#robot revolution

[fan-of-chaos]

She is terrified, she is confused, she was JUST kiddnapped by the robots and thrown into a war but STILL.

Her first instinct is to help people. She sees wounded people and its all she focuses on. Her own very uncertain and frankly horrifying situation be damned. Help people first, ask her questions later. I love that for her so much.

[louisemcbear]

Rewatching the new episode, there's definitely something interesting in the subtle ways the Doctor undermines Belinda throughout the episode, as well as the fact she immediately clocks onto it, having dealt with the same bullshit in other relationships (Alan and her housemates) and her job.

The most obvious is when the Doctor scans her DNA without asking and she immediately pulls him up on it. There's also the fact he:

Glosses over her concern about him knowing where she lives and following her everywhere.

Kinda glosses over her being the one who puts the plan of combining the certificates into action, while considering it a success due to Timelord biology alone.

Boxes her into this "mystery girl" narrative, which resonated perfectly with Ruby and many others, but Belinda is not impressed by in the slightest.

Continues to call her "Miss Belinda Chandra" on the TARDIS, even after she's made it clear she doesn't like being called by her full name.

And these aren't complaints about the episode in the slightest, because there is this underlying assumption that the Doctor, as much as they love humans, will always be smarter and more sophisticated than human companions could ever be.

I can definitely see the comparisons to Rory, because, as he said, the Doctor does put people in more danger a lot of the time! People put themselves in that danger to impress the Doctor! And considering Belinda has no way home if the Doctor does decide to take her on a whirlwind adventure regardless of her wishes, that's a pretty terrifying position to be in. Especially after almost being coerced into marrying her extremely controlling ex-boyfriend.

Overall, looking forward to seeing how this goes. If nothing else, maybe the Doctor will learn something new from all of this!

[mousenoise]

Belinda Chandra, l love you already

[corvin-ito]

this tech doesnt know shit abt the doctor

patient name? unknown sex? unknown age? indeterminate blood type? not applicable.

none blood left two hearts

[swampsiren-piratefairy]

The thing is that “AI bad” doesn’t work for a message in a Doctor Who episode because time and again the show shows us sentient robots that are not bad. So in the beginning, it seems like the episode is going to be very silly. It’s going to use a trendy topic in a way that doesn’t actually say anything new and in a way that contradicts the history of the show. So when we get to the end and there’s the bait and switch of AI to Al(an), it works very well! Suddenly, the episode actually DOES have something interesting to say about AI Generators. AI Generators are not autonomous. They are shaped by the biases of their creators and the content that it is trained on. And that is WAY more nuanced a take than what I thought we were getting, and it’s a very relevant point in generative AI discussions. Doctor Who manages to address it in an interesting and unique way.

[eighthman-bound]

Okay i did the math, 17 years ago was 2008. If we assume Belinda is same age as her actress whose 32, she would have been around 16 when Alan bought a star and proposed to her.

Yikes, that guy had problems.

[heimeldat]

But the real question is: how many Fifteen and Sasha 55 box sets can Big Finish fit into that six-month time window?

[one-hit-boy-wonder]

i was confused because i thought belinda's house in the finale was different than in robot revolution so i decided to rewatch it and honestly? it makes the whole finale so much worse

-obviously there's the alan stuff but when we first meet belinda as an adult she asks an injured man who bit him, mumbling to herself "was it your wife?"

-we see more of her fast pace work environment as the doctor looks for her. then she walks out, is told a doctor's looking for her, says "tell me about", and goes home

-then we see her at home, sighing as she opens the fridge and finding her food as gone bad

-her flatmates yell at each other. one tells belinda not to touch his food and he gets her name wrong, the other yells at them to be quiet because she has work in the morning.

-belinda drinks some milk (?) straight out of the bottle and then goes and lays face down on her bed

-aliens come, you know what happens next

-it's also important to note that the interior of the house is quite dark. the kitchen is cool toned, her room is never properly lit (because it's nighttime and the lights are off), and her front lawn is pretty baren with just a tree covered in christmas lights

all of these leave us with a very clear impression of belinda's life.

1) she's disillusioned with men (also supported by calling alan an incel, having to fight to get the male paramedic and doctor to listen to her in story/engine, not like alan calling her miss).

2) she seems dissatisfied with her life. we know she does enjoy being a nurse because we see her later in roborev and in the well snapping to action to help people as a nurse, and in story/engine she is genuinely touched by being able to help the woman, however at her home she seems annoyed, exhausted, and honestly a little depressed. also her roommates suck.

now jumping to the finale, her house is completely different. it's all warm tones and natural sunlight and flourishing gardens. she appears content with her life. her roommates are no where to be found. her dislike of men is gone and she says only great things about her ex.

basically, once she has a baby, her once stressful life melts away into peaceful bliss with no problems. and that. sucks!!! "career woman living away from her parents bad. having baby makes you happy" is a terrible message!

it's not uncommon for companions to be dissatisfied before meeting the doctor, but it didn't have to be like that! she could have been living with her parents the whole time rather than her sad apartment. poppy could've been an ivf baby or an adoptive cousin instead of giving belinda an ex. fuck, her pre-doctor life didn't even need to be dissatisfying and the end could've been some "i love my life but the doctor taught me to try new adventures so i'm gonna make the decision to become a mum" rather than just having it foisted upon her.

idk! the difference between roborev belinda and finale belinda was really weird to me!