Belinda Chandra was a companion of the Fifteenth Doctor.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Belinda Chandra was born to a man who worked with taxes and could make her laugh and to a woman who was a violinist with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. She admired both her parents, but believing her dad was a terrible musician, she wished he wouldn't make such an effort to play an instrument. (TV: Lux [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 15 (BBC One and Disney+, 2025).)
At some point, Belinda had a romantic relationship with Alan Budd. On her birthday in 2008, while they were stargazing from a park bench, Alan proposed to her and presented her with a certificate to a star which, in her honour, he had named Missbelindachandra. Flustered, especially by his insistence that they get married and by his stifling desires about how she should act, Belinda declined the proposal, eventually breaking up and losing fifty pounds to him. She accepted the certificate, however, and was holding onto it seventeen years later. (TV: The Robot Revolution [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 15 (BBC One and Disney+, 2025).)
Meeting the Doctor[]
In 2025, Belinda lived in a flat with Tombo and Kristine and worked as a nurse at a hospital. Mrs Flood was their neighbour, having moved from her flat on 4 Minto Road.
On 23 May, Belinda worked a shift without realising the Fifteenth Doctor was in the building, investigating her connection to Mundy Flynn, an Anglican Marine he met with Ruby Sunday. That night, she was kidnapped by gun-toting robots from Missbelindachandra One, a planet orbiting Missbelindachandra. Citing the certificate, which they crudely pulled from its frame on her bedroom wall, they explained she needed to assume her role as their queen. As she was carted into their rocket, she requested Mrs Flood to update her parents and tell them she loved them.
The rocket made its way to Missbelindachandra One, the Doctor following in his TARDIS. During the journey, the rocket passed through a time fracture, distorting Belinda and her surroundings as she anxiously asked the robots to flag down Alan instead. Unbeknownst to her, the robots seized on this command, travelling back in time through the fracture to ten years prior and kidnapping Alan to be their leader.
Upon arriving on Missbelindachandra One, specifically Missbelindachandraville, Belinda was welcomed by Sasha 55, one of the many Missbelindachandrakind in forced servitude to the robots. She was taken to meet a grander delegation, including the official Historian, and was told of the planet's recent, turbulent past and of her fate: being roboticised and married to the AI Generator, a massive machine which was the brains of the regime. Though he did not reveal it straight away, being mindful of the robots, the Historian was the Doctor, a member of the rebellion against their rule. Exploiting a flaw in the robots which prevented them from processing every ninth word, he reassured Belinda and warned her of a forthcoming attack by the rebels. Many rebels were killed in the attack—including Sasha 55, to the Doctor's distress. Safe in the rebels' underground base. Belinda tended to the injured, learning, to her shock, about the differing biologies of Missbelindachandrakind and Time Lords.
The robots invaded the base; intending to protect the others, Belinda gave herself up. She and the Doctor were brought to the AI Generator's chamber, finding that it was actually named Al Generator—it was simply difficult to see the L. Inside the Generator was a roboticised Alan, possessing a copy of the star certificate from far in the future, and eager to restart his relationship with Belinda. A disgusted Belinda spurned his advances, following the Doctor's advice to touch his certificate with hers. This triggered the Blinovitch Limitation Effect, revealing her entire timeline to the Doctor and regressing Alan to a sperm cell which was promptly polished away.
The rebellion ended by Alan's death, the robots returned the TARDIS and vowed to make amends with the rebels. Entering the TARDIS, Belinda ordered the Doctor to take her home so that she could attend her shift the next morning. Unfortunately, this wasn't possible, as an unknown force was bouncing away the TARDIS from 24 May 2025. The Doctor promised he'd get her back—they'd just have to go the long way round. Belinda, displeased to be traveling with someone who saw her as an adventure and an unwilling source of DNA, begrudgingly acknowledged this. (TV: The Robot Revolution [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 15 (BBC One and Disney+, 2025).)
So that the Doctor could plant and activate a vortex indicator, propelling the TARDIS to 2025 as if reeling in a fish, he and Belinda travelled to a random location: Miami, early in the morning, in 1952. Though Belinda was eager to leave, after she and the Doctor discovered that three months prior, fifteen people disappeared while watching a film at the nearby Palazzo Movie Theatre, she knew that needed to be put on hold. With her the Fred to the Doctor's Velma, they visited a segregated diner—something which appalled her—to investigate the disappearances. They learned that the projectionist, Reginald Pye, was continuously playing movies to an empty house and that Tommy Lee Lowenstein was among the missing, the Doctor vowing to recover him to his mother.
Belinda and the Doctor entered the Palazzo, staying put despite Reginald's protests. Before long, they met Lux Imperator, a light-obsessed member of the Pantheon of Discord in the form of cartoon character Mr Ring-a-Ding. The Doctor was none too keen to meet another member of the Pantheon, using a loophole exploited by Reginald—Lux had to sing and dance when Mr Ring-a-Ding did—to usher Belinda into the relative safety of the projection room. There, they talked to Reginald, finding that he was helping Lux so that he could spend time with his deceased wife, who Lux was able to bring to life from film of her. Belinda noticed a curious film strip, which it turned out contained the disappeared. Each victim occupied one frame.
Lux, gifted with Mr Ring-a-Ding's physics, easily intruded into the projection room. After being bound by the Doctor to reveal how he could be defeated, he decided to have some fun with Belinda and the Doctor. Shot by both projectors, they were trapped inside the film strip, finding themselves inside a caricature of Miami where even their brains were two-dimensional. When Belinda expressed her fears about being with him and never getting home, she suddenly gained shading and depth. Quickly, the Doctor realised why: no cartoon character of the time would ever admit that they didn't enjoy their line of work. On his prompting, they shared enough uncomfortable truths to become three-dimensional again, pulling down the frames of the strip to escape. They returned to the Palazzo, whereupon they were accosted by Mrs Lowenstein and a police officer who suspected the worst of them. The Doctor called Lux's bluff, pulling down more frames. This made no difference, leading him to conclude that they needed to break the fourth wall.
Past the fourth wall were three strangely-dressed people who were tickled pink to see Belinda and the Doctor. Lizzie, Robyn, and Hassan, it transpired, were massive fans of a TV series called Doctor Who—enough so to have seen leaks of an episode which was eerily similar to Belinda and the Doctor's experiences. They were also created by Lux to give Belinda and the Doctor a hassle, but they'd gained sufficient independence to know that serving Lux was wrong. Not wanting to spoil the end of "Lux", they wouldn't say exactly how Lux was stopped—something which frustrated Belinda to no end—but they did hint at it. It had been mentioned that celluloid was flammable—surely that was relevant to the dilemma?
Belinda and the Doctor were sent back into the film strip, both upset that the fans no longer had relevance. Making one last attempt to escape, they burned the strip by stopping the projector, allowing it to burst into flame from the projector's sheer heat. They were indisputably back in the Palazzo, the Doctor proving this by showing Belinda his burned hand. He healed it using leftover energy from his bi-generation; unfortunately, this also made Lux unbelievably pleased. He decided to absorb the Doctor's regeneration energy, gaining enough to take on a physical form and absorb the light of nuclear bombs.
It occurred to the Doctor how to stop Lux. As he was sucked dry, Lux building definition all the while, Belinda frantically entered the projection room, pleading with Reginald to let the reels be burned. Initially hesitant, Reginald acquiesced, insisting that he do it himself. She fled back into the cinema just as the Doctor was entirely deprived of energy. Thankfully, the explosion of the burning celluloid blew a hole in the wall, disrupting Lux and allowing sunlight to stream in. Given that this was two billion times more powerful than a nuclear bomb, Lux grew so large, he dispersed throughout the universe.
With Lux gone, the disappeared broke free of their film strip, Tommy Lee reuniting with his mother. Implying that Miami was a sundown town in 1952, the Doctor suggested that he and Belinda leave. She agreed, telling him that they would face their fears together. (TV: Lux [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 15 (BBC One and Disney+, 2025).)
Personality[]
While helping her patients, Belinda was caring and warm. She was proud of her choice of career, jokingly proposing that she be the Nurse to the Doctor, roasting the Doctor for standing around like the doctors at her hospital while she tended to the injured rebels (TV: The Robot Revolution [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 15 (BBC One and Disney+, 2025).), and declaring as she examined his burned hand that doctors always made the worst patients. (TV: Lux [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 15 (BBC One and Disney+, 2025).)
Outside of work, Belinda was aloof and stern, having a dessicated sense of humour and not suffering fools like the Doctor and Alan gladly. When she had a grudge with someone, such as Alan, she remembered trivial issues, like his failure to pay her back fifty pounds, in crystal clear detail. Though she hid it well, she was sensitive to insults real or perceived. She insisted on being referred to as Belinda, growing irritated when she was called Linda by Tombo, and she was so shaken by the complaints made against her by one of the anti-robot rebels, she surrendered to the robots to soothe her guilt. (TV: The Robot Revolution [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 15 (BBC One and Disney+, 2025).)
Belinda was a good-hearted woman underneath her frigidity. In 1952 Miami, she was horrified to indirectly experience segregation, and she cried after parting ways with the Doctor Who fans, believing they would cease to exist. Despite her issues with the Doctor, she screamed as he was deprived of regeneration energy by Lux, and she offered to help him face his fears about being unable to get her home. (TV: Lux [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 15 (BBC One and Disney+, 2025).)
Belinda was familiar enough with Scooby-Doo, as she and the Doctor prepared to investigate the disappearances at the Palazzo, she compared him to Fred and herself to Velma. (TV: Lux [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 15 (BBC One and Disney+, 2025).)
Skills[]
As a trained nurse, Belinda was familiar with IV bags and had an excellent bedside manner. She was rather perceptive, quickly picking up that the Doctor was leaving her a message to be pieced together, and trying her best to respond in kind. (TV: The Robot Revolution [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 15 (BBC One and Disney+, 2025).) Additionally, she was inquisitive; it was she, not the Doctor, who noticed that the disappeared filmgoers were trapped inside a film strip. (TV: Lux [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 15 (BBC One and Disney+, 2025).)
Appearance[]
Belinda was a brown-skinned woman, somewhere in her thirties, with long black hair and prominent lips. She bore a significant resemblance to her descendant Mundy Flynn, which was why the Doctor was interested in her. (TV: The Robot Revolution [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 15 (BBC One and Disney+, 2025).)
On meeting the Doctor, Belinda wore a brown woollen blazer, a gray T-shirt with a sunflower pattern, and pale blue jeans. (TV: The Robot Revolution [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 15 (BBC One and Disney+, 2025).) To visit 1952 Miami without arousing suspicion, she changed into a sunflower-coloured, low-cut, backless dress with a white belt and underskirt, also donning a white bracelet and heels. (TV: Lux [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 15 (BBC One and Disney+, 2025).)
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