Dot and Bubble | Digesting the New Doctor Who Episode | Most DIVISIVE Episode This Era?
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- Опубліковано 5 чер 2024
- In what felt like the most divisive episode for a long time, the originally expected frothy, light, safe satire on social media and close-knit echo chambery sheltered worldviews transformed into something else entirely, into a story which could only work with this Doctor.
Although was it an easy episode to make your mind up about? I'll be honest, I struggled - hence the delay in getting this video out.
But it's here now, so let's digest Dot and Bubble...
Really great Twitter thread - x.com/leikeliscomet/status/17...
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Doctor Who is a BBC property and all clips are presented for the purposes of criticism, review and quotation under the 'Fair Dealing' clause governed by Sections 29 and 30 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Background music is by mutagene - whomix.windbubbles.net/play/r...
Title music is by Anthony Perry - whomix.windbubbles.net/remix/168
Title effects are by Christian Bodhi - pixabay.com/videos/black-hole...
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Twitter - / _chris_stokes
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I also co-host the comedy/cocktail/mystery podcast Mystery on the Rocks with fellow comedians Masud Milas and (Doom herself) Sooz Kempner - play.acast.com/s/mystery/
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Can I just add RIP William Russell thanks for your massive contribution to the early years of Doctor Who. For creating a great first companion in Ian complementing Barbara perfectly. And to your love and dedication to the programme, the fans and Big Finish over 60 years. You will be missed.
Considering how heavy-handed a lot of the PR around Doctor Who is, I was surprised and pleased by how subtle this episode was with its themes. It’s so much more thought-provoking that way.
Just the Doctor's exasperated laughter at the end speaks a thousand words
I absolutely LOVED the way you discussed this episode!!!! You discussed it from an absolutely personal point of view. Your friend. Your history with your friend. Perfect.
Your inability to enjoy the episode. Perfect.
Your recognition of the art of the writing acting, etc., yet your confusion on what you wanted to say about it definitively. Perfect.
And your description of what white privilege is.....HOLY MOLY......You made it simple and obvious!!!!
Doesn't really matter what you say about it other than what you have already said. It reached into you and affected you in a way that you are still struggling to understand. Things that affect us in this way in our lives are wonderful. They have meaning. They touch us and affect us and we remember these moments for a long time.
Thank you for sharing with me. You have enriched my experience as well.
Here's the weird: So unsuspecting was I, that I was thinking Russell wasn't aware that a lot of things were racist, and that it would undermine whatever point he was actually going to make. So, TMALSS, noticed the racism, blamed clunky writing, feel foolish.
I had the same thought about the Doctor not getting it instantly. After all, he's thousands of years old and has only inhabited a black body for a tiny portion of his overall life. The moment that really sold it from me was the laugh from Ncuti that turns into this scream of frustration at the stupidity of the humans he's dealing with here. Also the sadness the doctor must have felt knowing that any other regeneration would likely get a fair hearing must be absolutely devastating!
I think the strength in the writing here is knowing when to leave things unsaid. I think the fact the doctor doesn't get a final line when you expect a monologue is really affecting. We just got a shot of the Tardis door closing on the episode!
I think the idea was to point and laugh at Lindy initially - her vapidity and insincerity making her a figure of fun. Once the penny drops, whenever that may have been, her previous demeanour retrospectively becomes more sinister. I'll admit, I had to have it confirmed by RTD himself on Unleashed before fully realising it, but I did have inklings from about the "I thought you just looked the same" line. In particular, the moment Ricky September appears in the flesh, essentially taking the Doctor role, I did wonder if he was actually the Doctor in disguise. I then wondered why he would need to be in disguise in the first place. So I had the thought swimming round my head, but it never properly settled until, as I say, RTD confirmed it. Which is my problem, not his, of course.
At first I also thought that ending was completely out of nowhere, but then as I rewatched some bits and read some articles I could see that I could've actually guessed it.
I don't know how I missed the fact that an episode of any show in 2024 you could only ever see white people in the cast. Somehow it completely flew over my head but that was a giant flag for the essence of the finale I feel like.
I feel like the social media subplot is something of a red herring or more about echo chambers and thus feeding into the main plot.
I feel like the episode is pointing out that even though social media incentivizes the creation of bubbles, the concept of people that want to live in their own bubble wasn't created by them. I mean, Jim Crow, the apartheid in South Africa, the exclusion of the Romani people and even how a lot of people treated Jewish people before the Holocaust, those were all "bubbles". The episode is showing us that these people are not isolated just because of social media, but because of their own prejudice as well, so much so that they refuse help from someone that has proven to be fully capable of saving them just because of the color of their skin.
@@NankitaBR Very well said.
It’s interesting seeing the Doctor so willing to save them. I really love and respect it. I don’t think the show was going for this, but I found his actions very Christ-like.
Lindy was obviously awful from the start, but I was so enjoying the mystery of what was going on and the wacky world that the gradual reveal of how sociopathic and bigoted she was worked extremely well for me - I was so busy trying to second guess the story in one way that the actual reveal was a huge moment of "oh of course, why didn't I realise where this was going, in retrospect it was so obvious"! So a good testament to the structure of the narrative really! I can understand finding it too unpleasant to enjoy, but I was so moved by the ending that it made up for any holes or awkwardness in the plot, emotional logic over narrative logic
I had a friend that was watching it on my recommendation, and he was giving it a decent 6 - up until the dual reveals bumped it up to a 7, because they both change a lot about the episode in retrospect. Which is a sign to me that the twists were effective.
It's far from the best the show has ever done but it is pretty good.
Great review Chris I so agree with your opions
I got this episode right at the start. I have a vision impairment, and a lot of my friends are blind - white stick or not, it is up to US to dodge the people on their phones/in their bubbles. The end made it only better.
Does anyone else feel there was more going on during that look between Lindy and the Doctor/Ruby at the end, as the boat is pulling away? I got a sense of ambivalence, that there was some recognition on Lindy’s part that something had…shifted. Like that she was at least a little bit doubting her beliefs, doubting her decisions?
I could see that.
I think she knew that they were bogus but did not care and just wanted to fit in with her peers.
The doctor did win, though it may not immediately look like it.
He saved as many of the Finetimers as he could and gave them a choice. He gave them a moment in time to make their own decisions, not guided by the bubble and not forced on them by him. That's quite a gift. That they chose what they did is a tragedy, but it was their choice.
It's the choice of Saruman in LOTR too, and he takes the same path to destruction.
Just this once... everybody dies! 😈
Even before the ending, I enjoyed having a protagonist that we were supposed to dislike, because it's unusual (and also because she was well written and acted). I also enjoyed the twist of her betraying Ricky September, because it was completely in-character but still so unexpected, just because it defied the convections of fiction. I'd initially been expecting *him* to betray *her*, just because that's how stories are usually written. I'm good with following characters that I dislike, as long as I don't think that the writers want me to like them.
Obviously the ending, and (for most people) the sudden understanding of a lot of what had happened earlier in the episode, is far and away the highlight. But honestly, even without that, I think it would probably be favourite since RTD's return.
I agree with you especially the most important issue - where have you been! 😂 The one thing I don’t agree is I thoroughly enjoyed the whole episode. I liked the fact that Lindy was vacuous, mean, entitled and dislikable and I kept thinking What?! then it got even worse by throwing Ricky under the bus and then everyone is a racist. Ncuti was stellar in that final scene (his first for gods sake) as was Millie. And yes I wanted them all to die, horribly, in the wilds. I have other wider and wilder thoughts as well. I think the Homeworld was racist but had the people of colour there as servants or slaves, certainly downtrodden. I think some of comments made by Lindy could suggest that. This story could be continuing the theme of abandonment. The rich parents may have put the children into Finetime because they didn’t want them around in their “difficult years” but I keep thinking about the hug. What if the space babies ended up on Homeworld and grew up into that society. Is that the Doctor's fault when he “abandoned” them? Is that part of the reason he was on Finetime (does he know about the loss of Homeworld?) and why he reacts so viscerally? After all that’s yet another twist in the end. And it would connect Space Babies to the rest of the season and show it wasn’t just a throwaway, fluffy episode. I'm not one to build up expectation, if it doesn’t happen that’s fine. In the end I can walk away thinking good on yeh Team Slug. 😆
Team slug!
Yeah, I've noticed the themes of abandonment and preconceptions have been heavy this season.
Yeah I really loved Ruby's reaction and her sympathy for the Doctor especially since Ruby's Mum and Gran are black so she would've seen racism directed at them before so seeing it happen to the Doctor too clearly broke her heart especially in this way as the Doctor wanted to save Lindy and her friends' lives but because of their prejudice they are doomed to die. Fantastic performances from both Millie Gibson and Ncuti Gatwa ESPECIALLY Ncuti who is just *phenomenal*, he IS the Doctor and I hope he stays for a long time to come!
You've taken the words right out of my mouth, I understand why people like it but when it's following a character I found unlikable from the start, means that I didn't enjoy the episode as a whole despite how good the ending was.
And yet somehow Lindy is still more likeable than every character in the most recent series of Queer As Folk USA, which RTD’s name was attached to.
I'm meaner than you; I can enjoy watching a character I don't like. This is why I could watch _Breaking Bad_ without telling myself that Walter White was justified (not saying everyone does, but some do).
I liked that the Doctor wanted to help them even after bc that is the Doctor. My only criticism is the “magic negro” trope. However, it’s a minor one bc it is within the Doctor’s character.
See I’m the opposite of you.
I really liked this episode and really disliked Space Babies.
But then I also liked the David Tennant runs, so what do I know?
I really liked it immediately after I watched it but after a nearly a week I haven’t rewatched it and I’m not sure how I feel. I think maybe it’s a great piece of tv but perhaps not a particularly fun one that I want go back.
Well, everyone in Lindy's bubble wall was white.
I actually thought the racism twist was very well done and effective. However, I didn’t like the way the episode seemed to characterise Zoomers. As a Gen Z-er myself (albeit a neuroatypical one who doesn’t use social media), I found the Gen-Z stereotypes outside of Ricky to be borderline offensive. I got what they were going for with the episode but it fell flat for me. I think the stereotyping particularly stood out when contrasted with Ruby, who I believe to be a fantastically well-rounded depiction of a Zoomer. Her character is noticeably identifiable as a Zoomer and comes across that way, but is not a shallow caricature or stereotype of one. That’s what I felt like the young people in this episode were. An older person’s caricature of a Gen-Zer. I also found the premise of this episode to be kind of ironic, given that the generations who actually (according to research) have the biggest problem with breaking out of their social media bubbles are over-40s.
To be fair, I think it was less a depiction of Gen Z and more a depiction of very specifically upper class rich elites. Keep in mind that Millie Gibson/Ruby Sunday is literally a Zoomer based on her birth year, and yet Ruby isn't depicted anything like the people of FineTime.
I rewatched it today and it really clicked. i revel in how horrible our PoV character is because I know that’s the point. You probably could have talked more about Ricky in this video, he is obviously the allegory for good in this but also he represents a young white doctor.
The story is an allegory for bubbles and seclusion in all it’s forms. Literally a bubble of white young rich kids separated from society isn’t just a social media thing, it’s social commentary in and of itself.
I found this one really quite good because of the subtext throughout
I think _the_ villain is more systemic racism and white supremacy than any one person. Although Lindy is _a_ villain.
Knowing as I do that this script was originally intended for the early Matt Smith era, I can't help but feel that the ending was indeed tacked on, with one or two hints added throughout.
I kind of agree though that it would have been more challenging if the main character was relatable in any way, as people are complex and even some otherwise likeable people can have some disturbing beliefs... it may have even made some viewers who related to her question themselves at the end. However, by the time we find out she's racist or, at the least, complicit in a racist society, she's already proven to effectively be a cold hearted killer, which is even worse. It ends up ham-fistedly telling us that racism is bad and racists are evil and stupid, when it can be so much more complicated than that. I can think of a number of ways in which it could have been better executed.
I think it was a fairly cringy episode that RTD tried to make poignant and meaningful with a heavy-handed, unearned swerve. Yet somehow, it's still the third best of Gatwa's six stories so far.. sigh.
Bubble and Squeak🤣