Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Ncuti Gatwa, Varada Sethu, Anita Dobson, Jonny Green, Max Parker, Thalia Dudek, Stefan Haines, Belinda Owusu, Tom Storey, Stephen Love, Robert Strange, Nicholas Briggs, Evelyn Miller, Charles Sandford, Lucas Edwards, Caleb Hughes, Nadine Higgin, William Ellis.
In a timely reflection on the use of A.I. in the 21st Century, the ethics of appropriation of personal data and biometrics by governments, and the misuse, indeed theft of the individual artists work to train the aspects of artificial intelligence, years of authorship and writing stolen in what can be seen as a monumental reckless abandonment of ethics; so the opening episode of the new series of Doctor Who, The Robot Revolution casts its eye on an old favourite theme, the forgoing of the human existence and spirit in favour of the possibly oppressive, the creeping evil of binary A.I.
A new companion in the form of Varada Sethu’s Belinda Chandra sets the tempo and intrigue for the new season, and one which feels strange to be immersed into as there has been no real finale for Millie Gibson’s character Ruby Sunday, and whilst the viewer knows deep down, or is even informed by the constant rumour mills and photographic evidence of those dangling a tantalising carrot of information.
This is the classic tale of a woman out of her own time, and one shrouded in a modern political viewpoint of consent and fierce autonomy; and one that takes care to highlight the issue of arranged coercive marriage in a subtle unblemished way.
The observation from a companion that The Doctor is dangerous from the off is to be applauded; it makes a difference to the tone of the long running science fiction drama that the plucked from time and space associate is not star struck or enamoured with the mad man in a box, and indeed sees them possibly as just a greater threat than the one they have been exposed to; and Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu play this difficult question with sincerity and piercing insight.
It is to the allusion of A.I. as one of either a force of evil or for potential benefit which takes up the majority of the episode, and the audience, as in life, will be divided by the application and disasters awaiting them as they ponder just what it means to be human in a complex and increasingly digital world.
A good start for a series that has been under threat from within and outside of the Corporation, The Robot Revolution stands with others of its ilk in highlighting an issue we should be concerned about with full attention.
Ian D. Hall