. He speaks and moves with slow deliberation, the low pitch of his voice adding weight to each syllable. There's a scene in which the Barber tells his story twice: first a lie, as he moves to center stage and loudly proclaims himself to be gods such as Dionysis, Loki, and Anansi while cutting his own locks and dropping the hair deliberately to the ground. Then, after the Doctor calls out his lie, he slumps against a wall and tells the truth, in a quiet whisper that's every bit as captivating. There are multiple moments, including this one, in which he becomes almost sympathetic, mainly because his anger is understandable, which makes him all the more fearsome as a villain.


THOUGHTS:

"It does not matter what I am called. It matters who I am, what I do... I begin all things. I am the voice in the empty void. I am the spark, the seed, the dark nucleus, the lie that tells the truth... And this, Doctor, this is my domain."
-the Barber traps the Doctor for the power of his stories.

A glance across the web tells me that The Story and the Engine is a divisive story, with no shortage of people both singing its praises and sneering at it as pretentious and dull. I fall firmly on the side of those that loved it. I think it's my favorite of Ncuti Gatwa's run.

Just like the engine, this narrative is carried by the stories the various characters tell, both in and out of the barber's chair. The teaser is arresting, as Oma tells the story of how he first met the Doctor, with stylized images similar to those in a published version of a folk tale appearing on the glass as he speaks. The Doctor's only story when he's in the barber's chair is about Belinda, emphasizing the importance of an ordinary life. When he sits again, it's for Abena's tale, a story of defiance in the face of oppression.

Just as crucial are the stories told away from the chair. Right after the credits, the Doctor tells Belinda about his love for the shop. The Barber first lies about his origins, then tells the truth. Abena and the Doctor shared a past moment in which their separate stories intersected. Oma and his customers relate the parts of their lives they're missing as they remain trapped in the shop, from the athlete who came for a haircut before a relay race to the father who was getting a trim for his child's naming ceremony. These individual little stories are bound together by the setting and the themes, the strong individual moments each forming part of a hypnotic whole.

The episode is also visually beautiful. The illustrations on the glass would be worth publishing in themselves. Not only are they good art, they vary in tone according to each story. Oma's is like the illustrations of a book of folk tales. When the Barber tells his untrue tale, the images are ominous, threatening. The strength of the Doctor's storytelling is reflected by the glass showing moving images rather than static drawings.

Memorable images aren't restricted to "money shots," but also include simple two-shots and close-ups: the Barber urging the Doctor to tell a story while wielding the clippers like a weapon; Oma, sitting in the chair as he tells his story; the Doctor, loudly defying this self-proclaimed god with the others visible in frame behind him; the Barber, glaring balefully in one shot and staring exhaustedly into space in another. Not to mention a close-up of a haircut that is artful both visually and narratively as it transitions to the next scene. It feels as if each moment has been precisely composed to maximize impact.


OVERALL:

I could nitpick a few things. I really wish Belinda sat in the chair to tell her own story, rather than the Doctor telling it for her, and there's some questionable continuity regarding the Doctor's memories of Abena. But these don't lower my score, because I was too swept away.

I loved this episode. I found it a brilliant testament the the power of storytelling, both oral and visual. Time seemed to stop while I was watching, and I was left feeling transported not only by the narrative, but by the multiple smaller stories inside of it.


Overall Rating: 10/10.

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#12 (2.2): Lux.

The Doctor and Belinda meet Mr. Ring-a-Ding (Alan Cumming), a cartoon come to life.

1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 44 minutes. Written by: Russell T. Davies. Directed by: Amanda Brotchie. Produced by: Chris May.


THE PLOT:

A barrier is preventing the Doctor from returning Belinda to her own time, so he attempts to outmaneuver it with a doohickey and some technobabble. This leads to the TARDIS materializing just outside a movie theater in Miami, Florida, 1952.

It's instantly obvious that something is afoot. The theater isn't just closed; its doors are chained shut, and there is a memorial outside. They learn that three months earlier, 15 people attending a screening disappeared without a trace. After multiple searches, the police have given up, leaving the building empty save for its projectionist/caretaker, Reginald Pye (Linus Roache).

A quick pass of his Sonic Screwdriver is all it takes for the Doctor to access the theater, where he discovers the entity behind the disappearances: Mr. Ring-a-Ding (Alan Cumming), a cartoon brought to life. Mr. Ring-a-Ding is now the embodiment of Lux Imperator, the Chaos God of light. The Doctor resolves to defeat him; but before he and Belinda can do anything, they find themselves trapped in celluloid - and themselves transformed into cartoons!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: He's determined to keep his promise to return Belinda to May 24, 2025, not least because of his growing concern that something has gone very wrong. He tries to hide that worry from Belinda by cranking up both energy and charm even beyond his norm. His enthusiasm for materializing in 1952 Florida is tempered when he stretches out his hand to remind himself of his skin color, with him remarking that going unseen "might be wise." When Belinda absorbs those same implications, the Doctor tells her that it's not his role to change human history, not even for the better: "I have toppled worlds. Sometimes I wait for people to topple their world. Until then, I live in it, and I shine."

Belinda: So far, I like Belinda. Unlike Ruby, she's a reluctant traveler, and her willingness to push back against the Doctor rather than just wholeheartedly embrace his enthusiasm adds an extra layer. She doesn't complain about her unwanted travels, and it's clear that she's far from immune to the Doctor's charm. She's a compassionate figure, as shown when her resistance to investigating drops away after she meets the mother of one of the people who vanished. I wouldn't say there's particularly more to her character than there was to Ruby. But I'm feeling connected with the Doctor/Belinda team in a way that I struggled to feel with the Doctor and Ruby for the first third of the previous season.

Mr. Ring-a-Ding/Lux: This episode wouldn't work if its animated "monster" didn't. Mr. Ring-a-Ding's design is perfectly judged. He looks like a 1950s cartoon, with comically exaggerated features that include oversized hands and an impossibly wide grin. Those same exaggerations become menacing when he steps out of the screen. Alan Cumming adopts a nasally voice for the character that's reminiscent of (but not a duplicate of) some of the Looney Tunes voices. He's also able to turn from amiable to sinister with a very slight drop in pitch and the tiniest slowing of vocal pace. The character remains bound by cartoon logic. When his theme is played, he has to stop to sing and dance to it. When he heads to the booth to pursue the Doctor and Belinda, he has to comically pull his rubbery legs up each stair while complaining that he never should have learned perspective.


THOUGHTS:

Lux shares a lot in common with The Devil's Chord from Gatwa's first season. Like that story, this is set in the past, with the Doctor facing off against a threat bound to art - music in that episode, animation and movies in this one. In both cases, the opponent is superficially comical. Both episodes also invoke the Toymaker's giggle to let the Doctor know that these are Gods of Chaos.

I find Lux to be the better of the two. The Devil's Chord had a splendid first half but became more slapdash toward the end, while Lux feels both controlled and unified throughout. The word "lux" directly refers to a unit of light, and the teaser shows moonlight bringing the Chaos God to life in the form of Mr. Ring-a-Ding, an animated celluloid character who is brought to cinematic life through the light of the projector. Lux forces the projectionist to keep playing movies in the empty theater because the light from the projections "feeds" him. Both the manner of his creation and his "feeding" are consistent with the way in which he's ultimately defeated. Not all the rules are explained, but the internal logic holds.

The episode plays with the divide between reality and fiction. This starts from the teaser, with the fictional cartoon, Mr. Ring-a-Ding, emerging from the screen to the horror of the audience. In the second half, the Doctor and Belinda are trapped on celluloid and transformed into two-dimensional cartoons - a transformation that follows multiple references from them to Scooby Doo, with the Doctor teasing Belinda by identifying himself as Velma and her as Fred. There are a couple of direct fourth wall breaks, including a mid-credits bit that I found amusing.

I quite like how this episode addresses the issue of how certain points in history might not be ideal for a nonwhite Doctor. It isn't dismissed condescendingly, as happened in The Shakespeare Code. The Doctor notes that in this time and place, it might be best for him and Belinda not to be seen, and he fills Belinda in on "the rules" of their interactions with others at a diner - but he also cuts short her outraged reaction, instead focusing her attention on the task at hand. The issue is addressed with suitable directness, but it never threatens to interfere with either the story or its pace.

This aspect is also effectively folded into the narrative. The brief exchange at the diner about breaking "the rules" of segregation to get information effectively parallels the way the Doctor uses "the rules" of the pantheon of Chaos Gods to get information from Lux. The idea of light recurs throughout the story, and that motif is referenced when the Doctor observes that it's as well that he and Belinda have arrived late at night and can go unseen. When the story ends, in the light of morning, he combines both the ideas of light and of rules as he declares that it's time to leave: "According to the laws of the land, babe, sunlight doesn't suit us."


OVERALL:

Lux is a fine episode, with a tightly constructed script that makes full use of both its themes and plot elements. The villain is particularly strong, mixing the comical and the frightening to excellent effect. The live action and animated elements mix seamlessly, and this is one of the few episodes that visibly benefited from the Disney partnership.

Overall, a very good episode, one that raises my hopes for the rest of the season.


Overall Rating: 8/10.

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#11 (2.1): The Robot Revolution.

Nurse Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) is kidnapped by robots from another world.

1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 47 minutes. Written by: Russell T. Davies. Directed by: Peter Hoar. Produced by: Vicki Delow.


THE PLOT:

When she was a teenager, Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu)'s received a bizarre gift from her boyfriend (Jonny Green): a certificate officially naming a star after her. 17 years later, Belinda is now a hospital nurse, living a busy but thoroughly ordinary life.

That is, until a spaceship lands near the house she's renting with several flatmates, and giant robots emerge to kidnap her. The robots insist that they are taking her to "Missbelindachandra One," a planet orbiting the star in her name. She is brought to a world ruled by robots, with the humans serving as little more than slaves, and told that she is to be their queen - and that she must marry their ruler, the AI Generator.

As she struggles to process all this insanity, a man steps forward to explain. This is a "designated historian," who calls himself the Doctor. After detailing the current state of the planet, the Doctor leads a group of rebels in rescuing Belinda.

But why has this planet evolved into this state? How did the robots obtain the same exact star certificate that Belinda carries? And why does the robots' certificate appear to be thousands of years old...?


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: A friend who has helped him on Missbelindachandra One dies early in the episode, during Belinda's rescue. The Doctor processes that death quickly, taking a couple of seconds to feel all the grief at once. He then moves immediately to the task at hand, proclaiming, "She's dead. Right... we have got a world to overthrow." Aside from that scene and the epilogue, he serves as the Designated Deliverer of Exposition, but Ncuti Gatwa mostly makes it work through sheer energy.

Belinda: The first companion in a long time who would really prefer not to be. She has no interest in traveling the stars. Even the teen version of her seems unimpressed with the gift of a star named after her, though she does keep the certificate. In the present, she mainly just wants to get home. She does her best to use her nursing skills to help the wounded at the rebel base, and she feels guilt for those who were hurt or died saving her. But when the Doctor tries to persuade her to join him in his travels, she refuses, labeling him as "dangerous" and insisting, "I am not one of your adventures!"


THOUGHTS:

The first half of The Robot Revolution is rather good. We share in Belinda's disorientation as, in quick succession, she is: whisked away from her life by the robots; declared queen of a planet named after her; and informed that she must join with their AI. The fact of a rebellion is efficiently introduced when she witnesses the robots violently suppressing a distant riot. Then the Doctor steps forward as the "designated historian" to fill in needed backstory and to demonstrate the robots' weakness. At the midpoint, as Belinda hides in a rebel bunker while explosions rock the area, this episode seems on track to be a terrific season opener.

Then the script decides that we don't really need a proper Second Act. There are elements that might have been used. Belinda sees the injured and immediately starts acting as a nurse, but this occupies all of about two minutes. One rebel, Manny (Max Parker), resents her, blaming her for those who died rescuing her. When she protests that none of this is her fault, he sneers: "Is that a royal decree? You're as bad as the robots." Absolutely none of this goes anywhere, save to spur Belinda doing something remarkably stupid that in a more interesting script would likely have backfired spectacularly on all of the characters.

But instead of developing any of these pieces, the episode just skims through one quiet scene and then has the Doctor and Belinda captured again so as to rush straight to the confrontation with the AI Generator. Meaning that, yes, it would have been structurally cleaner to have the Doctor's rescue fail, with the exposition being dropped in a prison cell while waiting to be taken to the planet's mechanical ruler.

The big confrontation also feels rushed, though there is one clever conceit that I didn't see coming and that binds stray bits of the story together. Unfortunately, elements that should have remained subtext are rendered into direct text, with Belinda at one point invoking some Internet terminology to make sure "da kids" aren't missing The Moral of the Story.


OVERALL:

The Robot Revolution opens extremely well... which makes it all the more frustrating when the second half squanders that by skimming over what might have been interesting plot and character elements and finished by becoming heavy-handed.

I can't help but wonder if the main episode didn't suffer for needing to accommodate a five minute epilogue that's there to set up the season arc. In fairness, the final moments are intriguing. But after last season, I have zero expectations that I'll be satisfied by the eventual answers, and it's unfortunate that what was on track to be a pretty good episode seems likely to have been compromised for the sake of an arc tease.

Still, while this is flawed, it's at least entertaining, which means that it's a whole lot better than Space Babies.


Overall Rating: 5/10.

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