Jennifer Allen
By Jennifer Allen
The second season of the BBC favorite, Doctor Who has now begun with the 15th Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) on a quest to find a particular nurse working in a present-day London hospital who (as things often go in the Whoverse) is captured by space robots with disintegrator ray weapons.
This nurse, played brilliantly by Varada Sethu, may be familiar to fans of Disney’s Andor series as she portrayed Cinta Kaz, one of the rebel cell members seen in the middle portion of the season.
Here she is Miss Belinda Chandra, whom 17-years prior received a framed “star registry with your name” certificate from then boyfriend Alan Budd as a birthday present. This little piece of paper will go on to set off a fateful chain of events which lay a foundation for the episode to follow.
The planet Sethu’s character is transported to is in the Missbelindachandra star system, on which the Missbelindachandrakind explains she was brought there by the Missbelindachandrabots (just go with it) to be their one true Queen and marry/merge with the ‘Great A.I. Generator’ if only to bring about peace between the local synthetics and organics.
What follows is a series of twists and time fracture “schwups” which ultimately end up with Belinda joining The Doctor as they leave Missbelindachandra 1 with the former Unlike previous season-long companions, ironically, she declines his offer and instead insists he return her to Earth at the exact same time in which she left. Unfortunately, certain events occurred while they were away, and the TARDIS is unable to acquiesce her request.
It’s nice to see Companion-centric episodes once in a while on Who, and this one does not disappoint in terms of introducing Belinda to the audience. She’s an overworked nurse of South Asian descent in a less-than-ideal living situation with two flat mates she barely gets along with.
I was recently told that most of London’s first responder employees are migrants, so her predicament is fairly common (at least to a British audience). There is also a current housing crisis across the pond, so the detached relationship with her flat mates also feels realistic to add some flavor to further personify her unsatisfying life.
Once Belinda meets The Doctor on Missbelindachandra 1, she goes completely ‘against type’ in terms of past female companions.
She immediately asks questions to assess how and why she was abducted. Once the pair reach a makeshift infirmary set up by a band of Missbelindachandrakind, she immediately taps into her experiences as nurse and moves to assist the wounded.
She even figures out the big twist of the episode without any hints or help from The Doctor. Her self-confidence and wits shine through when she admonishes The Doctor for scanning her DNA without consent (something he immediately apologizes for afterward).
Ultimately, she declines The Doctor’s invitation to join him in galivanting across Time & Space and instead be sent back to the very moment she was taken… on May 24, 2025. A date which will coincide with the real-life air date for episode 7 of the Series. Quite clever, everything considered.
The episode as a whole does have its flaws. A sub-plot personifying Alan as a misogynistic gamer dude with an inferiority complex, while topical, is a bit forced. A character on screen for mere minutes is killed causing The Doctor to mourn their passing; an emotional moment which doesn’t quite land either.
However, I’m grateful the show has cast another South Asian performer as a very capable yet flawed character for the audience to relate to.
If this episode is anything to go by… Varada Sethu’s intelligent yet cautious take on Belinda paired with Ncuti Gatwa’s extroverted, carefree Doctor with a supernova smile will make for some uniquely entertaining interactions in the next seven episodes.
Jennifer Allen works at Saathee and is also a Podcaster, Blogger, Photographer, Graphic Artist, Gamer, Martial Arts Practitioner, and an all around Pop Culture Geek. You can reach her at [email protected].
