The second season of rebooted, rebooted, Who starts with an introduction to a new companion and the setting up of some fun looking season arcs, but perhaps that comes at the expense of the development of the actual episode.
Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) is gifted a star by her teenage boyfriend Alan (Jonny Green). Seventeen years later, the robotic inhabitants of the planet come to Earth and force Belinda to come to the planet, named Missbelindachanda 1, to become their Queen. She is pursued by The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) but through a time Vortex, he ends up arriving six months prior to her and setting himself up in the court. They learn that the robots have enslaved a humanoid species that they used to live peacefully alongside, until an A. I. took control of them.
So, the actual episode, whilst not having anything particularly wrong with it, felt like it had some rather undercooked ideas. The robots not hearing every 9th word is fun but underutilised and the reveals about the A. I. had some potential but again I don't feel the motivations behind the character actions on the planet were satisfactorily explained. However, I do like all the season arc stories that a seeded in this episode. There's the return of Mrs Flood - who is she, and has she moved or does Belinda live a couple of doors down from Ruby? Then there's the business about being unable to return to the 24th of May, what does that mean and how does the episodes final moments feed into that.
I did like Belinda immediately though. I like that she's a different dynamic to a lot of the other companions in that she doesn't seem taken with the idea of travelling in space and time and is focused on getting home. She does though seem to be a little like Martha (the last second companion that Russell T Davies wrote for) in that she's a nurse and has practical skills that can be used in, for example, an uprising against the robots.
Not a classic episode, but perhaps one that points towards stronger stuff to come.
