Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor Who Season 2 Has a Strong Start

When the build-up to the final series of a long-running show is laced with speculation that it could be put on hold, it’s a bad sign. And yet that’s exactly the environment that the beloved British sci-fi show Doctor Who finds itself in right now. And that’s despite an international distribution deal with Disney+ (and a big budget with it), Sex Education star Ncuti Gatwa as the 15th incarnation of the Doctor, and Russell T. Davis, who was responsible for the show’s successful revival in 2005, as showrunner, writer, and executive producer, Variety has reported.

The success of this upcoming season may be more at stake than ever before, so the good news is that the first episode, “Robot Revolution,” is a worthy debut. Varada Sethu shines as the Doctor’s new companion, Belinda Chandra. It’s clear from the start that, unlike many other companions in the show’s history, Belinda doesn’t actively want to be there. After being kidnapped by robots from another planet who claim her as their queen, Belinda can’t return home to the present day, despite the Doctor’s help. And rather than simply going along with the Doctor’s every whim and decision, she’s independent and, at times, repulsive. This creates an interesting dynamic compared to other companions and seasons, helped by the natural and interesting chemistry between them.

Doctor Who: Episode One on BBC

This interesting episode makes you wonder why Doctor Who seems so unreliable in the first place. The complexity of ratings in the streaming age is certainly a factor. In fact, it can be a little hard to tell how much of a hit the new Doctor Who is. When the first season of Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor debuted in the middle of last year, episodes were released at midnight on the BBC iPlayer streaming service to coincide with the international release on Disney+.

As a result, the first episode on BBC One attracted a staggering 2.6 million people, but that doesn’t take into account the majority of people who had already watched on iPlayer that day, which eventually saw the total surpass 6 million. A similar trend continued towards the end of the season, with Davies saying the show did well in key age groups such as under-16s and 16-34s: “It’s not doing great in the ratings,” he said, “but it’s doing phenomenally well with the younger audience that we wanted.”

Doctor Who on Disney+

Then, despite highlighting that every episode of the first season of Gatwa was in the top five worldwide on Disney+ every week it aired, the news that Disney would not decide to renew its current distribution deal with the BBC until after the next season has aired has only added to the cynical speculation. Even if a deal is struck between them, as television production typically takes a year, it seems inevitable that there will still be a gap between seasons.

The hope is that during the next season, in between the high-stakes adventures, Belinda and the Doctor will have plenty of opportunities to just hang out and relax. One of the great appeals of Doctor Who, and one of the reasons it’s lasted so long, is not only that it’s always reinventing itself, but also how unpredictable it can be with each new story, with lighthearted and comedic episodes usually giving way to disturbing ones. But some of Gathwa’s best stories from season one, like the mysterious “73 Yards,” only featured his character in limited ways.