Jared-Star

Belinda's introduction was great, but the rest of the episode is quite cringe.

The tone and plot felt way more like a sub-par episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures, rather than titular Doctor Who (this coming from a massive SJA fan btw). It was hard not to feel talked down to. "It's not A. I, it's AL!" It leaned too heavily into silliness and surface-level comedy, with only a few brief attempts at depth. Honestly wish this took a dark humor route instead of a CBBC route, as the "Belinda Chandra Bombs" bit got me bursting out laughing! Would be so cool to get a modern dark comedy episode, but alas, that moment passes too quickly. The episode also didn't seem to be about anything. There was no central theme or clear statement made. Just a bunch of disconnected little jabs at incels, AI, and video games causing violence tacked on at the very end. It never built to anything meaningful.

Outside of the actual plot, Belinda is introduced very nicely. She is a character with actual agency and independance. She will act on her own without the Doctor's knowledge or approval, doing what she believes is right. Even if that means sacrificing herself. Not only that, but she doesn't get taken-in by the Doctor's charm. She challenges him in ways that are uncomfortable. It's a nice change of pace from Ruby or Joy who tend to just follow him without question, even when his behavior becomes completely unhinged.

All in all, Polish Bot carried the entire episode.

I would firstly like to commend this show for not only being brave enough to tackle the subject of men being abused by women, but put it in its very first episode and treating it with the correct amount of seriousness. Usually, it's treated as a joke or not a big deal. Both by shows and movies, but also by many in the modern day. It's incredibly harmful in so many ways. But here it wasn't. Bravo.

However, this episode felt like two different stories rigidly separated by the halfway point. I genuinely had to check to make sure I didn't accidentally skip to the next episode. There is no cohesion from the first half to the second half. But, in order to hit the mandated 43 minute runtime (as this is one of those shows that is still made for broadcast TV), the writer must've felt it had to be done. Which is a shame because both halves of the episode had a great amount of potential, just not the correct amount of follow-through. Especially the second half. It was a rush of random emotional moments and began opening up brand-new storylines to replace the ones that just closed. A weird thing to see at the 30 minute mark of your 43 minute pilot.

All in all, if each half was developed into their own half-hour episodes, I would be giving both of them 10. As is, it's certainly not bad. Far from it. This is literally the only improvement I could see this episode needing. Otherwise, the characters were introduced well, it was fun and frantic, but right out of the gate the show makes the statement that it won't shy away from the dark sides of police work. Great balance between comedy and drama.