Last year's Doctor Who opener was a somewhat underwhelming affair. Instead of kicking off Ncuti Gatwa's first season as the Doctor with a bang, Space Babies was a silly and underwhelming beginning to the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby's adventures after The Church On Ruby Road.

Fortunately, The Robot Revolution is a vast improvement, providing an exciting first adventure for Belinda Chandra. The story concerns Belinda being mistaken by robots for their planet's Queen, due to a star certificate from her ex-boyfriend. It's a typically quirky Doctor Who escapade, and moves at a rollickingly fast pace, keeping your attention throughout.

The robots themselves may be very similar to the Emojibots in Smile, but they work well as antagonists who provide enough of a threat to the Doctor and Belinda, without distracting from Belinda's introduction.

Belinda is an excellent addition to the TARDIS team. She is much feistier than Ruby, which makes for a refreshing change. Belinda is the kind of companion who is unafraid to challenge the Doctor, and simply just wants to return home to complete her work shift, rather than traverse the universe. Seeing a companion willing to put the Fifteenth Doctor in his place introduces an interesting new dynamic which should lead to some great drama in the upcoming weeks.

The resolution to this story is a little weak, however. Whilst I like the concept of robots and what at first appears to be an AI misinterpreting the star certificate and believing Belinda to be their Queen, because of how topical it is with the rise of AI, I did find the twist that the AI generator was Belinda's ex Al all along a bit underwhelming. It feels a bit convenient, and makes you wonder how nobody noticed Al was missing when he was taken by the robots. The means in which the Doctor and Belinda are able to stop Belinda's marriage to Al/the AI generator via the star certificate feels a little hand-waver also. Overall, though, The Robot Revolution is an easy 8/10. It's an excellent, fun sci-fi adventure of the Doctor and Belinda versus a robot revolution.