The Robot Revolution | Doctor Who Review

Doctor Who is BACK, and he's got a new friend in Belinda! Today we discuss the premiere episode of Season 2, The Robot Revolution!

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Doctor Who clips are owned by the BBC, and music licensed from Motion Array

Thanks for being nice to me :)

[macra_]

Couldn't agree more! It was a solid episode that suffered with some pacing issues. It fees like it should be an hour long but they had to cut it down to 45 minutes, just like most of Season 1. Loved hearing your thoughts as always Josh! :)

[BulbasaurRepresent]

I don't feel like Sasha's death was meant to make you feel sad. I think it was meant to show that, from Belinda's perspective, she sees someone who the Doctor promised that he would keep her safe, someone who completely trusted her, someone who was going to go on an adventure with him after this... and she dies immediately. And it helps inform her opinion that the Doctor is dangerous, that she wants to go home immediately.

Sasha's death isn't about the effect on the Doctor or the audience really, it's about the effect on Belinda.

[contextsensitive]

Never understood the “every episode needs 5 more minutes” arguement until the RTD2 era

[kazinwho]

Pretty sure this is the first time the word "sperm" has been said on telly Doctor Who. So, you know, 15 out of 10

[TheColeberg]

As for Allen - I got that he was misogynist in the opening scene, but given that he was only on the planet because Belinda told the robots to get him (uch bootstraps) AND that he was literally begging the Doctor to help him, it seemed horrifying that the Doctor laughed about his death moments later. Yeah, he was pretty cartoonish, but it’s *so very weird* that RTD included him begging the Doctor for help and then had the Doctor react that way.

[TheMultiGamerOfficial]

That paradox scene reminds me a lot of when Third was flying the TARDIS console on its own and gets distorted in that void.

[IsaacKuo]

Oh, and about the Doctor seeing Belinda's past and saying to her that she's awesome. The point isn't how the Doctor sees things. The point is how Belinda sees things. She has barely gotten to know the Doctor and she already susses out the quintessential truth: The Doctor says that to all the girls. It's true. He does. She is wary and she has her guard up, and rightfully so.

[GREATRJ]

Josh Snares reviews on the latest season? We are being treated this year with Snares reviews.

[MrGreaves]

Awesome video, Josh! Such a beautifully polished edit and well put-together script in such a small space of time. HOW DO YOU DO IT?!

[averyeml]

You’ve hit the nail on the head about the “stop telling me stuff I don’t get to see/retconning yourself and claiming cleverness” thing. It mixes really poorly with Ncuti’s incredible ability to cry on cue.

I brought up once among friends that I didn’t like how he cries about everything, because I’m maybe feeling the gut punch of the moment as an audience member maybe 1/10 times he does it and it makes that one time feel less impactful. I was immediately told that not liking him being “emotionally open” was crappy of me, and later saw people on internet discussion spaces saying it was possibly racist/homophobic to dislike it because “if (insert straight white doctor) did it you’d eat it up” and I HATE THIS LOGIC! No, if he was earning those tears every time, I’d be SO DOWN AND INTO IT! But when he’s crying over people like Sandra 55 or whatever her name was who we were immediately aware of her red-shirt quality, it makes him crying over someone like Rogue in that episode feel less than.

[TediousMilkshake]

I would've also mentioned that there were way too many side characters and none of them did anything - but the fact that you didn't mention them once is really telling.

[ChippyGaming]

I didn’t realise how much I missed in that opening until I watched this review. To be honest, I was sort of wincing at Al’s character too much to really listen to what he was saying.

Belinda steps into this episode fully formed, Varada really did such an incredible job. It wasn’t my favourite episode, but I’m excited for the rest of the season!

[JagoHazzard]

I just didn't think the "incel" thing worked. I think the idea of a woman who's been in a relationship with a controlling man would be really interesting to explore - it would tie in really well with her what we see of her in the present (calling the Doctor out, trying to take charge in the infirmary). But Alan was just some awkward dork who you couldn't imagine even getting a first date. Maybe we're going to get a bit more exploration in future episodes, but this felt like RTD throwing a ripped-from-the-headlines concept at us without really understanding it.

[MarkMichalowski]

Brilliant stuff, Josh - great summation! Have a sub!

[SebTheNoob]

4:30 I didn't actually notice this on first watch but you can sort of tell from Al's body language and generally the way he speaks that he is at best socially inept. When it got to the end of the episode, I was not at all surprised but I wish I had picked up on that stuff sooner. I distinctly remember hearing the start and saying to my friend "what are they saying? should i turn on subtitles"

[vamshidarisi]

15:30 ish - the scene with the colours and stuff really reminded me of the doctor talking to swarm in the halloween apocalypse ("do you really not remember me, doctor?") in that weird ethereal mind prison place which i really loved

[theDWshow]

I still can't get over the Doctor actively celebrating Alan's death with high kicks. As I said on our podcast, that's not the Doctor. Full-stop. The Doctor has routinely felt grief at the death of great opponents, so to celebrate the death of a kid, with a very ambiguous background, and was in pain in the machine... what the? Utterly bizarre writing there.

[Maxwell-]

Belinda is a nurse
Rory was a nurse
Martha was a doctor
Grace was a doctor
Harry was a doctor

How many doctors and nurses do we need?

[chrischibird]

Aren't there several scenes of Pertwee being shot into the multicolor void in one way or another? I think Inferno definitely has something even more reminiscent of that sequence.

[Casterborous]

I think the scene with sasha was more to create more drama between belinda and the doctor

That scene at the end where Belinda kinda lures the doctor into thinking he's charmed her, and she hits him with "is that what you said to sasha"
Her death is mainly there to serve to Bel how dangerous the doctor is