It’s time to see how The Doctor meets his new companion in the Doctor Who season 15 premiere. It’s clear that this new companion doesn’t actually want to be part of the ride.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for Doctor Who season 15, episode 1.
With Ruby Sunday deciding that she needed to remain with her family and Joy turning into the Star of Bethlehem, it is time for Fifteen to find a new companion. Could it come in the form of Miss Belinda Chandra? Well, he’ll need to save her from some robots first.
Who is Miss Belinda Chandra in the Doctor Who season 15 premiere?
The episode starts with a flashback to 17 years earlier, which is going to be important for the episode as a whole. A younger Belinda is on a park bench with her boyfriend, Alan, who gives her a diploma for her birthday. He has named a star after her.
Well, cut to the present day, and we find out that Belinda is now a nurse, with some scenes that are reminiscent of when Ten met Martha in the hospital. Fifteen is looking for Belinda, and it’s only when robots — who remind me a lot of the Cybermen — turn up that we find out why. Fifteen has realized that Belinda is in danger, but he can’t get to her in time.
The robots kill a cat (erm, excuse me?) and then take Belinda to their planet. It turns out that the planet is called Miss Belinda Chandra, and it’s the star that was named after her. She is their queen, and she has no choice but to go there. Fifteen isn’t going to just let the robots take her, and he flies after her in his TARDIS, but there’s a glitch.
When Belinda arrives at the planet, she learns that the robots are in charge, and Belinda is going to be welded to the great AI form to become one. The Doctor is already there, with his hair grown and wearing the clothing of the people. He is the Historian of the planet, and he’s able to get a message to Belinda. She’s smart enough to understand that The Doctor is getting a message to her.
There’s a glitch in the robots, and they can’t hear every ninth word spoken. So, with some clever wording — and I love that Belinda struggles with this and we watch her count while The Doctor has had enough practice to do it seamlessly — they manage to speak with each other. This leads to a fight in the throne room to get Belinda out. Sadly, it’s at the expense of Sasha 55.
Belinda sacrifices herself to save the day
As people blame Belinda for everything that’s happened on the planet, she realizes that she needs to sacrifice herself if she wants to have any chance of saving them. She turns the duster robot on — who is very much an R2D2 type robot — and gets the big bad robots to their underground secret location.
This is a chance for Belinda to find out what happened. There’s a time glitch getting to the planet, and this glitch is important as it affects everything. As Belinda was being taken to the planet, she told them to find Alan because he was the one to name the star after her. This led to the robots following that order, but they ended up finding Alan and bringing him back to the planet 10 years earlier. Alan was excitedly merged with the computer, and now he is controlling the robots.
Belinda realizes that this is the ultimate control for Alan. He was always controlling, and when he proposed to her, he made it clear how she would need to change to be with him. That wasn’t what she wanted, and she wasn’t going to allow him to control everything now.
The Doctor and Belinda had already talked about how two items from the same timeline couldn’t be in one place at the same time. However, Alan had the exact same diploma as Belinda due to the time glitch (which was also how The Doctor ended up on the planet six months before Belinda despite going there at the same time). Belinda touches her diploma to the one the robotic Alan has in his hand, causing an explosion of the timeline.
This connects Fifteen and Belinda. He pulls her back, as only a Time Lord can withstand that sort of power, and he ends up at the very beginning of Belinda’s life and sees it all.
With the planet saved and the people and robots working together again, Belinda wants to get back home. Fifteen clearly doesn’t want that, though, and it’s sure to cause some problems for the two of them. I’m going to enjoy seeing a companion who isn’t constantly fawning over The Doctor, as we’ll see how some normal people would likely react to the idea of traveling through time and space.
The Doctor reveals he met Belinda’s descendant in Doctor Who season 15
We have already seen Varada Sethu in Doctor Who. She appeared as Munday in a season 14 episode, and the Doctor Who season 15 premiere wastes no time in explaining how it’s possible. Munday is Belinda’s descendant, which does surprise and excite Belinda a little. However, she’s angry when she finds out that The Doctor took her DNA without her consent.
Yes, The Doctor acts like he is the king of the universe at times, and sometimes he needs calling out on his actions. Belinda is clearly willing to do that, and part of that is potentially because she was once in a controlling relationship with Alan. She doesn’t want that again.
So, with all that, she makes it clear that she is not here for an adventure with The Doctor. She wants to go home and back to her life, and Fifteen reluctantly agrees. At first, I thought he was doing something on purpose to prevent them from getting back to Earth on the date they wanted, but then it became clear that this wasn’t intentional. Something is stopping the TARDIS from landing on the date.
Well, as The Doctor decides they’ll need to go the long way round, we find out that something major has happened. Debris from Earth, such as a London cab, the Eiffel Tower, and the Statue of Liberty are floating in space. There’s also a calendar, making it clear that it happens just before the date Belinda wants to go back to.
What has happened to Earth, and can The Doctor fix it? I guess this is going to be the big arc for Doctor Who season 15.
Doctor Who airs on Saturdays on Disney+.
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