The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu). Photo courtesy of DisneyPlus.

With the 20th Anniversary of the “Doctor Who” reboot come and gone, the second official season starring Ncuti Gatwa as the fifteenth Doctor has begun. With two episodes and a Christmas special released so far, this season of the reboot of the reboot is promising.

The annual “Doctor Who” Christmas special for 2024, “Ode to Joy,” was reminiscent of a “Doctor Who” long past. With witty banter, returning alien species like the Silurians, and a short but memorable new companion, the all-too-modern off-feeling season one with Gatwa felt like a nightmare from long ago. This special brought hope for the quality of the upcoming season, and it was no lie.

The first episode, “The Robot Revolution,” released on DisneyPlus on April 12 introduced the official new companion for the Doctor for this season, Belinda Chandra. She’s a strong-willed, sure of herself, and medically trained professional that just happens to get kidnapped by alien robots and caught up in a robot revolution on a star far off in space. The Doctor travels six months in the past on the star that she’s been taken to in order to form a plan to save her.

This episode utilizes a memorable but corny exposition tactic, practical effects for the alien robot species, and takes place on an alien planet. It is the perfect storm for a wonderful episode of “Doctor Who.”

While the main antagonist of the episode is slightly dull and underplayed in the end and the way the Doctor acts near the end of the episode is greatly out of character, this is a great opener to a season. It’s leagues above the episode one from the previous season which featured CGI talking babies and a monster made of boogers.

The second episode of the new season, titled “Lux,” was released on April 19 and features a cartoon villain come to life off a movie theater screen. The Doctor and Belinda, now caught up with him in his travels after “The Robot Revolution,” accidentally end up in the 1950s and upon leaving the TARDIS quickly notice a closed-down theater and learn about the rumors that 15 people went missing while in the theater, vanishing into thin air. They can’t help themselves but investigate.

While this episode makes use of very modern production techniques and doesn’t feature the uniquely bad but enjoyable look of most of “Doctor Who’s” monsters and villains, the plot in this episode is incredible. It is an extremely important episode for the overarching plot of the series so far but it still stands on its own as an episode.

“Lux” really fortifies the relationship between Belinda and the Doctor, which season one had been really sorely lacking. This episode really was Gatwa’s “I’m the Doctor” moment that each actor playing the character needs to have eventually, utilizing the Doctor’s alien intellect and ingenuity to solve a disastrous problem.

The third episode, released April 26, titled “The Well” reintroduces an unexplained alien from a beloved 2008 episode starring David Tennant. “The Well” also brings horror back to “Doctor Who.” Each incarnation of the Doctor has their own horror-based episodes, ones that are far more scary than sci-fi fun. This was Gatwa’s episode. He thrived in this, using facial expressions and dramatic pauses in all the right places to build suspense and real tension.

When it was revealed about half-way through the episode that this was a sort of sequel to Tennant’s iconic episode, it was a complete surprise, but a welcome one. This episode also furthered the overarching plot of the series, the fact that Belinda and the Doctor are trying to get back to Belinda’s time on Earth but can’t for an unknown reason. While “Lux” blew me away, “The Well” really cemented the idea that this season was going to continue to be great and gave more hope for the future of “Doctor Who.”

There will be eight episodes in total for this new season. Each episode will be released at midnight every Saturday until May 31 on DisneyPlus.