For a present that adheres to a six-decade-old premise — it is concerning the Physician, an alien time traveler who can regenerate their physique earlier than demise, the TARDIS, a time-and-space machine that is larger on the within, and the human companions alongside for the trip — Physician Who can appear surprisingly recent when it is accomplished proper.
Why? Not due to the Physician, as magnetically charming because the lead normally is (present charmer: Ncuti Gatwa). The Physician might have doubts, setbacks, and mysteries to unravel, however as any actor will inform you, little or no in the best way of character improvement. Freshness arrives by way of the companions, who present the ever-shifting perspective of present-day tradition. If the viewers shouldn’t be on board with a brand new companion by the point they step aboard the TARDIS, many will decline to take the journey.
So will followers (to not point out newbies) really feel recent on April 12? That is when Physician Who returns for Gatwa’s second season (also referred to as season 2 within the new Disney+ numbering, season 15 since showrunner Russell T Davies rebooted it in 2005, and season 41 for the actually old-school followers). It is also once we meet new companion Belinda Chandra (Verada Sethu).
And primarily based on Episode 1, “Robotic Revolution,” Davies has his work minimize out for him with regards to convincing us to affix her. That is not a knock on Sethu, who’s about to gentle up the display screen right here and in Andor season 2 (the place she performs Cinta). It is the truth that Davies has made Belinda the primary full-on twenty first century iteration of an historic Physician Who trope — the reluctant, accidentally-kidnapped companion — with out totally locking in a motive to care about her within the first place.
Meet Belinda Chandra, reluctant companion
We meet Belinda instantly within the chilly open, a flashback to 17 years in the past that tells us every little thing concerning the indignities she’s suffered and nothing about her response. On a park bench underneath the celebrities, then-boyfriend Alan presents Belinda with an Worldwide Star Registry-style certificates for a star he is purchased and named for her.
Immediately, we be taught every little thing we have to learn about Alan: not solely does he need her to fold up and save the wrapping paper, however he insists on naming the star Miss Belinda Chandra. “Are you married?” he asks superciliously when she questions this. Belinda concedes she shouldn’t be.
Keep in mind, this scene is not set within the distant pre-feminist previous. It is 2008, by which period Physician Who had been providing us formidable feminine companions for 3 years. Put Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) on that bench, even earlier than her life-changing encounter with the Physician, and she or he’d knock Alan again with a zinger. Put Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) there, she’d most likely knock him again with a fist too.
So Belinda is appearing meek. Truthful sufficient, however why? Is it her household? Another culturally conservative establishment? And what drew her to this humorless wrapping-saving male chauvinist within the first place? Paradoxically, there isn’t any equal of Alan’s character-sketch traces to inform us.
We merely fast-forward to Could 2025, when Belinda is a nurse in A&E (for Individuals, the ER). She mutters her suspicion {that a} catatonically injured man was attacked by his spouse. And he or she’s nonetheless struggling indignity in her non-public life; one in every of her flatmates falsely accuses her of stealing meals and calls her “Linda.”
Mashable High Tales
And nonetheless there’s not one second of company for Belinda, as a lot as we might sympathize. There isn’t any persona quirk that makes her come alive earlier than or after she is kidnapped by robots who take her again to their planet and in a way, her planet. The robots land in a giant outdated 1950’s fashion sci-fi rocket that they beam her up into, Star Trek-style. (This belt-and-braces strategy is typical of “Robotic Revolution,” which appears giddy about what number of cool Disney-money results Physician Who can lastly ship.)
The remainder of the episode sprinkles on up-to-date cultural references, together with the present’s first use of “incel,” and its response to ChatGPT-style generative AI. However like Belinda’s backstory, we transfer previous the references too quick for the present to say something significant or memorable about them.
By the point Belinda is successfully kidnapped once more, because the Physician finds the TARDIS unwilling to return her to Earth, we’re along with her, however not essentially in a great way. Her motivation is to get again dwelling (although why, given how dwelling treats her, we’re not informed). She’s shunning the normal all-of-time-and-space supply. “I’m not your journey!” Belinda snaps on the Physician.
‘Physician Who’ and the kidnapped companions
The “unintentionally kidnapped companion” idea is not new. It goes again to the very first episode of Physician Who in 1963, when schoolteachers Ian (William Russell) and Barbara (Jacqueline Hill) strayed onto the TARDIS when following the Physician’s granddaughter Susan (Carole Ann Ford); with the Physician’s unreliable piloting, it took them two seasons to get dwelling.
Then in 1981 got here Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding), an Australian air stewardess who stepped into what she moderately thought was a telephone field for police when her automotive broke down. One other two seasons elapsed earlier than the Physician efficiently delivered her to Heathrow airport.
The companions have been clearly drawn and had company. Ian and Barbara went into that police field out of concern for his or her pupil. Tegan was heading to Heathrow on her first day of labor, fearing she’d be fired earlier than she started — and was immediately as upset as Donna Noble about it.
Davies, an old-school nerd whose first reminiscence is the primary Physician regenerating, is aware of all this. And to be truthful, he has greater than earned the belief of seasoned followers. He is a grasp of the slow-building season arc, as you recognize if “Unhealthy Wolf” and “Torchwood” imply something to you; this one guarantees a lot in ways in which we won’t speak about but.
And keep in mind that Davies usually opens a season together with his silliest, most kid-friendly providing; for a lot of informal followers, Gatwa’s first season was hobbled by the very fact it began with “House Infants.”
However no less than in that case, we had Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson, who’s returning for season 2 — however not but). Ruby had a clearly established want, to seek out the identification of her beginning mom. In character, she was herself a TARDIS filled with quips and comebacks. “When you talked to me and the women like that on a Friday night time,” Ruby informed a nineteenth century male chauvinist in “Rogue,” one in every of season 2’s extra profitable episodes, “we would rip you a brand new one.”
Belinda is not something like that. Truthful sufficient, however Davies has given himself a mountain to climb right here with a companion who rejects all Physician Who tropes, together with the endearing quips.
In impact, Belinda does not simply need out of the TARDIS. She desires out of Physician Who. And when this educated nurse factors out that the Physician didn’t ask her consent earlier than scanning her together with his Sonic Screwdriver — once we notice that the Physician has at all times had an issue with this sort of consent — we could also be forgiven for agreeing about wanting out, regardless of how promising the season arc that lies forward.
Physician Who Season 2 premieres Apr. 12 on Disney+ and BBC.
