Varada Sethu on the Divisive Ending to Belinda’s Doctor Who Story

Doctor Who News · Edition of Wednesday 28 October 2026 · covering 21–28 October

Varada Sethu has opened up about the reaction to Belinda Chandra’s final Doctor Who episode, and admits it caught her by surprise. Elsewhere, her former TARDIS teammate Millie Gibson is back on screen in The Forsytes, Starfury’s Flux convention has moved to Halloween 2027 with its first two guests, the Fugitive Doctor’s Circuit Breaker saga gets its own set of Battles in Time cards, and our classic pick takes you to a haunted priory for the week’s 51st anniversary of Pyramids of Mars.

The Doctor Who News That Matters

Varada Sethu says she was “really surprised” by the reaction to Belinda’s Doctor Who ending

• New development: Speaking on The Whoniverse Show, in comments reported on Tuesday 27 October, Sethu talked about how fans took the final scenes of “The Reality War”, the 2025 finale that closed Belinda Chandra’s story
• What she said: “I was really surprised by how people reacted to that,” she said. She added that she “really loved” where Belinda ended up, and found the alternative “really, really sad”
• The background: Sethu played Belinda opposite Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor throughout the 2025 series. The ending split opinion among fans, and the show has been off air since while the BBC looks for a new production company
• Where to watch in the UK: Every episode of Belinda’s series, including “The Reality War”, streams on BBC iPlayer

It is a generous answer to one of the most argued-over endings of the Russell T Davies years. Sethu clearly sees the finale as a happy ending for her character, even if many viewers did not, and that is a reminder that a companion’s exit can look very different from inside the story. We won’t spoil how it plays out here, but it is worth a rewatch with her view in mind, ideally after her first full adventure, “The Robot Revolution”, which we picked last week.

Sethu is busy away from the TARDIS, too. She recently joined the cast of Slow Horses season 7 for Apple TV, and she has said before that she would happily return to Doctor Who. With the next era still at the tender stage, as we covered when the plans for Gatwa’s lost third series came out, nobody yet knows which faces will be back.

Millie Gibson returns as Irene in The Forsytes season 2, now streaming on 5

• New development: All six episodes of the second season of the period drama arrived on 5’s streaming service on Thursday 22 October, with Ruby Sunday actor Millie Gibson back in the lead as Irene Forsyte
• The story: Irene’s battle of wills with her controlling husband Soames (Joshua Orpin) deepens as the season opens with the possibility that she is pregnant, while her growing closeness to the architect Philip Bosinney (Jamie Flatters) offers a possible way out
• Also starring: Jack Davenport, Francesca Annis and Stephen Moyer. A third season has already finished filming, with Gibson returning, and is expected on 5 next year
• Where to watch in the UK: Streaming now on 5, free with ads. A Channel 5 broadcast date has not been announced. In the US, the season comes to PBS’s Masterpiece on 28 March 2027

Based on John Galsworthy’s novels, The Forsytes has given Gibson her first big lead since she left the TARDIS, and the fact that a third season is already in the can says a lot about how well it has done for 5. It is a very different role from Ruby: colder, more constrained and more grown-up, which makes it a good showcase for anyone who only knows her from the Fifteenth Doctor’s adventures.

Watch the season 2 promo

Flux II, Starfury’s Doctor Who convention, moves to Halloween 2027 and names its first guests

• New development: Starfury confirmed on Friday 23 October that Flux II has a new, final date of 29–31 October 2027, moved to avoid clashing with other major Doctor Who events
• First guests: Amita Suman, who played the young Umbreen in “Demons of the Punjab”, and Ian McElhinney, the warrior Ko Sharmus in “Ascension of the Cybermen” and “The Timeless Children”. Starfury expects to add eight to ten more
• The tickets: Standard tickets are £135 and Gold tickets £280, both covering all three days, panels and the night-time parties, with Gold adding a Friday meet and greet and priority seating
• Where to go in the UK: The Hilton Metropole in Birmingham. Tickets are on sale now from Starfury

Both first guests come from the Jodie Whittaker years, a good sign for fans of an era that the Thirteenth Doctor herself talked about earlier this month as the show takes its pause. Suman is now a regular in NCIS: Tony & Ziva, while McElhinney is familiar as Grandpa Joe in Derry Girls and Ser Barristan in Game of Thrones. A Halloween weekend should also suit a convention known for its themed parties.

The Fugitive Doctor’s Circuit Breaker saga gets a limited set of Battles in Time cards

• New development: Master Replicas has opened pre-orders for a Circuit Breaker collector’s pack of 15 new foil Battles in Time cards, limited to 750 packs, with shipping due later this month
• What is in it: Every card is guaranteed, so there is no hunting through packs. Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor is joined by Martha Jones, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, Osgood and Andrew Turner, up against the Conductor, a Corrupted Angel, the Silence, Lilith, a Shock Trooper and a Dalek Drone
• For collectors: The cards are numbered 143 to 157, following on from the Obliterator set, and include The Resistor, a new action card that removes a card from your opponent’s deck
• Where to buy in the UK: Available to pre-order now from Master Replicas’ online shop

This summer’s Circuit Breaker ran across audio, books, comics and games, and we mapped out a complete route through it when the finale landed. The cards are a neat way to keep it going, and with only 750 packs, completists will want to move quickly. The Fugitive Doctor’s next audio adventure, Running Wild, follows from Big Finish in November.

Classic pick: Pyramids of Mars, 51 years old this week and perfect for Halloween

• Why now: Part One of the four-part Tom Baker story was first shown on BBC One on Saturday 25 October 1975, which makes it the ideal classic watch for Halloween week
• The story: The Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) land at an English priory in 1911, where an Egyptologist’s discovery has woken something ancient and very dangerous
• Why it lasts: Gothic sets, prowling mummies and one of the series’ most chilling villains make it a regular in fans’ all-time top tens. It was directed by Paddy Russell
• Where to watch in the UK: All four parts stream free on BBC iPlayer, which also has the 2024 Tales of the TARDIS omnibus version

If you have never seen a classic Doctor Who story, this is one of the best places to start. It moves quickly, the Baker and Sladen partnership is at its height, and the scares still land five decades on. Tom Baker, who had some advice for the next Doctor earlier this month, is at his most commanding here. For more classic routes in, see our Doctor Who watch guide.

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Which Doctor Who companion do you think got the best ending, and which deserved better?