The Robot Revolution

[purplecat]

At its heart, The Robot Revolution was a fairly traditional story - there are evil overlords and plucky rebels and the Doctor overthrows the former by helping the latter. We've been seeing stories like this in Doctor Who since at least 1966's The Space Museum. Admitedly this one was wrapped up in a certain amount of timey-wimey but it was a much more straightforward start to the season that last year's Space Babies* which was more determindly odd and quirky than this.

Fair enough, we want a companion introduction story to show-case the companion and we don't necessarily want it over-burdened with narrative complexity. The Robot Revolution did a good job with Belinda Chandra, it was possibly trying a bit hard in places (oh look! an opportunity for her to show off her nursing skills!) but she came across as level-headed, resourceful and likable. I'm also looking forward to RTD's take on the companion who just wants to get home. It is also an interesting contrast to his previous companion introduction stories, that were all set on contemporary Earth, choosing to show off the companion in their normal surroundings before catapulting them into outer space.

The story looked great with it's 1950s comic book vibe rockets and robots. The aesthetic also served to give it that RTD bit of oddness and silliness that he often strives for, particularly at the start of a season before things become more serious.

I wasn't convinced by the villain, again the story seemed to be trying a bit too hard, he barely had a line of dialogue that wasn't making it clear that he was a bit of a twat - or perhaps I wasn't convinced that level-headed Belinda Chandra ever saw that much in him. The space between his reveal and the final resolution also felt long to me, like the pace and energy suddenly dropped while he ranted a bit. Once we new it was Alan, we basically knew what was going on and were ready for the denouement.

I expect a Doctor Who season opener that is introducing a new companion to primarily be fast-paced and entertaining with a focus on the companion but without a great deal else going on. On those terms, a few pacing concerns aside, this delivered.

*Though there is a not unreasonable argument that The Church on Ruby Road is in fact the onboarding story that season, where Space Babies is intended as the second, more format-busting story.

Comments

[liadt]

Yeah, I couldn't believe Belinda going out with Alan. I could believe him, as non-boyfriend, at school giving her the certificate on Valentine's Day and she going, "Uh, thanks," and shoving it in her bag.

[purplecat]

I felt like, either she needed to be young and rather oblivious to how controlling he was, but then she wouldn't have broken up with him quite so simply _or_ she saw right through him in which case why was she even going out with him in the first place? - and obviously I realise that narratively they were trying to cram a lot into two pretty short scenes but it just felt clunky.

I think if he'd been a bit less overtly "women are stupid and need to do what they're told" then I could imagine her splitting up with him in that way teenagers do because she just got a bit of a vibe that he wasn't all that but hanging on the certificate as a sweet gesture, but I guess that would have required more time to lay out and made his fundamental flaws rather more obscure to the audience.

[liadt]

Yeah, 45 mins isn't enough time. Making her younger would have worked better like you said.