I agree it was needed the second time, but you didn’t need the first recap in order for the second, the latter recap could have existed as the only one.
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I disagree. My partner and I caught on but it helped having the recap because there were some words we didn’t catch intially.
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I really enjoyed this episode! 8/10. Very fun opener. I laughed a lot, loved the robot faces, and the first part was intriguing. I did have a moment of “oh, the plot wraps up this quickly?”. My partner caught the incel stuff before I picked up on it. Love the central mystery of this season and excited for more!
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I got that he was talking in code, but I didn’t immediately get what the code was, so without taking the time to rewatch that bit, the little flashback spelling it out was helpful.
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What I don’t quite get is why we need to sometimes really spell things out with recaps when we live in an age whereby everyone can rewind a programme even if it’s airing live. I think there’s a line to tread whereby they can ensure they’re being as inclusive to audiences as possible, but I also don’t think everything necessarily needs spelling out.
I don’t think what they did was a detriment to the episode or the scene, but I understand where both sides of the debate are coming from.
In a different version, maybe they would’ve had the Doctor do his “emphasise the ninth words” bit but when Belinda looked confused, he whipped out the psychic paper which showed each emphasised word in a sentence for her to read? That way you don’t need the recap per se, but you’re still helping out audiences who may not have caught on.
I just think it was RTD trying to include something clevery wevery which he didn’t necessarily need to. It had shades of the 10th Doctor signalling to Mickey in the Cybus airship whilst trapped in the room with the Cyber Controller and Cybermen, but he got around it by nodding to the camera and just rambling because that was his shtick.
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Oh I’m in no doubt there’d have been a way I personally would have much preferred.
But the consensus is that the recap was required anyway so they were obviously right to include one, it just unfortunately ended up being another point against the story for me.
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Speaking of which - don’t skip nine.
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I watched it, it was fine. Maybe more thoughts later.
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Just thought I’d note that watching the end bits back, while the Doctor only calls her Miss Belindra Chandra once, he also misidentifies the planet as missbelindrachandra, when it is clearly Sasha 55. It strikes me as an important thing to get the planet name right when trying to navigate…
And, um, odd coincidence that we have a planet named Sasha 55 when we had a planet named Orphan 55 in 13s era?
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I haven’t been that excited about the new series[1] and I kind of had to force myself to press play, but I thought the episode was solid. It was entertaining.
I will say, though, that I don’t like the “special companion” trope and I’m already getting the impression that Belinda is supposed to be one (she has a whole planet named after her…). This is going to spoil my enjoyment of her and future episodes going forward until this is resolved.
Also, claiming that you’re going to name a building after all the people you lost, and then said name ends up commemorating one person is incredibly disrespectful.
Nothing against the show, it’s just personal preference ↩︎
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Can I just say that the music this episode was incredible!!
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In fairness, after the Doctor suggests a name change, the guy says “well we thought we’d start by renaming this building […] the Citadel of Sasha 55…” so whilst it’s probably fair to assume other things will be renamed by the inhabitants, they haven’t yet? For all we know, they named the planet “DoctorSasha” or something else after somebody else who died, etc.
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Fair enough. I do have a suspicion that as “People’s Representative”, Sasha 55 was essentially the highest ranking human under the Robots, not counting Alan, so a fair number of things will be named after her.
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The pre-titles sequence was SO RTD1 Murray Gold coded and I loved it. Wish we had more of that whimsical music!
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Just finished this, pretty good. Like Belinda a lot but poor cat 
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Just finished watching. Probably a 6.5 or 7 out of ten for me. I thought this was a way stronger season opener than Space Babies, and I really loved Belinda. I thought some things felt rushed (a lot of people have already mentioned Sasha), but overall I liked this episode! I think it had to do a lot of heavy lifting in terms of introducing Belinda and setting up the season arc while also having its own story, so I can understand why things felt a bit off sometimes. I have a feeling I’m going to like the next episode a lot more (again, I liked this episode, I just didn’t love it.) I’m worried my biggest complaint about this season is going to be my biggest complaint about the last one, which is that eight episodes wreaks havoc on the pacing of the season.
Initially, I thought the whole “planet of the incels” thing was extremely on the nose. But then I remembered I literally had to explain what “incel” meant to my mom a week ago, and it actually made a big impact on her. Not to get into it too much, but she does IT for a program that works with a ton of kids, and they’ve had some issues going on lately that she says have sort of clicked for her now.
One thing I loved is how clearly desperate the doctor is to have a companion again. The whole “I don’t have any chairs” moment from Christmas was shining through in this episode. He was SO excited to have a new puzzle box/friend, and clearly disappointed when she said no. Shout out to Gatwa for being able to smile in a way that communicates he’s also lonely as hell. I will say, although mysteries are fun, I do prefer when companions are just regular people the doctor picks up. Oh well. I still think Belinda will be great!
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This, of course, is the real reason Belinda can’t get home. Consequences for the cat…
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Still hasn’t installed a seat in the console room though! 
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I’ve seen this a lot, and I disagree tbh. Maybe that’s because I’m from the UK and the majority of our shows/dramas are of seasons of a similar length. So I know it can be done, and done well within a (to me) normal season length. Granted, I think 10 would be a sweet spot for Doctor Who.
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