scherzo but if it was torchwood

how do you even screw up this monumentally

this story is what lucky day wishes it was

a completely camp mess of an episode! that’s it that’s the review

interesting, different and unique! weirdly I feel like it would’ve been better as an audio drama but maybe that’s just me

I feel like for people who are normal this is a good episode. And it is, but you can't really improve on peak.

Midnight is a big favourite of mine. It still holds up as one of the best episodes of NuWho even after a good 17 years, and I don't really see *why* RTD wanted to make a sequel for it, except for adding a surprise twist in the middle of this story.

I've seen people say that The Well would hold up better under it's own merits and I wholeheartedly agree. The suspense, especially at the start and very end, is great. The first time Belinda 'sees' the Midnight entity, I legitimately jumped. It was great to feel scared by an episode again.

I think it was cheapened a bit somehow by seeing the actors being thrown around by the entity. And I do think that we shouldn't have seen it as much as we did, if at all. This wasn't a lot, I'll admit, but the fact that I could sort of make out the shape of the entity was disappointing for me personally. Again, a great episode for normal people but it has some drawbacks for neurotic fans such as myself.

Perhaps I am nitpicking too much but ultimately I think that it shouldn't have tried so much so be a sequel - or at least alluded less blatantly to Midnight. There are merits to leaving things to the imagination, which I think is where Midnight originally flourished, and The Well faltered.

it’s like tim foley wrote this story specifically with me in mind

A promising start to the series!

While not perfect (what Doctor Who story is? Rhetorical question btw…), The Robot Revolution is a strong start to Series 15.

Varada Sethu instantly shines in her role as Belinda, and she works great with Ncuti. Belinda’s ability to see through the Doctor’s charms and realise that he’s a dangerous person to be around is also a great aspect of characterisation and always something I like to see in a companion. I hope this continues to be explored in the other episodes.

The visuals in this episode were absolutely stunning, particularly the lighting, robots and set designs. I was enjoying just taking it all in most of the time.

The scene where the two diplomas explode was also gorgeous. I LOVE experimental choices like this, and it was also a cool way to explore the Doctor’s abilities as a Time Lord, saving Belinda from also becoming, well, a sperm and an egg 😶.

Like always with RTD’s writing there are some rocky patches. The man tries to tackle a number of current issues and falls flat on pretty much all of them. Coercive control, incels, AI, even eugenics. To me it felt like RTD was just naming things we know are issues, but not actually addressing them much beyond that. I would have liked a more in depth exploration, ie. why is AI generation bad, rather than just inferring it is. Also, as a creative I understand why we should be wary of AI, but I feel like the majority of people don’t, so I’m sure it would’ve just gone over their heads.

On the other hand, I felt like RTD spelled out some things a bit too much. For example, when the Doctor was explaining to Belinda that the robots couldn’t hear every ninth word. We didn’t need a super cut of him saying this spliced together. Have a bit more faith in your audience, Russell! But maybe I’m being hypocritical in saying this 😅

Overall I enjoyed the episode and I’m excited to see what the rest of Series 15 will bring!

I <3 old woman yuri

Okay, so it’s not exactly in keeping with the whole premise of Stranded, but I’m a sucker for Gallifreyan fairytales.