Varada Sethu’s Belinda Chandra had the potential to be one of the bestDoctor Whocompanions of all time, but I don’t think the show has ever wasted a companion quite so badly.Doctor Whocompanionshave tended to serve as a sort of “audience surrogate,” allowing viewers to enter into the Doctor’s world. We all have our favorite companions - but, of course, not every one of them has been treated with the same kind of respect.
ClassicDoctor Whomade a big mistake with Nicola Bryant’s “Peri” Brown, killing her off in the Colin Baker storyThe Trial of a Time Lord- and swiftly revealing it was all a fake out in response to a vocal backlash. Bonnie Langford’s Mel Bush was failed by poor writing (and current showrunner Russell T. Davies has been trying to fix this by bringing her back). But, despite these examples and more,I don’t think any companion has been failed quite so badly as Belinda Chandra.
Doctor Who Set Belinda Up As A “Reluctant Companion” - But Her Arc Never Quite Worked
Belinda Was The “Anti-Rose”
ModernDoctor Whocompanions have tended to embrace the idea of TARDIS life; we all remember when Billie Piper’s Rose joyfully entered the TARDIS when she heard it traveled in time as well as space. Belinda inverted this, returning to an idea first seen all the way back in 1963’s “An Unearthly Child.“She is the reluctant companion, the woman who just wants to get back home.
The core problem, though, is thatDoctor Whoseason 15 never quite handled that arc well. There’s clearly supposed to be a straight narrative throughline from her debut to “The Interstellar Song Contest,” when she tells the Doctor how much he’s come to mean to her. The problem is, the dynamic doesn’t really develop consistently, because you don’tseeher falling in love with the Doctor. The writers don’t seem to have known quite how to handle her, meaning Sethu just doesn’t always have a lot to work with.
Doctor Who Season 15’s Finale Literally Put Belinda In A Box
Belinda Felt Like An Unnecessary Part Of The Story
Many viewers have speculated that Belinda was created only because Millie Gibson wasn’t available for a full season as Ruby Sunday. I’m not sure if I’d put it quite as strongly as that - but the argument definitely became a lot stronger after “The Reality War.” This went to not inconsiderable lengths to write Belinda out of the climactic confrontation with the Rani and Conrad;she’s literally put in a box for the finale, sitting it out while everybody else does battle against the bad guys.
As interesting as the reluctant companion may have been, Belinda just didn’t have much presence.
This wasn’t the only time Belinda was sidelined, either. “Lucky Day” was about Millie Gibson’s Ruby Sunday, setting up her relationship with Conrad ahead of the finale; meanwhile, Belinda spent much of “The Story & the Engine” sat in the TARDIS waiting for the Doctor, and she didn’t really have a story of her own in that episode at all. As interesting as the reluctant companion may have been, Belinda just didn’t have much presence.
The Doctor Who Finale’s Ending Literally Rewrote Belinda’s Whole Story
The Ultimate Insult
And then we come to theend ofDoctor Whoseason 15, which saw Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor sacrifice himself to save one little girl - Poppy, a child created from a wish, the daughter of Belinda and the Doctor. He succeeds, after a fashion;Poppy’s life is saved, but she is folded into Belinda’s life, written into her backstory.The scene is confusing, and I’ve seen different interpretations, some arguing Poppy was always meant to be part of Belinda’s life, and the version of Belinda we previously saw was the one rewritten by reality warps.
The Belinda we knew now no longer exists.
I don’t quite know what the truth is there, because “The Reality War” just isn’t particularly clear. Whatiscertain, though, is that the Belinda we knew now no longer exists. The Belinda we knew was motivated by a desire to get to work, a powerful sense of responsibility that meant she didn’t want to miss her shift. Now… she was driven by a desire to get home for Poppy.
This sounds like a small change, but it actually has massive implications for some of Belinda’s stories. In “The Well,” the Doctor and Belinda encountered a woman named Aliss (played by the fantastic Rose Ayling-Ellis). Aliss was stranded on an alien world, the sole survivor of a brush with a cosmic entity, and she was desperate to return home to see her daughter.Now imagine how powerfully that story would have worked if Belinda was in a similar position, able to empathize because they were both longing to go home for the same reason.
Russell T. Davies has always loved the trope of a “cosmic reset.” He usually uses it as an excuse to tell a story of destruction on such a cosmic scale that it simply has to be undone (think “The Sound of Drums” and “Last of the Time Lords”), and there’s certainly an element of that in “The Reality War.” But the ultimate rewrite in this episode was far more personal, and it means we never got to know Belinda as she is now. It’s deeply unsatisfying.
In The End, Doctor Who Failed Belinda’s Most Important Theme
Belinda Loses Her Sense Of Agency
This reality reset causes other problems, though, in that it actually fails Belinda’s most important theme. There’s a reason Belinda made such an interesting reluctant companion; “The Robot Revolution” presented Belinda as someone who was fiercely independent, and she objected to anything and everyone who tried to strip her of any sense of agency. In one striking scene, she called the Doctor out for scanning her DNA without her consent.
Belinda no longer lives a life that she has chosen.
“The Reality War” takes away any sense of agency from Belinda.She is no longer the actor in this drama, she is the subject; the one affected by the actions of others.She literally sits in a box, waiting to see what will happen to her and her daughter. When Poppy is restored, it is by the Doctor and not by Belinda; indeed, she had no idea how much her own personal history would be rewritten. Belinda no longer lives a life that she has chosen.
“The Reality War” even unintentionally lampshades this, when the Doctor scans Poppy’s DNA to check that she’s now fully human. The rebooted Belinda doesn’t seem at all concerned by the fact the Doctor scanned her daughter’s DNA without obtaining consent; she doesn’t even appear to notice the ethical implications of his actions. The very fact the Doctordoesthis shows how little of an impact traveling with Belinda has had on him, to boot.
I’ve been watchingDoctor Whofor a long time. There have been many companions who I thought had been failed; but I never saw anything quite like this, where a companion was sidelined, rewritten, and literally shut in a box. Belinda deserved so much better, and I can only hope thatDoctor Wholearns from this mistake.
