Doctor Who: The Robot Revolution Review - 6 Ups & 5 Downs
8. DOWN - So Long, Sasha (We Hardly Knew Ya)
Yes, I know. The Doctor telling a random side character that he’s going to ‘show them the stars’ is tantamount to an immediate and painful death sentence (he really should have learned to stop saying this by now, along with just maybe leaving Christmas Day alone).
It’s a trope that I don’t mind being used for it’s emotional impact, so long as it’s earned within the episode (see Lynda from The Parting of Ways, Astrid from Voyage of the Damned and Rita from The God Complex), but with Sasha 55, a redshirt so blatant that there are at least 54 more of her standing by to take a bullet, this didn’t land for me this time. I understand that Fifteen has spent six months with her, but I’d spent five minutes, and, for most of that, she was behaving as a subservient drone.
Still, at least her almost chuckle-worthy departure let Ncuti hit his crying quota and continue his as-yet-unbroken streak of shedding a tear in every single episode. At this point, I’m in it for the meme and will be disappointed when he doesn’t.
Thankfully, our fallen soldier will live on, thanks to the newly renamed ‘Citadel of Sasha 55’.
No one else will live on, though. Just her.