Name:
Species:
Human
horse
Place of Origin:
Job:
Nurse
Affiliated With:
Able Free Hospital
Born:
5 April
Mother:
Belinda Chandra’s mother
Father:
Belinda Chandra’s father
First Mentioned In:
Star Certificate
First Appearance:
The Doctor’s TARDIS lands in iconic BBC shows
Other Appearances:
Main Actor:
Varada Sethu
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Belinda Chandra was a human nurse who became an unwilling companion of the Fifteenth Doctor.
EARLY LIFE
Belinda Chandra’s birthday was 5 April. (The Robot Revolution)
DATING ALAN BUDD
In 2008, she was dating Alan Budd. For her birthday, (The Robot Revolution) he got her a Star Certificate naming a star in the constellation Orion after her. (The Robot Revolution, Star Certificate) Belinda was weirded out by the certificate including the title “Miss”, and broke up with Alan not long after after he proposed to her and attempted to insist she wear looser clothing and not use the telephone after 8 PM. (The Robot Revolution)
AT ABLE FREE HOSPITAL
By 2025, Belinda was a nurse, working at the Able Free Hospital in London and living in a house with several flatmates, including Tombo and Kristine. In late May of that year, the Fifteenth Doctor came to the hospital in search of Belinda, having been told that she was going to be important. (The Robot Revolution) The Doctor had also previously encountered Belinda’s identical descendant, Mundy Flynn, on Kastarion III in the 51st century. (The Robot Revolution/Boom) The Doctor, however, just missed Belinda at the hospital as she was treating patients. Belinda was told by Stefan Haines that a doctor was looking for her, but she dismissed it as just part of the job on her way home.
When Belinda arrived home, she found that her food in the fridge had gone bad, and was accused by Tombo of eating his food. Belinda corrected Tombo on her name and said Kristine was responsible for eating the food, but Tombo didn’t listen. Belinda then went to bed. In the early morning hours of 24 May, Belinda was awoken by the sound of a rocket landing in her back garden. Going downstairs to investigate, Belinda was shocked when the robots onboard burst into the house, destroying the back door. (The Robot Revolution)
MEETING THE DOCTOR
HOME THE LONG, WAY ROUND
The Fifteenth Doctor and Belinda as a beaver and a horse. (The Doctor’s TARDIS lands in iconic BBC shows (episode 6)
Telling Belinda that they may travel the “long way around”, the Fifteenth Doctor piloted the TARDIS to six locations: firstly, the studio of The Apprentice, where Alan Sugar told them that they are “both garbage”, causing the duo to storm out, offended; secondly, The Queen Victoria, where Peggy Butcher tossed a drink at Pat Evans, splashing the time-travelling duo in the process; thirdly, to the studio of Gladiators, where they quickly popped their heads outside the TARDIS before leaving; fourthly to the dining room of the Traitors where Belinda recognised Linda; fifthly to the filming of a nature documentary; and finally to the Squirrel Club Clubhouse where they encountered Duggee and the Doctor and Belinda appeared as a beaver and a horse, respectively, with The Doctor commenting that this was “new”. (The Doctor’s TARDIS lands in iconic BBC shows)
After multiple attempts to get home, The Doctor devised a different plan using a vortex indicator to draw a new route home. They landed in Miami, Florida, in 1952, where they discovered an abandoned cinema. She noted that it was playing a film with Rock Hudson who she had learn about in her training for HIV. Reluctantly she agreed to help The Doctor investigate the cinema. Inside a dinner, she was taken aback when racial segregation was mentioned, as Renée Lowenstein asked Logan Cheever to ignore the rules, though he had already ignored them. Returning to the cinema, they encountered a href=”http://doctorwhoworlduk.com/ns15ep2/lux” title=”Mr Ring-a-Ding”>Mr Ring-a-Ding discovering that he was the god of light, Lux. Being converted to 2-D animation, she noted that her figure was impossible and letting our her fear of not going back home, she gained some depth and being more emotional returned her to her human form. She helped The Doctorin his plans to get them back home, first encountering a fictional version of Renée and a Policeman, who she tried to rebuke after he assumed that she came from the Caribbean. They then encountered a second fiction where they were TV characters, one of them talked about the flammability of celluloid film. Getting back to N-Space, she made a pile of the film stock and asked Reginald Pye for his matches after noticing nicotine stains on his fingers. She ran after Reginald decided to start the fire. (Lux)
LEGACY
Belinda had an identical descendant, Mundy Flynn, in the 51st century. (The Robot Revolution)
BEHIND THE SCENES
CASTING
OTHER MATTERS
Belinda is similar in a number of ways to Martha Jones. They are both the second longterm female companion to be introduced by Russell T Davies in his two respective eras as showrunner. Both characters also happen to be woman of colour who work in medicine. Furthermore, both characters are portrayed by actors who previously appeared in the preceding series/season as different characters who would later be established as relatives of their subsequent characters (in Martha’s case, Freema Agyeman previously appeared in Army of Ghosts as Adeola Oshodi, who would retroactively be established as Martha’s cousin).