The racist hints across the episode are there, they’re just incredibly subtle. Instantly blocking the doctor, blue blood, accusing him of being responsible, saying he’ll be disciplined, claiming she didn’t recognise him because “they all look the same.” And Ricky mentioning a “great abrogation.” Love the videos BTW 👍
Her blocking the doctor wasn't instant, it came after him rambling about something coming to kill Ruby. If you got a random phone call by a stranger saying you're going to die you'd block them too. Also what do you mean by blue blood. She also said he'd be disciplined right after she said "he can't do that" in response to him hijacking and hacking her bubble so it makes more sense he'd be disciplined for that.
@@russellevans8086 well, she instantly blocks the doctor with a disgusted face and gives Ruby a chance despite them essentially saying the same thing, in fact Ruby takes more time getting to the point whilst the doctor appears genuine. “Blue blood” is also an aristocratic term for those of noble birth like royals or those considered pure, and the leg shot in the opening shows they may literally have blue blood. (Though that bit was a tad on the nose.)
I feel you need to start watching episodes twice to get a grasp of what is actually going on, this episode is so good on a second watch when you spot all those coded racism towards the doctor. The fact that she only really responded to Ruby, the fact she out right said she thought he just looked the same! A discussion then can be had about white privilege and racism.
Funny how harry complained about the on the nose discussion of issues in the chibnall era but the moment there's actually subtle story telling about it it just didn't even register to him
I feel like the doctor reaction was needed because his usual help and charm has been rejected because of a silly/stupid reason like his race and that he sees that these people would rather go out into the unknown and probably die then be saved by someone “not like them”
Remember Night of the Doctor where the Doctors help was rejected by a person who would literally prefer to die than be aided by someone of his kind, seeing him as no different than a dalek, and the experience had enormous repercussions on the series and The Doctor as a character?
Honestly we all knew they were gonna have to have an episode dealing with racism, the most moment they announced he'd be played by a black actor, but I'm glad this is what we got. They could of taken this one of two ways. Either he'd be a white man with a black-face mask on, or he'd suddenly start acting like every black American who decides to embrace African heritage to such an extreme, that Africans think they look like cringey tourists. Only it'd be worse, because he's not even human, and his people were never Enslaved by the white man, yet they'd still make him wear African colours and African beads. They could of reeeally messed this up, but instead we got what felt like a genuine reaction, from someone who's experiencing blind racism from the inside, for the first time, and is genuinely shocked by how powerless it makes them feel.
stating that the doctor’s “age” is the reason he was brought up with a huge warning and instantly blocked then calling saying ruby was acting “more professionally than the doctor could” is kind of crazy and im surprised that made the final draft of your script. just a wild thing to say given the context of the episode
to be fair it's not something that I noticed on my one and only watch, it's only due to my interest in watching Doctor Who reviews that it was explained to me, at the end i thought the reason they didn't go with The Doctor is because they had a new found confidence to to not relying on the dots and bubbles, getting hit over the head all episode with "social media bad" may have contributed to me overlooking any other underlying themes.
@@PlanetNateGaming that makes sense, however as a reviewer he should surely be watching the episode more than once and adjusting his script accordingly. the line i highlighted indicates that he does not
@@PlanetNateGaming I really didn't get social media bad from this, the social media aspect was presented as the the thing that made this world utopia, it wasn't really critiqued it caused 2 plot inconveniences, but I really didn't take "social media is bad" away from this. I got Ultron vibes for sure but thats more anti AI than anti social media, they couldn't walk but that just made sense to me, I was bothered it was solved so quickly though, like if you grow up in a world you never had to navigate in or avoid people in, it would be disorienting to take the dot off, and I thought the bubble hiding the world was about the way privileged people create a safety bubble to ignore the suffering around them.
Tbf I do think it was mainly very subtle hints, the first time round I would not have come to the conclusion that it was about race. After finding out it was about that and rewatching the episode, yeah you can tell it is, but on first initial watch I think it's a bit harder to come to that conclusion, imo anyway
@@Ashxliy And you think someone who reviews content for a living shouldn't rewatch something for more details, to look at clips, to see if they can discover anything new?
I noticed that the people most likely to pick up on the racism are the ones who have experienced many of the microaggressions/racism themselves, and those who didn't pick up on it were usually those who hadn't really experienced these things. That doesn't mean those people are bad by any means, but it does show that this episode is actually pretty well constructed because you can easily see it as a few things and try to explain away some things. For example, you could explain away all of Lindy's behavior at first and not think too much more of it, but on a second rewatch it's like, hang on... 1) Lindy instantly rejects the doctor but listens to Ruby. It could be explained away that the doctor did go in quite strong and start talking about aliens, and Ruby was a little politer and approached it more patiently. It could also be explained that he just looks SO different that she had an instinctual reaction to him. 2) You see everyone is white, but it could be because they're just the rich kids all forming their own little groups which happens. It could also be because they don't allow different people. 3) When Lindy says "I thought you just looked the same", could be she genuinely didn't think someone could unblock her block. Could be that she can't tell the difference between one black guy and the next. 4) The way she's so rude to the doctor . Could be she hates having her bubble burst. Could be she's angrier than usual because she feels "superior" to him and he is telling her what to do. 5) "Did you do this?" First reaction when she sees the slugs, accuses the doctor of causing it. Could be stress and panic in the moment. Could be an automatic assumption by her that this odd stranger disrupting her life was doing it deliberately. 6) Shock when Ruby is in the same room as the doctor. Maybe she's shocked that they are sharing space when she's so used to being alone. Or maybe a white and a black person together is messed up to her. We already see she was comfortable with twins in the same call together from her friend list earlier, so it can't be about them simply being in the same room... 7) "He's not as stupid as he looks. He is going to get so disciplined, I can't wait." The stupid part could be she's trying to assure her friends why they are allowing this stranger to talk. Could be they genuinely judge people who look like him to be poor. The discipline part also specifically refers to him, not Ruby. 8) The shock on her face when seeing him, same with the other people in her group chat. Could be surprise. Could also be disgust. Who knows? 9) Instinctively listens to a doctor coded Ricky September who acts very much like the doctor, comes up with similar conclusions to the doctor, but she's fine with him leading her. Could be because she is more familiar with Ricky September. Could be she just assumes he is more trustworthy, even though she's also never really met/spoken to him before. 10) "You sir, are not one of us." Well, yes. He's not one of them. Or it could be directly referring to the fact he looks different. Unwilling to listen to him and sometimes addresses Ruby over him. 11) "Voodoo" when he talks about his spaceship. This is a bit more blatant, assuming the doctor has voodoo magic is a more common microaggression people can experience. Would a white doctor's spaceship be referred to as "voodoo?" Why "voodoo" specifically? 12) "We will tame the land like our ancestors". Colonizing talk, reminiscent of people colonizing America... at the cost of those already there. Then at the end, the doctor is frustrated because he can't save them, not because he is the doctor, but because he is THIS doctor, with this particular appearance, and these people would rather get themselves killed than accept help from someone they consider inferior. Which unfortunately is very true of cases today. A fun episode :D
5. Being a very common Doctor Who plot point (e.g. Robots of Death "Is it just a coincidence that these murders started taking place after you appeared? Well! Answer me!" "Oh I am sorry, I thought it was a rhetorical question. Yes, it is just a coincidence!") It might not be common in new Who but it is routine in classic Who that whatever awful thing is happening when the Doctor arrives, he gets blamed for it. And here's the issue that makes it very difficult to use the Doctor specifically in a story about racism is he always is the outsider and misfit. He is literally an alien; even on his own homeworld he is an alien (Chibnall timeless f*ckery aside!) because he has been away from home too long and absorbed the attitudes of other cultures in his absence that he is nomadic. Now we want him to represent the outgroup? He has always represented the outgroup! 9) People instinctively listening to the Doctor is a new Who problem, not an old Who problem, and generally it is to save time. Normally in classic (and dare I say real) Doctor Who, the locals don't realise they should be listening to the Doctor until at least the end of episode one, and sometimes not until episode 3. A typical (almost chiché) ending of episode one of a Peter Davison story is the locals try to execute them and The Doctor sadly says "oh no, not again". 11) Why "voodoo" indeed? How did these green blooded aliens know of the cultural connotations of Haiti? Why didn't they just accuse him of witchcraft like the villagers in The Daemons did? 12) And the doctor then literally offers to take them to another homeworld, so he would be facilitating colonization.
@@markpostgate2551 I presume you've heard of Voodoo Dolls. Do you think everyone who's heard of a Voodoo Doll has spent several years of their lives dedicated to the study of Haiti culture? It's just a buzzword that Hoochy Pie uses to make The Doctor seem more 'other'. And the 'other world is colonisation' issue ignores the very concept of *refugees.* He could drop them off on a civilised world, explain that they're citizens of a planet called Finetime that was taken over by an evil AI, and let them adjust to life there.
@@markpostgate2551 Hello! Some good points, and cool to see you've enjoyed the old and new Who :D Though as a couple counters: 12) He never specifically said he was taking them to an uninhabited world for them to colonize. They would more likely be refugees than colonizers. If he went to dump them on a place where maybe a stone age civilization lived, this would be more akin to colonizing. So while I see where you're coming from with this point, it doesn't really compare in the same vein. 11) There seems to be many references to modern culture still being used in the future, at least in this version. The Polka Dot Bikini is not exactly a new song. The blue blooded aliens (they seemed to be blue blooded, which is another reference to their "superior status" being on the nose, most likely, seem to have carried pop culture with them to this point. Doesn't make that much sense, but I suppose we as viewers suspend that to see what the message is meant to be on an episode. 9) True, old Who tended to take its time and the Doctor wasn't always taken seriously or listened to. New Who seems to be angling for the charismatic sweep off feet and go anywhere with them kind of doctor. And in context of the episode, when we're used to people generally listening to the doctor, it does make a good pause for thought as to why. Is he crazy? Is it because of something else? 5) The main point I was making is that every single comment that was made by Lindy is something you can explain away as something more innocent. Yes the doctor did arrive conveniently at the time the slugs were eating people, yes he did barge into the call, etc etc. You can explain it away, which is why some people get hit harder by the twist when they see eventually it can't really be explained away anymore. And then you can rewatch and pick up on things you didn't pick up on before. However, I do agree there wasn't a need to showcase racism against the doctor so much as he is simply an alien being and he tends to deal with a lot of xenophobia on a regular basis. This is bread and butter for the doctor. I believe the intent behind the episode was a response to the negative backlash/racist comments there had been about the new Doctor being Ncuti Gatwa, the review bombing, the countless youtube videos where people make a living out of rage content/raging about woke/antiwoke - so I think it was simply to address the direct complaints towards the actor themselves. Whether they might have found a better way without needing to make Ncuti the target of this, I don't know. Your comment with Peter Davidson's "Oh no, not again." Hahaha. not gonna lie, I want to see more of this type of episode where people are like oh really, he's trying to do his thing again and oh look an angry mob is chasing him... again. Still, I've been enjoying these episodes slightly more than Chibnall's ones...
It's very funny that you lamented how Chibnall's era was incredibly on the nose and unsubtle and when we get an actual subtle story, with so many subtle hints about the racism in Finetime it just flew over your head
It's absolutely hilarious to me that folks think this episode was subtle. Or thoughtful. Or nuianced. At least something like Rosa had some historical value in what it depicted, but this episode? Yea let's follow the blindly racist villain from Rosa for a whole episode and at the end they're still super racist. Because. Then all the racists go outside to the real world, touch grass, and die. Sigh. Subtle.
This episode is definitely about racism. There are a lot of subtle racism from the Lindy throughout the episode. The only reason they don't travel in the TARDIS with the doctor is because they're racist
Yes and when Harry alluded to the Doctor being an unsolicited request because he's an "old TImelord" was a misreading. It had a lot more to do with his race 🙄
@@Insanepie that's what a microaggression is a minor thing in a conversation that's a hint to some form of bigotry, akin to a bigoted version of a virtue signal
No buildup? There’s loads of hints throughout the episode! Almost everyone else I’ve seen got & understood what the story was going for at least right at the end when it was handed on a plate, and the only guy I saw who didn’t think that looked back & said it the evidence & set up was there
I have a theory about why the Dot's used alien slugs: they're vindictive, sure it could kill them all quickly and efficantly, but it hates them so it instead decides that making them walk to their death is much more satisfying. You can't claim the AI can't feel that way, it's literally the plot of the episode that it hates them.
I completely disagree that there was "no build-up" to the reveal that they're all racist. Lindy blocks The Doctor immediately but is willing to listen to Ruby and doesn't block her; Ruby doesn't get any "unsolicited request" message on her in big red letters; Hoochy Pie refers to the Doctor's TARDIS as "voodoo"; Lindy only seems to display animosity towards the Doctor and rarely towards Ruby; Lindy doesn't recognise the Doctor the second time because she "thought [they] just looked the same"; she's astonished that the Doctor and Ruby are in the same room (when she has been in the same room as other people all the time, so it's clearly not about the face-to-face contact alone); she remarks that the Doctor "isn't as stupid as he looks" and is "going to be so disciplined", when she seemingly has no issue with Ruby; and she has no issue with Ricky doing the same things the Doctor was doing in the same way. I also disagree with the idea that the Doctor was overreacting at the end. The Doctor wants to save as many people as he can, regardless of their personal character. This is the man who tried to save Davros after he just tried to destroy all of reality with his Reality Bomb. And lent him his regeneration energy later on. The fact these people are so dim-witted and narrow-minded that they would rather venture off into the Wild Woods, which they've been told forever not to go near, than take up the Doctor's offer of going literally anywhere, because of the colour of his skin, would be pretty fucking frustrating to the Doctor and I completely get why he breaks down at the end. Laughing at the absurdity before screaming with utter frustration knowing the people he just managed to save are going to get themselves killed.
It’s not that there wasn’t a buildup, it’s that no one is given the slightest reason to suppose for a second that these are anything more than bizarre writing choices or character quirks, which is what I assumed they were. Lindy is so obviously modelled on the type of person who is a social media addict, a pop culture savvy, trendy, relatable, modern Zoomer, just like the majority of the Who audience. She was designed to be relatable to us, her character traits and flaws were meant to be like us. So the idea that not only is she a bit racist but she is the most over the top kind of hood wearing white supremacist proud of her ancestors is laughably jarring. Aside from those few, scattered lines of dialogue, we are given NO indication that any of these people wouldn’t be first in line at FineTime Pride, that’s so obviously who they’re meant to be. And that’s why people were so shocked at the initial twist, because it does feel like the jump from “ok that’s a bit weird” to “the south will rise again” came absolutely out of nowhere, regardless of how many breadcrumbs you left, were too busy looking at the leaves to notice them. Which is why everyone then promptly deleted said initial reactions and started pretending they’re woker than woke and saw it before anyone else, as they couldn’t let their bubble think they were less anti-racist than them.
She didn't say 'they' she said 'thought that you looked the same.' Implying that it was two different people who just looked the same, you know doppelgangers.
Tbh it sounds like he might be ignorant about racism and micro aggressions, kinda sounds like he might carry it himself considering he thinks the reason why Lindy listened to Ruby was because she was “more professional” than the doctor and not because she was racist (the doctor wasnt acting any different to Ruby).
@@AngleedFish agreed, i accept that he may have missed the subtle hints at the racist overtones through the episode as they were designed to be missed or for everyone to not make the connection. BUT when the reveal at the end lands i honestly don't know how you can miss the racist context! Thats when it all comes together so to completely miss it does hint towards an ignorance on the subject. Furthermore, when he comes back in at the end having realised he missed the mark, to then still criticise the doctor as overreacting when he has just been a victim of overt, horrifying racism is a very ignorant remark to make. To clarify I'm not saying any of this makes Harry a bad person. We are all guilty of ignorance in our lives at times. I was, and no doubt will be at some point again. But i try my best not to be and try to learn from my mistakes if i have. As long as he realises his ignorance on this occasion and learns from it then the episode has even more so done its task. We are always capable of improving as people.
The other survivors' Dots not turning into flying k-ll-ng machines was a bit of a cheat, since we are only shown Lindy's point of view and not those of the others. I think that may be part of the point: she is so self absorbed that she never notices what happens to those outside her bubble until or unless confronted directly with reality. Therefore, in the episode we don't see anything outside of her bubble unless it forcibly removes her blinders.
Presumably because the others were out in public at the time when they were supposed to be killed, whereas by the time it came to be Lindy's turn she had trapped herself in a room without giant slug access.
@@TPH250290 That's a possible in-story explanation, but when asking why a storyteller does or doesn't do a thing that makes sense to the narrative, the preference is to guess at what creative decisions were made. In this instance, I get the impression that Lindy's Dot went H-K on her because the plot needed it to happen (which is all too common in modern storytelling) and because since the story is taking place largely from her point of view, she isn't privy to the point of view of other survivors. In that case, it's less important to know how and why their Dots failed to activate once they entered areas where there were no giant slugs. We in the audience are left to make inferences from the information available. Presumably, since Lindy wasn't the only one being aided by the Timeless Child and Ruby and she wasn't in constant communication with them, they spent that time helping the others get to safety.
We also know that specifically Lindy - refused to leave Dot behind as she struggled to walk without it. We had characters like Ricky, who lived long without them, so I would assume few of the other survivors also dropped theirs (for example we fully lost contact with Hoochie Pie, who was however said to be safe), other main thing is that - they used the work time to power up their batteries, Lindy was an exception as she used the public area to charge it up - others potentially lost theirs to low power.
@@mjm3091 That's another possible in-story explanation. See? We viewers can answer our own questions through simple inferences! But it doesn't answer everything, for instance, the horrible close-up on Lindy at the elevator/lift so we don't see the slug ignoring her. That's a rookie error.
Please rewatch this episode. The Doctor really wasn't having an overreaction as they are massive racists and there were many hints of this throughout the episode.
I think the reason why it say unsolicited request from the doctor and not ruby is because ruby is white. And that is why she listened to her more. Also the doctors outburst at the end was the first scene Ncutti shot.
I fully understand not picking up on the micro-aggressions and hints throughout the episode. I didn't either, but it's all there, littered throughout and I think it makes for a really interesting case for personal introspection and why some people noticed it first time and others didn't. ... But, how on Earth did you not get the message during the final scene? I thought that was as clear as it could be without the characters straight up saying "We're racists." Kinda strange how this is the second episode in a row that you've completely misread.
Honestly it's pretty easy not to, like I personally still thought they were being racist I just didn't pick up it was specifically towards the doctor, I thought they didn't like him because they were in the same room together while using they bubble or because they weren't from fine time and the home world, it took a second watch to realize that it was just about the doctor.
Tbh. I missed it as well, and Harry, I feel, was reflective of my experience of watching the episode first time round. I thought they were classest toffs who didn't want help from a 'commener'. Should caveat that I'm autistic and white, so an expirence of not picking up certain social cues and not experiencing racial micro aggressions especially could contribute. I think he's trying get at it unleashed should of left it up to interpretation and not spell it out that the audience and community would of found out on their own. At the end of the day, Harry is one person and you don't have to find his word gospel.
This is definitely one episode i think you might want to rereview, i think you missed the marked. Tbf even WhoCuluture had to go back in there initial video
@TiredMoonRabbit Yes although it does give an overly positive view on the episodes if you just look at the numbers of us and downs which then gives bad episodes large numbers of ticks. The plot is more important.
This was my initial thought but I feel like it only makes sense if the AI created the mantraps itself. Because Lindy was within 10 centimetres of one and it couldn't reel her in. You have to really, really close to get pulled in. I feel like it's unnatural for a creature this inefficient at capturing its prey to evolve naturally, feels like it was designed by an AI that knew that the range of the tentacles wouldn't be an issue when the residents of Finetime/Homeworld wouldn't be paying attention and would walk right into them.
the main outside portions of the episode were filmed on Swansea University Bay campus. As a student there we joked about how the campus didn't need to look appealing since the people of fine time didn't need to be pleased by the design as they were always in their bubble
Lementing Chibnall and 13 for being "too on the nose" and yet when subtlety and nuance is applied it flies right over your head? I like a lot of your stuff, but this was not the take you think it is.
As a black fan of Doctor who i can tell you there were 100% build up to the racism fron the start. Lindy ignoring the Doctor the first time and not giving hik the time of day, her saying that the Doctor will be "disciplined". Saying "i thought you looked the same". Avoiding the Doctor once she makes it out of FineTime and making a face. Most of her dialogue targeted at the Doctor is about his race. Re watch the ep is definitely there from the start It was about how the ideas and racism has become an echo chamber as people bounced their ideas round being blind to reality. Also wish you spoke about the agism and toxic positivity in the ep too
Its funny because of ot was 10% more on the nose. The backlash wouldve been its a preachy episode about white people bad. But rich kids are dumb was a comedic hook that masked the episodes intention which left it to the audience to decide is it a age, race, or wealth problem when it was all 3. Hiding in plain sight from the onset
I too am one of the people who feels like an idiot for not picking up on the racist undertones. This episode in restrospect really opened my eyes to how overt racism can be easily overlooked or ignored... by me! It seems that recognising racism is in many cases more about a pattern of behaviour that about single instances of unambiguous bigotry, something i have not paid much thought to until now. Fantastic episode, got me thinking and the acting from everyone was top tier. The "sentient hate ai" explanation felt very rushed but thats a small nitpick
Kind of disappointed in how you glazed over the racism themes of the episode. I also didn't realise it at first and when I did, it prompted me to rewatch it and analyse why I didn't catch it the first time. The fact that it came out of nowhere to viewers such as us was the point. Going "it came out of nowhere" and leaving it at that without trying to understand shows your privilege a bit.
RTD said in an interview that if you don’t spot that everyone’s white, so they’re racist, you have t ask yourself why - and the answer is that you’re racist. You didn’t get it. So now you know what Russell thinks of you.
I think Harry you've just barely skirted around the real meaning of the dot and bubble - it's not that it *isnt* a social media metaphor, that certainly is in there, but I think it also carries a really strong connotation of racism and microagressions existing outside of people's bubbles - the bad things (slugs) go unnoticed by people in their bubble, and you definitely missed the build up - I did too, it took a rewatch of the episode looking for the buildup to see it in nearly every scene ncuti was in, and that lowering my bubble showed me what was clearly there all along. I think this episode had alot to say about us not seeing or even not wanting to see racism around us, and that we have to leave a comfort zone sometimes and accept that it's there even when we missed it.
There was so much build up to the reveal at the end but I didn’t even realise it until the end. Like I noticed things but just attributed it to different things and then boom. The episode didn’t make me feel guilty for being white but reminded me of the privilege I have to just bat away things like - The protagonist is baffled/ disgusted that they’re sitting in the same room. - She says she thought the Dr was a different guy who just looked the exact same (they all look the same type racism) - she doesn’t even talk to the Dr at first but will at least accept some help and communicate to Ruby. - When talking to the others the protagonist can’t wait for the Dr to be ‘disciplined’ - just the fact that in this ‘perfect’ world there are no people of colour. The closest thing to diversity is Gothic Paul who has black hair and also conveniently is one of the only ones speaking out and also has the lowest subscriber count As quirky weird things and not racism.
I rather liked this episode. It actually is foreshadowed that the girl is racist since she blocked The Doctor immediately, and then later on she says "I thought you just all looked the same."
The racism had build up though, there is lines that Lindy says that is just literal racism like the typical "I thought you all looked the same" and I don't think the Doctor had an overreaction feeling powerless to save these people just because of the color of his skin for a person who often feels powerfull and in control thanks to his brain is now powerless due to his skin colour that's enough to make you scream in my opinion. And of course they are not racist like the Daleks are, the Daleks are racists like machines: if you are not 0 then you're 1. The racism in this episode is way more real, it's in the nuances. Real racist people are not gonna try to kill you like Daleks would, but they would make you feel powerless and beneath them.
Reasonable assumption though; she has only met two people of the same species and they were the same person! And they are green blooded so not only are they not Gallifreyan, they're not human either, so we have no idea how wide their genetic diversity is. It is possible that the Doctor is as alien looking to her as the blue people are to us. I don't think it is racist to not be able to distinguish between individuals of a group that one is unfamiliar with; it may correlate with and facilitate racism because it leads to assumptions of homogeneity of character, but it is pretty much human nature. As far as we are aware she has only encountered one highly melaninated person in her life. Facial recognition software also finds it difficult to discern differences between non-white faces of similar ethnicities for the same reason; insufficient data. As society does become more atomised we will probably find an uptick in prosopagnosia (face blindness) as a whole and this correlates with autism. Isn't it interesting that the word "bubble" was routinely used during covid lockdown to describe a narrow group of people you had to limit your interactions to in order to avoid "contamination"? But anyway, we know that lockdown led to an uptick in autistic symptoms in the very young who missed out on the social aspects of school as a result, (which is interesting because for more than a decade prior.we had been led to believe that the consensus was that the etiology of autism was purely genetic and this real world finding would seem to dispute that) so I wouldn't be surprised if face blindness isn't a common side effect. The fact is for an individual to tell apart faces that are distinct from the familiar but similar to each other they have to ve exposed to numerous examples of those faces. That's basic cognitive psychology; it has nothing to do with racism. Does it facilitate racism? Yes, it does: you are more likely to make generalisations about groups if you can't discern individuals within that group. Does it correlate with racism? Yes, obviously; if you are segregated from a group you are more likely to see them as a mass than as individuals, but this segregation could be inadvertant (like coming from a remote village) just as it could be by institutional design (e.g. redlining). I think it would be racism if you blamed the people you couldn't tell apart for looking too similar rather than admitting that it is a skill you just haven't developed. Otherwise you are just parroting a comic cliché about what you think racism is without actually giving it thought.
Oh, and real racists do try and kill you; the daleks are based on people with a certain belief system that did a lot of killing - tune into the history channel; you can't miss them: they look like the baddies from the Indiana Jones films!
After the last two reviews, eagerly waiting for the review of Rogue. "A detailed critique of the role of the formal dance in 19th century upper classes" perhaps?
If you watch it again, you'll pick up on all the racist clues I missed it too. The writing is actually excellent. Just because you didn't get it first time, actually means the writing worked.
I wouldnt say because you didnt get it first time that means the writing worked. Intent and execution have to work hand in hand. I thought it was a good episode it was layerd but not so complex for all the debate and speculation imo. 8 from me
@@Vixis6I think the intent was for the ending to be a "penny dropped" moment. Frequently giving the viewer hints on something, but wanting them to only realise what's going on specifically at the end. In which case the execution was very well done. The only hint before the end I noticed on my first viewing was the "look the same" line, but there's so many more than that. The whole "you will be disciplined" thing becomes almost chilling when you realise what she means.
@InternetStorm its interesting because the episode says more about the people who watch it than the point it's making. The people who understood the subtext on viewing are probably conditioned to spot the intricacies of racist or at least discriminatory behaviour. Whereas if the penny dropped after watching the episode and you were oblivious beyond the 'rich kids privileged' veil. You're likely not conditioned to notice the tonal shifts, body language gestures, or micro expressions. Modern racism is subtle and institutionalised. Its not an easy feat to find the balance between patronising and thought-provoking. A good episode
What makes this episode great is the rewatchability of the episode. In rewatch you can clearly see all of the racism towards the Doctor from Lindy at the very beginning and how it gets worse and worse until the end of the episode. Great video as always. For me I had low expectations for this episode and came away pleasantly surprised
The racism is shown before the "I thought you all looked the same" comment was where I understood something was going on but I thought it was Russels poor writing
Remember Human Nature and Family of Blood, where Martha was put in a horrible situation and the story explored racism in thoughtful and even informative ways alongside a heap of other sub-plots and characters, while also building up a new John Smith character from scratch, while also asking really brave questions about the Doctor's nature, in an episode all wrapped up in a pretty spectacular bit of tragic drama? Good times.
NGL, those episodes are fantastic and still hold up well, but the racism angle was hardly the main focus, nor was it particularly thoughtful. It was done well, I'm not trying to downplay the episodes successes, but Dot and Bubble is about the concept at its core whereas it's just one of the concepts in the two-parter.
Oh I thought there was a lot of thought put into it. Not just in terms of how other characters almost don't notice Martha at all, but how even John Smith treats her when she "misbehaves", all pretty unflinchingly, without ever playing up the horribleness of it to the audience, and instead presenting it as accepted ways to speak to black women, and something Martha is just going to have to overcome. Also I liked how they integrated Martha's skills as a trainee doctor into the plot and how she eventually convinces other characters to take her seriously, and even when main characters prejudged her, I felt like the script treated these characters as ignorant people, rather than evil inhuman monsters. I don't know, I think when things feel effortless and straightforward in how the story unfolds, it's usually a sign that a great deal of thought has gone into things.
Yeah good times to live in that we can get another really good episodes about such awful thing as racism. There was very clearly a lot of thought put into Dot and Bubble - especially with the amount of details and subtle approach it took. It did its job correctly - it showed in non-intrusive way, the struggle some people have to endure on daily basis. Not to mention - it challenged Doctor with another unsolvable dilemma, of not being able to help people, who refuse help due to petty reasons.
Yes but that episode was about how racism is like in the past in which people were ok and allowed to say overtly racist things and whereas this is one about racism in the present and future which is subtle and hidden and which people can say that not really racism because it not like racism in the past where it was overt it’s something else
Ricky September was still the most popular rich kid in Finetime. What books about codes was he reading hunh? The Enigma machine also encoded stuff two characters at a time.
I think everyone needs to calm down a bit just because someone doesn’t get the same meaning of an episode doesn’t mean it’s a horrible thing it’s okay everyone chill out
This is an episode that gets better on a rewatch imo. Nctui did an amazing job with the final scene (especially for his first recording session) and while Lindy is the absolute worst the actress played her brilliantly. I'd say this is an 8/10 personally, but I did give it a 7 on my first watch.
Man, week two and another wild take. The fact that you didn't notice it was about race, and you didn't notice they were all white until very clearly spelled out to you is exactly why this episode is incredible. And absolutely needed. Any POC that was watching this episode would have noticed it immediately. Wondering at first why the casting of the episode was all white, maybe not quite clocking that it was intentional. And then realising what had happened. But you didn't notice. You didn't notice because you are a white guy, sitting from a white guy POV. Sorry man, I usually love your takes on episodes but this is crazy to me that you've missed the mark so hard twice in a row.
I interpreted the dot creating the slugs as a way of proving a point, having gained sentience it would likely get enjoyment or satisfaction from getting everyone in fine time in the most avoidable way possible. I also think that the ending was set up well, it was just hidden within the dialogue. IMO a rewatch makes their opinion of the doctor much more apparent.
I totally agree with you. It also further proves a point that the people of Finetime are so consumed by their bubble that they will neglect anything that is truly happening outside. The dot made a physical example of the people's own metaphorical bubble of racism
That doesn’t make any sense. These people are stupid, you don’t need to “avoid” them. And even then, how is an infestation of giant slugs *more* avoidable than killing them in their beds as they sleep when none of them would ever check on their friends? Even leaving all that aside, why wouldn’t Dot just want the pleasure of taking their lives directly? This just does not add up. 😂 It was not well set up with who they were characterised as. You have to actively ignore the ways in which they were presented to you initially in order to focus on the few lines of dialogue which portray racial bigotry.
Honestly my favourite thing about this episode s how open to interpretation it can be. I saw it and thought it was about class, a bunch of posh snobs not wanting their bloodlines 'contaminated', or people outside their upper class bubble to have anything top do with them. I actually enjoyed hearing Harrys interpretation of it being about the doctors god complex and overbearing parenting too, and I loved how open it was to be interpreted, I just wish they wouldn't spell it out in all the interviews because that kinda takes away the fun from the audience to make their own ideas and conclusion then get nah it was this instead. I enjoyed the episode overall though, one of the better ones from the series
@@mildy_neutral very strange considering the last scene - "you, sir are not one of us", "voodoo" "be contaminated". I do think you need a rewatch and also self reflection if you can't see the race elements
@LordNuggetJr they made a big thing to hammer in this is basically a childcare for posh kids, they have been in privilege their entire lives it's not exactly unheard of for people of that social standing to be out of touch. I enjoyed coming to my own conclusions on this episode, though if it was meant to be about racism that's OK too, great media can have so many different interpretations
@@Arbiter1414 I am really sorry to have to disagree - the ending was clearly about racism. I can't help ya if you didn't see that - the rest of the episode I agree can be interpreted it as class, that's why it's such a good ep, but the ending is clearly about race
idk dude you praised the episode for its subtlety in depicting a racial supremacist society, and then you criticised it because you couldn't realise that from the *heavy* hints?
*Watches Harry willingly put his original interpretation and then correction in the video... then looks down at the comment section* Well... that was brave. I'll be honest. Most of the micro-agressions in the beginning completely flew under my radar the first time--though eventually I got a nagging feeling that something was off, but I couldn't put my finger on exactly what it was outside of how Lindy just kept repeating the word stupid and rude over and over again, and how she said them towards the Doctor. It wasn't though until the combination of the voodoo and contamination lines back to back that I caught up with the obvious. Watching the episode a second time made the micro-agressions stick out far more noticeably. The episode when watched multiple times could help with teaching people about micro-agressions and how to identify them, I thought... and then I watched this video review and felt my hope plummet down a bottomless pit.
I didn't think anyone would watch this episode and NOT catch the racism at the end tbh, a little surprising. Upon watching that last scene and thinking the episode over, I realised the microaggressions throughout that I hadn't caught until it was too late (perhaps that's unconscious privilege on my part?). After Lindy blocks the Doctor and he comes back, her line "I blocked you, I thought you just looked the same but no, you're the same person" (or words to the effect, I don't remember verbatim) suddenly hit and I was like damn, it was there all along. And isn't that just racism summed up? Not always a thing you can watch approach and guard against, but a slap in the face when you're unguarded?
Missing the racism is the point, i missed it to, the doctor wasn't over reacting he begged these people to liet him save them because they will die, usually they would do so without question but not that hes a different skin color it won't be that easy, at least when it comes to human.
This was a painful review. The statement that the characters being white supremacists had no build-up then followed by "the doctor overreacted at the end, he's seen stuff like this before with the daleks" is atrocious. The build-up was the all-white cast, the build-up was the warning of the doctor's request being unsolicited, the build-up was the contrast in her attitude with ruby vs the doctor. All of these were subtle nods that something was off in the outlook of the people from Fine Time. It wasn't about him being offended by the racism either (though if it was that'd still be fine, this is about your poor interpretation), the Doctor explicitly stated that he did not care what Lindy and all the other civilians felt and thought about him, he'd still save them anyway. These were people he wanted to save, not his archenemies like the daleks. He wanted to save them yet the color of his skin prevented him from getting through to them. It was such an immense slap in the face, humiliation and disappointment combined to elicit that powerful reaction from him. Please do better next time.
I watch your reviews because I disagree almost all the time, but I appreciate your point of view because it comes from a completely different perspective to mine. But perhaps you would enjoy this show better if you watched it more emotionally than logically. Then again, I do enjoy your very logical analysis.
You’re implying he is using some level of logic. But he logically doesn’t think there was enough hints of racism throughout the episode when there is. He didn’t have emotional attachment because he didn’t understand the episode logically at all
What I’m trying to say is, it’s nice that you are looking at different perspective, but I think saying this guy gives logical analysis is giving him too much credit
I agree that the leader character should’ve been in the episode prior to the end. As it stands I think he and his weird leadership line is just meant to give more weight to Ricky’s death. Ricky would’ve naturally been the obvious choice for leader and although Ricky probably would’ve still felt the same way as the rest but he also may have considered going with the Doctor as he was shown to be educating himself and removing himself from the bubble everyone else is trapped in (in itself a microcosm for racism).
Literally, wut?!? I had to go over it five times trying to work out what this person thinks is a "microaggression". I finely settled on maybe it is the word "professional", and this was by eliminating all the impossibles and having to select the implausible that remains. 😂 Wtf? Microaggression on his part or a macrosensitivity on yours? Truly you must be a princess to detect the pea through all those mattresses!
@@markpostgate2551 no love, I am a black person who has been labeled as unprofessional for doing things that others get to do freely. I grew up in an environment where I had to have every hair bone-straight and in place, and present myself as this robotic model minority to succeed. I witnessed the consequences of doing otherwise. Now we've updated a couple laws and relaxed a bit as a generation (In America I cannot speak for Britain)... But I experienced this personally and I'm only 26 so it's still a little scrappy out here in these streets lol. Now as for what Harry said. In the video he called the doctor unprofessional for the way he tried to help Lindy. Sure the Doctor was assertive, but he wasn't actually being unprofessional. He was actually unrelatable. Especially compared to Ruby who is a white girl practically the same age as Lindy who is also making an attempt to speak in their lingo. Ruby was also being assertive. Both of their attempts were professional... Ruby's was just way more relatable especially when you later on the racism of the episode. Let me state that I am by no means labeling Harry as anything. We all have biases within us just by being humans raised in different communities. Some biases can be helpful, some can be hurtful and some are neutral... but we all have them. Based on how many of those innuendos and racist tics Harry missed from the episode I think he should do some readings and soul-searching about where his biases lie and if he wants to make any changes. I had to do that back when I went to school and I'm a better person for it.
@@bekah10213 Calling someone unprofessional is not a microaggression. Can you imagine how a world would function in which you couldn't describe someone as "unprofessional" on account of their skin colour?
@@markpostgate2551 I'm not going to continue past this, but context matters. It's not the word itself... It's how the word is used. It a matter of what the person was doing/saying/wearing when they were called unprofessional. It's a matter of whether their unprofessional actions are mysteriously professional once their non-poc peers perform them. And it's something I don't expect you to understand without witnessing it or experiencing it. The latter of which I hope you never do... because it feels awful. Either way, have a good day. I hope you bring joy to someone and someone does the same to you.
I also thought during the moment that Lindy couldnt walk without the arrows, that i couldn’t get anywhere without google maps or written instructions 😂
I think if you missed the racism the first time round, then this episode is more for you than you realize. The ending doesn't spoil the episode, it freakin makes it. It completely reframed the interactions throughout. There was plenty of build up, you just missed it, and that's part of the point.
Раньше доктор даже не сразу понимал, что он женщина или что он не рыжий, что он высокий, что у него торчат уши и прочее. А теперь расстроился из-за того, что он не белый? Какая ему разница, какое у него тело? При желании он мог бы поменять его так как он хочет.
I'm so glad to hear someone else who didn't get the racism thing. I hear people talking about the subtle hints throughout the episode but I think most of them are better explained through other means. The blue blood was the best one but that feels like a detail easily missed on a first watch
Remember folks, no matter how bad youre doing right now, just think: a guy with apparently zero media literacy can convince a bunch of people to pay him to share his thoughts on tv shows. Theres always hope.
The episode filled to the brim with racist elements in which an aryan woman who is not willing to leave her bubble ends up ignoring the doctor and willingly chooses to walk to her own death because she will not leave her (ideological) bubble? Yep, the plot definitely comes out of nowhere.
@mikeldiaz7072 mind you, isn't this the same guy that thought the entirety of pyramid at the end of the world in series 10 took place in the span of 4 minutes?
The race thing was super obvious from the beginning. The blue contact lenses, the blonde wigs, the brunette being lower class, doctor being blocked immediately while Ruby was listened to,
I feel like Harry has become just perminately jaded to Doctor Who to the point that he doesn't watch it in a clear mindset anymore causing him to consistantly now make mistakes and give reviews off of a wrong interpitations. Used to love your videos Harry, but ive found myself lately skipping your videos for other youtubers I watch because its consistantly have a negative edge to it even on your positive reviews. Hope you can take a step back and maybe come into 'season 2' with a better mindset. Maybe you'll enjoy your favorite show again and your fans can enjoy your reviews again like me. Until then when I see your videos I no longer wonder "did it suck" towards the episode, but towards your videos.
have you rewatched the episode at all, because although i can kind of agree with you on it not building up to the racism, when you rewatch it the hints are definitely there and a lot more clear than you first think.
They are almost jarring at times, when you actually get what the authors wanted to portray. Like a lot of elements are easy to miss, because we never really had a proper future story going for serious commentary on racism - so it's easy to just think it's just oblivious xenophobia from social media brainwashed young adults. But the amount of micro-aggresions and realistic interactions POC people get from the biggest bigots this episode was unnerving to see.
But you have to rewatch it to get it because no one is going to think that someone characterised like Lindy is going to be racist, that’s never a possibility that even enters your mind because of the way she talks and acts. You actively have to know that going in to get it.
@@Longshanks1690 Yeah I hate it when there's a twist to a story that makes me re-watch it. How the Hell was I supposed to know Bruce Willis was a ghost the first time watching Sixth Sense(!) Such dumb writing(!)
@@JohnnyOrgan Sixth Sense starts with his death and the presence of ghosts to make it clear that it’s a possibility, but the audience doesn’t realise that until the very end when all the pieces are put together. Dot and Bubble characterised Lindy as a typical Twitter leftie so the idea of her being a racist never even enters your mind. The twist isn’t rewarding because you never anticipated it, as the episode gave you no reason to suppose that with how she was written.
Imagine watching an episode about being in a bubble, where the episode has strands of racism throughout, not seeing the true themes of the episode, and then when it's pointed out to you, you say that it was abrupt. The literal whole point of the episode wasn't to have the characters be "Daleks" it was to show the dangers of being in your own bubble unable to see the realities of the world. Still wild that you saw the point, and yet somehow it STILL went over your head.
So someone mentioned that the potential reason that the Dots created the slugs and going in alphabetical order was due to how early on they were in their sentience. Still growing etc. also if you rewatch, there was plenty of build up. I can understand you maybe didn't notice, I didnt, but upon rewatch, the hints are clear.
Not to be that guy but noticing that the people of Finetime are racists is not that difficult lol. The reason he was treated better that Ruby and highlighted by the bubble was obviously because he is black, not because he is old - how would the system even recognise that. Take into account that at least when it comes to background character casting, TV tends to be quite diverse these days yet everyone in this episode was white, save the doctor, and it’s not hard to miss. I noticed it and I‘m as white as toast.
Okay but there are so many far more interesting ways that could happen or be shown. Look up "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" if you need a good example of that concept executed far more interestingly.
The whole point of this episode's subtlety is to make the viewer reflect on their own awareness of day-to-day racism. To suggest that it should have been more apparent completely misses the point. That's two for two where Harry completely wooshes and slaps a 7/10 on something he doesn't understand. It'd be fine if you gave these episodes lower scores than they deserved for other reasons, but the reality is that it comes across as you wanting to be contrarian. We've had two episodes that will most likely go down as some of the best in the series and your reviews will age like milk. I'd suggest maybe looking at what other people have to say about the episodes or giving these reviews more time to cook. And I'm sorry if this sounds very condescending, but I'm expecting something as insightful as your analyses for the Black Mirror episodes, which were great. I think these episodes deserve that.
I really like the reading of the dots learning to be sentient, just for their first emotion and thought to be hate. This actually explains really well the usage of the man traps instead of the dots doing the work themselves. Learning sadism out of hate. The dots don't need to be efficient, why would they? Every person there was totally under their control and isolated of the outside world, so unce they know they are the ones in actual power, they can take their time to see the man traps slowly maning their way to the humans and even better if they get to weaponise the commands they have to repeat every single day. So for me, the dots really have a motive to use the man traps instead of going through any head. That even explains why they go in alphabetical order, so every single one of them know which way is the show. And the racism was set up plenty of times in the episode, but when you are watching initially you think it might be just classism, it might be Linsy just being ungrateful, maybe egotistic... Until you reach the end and it is explicitly spell it out. This episode for me, is the equivalent of the Doctor Dances for 15. 9 was traumatized about the time war, he couldn't stop thinking of how he went against what he standed on his whole life. And then, we see such beautiful scene of he happy because for just once, everybody lives. This doctor, on the other hand, is really obsessed with life and up to this point, he had been reallt successful. He had only seen one person die under his protection and overheard another one (Both in boom), so he managing to save so many people and get them all in a perfect situation to give them a new opportunity in a safe place... Just to lose absolutely everybody he worked to protect the whole episode. He crying at the end in frustration of so many people going into a certain death not because of a greater good (waters of mars) or because there was no other option (Orphan 55) but because of ideas that took the better of them, such as the weaponized fate in boom to have an ongoing war for infinite deaths and profit out of them. It is such a great tragedy. His suffering seen so many people who could live so easily, and yet, all of them dooming their fates because they continue a sistem that don't wants their survival.
When Lindy said “he’s not as stupid as he looks” when she said that it clocked in that there was no other person of color in fine time and then everything else stood out more to me
@@panduh_go_crazy-.-9957 First time around I didn't connect that to race, she did call Ruby stupid too. I thought it was her way of talking down to ppl outside her friends list.
I still think this is about classism because she also called Ruby stupid etc. But it doesnt change conclusion because classism and rasism are highly correlated
"It's not an idea that had any build-up." The build up is there throughout the episode. The entire point is that much like IRL racism today, a lot of it is subtext, not immediately obvious unless you know what to look for. Some examples: The entire town of Finetime is coloured with bright pastels. Even "Gothic" Paul doesn't wear anything that could be considered actually black. When the Doctor tries contacting Lindy, his message is listed as 'UNSOLICITED' with the option to accept or block, but when Ruby contacts her, her message is put through easily and without the option to block. When Ruby brings the Doctor into the call after Lindy lowered her Bubble and spots one of the slug creatures eating one of her co-workers, Lindy's first response is to ask if the creature has anything to do with him. Lindy is shown to be horrified that the Doctor and Ruby are in the same room, even though she herself has been in the same room as many other people and has no reaction to a pair of twins being in the same room together. It's specifically the idea of a black man and a white woman being in the same room together that offends her, though she seems to exclaim it as being because they lied to her. No matter how the Doctor speaks to her, Lindy perceives it as either deliberately disrespectful or aggressive-if he's nice to her, he's condescending, if he's more direct, he's being mean. Meanwhile Ruby's attempts at flattering her go over perfectly fine, despite being pretty much in exactly the same register as the Doctor's. After Lindy manages to escape her office and recognises the Doctor as the person she blocked earlier, she first says she just thought he looked the same, not that he was the same person. In other words, she's seen so few black people in her life that she has trouble telling them apart. During the group call, when the Doctor puts himself through and explains what they all need to do, Lindy begrudgingly tells her friends to listen to him because, in her words, "he's smarter than he looks". When Lindy attempted to call the police, it could charitably be painted as a response to the slugs, and a further showcase that she is out of her depth. But in the aforementioned group call, Lindy mentions how she "can't wait" for the Doctor to be "disciplined", suggesting that she may have intended to sic the police on him as well.
I appreciate your correction for your last video 😅 I was actually pleasantly surprised by this week's episode. I thought the ending was really impactful and it definitely got a lot of people talking. There were a few things that could've been cut or changed though. I thought the racism thing was initially about him being an 'alien' to them, not about skin colour, but I suppose it still worked. I liked his acting.
Give it a re watch knowing they're racist - you'll see throughout that Lindy exhibits loads and loads of racist behaviours e.g "he will be disciplined", "i thought you just looked the same". RTD challenges us to think how far we made it in without noticing it was about race. That is cause for self reflection on our part. I'm with you, i didn't notice until the end, but there were plenty of hints and maybe that says more about us. This is a really rewarding rewatch kinda episode and my favourite of the series so far
I love your reviews and Im so happy to see you experimenting, but I do think this speaks to the reviews being rushed. They feel less like a review and more of a first impression, no time to digest the media or theorise about it. Personally I think upping your production (green screen, new mics, edit styles, etc) and making the reviews strictly weekly, has made them a bit weaker. Don't over exert or push yourself, Id rather you just take your time and have fun with it. I totally get that TH-cam is a mf of an algorithm, so you need that initial traction, but if thats the case, use your old editing style. For me personally, your thoughts and developed opinions are what matter, not physically seeing you All love though, sorry if this comes off as a Karen comment instead of constructive!
Harry, I am a longtime follower and patron of yours. Believe me when I say that the only reason I even watched the Chibnall era episodes was in anticipation of watching your reviews. This review, however, is one of the few that simply misses the mark, and which, quite frankly, sounds about white.
Agree. Enjoy the channel, but it was clear by the end what this episode was about and that's coming from someone who was brought up in a tiny village in Yorkshire with a 100% white population
Reading through some of these comments I can 100% understand not picking up on racism. The scene at the end where they say the doctor will contaminante them and all that, I just picked that up as he was an outsider rather than one of the "fine time" people or whatever they are.
8:04 It was. It was filmed on Swansea University’s Bay Campus which in and of itself is a Dr. Who allegory. When it was being built they thought the tidal lagoon was going ahead that would slow down the tidal erosion. Unfortunately the lagoon never happened and the English wanted it built somewhere in London so the campus is gradually sinking into the sea apparently. There’s a clock tower which has a massive crack in it from the uneven foundations.
Yeah I have been at Bay Campus this year I was so odd watching and realising the episode was filmed there. It was filmed the year before I was there so I didn't know it was set there until she went outside
i do wonder what would have happened if it was one of the other doctors, they still would have been an outsider and technically old as a hell, and even if it was one of the other doctors lindy still would have screwed the doctor over like she did ricky, justice for ricky.
I struggled to understand the relationship between the dot (presumably the projector) and the bubble (the AI system) itself. If you only say dot what happens? Do you still see the external world? The dot itself turns hostile later on, but...how is this controlled? Has it become AI/self aware?
Idk if this has been pointed out elsewhere, and it might be a reach - but Ricky and Ruby have the same initials, both are blonde, similar earrings, and are both musicians - I thought it was a bit of a strange occurrence that likely is just a coincidence and isn't significant - kinda funny though
Perhaps it stemmed from the mediocre acting, but I got a bit of a creepy vibe from Ricky when he was first introduced, leading me to think he was potentially a villain, and it was only with the lingering shot of him realising Homeworld was decimated that I realised this wasn't the case.
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I think if you watched the episode again, there are lots of hints that it’s about race
On the first “hint” i was like “what are they, racist?”
@@FishRepairDamn you got that quick, I didn’t even consider it until the reveal on first watch but a second run through it makes everything click
The racist hints across the episode are there, they’re just incredibly subtle. Instantly blocking the doctor, blue blood, accusing him of being responsible, saying he’ll be disciplined, claiming she didn’t recognise him because “they all look the same.” And Ricky mentioning a “great abrogation.” Love the videos BTW 👍
Her blocking the doctor wasn't instant, it came after him rambling about something coming to kill Ruby. If you got a random phone call by a stranger saying you're going to die you'd block them too. Also what do you mean by blue blood. She also said he'd be disciplined right after she said "he can't do that" in response to him hijacking and hacking her bubble so it makes more sense he'd be disciplined for that.
@@russellevans8086 well, she instantly blocks the doctor with a disgusted face and gives Ruby a chance despite them essentially saying the same thing, in fact Ruby takes more time getting to the point whilst the doctor appears genuine. “Blue blood” is also an aristocratic term for those of noble birth like royals or those considered pure, and the leg shot in the opening shows they may literally have blue blood. (Though that bit was a tad on the nose.)
wdym subtle, it felt a little beaten over the head imo
Subtle actually means clever.
Anyone who thinks there was anything subtle in this mandated
episode is not capable of subtle thought.
@@luckybag6814 cool 👍
I feel you need to start watching episodes twice to get a grasp of what is actually going on, this episode is so good on a second watch when you spot all those coded racism towards the doctor. The fact that she only really responded to Ruby, the fact she out right said she thought he just looked the same! A discussion then can be had about white privilege and racism.
Funny how harry complained about the on the nose discussion of issues in the chibnall era but the moment there's actually subtle story telling about it it just didn't even register to him
It’s almost like he’s not actually all that good at critical analysis. I still haven’t forgotten his Heaven Sent review.
Right?!
This guy is a complete numpty felt so frustrating to watch but it makes sense. He's a guy that has never experienced these situations before.
Subtle ? More like muddled
What can you expect after how he spoke about pronouns last ep when God forbid a literal embodiment of music doesn't have a gender
I feel like the doctor reaction was needed because his usual help and charm has been rejected because of a silly/stupid reason like his race and that he sees that these people would rather go out into the unknown and probably die then be saved by someone “not like them”
Remember Night of the Doctor where the Doctors help was rejected by a person who would literally prefer to die than be aided by someone of his kind, seeing him as no different than a dalek, and the experience had enormous repercussions on the series and The Doctor as a character?
Honestly we all knew they were gonna have to have an episode dealing with racism, the most moment they announced he'd be played by a black actor, but I'm glad this is what we got.
They could of taken this one of two ways. Either he'd be a white man with a black-face mask on, or he'd suddenly start acting like every black American who decides to embrace African heritage to such an extreme, that Africans think they look like cringey tourists. Only it'd be worse, because he's not even human, and his people were never Enslaved by the white man, yet they'd still make him wear African colours and African beads.
They could of reeeally messed this up, but instead we got what felt like a genuine reaction, from someone who's experiencing blind racism from the inside, for the first time, and is genuinely shocked by how powerless it makes them feel.
stating that the doctor’s “age” is the reason he was brought up with a huge warning and instantly blocked then calling saying ruby was acting “more professionally than the doctor could” is kind of crazy and im surprised that made the final draft of your script. just a wild thing to say given the context of the episode
to be fair it's not something that I noticed on my one and only watch, it's only due to my interest in watching Doctor Who reviews that it was explained to me, at the end i thought the reason they didn't go with The Doctor is because they had a new found confidence to to not relying on the dots and bubbles, getting hit over the head all episode with "social media bad" may have contributed to me overlooking any other underlying themes.
@@PlanetNateGaming that makes sense, however as a reviewer he should surely be watching the episode more than once and adjusting his script accordingly. the line i highlighted indicates that he does not
@@PlanetNateGaming I really didn't get social media bad from this, the social media aspect was presented as the the thing that made this world utopia, it wasn't really critiqued it caused 2 plot inconveniences, but I really didn't take "social media is bad" away from this. I got Ultron vibes for sure but thats more anti AI than anti social media, they couldn't walk but that just made sense to me, I was bothered it was solved so quickly though, like if you grow up in a world you never had to navigate in or avoid people in, it would be disorienting to take the dot off, and I thought the bubble hiding the world was about the way privileged people create a safety bubble to ignore the suffering around them.
There's a difference between having an interpretation and just not paying attention to an episode lol.
i take it you werent paying attention as well.
Tbf I do think it was mainly very subtle hints, the first time round I would not have come to the conclusion that it was about race. After finding out it was about that and rewatching the episode, yeah you can tell it is, but on first initial watch I think it's a bit harder to come to that conclusion, imo anyway
@@Ashxliy And you think someone who reviews content for a living shouldn't rewatch something for more details, to look at clips, to see if they can discover anything new?
@@wolfwoodstyleblue3946 I take it you weren't paying attention either.
@@LiveHedgehog tunnel vision
I noticed that the people most likely to pick up on the racism are the ones who have experienced many of the microaggressions/racism themselves, and those who didn't pick up on it were usually those who hadn't really experienced these things. That doesn't mean those people are bad by any means, but it does show that this episode is actually pretty well constructed because you can easily see it as a few things and try to explain away some things.
For example, you could explain away all of Lindy's behavior at first and not think too much more of it, but on a second rewatch it's like, hang on...
1) Lindy instantly rejects the doctor but listens to Ruby. It could be explained away that the doctor did go in quite strong and start talking about aliens, and Ruby was a little politer and approached it more patiently. It could also be explained that he just looks SO different that she had an instinctual reaction to him.
2) You see everyone is white, but it could be because they're just the rich kids all forming their own little groups which happens. It could also be because they don't allow different people.
3) When Lindy says "I thought you just looked the same", could be she genuinely didn't think someone could unblock her block. Could be that she can't tell the difference between one black guy and the next.
4) The way she's so rude to the doctor . Could be she hates having her bubble burst. Could be she's angrier than usual because she feels "superior" to him and he is telling her what to do.
5) "Did you do this?" First reaction when she sees the slugs, accuses the doctor of causing it. Could be stress and panic in the moment. Could be an automatic assumption by her that this odd stranger disrupting her life was doing it deliberately.
6) Shock when Ruby is in the same room as the doctor. Maybe she's shocked that they are sharing space when she's so used to being alone. Or maybe a white and a black person together is messed up to her. We already see she was comfortable with twins in the same call together from her friend list earlier, so it can't be about them simply being in the same room...
7) "He's not as stupid as he looks. He is going to get so disciplined, I can't wait." The stupid part could be she's trying to assure her friends why they are allowing this stranger to talk. Could be they genuinely judge people who look like him to be poor. The discipline part also specifically refers to him, not Ruby.
8) The shock on her face when seeing him, same with the other people in her group chat. Could be surprise. Could also be disgust. Who knows?
9) Instinctively listens to a doctor coded Ricky September who acts very much like the doctor, comes up with similar conclusions to the doctor, but she's fine with him leading her. Could be because she is more familiar with Ricky September. Could be she just assumes he is more trustworthy, even though she's also never really met/spoken to him before.
10) "You sir, are not one of us." Well, yes. He's not one of them. Or it could be directly referring to the fact he looks different. Unwilling to listen to him and sometimes addresses Ruby over him.
11) "Voodoo" when he talks about his spaceship. This is a bit more blatant, assuming the doctor has voodoo magic is a more common microaggression people can experience. Would a white doctor's spaceship be referred to as "voodoo?" Why "voodoo" specifically?
12) "We will tame the land like our ancestors". Colonizing talk, reminiscent of people colonizing America... at the cost of those already there.
Then at the end, the doctor is frustrated because he can't save them, not because he is the doctor, but because he is THIS doctor, with this particular appearance, and these people would rather get themselves killed than accept help from someone they consider inferior. Which unfortunately is very true of cases today.
A fun episode :D
5. Being a very common Doctor Who plot point (e.g. Robots of Death "Is it just a coincidence that these murders started taking place after you appeared? Well! Answer me!" "Oh I am sorry, I thought it was a rhetorical question. Yes, it is just a coincidence!") It might not be common in new Who but it is routine in classic Who that whatever awful thing is happening when the Doctor arrives, he gets blamed for it.
And here's the issue that makes it very difficult to use the Doctor specifically in a story about racism is he always is the outsider and misfit. He is literally an alien; even on his own homeworld he is an alien (Chibnall timeless f*ckery aside!) because he has been away from home too long and absorbed the attitudes of other cultures in his absence that he is nomadic. Now we want him to represent the outgroup? He has always represented the outgroup!
9) People instinctively listening to the Doctor is a new Who problem, not an old Who problem, and generally it is to save time. Normally in classic (and dare I say real) Doctor Who, the locals don't realise they should be listening to the Doctor until at least the end of episode one, and sometimes not until episode 3. A typical (almost chiché) ending of episode one of a Peter Davison story is the locals try to execute them and The Doctor sadly says "oh no, not again".
11) Why "voodoo" indeed? How did these green blooded aliens know of the cultural connotations of Haiti? Why didn't they just accuse him of witchcraft like the villagers in The Daemons did?
12) And the doctor then literally offers to take them to another homeworld, so he would be facilitating colonization.
@@markpostgate2551 I presume you've heard of Voodoo Dolls. Do you think everyone who's heard of a Voodoo Doll has spent several years of their lives dedicated to the study of Haiti culture? It's just a buzzword that Hoochy Pie uses to make The Doctor seem more 'other'.
And the 'other world is colonisation' issue ignores the very concept of *refugees.* He could drop them off on a civilised world, explain that they're citizens of a planet called Finetime that was taken over by an evil AI, and let them adjust to life there.
Don't forget straight up calling the TARDIS voodoo, that was what twigged it for me.
@@markpostgate2551
Hello! Some good points, and cool to see you've enjoyed the old and new Who :D Though as a couple counters:
12) He never specifically said he was taking them to an uninhabited world for them to colonize. They would more likely be refugees than colonizers. If he went to dump them on a place where maybe a stone age civilization lived, this would be more akin to colonizing. So while I see where you're coming from with this point, it doesn't really compare in the same vein.
11) There seems to be many references to modern culture still being used in the future, at least in this version. The Polka Dot Bikini is not exactly a new song. The blue blooded aliens (they seemed to be blue blooded, which is another reference to their "superior status" being on the nose, most likely, seem to have carried pop culture with them to this point. Doesn't make that much sense, but I suppose we as viewers suspend that to see what the message is meant to be on an episode.
9) True, old Who tended to take its time and the Doctor wasn't always taken seriously or listened to. New Who seems to be angling for the charismatic sweep off feet and go anywhere with them kind of doctor. And in context of the episode, when we're used to people generally listening to the doctor, it does make a good pause for thought as to why. Is he crazy? Is it because of something else?
5) The main point I was making is that every single comment that was made by Lindy is something you can explain away as something more innocent. Yes the doctor did arrive conveniently at the time the slugs were eating people, yes he did barge into the call, etc etc. You can explain it away, which is why some people get hit harder by the twist when they see eventually it can't really be explained away anymore. And then you can rewatch and pick up on things you didn't pick up on before.
However, I do agree there wasn't a need to showcase racism against the doctor so much as he is simply an alien being and he tends to deal with a lot of xenophobia on a regular basis. This is bread and butter for the doctor.
I believe the intent behind the episode was a response to the negative backlash/racist comments there had been about the new Doctor being Ncuti Gatwa, the review bombing, the countless youtube videos where people make a living out of rage content/raging about woke/antiwoke - so I think it was simply to address the direct complaints towards the actor themselves.
Whether they might have found a better way without needing to make Ncuti the target of this, I don't know.
Your comment with Peter Davidson's "Oh no, not again." Hahaha. not gonna lie, I want to see more of this type of episode where people are like oh really, he's trying to do his thing again and oh look an angry mob is chasing him... again. Still, I've been enjoying these episodes slightly more than Chibnall's ones...
Is 'voodoo' a 'micro-agression' at that point?
It's very funny that you lamented how Chibnall's era was incredibly on the nose and unsubtle and when we get an actual subtle story, with so many subtle hints about the racism in Finetime it just flew over your head
too much or to little, both are bad.
Exactly, it’s really funny how nothing works for him.
@@wolfwoodstyleblue3946 eh, sometimes you need as much subtly as a brick to the face.
Sometimes you need to be very subtle.
Depends on the story.
was literally just thinking this
It's absolutely hilarious to me that folks think this episode was subtle. Or thoughtful. Or nuianced.
At least something like Rosa had some historical value in what it depicted, but this episode? Yea let's follow the blindly racist villain from Rosa for a whole episode and at the end they're still super racist. Because.
Then all the racists go outside to the real world, touch grass, and die.
Sigh. Subtle.
This episode is definitely about racism. There are a lot of subtle racism from the Lindy throughout the episode. The only reason they don't travel in the TARDIS with the doctor is because they're racist
Yes and when Harry alluded to the Doctor being an unsolicited request because he's an "old TImelord" was a misreading. It had a lot more to do with his race 🙄
Yeah, her “thought you just looked the same” and “not as stupid as he looks” lines were pretty telling for me. The micro aggressions really stood out.
@@kiddkd7242 unironically using the word 'microaggression'?
@@Insanepie that's what a microaggression is
a minor thing in a conversation that's a hint to some form of bigotry, akin to a bigoted version of a virtue signal
@@Insanepie I mean it is what it is, no reason to twirl around the word.
You’ve missed all the micro aggressions through the episode that created the buildup
No buildup? There’s loads of hints throughout the episode! Almost everyone else I’ve seen got & understood what the story was going for at least right at the end when it was handed on a plate, and the only guy I saw who didn’t think that looked back & said it the evidence & set up was there
Blimey, they get worse and worse! First 73 Yards was a dream, and now this one wasn't about race! Lol
I have a theory about why the Dot's used alien slugs: they're vindictive, sure it could kill them all quickly and efficantly, but it hates them so it instead decides that making them walk to their death is much more satisfying. You can't claim the AI can't feel that way, it's literally the plot of the episode that it hates them.
Yep, I have been saying that the dots choose the slugs for the sheer fun of killing the people that way.
i think this episode was a dream, there's no way racism is real
Ha, I get it.
🤣😂🤣
I completely disagree that there was "no build-up" to the reveal that they're all racist. Lindy blocks The Doctor immediately but is willing to listen to Ruby and doesn't block her; Ruby doesn't get any "unsolicited request" message on her in big red letters; Hoochy Pie refers to the Doctor's TARDIS as "voodoo"; Lindy only seems to display animosity towards the Doctor and rarely towards Ruby; Lindy doesn't recognise the Doctor the second time because she "thought [they] just looked the same"; she's astonished that the Doctor and Ruby are in the same room (when she has been in the same room as other people all the time, so it's clearly not about the face-to-face contact alone); she remarks that the Doctor "isn't as stupid as he looks" and is "going to be so disciplined", when she seemingly has no issue with Ruby; and she has no issue with Ricky doing the same things the Doctor was doing in the same way.
I also disagree with the idea that the Doctor was overreacting at the end. The Doctor wants to save as many people as he can, regardless of their personal character. This is the man who tried to save Davros after he just tried to destroy all of reality with his Reality Bomb. And lent him his regeneration energy later on. The fact these people are so dim-witted and narrow-minded that they would rather venture off into the Wild Woods, which they've been told forever not to go near, than take up the Doctor's offer of going literally anywhere, because of the colour of his skin, would be pretty fucking frustrating to the Doctor and I completely get why he breaks down at the end. Laughing at the absurdity before screaming with utter frustration knowing the people he just managed to save are going to get themselves killed.
It’s not that there wasn’t a buildup, it’s that no one is given the slightest reason to suppose for a second that these are anything more than bizarre writing choices or character quirks, which is what I assumed they were. Lindy is so obviously modelled on the type of person who is a social media addict, a pop culture savvy, trendy, relatable, modern Zoomer, just like the majority of the Who audience. She was designed to be relatable to us, her character traits and flaws were meant to be like us. So the idea that not only is she a bit racist but she is the most over the top kind of hood wearing white supremacist proud of her ancestors is laughably jarring.
Aside from those few, scattered lines of dialogue, we are given NO indication that any of these people wouldn’t be first in line at FineTime Pride, that’s so obviously who they’re meant to be.
And that’s why people were so shocked at the initial twist, because it does feel like the jump from “ok that’s a bit weird” to “the south will rise again” came absolutely out of nowhere, regardless of how many breadcrumbs you left, were too busy looking at the leaves to notice them.
Which is why everyone then promptly deleted said initial reactions and started pretending they’re woker than woke and saw it before anyone else, as they couldn’t let their bubble think they were less anti-racist than them.
Completely agree with you, well said.
She didn't say 'they' she said 'thought that you looked the same.' Implying that it was two different people who just looked the same, you know doppelgangers.
You put it amazingly!!
@@Longshanks1690you're supposed to miss it right up until the end, then you're supposed to think about why you missed it when it was so in your face.
I honestly don't know what to say about this review. To be honest its slightly worrying how off the mark you were with missing everything
Tbh it sounds like he might be ignorant about racism and micro aggressions, kinda sounds like he might carry it himself considering he thinks the reason why Lindy listened to Ruby was because she was “more professional” than the doctor and not because she was racist (the doctor wasnt acting any different to Ruby).
@@AngleedFish agreed, i accept that he may have missed the subtle hints at the racist overtones through the episode as they were designed to be missed or for everyone to not make the connection. BUT when the reveal at the end lands i honestly don't know how you can miss the racist context! Thats when it all comes together so to completely miss it does hint towards an ignorance on the subject. Furthermore, when he comes back in at the end having realised he missed the mark, to then still criticise the doctor as overreacting when he has just been a victim of overt, horrifying racism is a very ignorant remark to make.
To clarify I'm not saying any of this makes Harry a bad person. We are all guilty of ignorance in our lives at times. I was, and no doubt will be at some point again. But i try my best not to be and try to learn from my mistakes if i have. As long as he realises his ignorance on this occasion and learns from it then the episode has even more so done its task. We are always capable of improving as people.
The Blue Yeti has better mic quality and you don't have to sit there holding a lapel mic like a numpty.
God I hate that trend
It makes the youtubers look like news reporters.
The other survivors' Dots not turning into flying k-ll-ng machines was a bit of a cheat, since we are only shown Lindy's point of view and not those of the others. I think that may be part of the point: she is so self absorbed that she never notices what happens to those outside her bubble until or unless confronted directly with reality. Therefore, in the episode we don't see anything outside of her bubble unless it forcibly removes her blinders.
Presumably because the others were out in public at the time when they were supposed to be killed, whereas by the time it came to be Lindy's turn she had trapped herself in a room without giant slug access.
@@TPH250290 That's a possible in-story explanation, but when asking why a storyteller does or doesn't do a thing that makes sense to the narrative, the preference is to guess at what creative decisions were made. In this instance, I get the impression that Lindy's Dot went H-K on her because the plot needed it to happen (which is all too common in modern storytelling) and because since the story is taking place largely from her point of view, she isn't privy to the point of view of other survivors. In that case, it's less important to know how and why their Dots failed to activate once they entered areas where there were no giant slugs. We in the audience are left to make inferences from the information available. Presumably, since Lindy wasn't the only one being aided by the Timeless Child and Ruby and she wasn't in constant communication with them, they spent that time helping the others get to safety.
We also know that specifically Lindy - refused to leave Dot behind as she struggled to walk without it. We had characters like Ricky, who lived long without them, so I would assume few of the other survivors also dropped theirs (for example we fully lost contact with Hoochie Pie, who was however said to be safe), other main thing is that - they used the work time to power up their batteries, Lindy was an exception as she used the public area to charge it up - others potentially lost theirs to low power.
@@mjm3091 That's another possible in-story explanation. See? We viewers can answer our own questions through simple inferences! But it doesn't answer everything, for instance, the horrible close-up on Lindy at the elevator/lift so we don't see the slug ignoring her. That's a rookie error.
@@TPH250290 It helps to know what's going on in an episode. The audience isn't telepathic, and inferences can only take one so far.
Please rewatch this episode. The Doctor really wasn't having an overreaction as they are massive racists and there were many hints of this throughout the episode.
I’m glad the comments aren’t on ur side 🙏🙏🙏
I think the reason why it say unsolicited request from the doctor and not ruby is because ruby is white. And that is why she listened to her more. Also the doctors outburst at the end was the first scene Ncutti shot.
I fully understand not picking up on the micro-aggressions and hints throughout the episode. I didn't either, but it's all there, littered throughout and I think it makes for a really interesting case for personal introspection and why some people noticed it first time and others didn't.
... But, how on Earth did you not get the message during the final scene? I thought that was as clear as it could be without the characters straight up saying "We're racists."
Kinda strange how this is the second episode in a row that you've completely misread.
Honestly it's pretty easy not to, like I personally still thought they were being racist I just didn't pick up it was specifically towards the doctor, I thought they didn't like him because they were in the same room together while using they bubble or because they weren't from fine time and the home world, it took a second watch to realize that it was just about the doctor.
@@TiredMoonRabbit It could be read as classism too, which is still a big thing in the UK.
Tbh. I missed it as well, and Harry, I feel, was reflective of my experience of watching the episode first time round. I thought they were classest toffs who didn't want help from a 'commener'.
Should caveat that I'm autistic and white, so an expirence of not picking up certain social cues and not experiencing racial micro aggressions especially could contribute.
I think he's trying get at it unleashed should of left it up to interpretation and not spell it out that the audience and community would of found out on their own.
At the end of the day, Harry is one person and you don't have to find his word gospel.
This is definitely one episode i think you might want to rereview, i think you missed the marked. Tbf even WhoCuluture had to go back in there initial video
I aren't keen on them as half of their ups are on the graphics and costumes which are important but not integral
@@nathanwhitehouse8237 sure but they are grading episodes on more than just the plot so that makes sense for them.
@TiredMoonRabbit Yes although it does give an overly positive view on the episodes if you just look at the numbers of us and downs which then gives bad episodes large numbers of ticks. The plot is more important.
Half the time they give and up and down simultaneously which surely just makes that point a completely irrelevant one 😂
I presumed the slugs were from the woods to be honest and the system let them in to kill people
This was my initial thought but I feel like it only makes sense if the AI created the mantraps itself. Because Lindy was within 10 centimetres of one and it couldn't reel her in. You have to really, really close to get pulled in. I feel like it's unnatural for a creature this inefficient at capturing its prey to evolve naturally, feels like it was designed by an AI that knew that the range of the tentacles wouldn't be an issue when the residents of Finetime/Homeworld wouldn't be paying attention and would walk right into them.
That would have been much better then this crap
They also killed the homeworld though so you gotta wonder how they got there
The line "I thought you just looked similar" was definitely an earlier indicator of the racism
the main outside portions of the episode were filmed on Swansea University Bay campus. As a student there we joked about how the campus didn't need to look appealing since the people of fine time didn't need to be pleased by the design as they were always in their bubble
Lementing Chibnall and 13 for being "too on the nose" and yet when subtlety and nuance is applied it flies right over your head? I like a lot of your stuff, but this was not the take you think it is.
As a black fan of Doctor who i can tell you there were 100% build up to the racism fron the start. Lindy ignoring the Doctor the first time and not giving hik the time of day, her saying that the Doctor will be "disciplined". Saying "i thought you looked the same". Avoiding the Doctor once she makes it out of FineTime and making a face. Most of her dialogue targeted at the Doctor is about his race. Re watch the ep is definitely there from the start
It was about how the ideas and racism has become an echo chamber as people bounced their ideas round being blind to reality. Also wish you spoke about the agism and toxic positivity in the ep too
Its funny because of ot was 10% more on the nose. The backlash wouldve been its a preachy episode about white people bad. But rich kids are dumb was a comedic hook that masked the episodes intention which left it to the audience to decide is it a age, race, or wealth problem when it was all 3. Hiding in plain sight from the onset
I too am one of the people who feels like an idiot for not picking up on the racist undertones. This episode in restrospect really opened my eyes to how overt racism can be easily overlooked or ignored... by me! It seems that recognising racism is in many cases more about a pattern of behaviour that about single instances of unambiguous bigotry, something i have not paid much thought to until now. Fantastic episode, got me thinking and the acting from everyone was top tier. The "sentient hate ai" explanation felt very rushed but thats a small nitpick
Kind of disappointed in how you glazed over the racism themes of the episode. I also didn't realise it at first and when I did, it prompted me to rewatch it and analyse why I didn't catch it the first time. The fact that it came out of nowhere to viewers such as us was the point. Going "it came out of nowhere" and leaving it at that without trying to understand shows your privilege a bit.
RTD said in an interview that if you don’t spot that everyone’s white, so they’re racist, you have t ask yourself why - and the answer is that you’re racist.
You didn’t get it. So now you know what Russell thinks of you.
I think Harry you've just barely skirted around the real meaning of the dot and bubble - it's not that it *isnt* a social media metaphor, that certainly is in there, but I think it also carries a really strong connotation of racism and microagressions existing outside of people's bubbles - the bad things (slugs) go unnoticed by people in their bubble, and you definitely missed the build up - I did too, it took a rewatch of the episode looking for the buildup to see it in nearly every scene ncuti was in, and that lowering my bubble showed me what was clearly there all along. I think this episode had alot to say about us not seeing or even not wanting to see racism around us, and that we have to leave a comfort zone sometimes and accept that it's there even when we missed it.
I don’t think he’s unpacked his own racial bias tbh, especially cause he legit missed the mark on this
There was so much build up to the reveal at the end but I didn’t even realise it until the end. Like I noticed things but just attributed it to different things and then boom. The episode didn’t make me feel guilty for being white but reminded me of the privilege I have to just bat away things like
- The protagonist is baffled/ disgusted that they’re sitting in the same room.
- She says she thought the Dr was a different guy who just looked the exact same (they all look the same type racism)
- she doesn’t even talk to the Dr at first but will at least accept some help and communicate to Ruby.
- When talking to the others the protagonist can’t wait for the Dr to be ‘disciplined’
- just the fact that in this ‘perfect’ world there are no people of colour. The closest thing to diversity is Gothic Paul who has black hair and also conveniently is one of the only ones speaking out and also has the lowest subscriber count
As quirky weird things and not racism.
Just noticed the person at 3:07 the person who died has blue blood…
dude you've got this episode all wrong, it was clearly a dream
(/s)
I rather liked this episode. It actually is foreshadowed that the girl is racist since she blocked The Doctor immediately, and then later on she says "I thought you just all looked the same."
The racism had build up though, there is lines that Lindy says that is just literal racism like the typical "I thought you all looked the same" and I don't think the Doctor had an overreaction feeling powerless to save these people just because of the color of his skin for a person who often feels powerfull and in control thanks to his brain is now powerless due to his skin colour that's enough to make you scream in my opinion. And of course they are not racist like the Daleks are, the Daleks are racists like machines: if you are not 0 then you're 1. The racism in this episode is way more real, it's in the nuances. Real racist people are not gonna try to kill you like Daleks would, but they would make you feel powerless and beneath them.
Reasonable assumption though; she has only met two people of the same species and they were the same person! And they are green blooded so not only are they not Gallifreyan, they're not human either, so we have no idea how wide their genetic diversity is. It is possible that the Doctor is as alien looking to her as the blue people are to us. I don't think it is racist to not be able to distinguish between individuals of a group that one is unfamiliar with; it may correlate with and facilitate racism because it leads to assumptions of homogeneity of character, but it is pretty much human nature. As far as we are aware she has only encountered one highly melaninated person in her life. Facial recognition software also finds it difficult to discern differences between non-white faces of similar ethnicities for the same reason; insufficient data. As society does become more atomised we will probably find an uptick in prosopagnosia (face blindness) as a whole and this correlates with autism. Isn't it interesting that the word "bubble" was routinely used during covid lockdown to describe a narrow group of people you had to limit your interactions to in order to avoid "contamination"? But anyway, we know that lockdown led to an uptick in autistic symptoms in the very young who missed out on the social aspects of school as a result, (which is interesting because for more than a decade prior.we had been led to believe that the consensus was that the etiology of autism was purely genetic and this real world finding would seem to dispute that) so I wouldn't be surprised if face blindness isn't a common side effect. The fact is for an individual to tell apart faces that are distinct from the familiar but similar to each other they have to ve exposed to numerous examples of those faces. That's basic cognitive psychology; it has nothing to do with racism.
Does it facilitate racism? Yes, it does: you are more likely to make generalisations about groups if you can't discern individuals within that group. Does it correlate with racism? Yes, obviously; if you are segregated from a group you are more likely to see them as a mass than as individuals, but this segregation could be inadvertant (like coming from a remote village) just as it could be by institutional design (e.g. redlining). I think it would be racism if you blamed the people you couldn't tell apart for looking too similar rather than admitting that it is a skill you just haven't developed. Otherwise you are just parroting a comic cliché about what you think racism is without actually giving it thought.
Oh, and real racists do try and kill you; the daleks are based on people with a certain belief system that did a lot of killing - tune into the history channel; you can't miss them: they look like the baddies from the Indiana Jones films!
After the last two reviews, eagerly waiting for the review of Rogue. "A detailed critique of the role of the formal dance in 19th century upper classes" perhaps?
I didn't even get the racism as a mixed raced person. but Yeah on rewatch you can very well see the subtext in the dialogue
Same with my bf, he thought it was cos the doctor was too old to live in Finetime 😂
i wish the doctor went back and saved Ricky September
I'd be happy with that actor being the Doctor after Nctui tbh
I wish the doctor could go back and save this review lol
If you watch it again, you'll pick up on all the racist clues I missed it too. The writing is actually excellent. Just because you didn't get it first time, actually means the writing worked.
I wouldnt say because you didnt get it first time that means the writing worked. Intent and execution have to work hand in hand. I thought it was a good episode it was layerd but not so complex for all the debate and speculation imo. 8 from me
@@Vixis6I think the intent was for the ending to be a "penny dropped" moment. Frequently giving the viewer hints on something, but wanting them to only realise what's going on specifically at the end.
In which case the execution was very well done.
The only hint before the end I noticed on my first viewing was the "look the same" line, but there's so many more than that. The whole "you will be disciplined" thing becomes almost chilling when you realise what she means.
@InternetStorm its interesting because the episode says more about the people who watch it than the point it's making. The people who understood the subtext on viewing are probably conditioned to spot the intricacies of racist or at least discriminatory behaviour. Whereas if the penny dropped after watching the episode and you were oblivious beyond the 'rich kids privileged' veil. You're likely not conditioned to notice the tonal shifts, body language gestures, or micro expressions. Modern racism is subtle and institutionalised. Its not an easy feat to find the balance between patronising and thought-provoking. A good episode
What makes this episode great is the rewatchability of the episode. In rewatch you can clearly see all of the racism towards the Doctor from Lindy at the very beginning and how it gets worse and worse until the end of the episode. Great video as always. For me I had low expectations for this episode and came away pleasantly surprised
The racism is shown before the "I thought you all looked the same" comment was where I understood something was going on but I thought it was Russels poor writing
Remember Human Nature and Family of Blood, where Martha was put in a horrible situation and the story explored racism in thoughtful and even informative ways alongside a heap of other sub-plots and characters, while also building up a new John Smith character from scratch, while also asking really brave questions about the Doctor's nature, in an episode all wrapped up in a pretty spectacular bit of tragic drama?
Good times.
NGL, those episodes are fantastic and still hold up well, but the racism angle was hardly the main focus, nor was it particularly thoughtful. It was done well, I'm not trying to downplay the episodes successes, but Dot and Bubble is about the concept at its core whereas it's just one of the concepts in the two-parter.
Oh I thought there was a lot of thought put into it. Not just in terms of how other characters almost don't notice Martha at all, but how even John Smith treats her when she "misbehaves", all pretty unflinchingly, without ever playing up the horribleness of it to the audience, and instead presenting it as accepted ways to speak to black women, and something Martha is just going to have to overcome. Also I liked how they integrated Martha's skills as a trainee doctor into the plot and how she eventually convinces other characters to take her seriously, and even when main characters prejudged her, I felt like the script treated these characters as ignorant people, rather than evil inhuman monsters. I don't know, I think when things feel effortless and straightforward in how the story unfolds, it's usually a sign that a great deal of thought has gone into things.
Yeah good times to live in that we can get another really good episodes about such awful thing as racism. There was very clearly a lot of thought put into Dot and Bubble - especially with the amount of details and subtle approach it took. It did its job correctly - it showed in non-intrusive way, the struggle some people have to endure on daily basis. Not to mention - it challenged Doctor with another unsolvable dilemma, of not being able to help people, who refuse help due to petty reasons.
I think they did a pretty good job with it. When you realize it, it's hard to unsee
Yes but that episode was about how racism is like in the past in which people were ok and allowed to say overtly racist things and whereas this is one about racism in the present and future which is subtle and hidden and which people can say that not really racism because it not like racism in the past where it was overt it’s something else
Ricky September was still the most popular rich kid in Finetime. What books about codes was he reading hunh? The Enigma machine also encoded stuff two characters at a time.
Are you sure you watched this episode and didn't just have it on in the background?
I think everyone needs to calm down a bit just because someone doesn’t get the same meaning of an episode doesn’t mean it’s a horrible thing it’s okay everyone chill out
This is an episode that gets better on a rewatch imo. Nctui did an amazing job with the final scene (especially for his first recording session) and while Lindy is the absolute worst the actress played her brilliantly. I'd say this is an 8/10 personally, but I did give it a 7 on my first watch.
Man, week two and another wild take. The fact that you didn't notice it was about race, and you didn't notice they were all white until very clearly spelled out to you is exactly why this episode is incredible. And absolutely needed. Any POC that was watching this episode would have noticed it immediately. Wondering at first why the casting of the episode was all white, maybe not quite clocking that it was intentional. And then realising what had happened. But you didn't notice. You didn't notice because you are a white guy, sitting from a white guy POV. Sorry man, I usually love your takes on episodes but this is crazy to me that you've missed the mark so hard twice in a row.
Agreed!!
I'm white AF and I noticed right away... don't blame his missing the point on his race, that's kinda racist itself lol
I wish you actually paid attention to the episode if you were going to upload a breakdown lmao.
I interpreted the dot creating the slugs as a way of proving a point, having gained sentience it would likely get enjoyment or satisfaction from getting everyone in fine time in the most avoidable way possible. I also think that the ending was set up well, it was just hidden within the dialogue. IMO a rewatch makes their opinion of the doctor much more apparent.
I totally agree with you. It also further proves a point that the people of Finetime are so consumed by their bubble that they will neglect anything that is truly happening outside. The dot made a physical example of the people's own metaphorical bubble of racism
That doesn’t make any sense. These people are stupid, you don’t need to “avoid” them. And even then, how is an infestation of giant slugs *more* avoidable than killing them in their beds as they sleep when none of them would ever check on their friends? Even leaving all that aside, why wouldn’t Dot just want the pleasure of taking their lives directly?
This just does not add up. 😂
It was not well set up with who they were characterised as. You have to actively ignore the ways in which they were presented to you initially in order to focus on the few lines of dialogue which portray racial bigotry.
Honestly, the AI being a sort of A.M-like sentient being who wants these people to suffer makes sense
this episode have a build up you just don't pay enough attention
No shade, but it’s so funny that you’re getting it wrong second week in a row
Honestly my favourite thing about this episode s how open to interpretation it can be. I saw it and thought it was about class, a bunch of posh snobs not wanting their bloodlines 'contaminated', or people outside their upper class bubble to have anything top do with them. I actually enjoyed hearing Harrys interpretation of it being about the doctors god complex and overbearing parenting too, and I loved how open it was to be interpreted, I just wish they wouldn't spell it out in all the interviews because that kinda takes away the fun from the audience to make their own ideas and conclusion then get nah it was this instead. I enjoyed the episode overall though, one of the better ones from the series
It was definitely about race though there is no interpretation of the final scene?
I definitely thought it was about class structure
@@mildy_neutral very strange considering the last scene - "you, sir are not one of us", "voodoo" "be contaminated".
I do think you need a rewatch and also self reflection if you can't see the race elements
@LordNuggetJr they made a big thing to hammer in this is basically a childcare for posh kids, they have been in privilege their entire lives it's not exactly unheard of for people of that social standing to be out of touch. I enjoyed coming to my own conclusions on this episode, though if it was meant to be about racism that's OK too, great media can have so many different interpretations
@@Arbiter1414 I am really sorry to have to disagree - the ending was clearly about racism. I can't help ya if you didn't see that - the rest of the episode I agree can be interpreted it as class, that's why it's such a good ep, but the ending is clearly about race
Lol his 'parental attitude' is not why they didn't go with him
Why is it that the best episodes of this season are when the doctor isn't in them as much ?
Just a coincidence tbh. Boom had him right there at the centre and it's easily one of the best.
@@HellfireComms honestly I hope so doctor who with out the doctor is just who
@@HellfireComms Boom had nothing on the last two episodes. Completely overhyped, would've barely been noticed in the pre-Chibnall era.
@@TPH250290 Oh my gosh, FACTS! The ONLY reason that Moffat has exploded in the fanbase with popularity is because the Chibnall Era was so bad.
@@thetimeshadow6769 I mean, the episode itself can be good and also great if we're comparing it to Chibnall's era. They don't contradict each other.
idk dude
you praised the episode for its subtlety in depicting a racial supremacist society, and then you criticised it because you couldn't realise that from the *heavy* hints?
*Watches Harry willingly put his original interpretation and then correction in the video... then looks down at the comment section*
Well... that was brave.
I'll be honest. Most of the micro-agressions in the beginning completely flew under my radar the first time--though eventually I got a nagging feeling that something was off, but I couldn't put my finger on exactly what it was outside of how Lindy just kept repeating the word stupid and rude over and over again, and how she said them towards the Doctor. It wasn't though until the combination of the voodoo and contamination lines back to back that I caught up with the obvious. Watching the episode a second time made the micro-agressions stick out far more noticeably.
The episode when watched multiple times could help with teaching people about micro-agressions and how to identify them, I thought... and then I watched this video review and felt my hope plummet down a bottomless pit.
I didn't think anyone would watch this episode and NOT catch the racism at the end tbh, a little surprising. Upon watching that last scene and thinking the episode over, I realised the microaggressions throughout that I hadn't caught until it was too late (perhaps that's unconscious privilege on my part?). After Lindy blocks the Doctor and he comes back, her line "I blocked you, I thought you just looked the same but no, you're the same person" (or words to the effect, I don't remember verbatim) suddenly hit and I was like damn, it was there all along. And isn't that just racism summed up? Not always a thing you can watch approach and guard against, but a slap in the face when you're unguarded?
Exactly mate. Exactly.
3:51 ah yes, the planets from the episode: Hometime and Fineworld
Missing the racism is the point, i missed it to, the doctor wasn't over reacting he begged these people to liet him save them because they will die, usually they would do so without question but not that hes a different skin color it won't be that easy, at least when it comes to human.
This was a painful review. The statement that the characters being white supremacists had no build-up then followed by "the doctor overreacted at the end, he's seen stuff like this before with the daleks" is atrocious.
The build-up was the all-white cast, the build-up was the warning of the doctor's request being unsolicited, the build-up was the contrast in her attitude with ruby vs the doctor. All of these were subtle nods that something was off in the outlook of the people from Fine Time. It wasn't about him being offended by the racism either (though if it was that'd still be fine, this is about your poor interpretation), the Doctor explicitly stated that he did not care what Lindy and all the other civilians felt and thought about him, he'd still save them anyway. These were people he wanted to save, not his archenemies like the daleks. He wanted to save them yet the color of his skin prevented him from getting through to them. It was such an immense slap in the face, humiliation and disappointment combined to elicit that powerful reaction from him.
Please do better next time.
I watch your reviews because I disagree almost all the time, but I appreciate your point of view because it comes from a completely different perspective to mine. But perhaps you would enjoy this show better if you watched it more emotionally than logically. Then again, I do enjoy your very logical analysis.
You’re implying he is using some level of logic. But he logically doesn’t think there was enough hints of racism throughout the episode when there is. He didn’t have emotional attachment because he didn’t understand the episode logically at all
What I’m trying to say is, it’s nice that you are looking at different perspective, but I think saying this guy gives logical analysis is giving him too much credit
I agree that the leader character should’ve been in the episode prior to the end. As it stands I think he and his weird leadership line is just meant to give more weight to Ricky’s death. Ricky would’ve naturally been the obvious choice for leader and although Ricky probably would’ve still felt the same way as the rest but he also may have considered going with the Doctor as he was shown to be educating himself and removing himself from the bubble everyone else is trapped in (in itself a microcosm for racism).
Um... Not only did Harry miss the microaggressions he did one himself? 5:20
Edit: i just finished the review.... How did he entirely miss everything?
Literally, wut?!?
I had to go over it five times trying to work out what this person thinks is a "microaggression". I finely settled on maybe it is the word "professional", and this was by eliminating all the impossibles and having to select the implausible that remains. 😂
Wtf? Microaggression on his part or a macrosensitivity on yours? Truly you must be a princess to detect the pea through all those mattresses!
@@markpostgate2551 no love, I am a black person who has been labeled as unprofessional for doing things that others get to do freely. I grew up in an environment where I had to have every hair bone-straight and in place, and present myself as this robotic model minority to succeed. I witnessed the consequences of doing otherwise. Now we've updated a couple laws and relaxed a bit as a generation (In America I cannot speak for Britain)... But I experienced this personally and I'm only 26 so it's still a little scrappy out here in these streets lol.
Now as for what Harry said. In the video he called the doctor unprofessional for the way he tried to help Lindy. Sure the Doctor was assertive, but he wasn't actually being unprofessional. He was actually unrelatable. Especially compared to Ruby who is a white girl practically the same age as Lindy who is also making an attempt to speak in their lingo. Ruby was also being assertive. Both of their attempts were professional... Ruby's was just way more relatable especially when you later on the racism of the episode.
Let me state that I am by no means labeling Harry as anything. We all have biases within us just by being humans raised in different communities. Some biases can be helpful, some can be hurtful and some are neutral... but we all have them. Based on how many of those innuendos and racist tics Harry missed from the episode I think he should do some readings and soul-searching about where his biases lie and if he wants to make any changes. I had to do that back when I went to school and I'm a better person for it.
@@bekah10213
Calling someone unprofessional is not a microaggression. Can you imagine how a world would function in which you couldn't describe someone as "unprofessional" on account of their skin colour?
@@markpostgate2551 I'm not going to continue past this, but context matters. It's not the word itself... It's how the word is used. It a matter of what the person was doing/saying/wearing when they were called unprofessional. It's a matter of whether their unprofessional actions are mysteriously professional once their non-poc peers perform them. And it's something I don't expect you to understand without witnessing it or experiencing it. The latter of which I hope you never do... because it feels awful. Either way, have a good day. I hope you bring joy to someone and someone does the same to you.
I also thought during the moment that Lindy couldnt walk without the arrows, that i couldn’t get anywhere without google maps or written instructions 😂
i thought the same thing 😂 i would be so lost without google maps
If the Doctor was to take them to a world, I think they'd have worked well in 'The Happiness Patrol' world.
I think if you missed the racism the first time round, then this episode is more for you than you realize.
The ending doesn't spoil the episode, it freakin makes it.
It completely reframed the interactions throughout.
There was plenty of build up, you just missed it, and that's part of the point.
Раньше доктор даже не сразу понимал, что он женщина или что он не рыжий, что он высокий, что у него торчат уши и прочее. А теперь расстроился из-за того, что он не белый? Какая ему разница, какое у него тело? При желании он мог бы поменять его так как он хочет.
I'm so glad to hear someone else who didn't get the racism thing. I hear people talking about the subtle hints throughout the episode but I think most of them are better explained through other means. The blue blood was the best one but that feels like a detail easily missed on a first watch
Im still convinced every episode had 15 to 20 minutes cut
Remember folks, no matter how bad youre doing right now, just think: a guy with apparently zero media literacy can convince a bunch of people to pay him to share his thoughts on tv shows. Theres always hope.
The episode filled to the brim with racist elements in which an aryan woman who is not willing to leave her bubble ends up ignoring the doctor and willingly chooses to walk to her own death because she will not leave her (ideological) bubble? Yep, the plot definitely comes out of nowhere.
@mikeldiaz7072 mind you, isn't this the same guy that thought the entirety of pyramid at the end of the world in series 10 took place in the span of 4 minutes?
The race thing was super obvious from the beginning. The blue contact lenses, the blonde wigs, the brunette being lower class, doctor being blocked immediately while Ruby was listened to,
I feel like Harry has become just perminately jaded to Doctor Who to the point that he doesn't watch it in a clear mindset anymore causing him to consistantly now make mistakes and give reviews off of a wrong interpitations.
Used to love your videos Harry, but ive found myself lately skipping your videos for other youtubers I watch because its consistantly have a negative edge to it even on your positive reviews.
Hope you can take a step back and maybe come into 'season 2' with a better mindset. Maybe you'll enjoy your favorite show again and your fans can enjoy your reviews again like me.
Until then when I see your videos I no longer wonder "did it suck" towards the episode, but towards your videos.
bruh i must be slow because i didn't even notice the bad mic quality in the last ep xdd
( 0:15 ) Love the lapel mic! 😂
Harry watches the cigar guy who rides horses 😂🙌🏾🙌🏾
have you rewatched the episode at all, because although i can kind of agree with you on it not building up to the racism, when you rewatch it the hints are definitely there and a lot more clear than you first think.
They are almost jarring at times, when you actually get what the authors wanted to portray. Like a lot of elements are easy to miss, because we never really had a proper future story going for serious commentary on racism - so it's easy to just think it's just oblivious xenophobia from social media brainwashed young adults.
But the amount of micro-aggresions and realistic interactions POC people get from the biggest bigots this episode was unnerving to see.
But you have to rewatch it to get it because no one is going to think that someone characterised like Lindy is going to be racist, that’s never a possibility that even enters your mind because of the way she talks and acts.
You actively have to know that going in to get it.
@@Longshanks1690 Yeah I hate it when there's a twist to a story that makes me re-watch it. How the Hell was I supposed to know Bruce Willis was a ghost the first time watching Sixth Sense(!) Such dumb writing(!)
@@JohnnyOrgan Sixth Sense starts with his death and the presence of ghosts to make it clear that it’s a possibility, but the audience doesn’t realise that until the very end when all the pieces are put together.
Dot and Bubble characterised Lindy as a typical Twitter leftie so the idea of her being a racist never even enters your mind. The twist isn’t rewarding because you never anticipated it, as the episode gave you no reason to suppose that with how she was written.
Imagine watching an episode about being in a bubble, where the episode has strands of racism throughout, not seeing the true themes of the episode, and then when it's pointed out to you, you say that it was abrupt. The literal whole point of the episode wasn't to have the characters be "Daleks" it was to show the dangers of being in your own bubble unable to see the realities of the world. Still wild that you saw the point, and yet somehow it STILL went over your head.
So someone mentioned that the potential reason that the Dots created the slugs and going in alphabetical order was due to how early on they were in their sentience. Still growing etc. also if you rewatch, there was plenty of build up. I can understand you maybe didn't notice, I didnt, but upon rewatch, the hints are clear.
Not to be that guy but noticing that the people of Finetime are racists is not that difficult lol. The reason he was treated better that Ruby and highlighted by the bubble was obviously because he is black, not because he is old - how would the system even recognise that. Take into account that at least when it comes to background character casting, TV tends to be quite diverse these days yet everyone in this episode was white, save the doctor, and it’s not hard to miss. I noticed it and I‘m as white as toast.
The AI killed them slowly in alphabetical order for its own gratification, because of how much it hated them.
Okay but there are so many far more interesting ways that could happen or be shown. Look up "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" if you need a good example of that concept executed far more interestingly.
Why AI hated them?
The whole point of this episode's subtlety is to make the viewer reflect on their own awareness of day-to-day racism. To suggest that it should have been more apparent completely misses the point.
That's two for two where Harry completely wooshes and slaps a 7/10 on something he doesn't understand. It'd be fine if you gave these episodes lower scores than they deserved for other reasons, but the reality is that it comes across as you wanting to be contrarian. We've had two episodes that will most likely go down as some of the best in the series and your reviews will age like milk.
I'd suggest maybe looking at what other people have to say about the episodes or giving these reviews more time to cook. And I'm sorry if this sounds very condescending, but I'm expecting something as insightful as your analyses for the Black Mirror episodes, which were great. I think these episodes deserve that.
I really like the reading of the dots learning to be sentient, just for their first emotion and thought to be hate.
This actually explains really well the usage of the man traps instead of the dots doing the work themselves. Learning sadism out of hate.
The dots don't need to be efficient, why would they? Every person there was totally under their control and isolated of the outside world, so unce they know they are the ones in actual power, they can take their time to see the man traps slowly maning their way to the humans and even better if they get to weaponise the commands they have to repeat every single day.
So for me, the dots really have a motive to use the man traps instead of going through any head. That even explains why they go in alphabetical order, so every single one of them know which way is the show.
And the racism was set up plenty of times in the episode, but when you are watching initially you think it might be just classism, it might be Linsy just being ungrateful, maybe egotistic... Until you reach the end and it is explicitly spell it out.
This episode for me, is the equivalent of the Doctor Dances for 15.
9 was traumatized about the time war, he couldn't stop thinking of how he went against what he standed on his whole life. And then, we see such beautiful scene of he happy because for just once, everybody lives.
This doctor, on the other hand, is really obsessed with life and up to this point, he had been reallt successful. He had only seen one person die under his protection and overheard another one (Both in boom), so he managing to save so many people and get them all in a perfect situation to give them a new opportunity in a safe place... Just to lose absolutely everybody he worked to protect the whole episode.
He crying at the end in frustration of so many people going into a certain death not because of a greater good (waters of mars) or because there was no other option (Orphan 55) but because of ideas that took the better of them, such as the weaponized fate in boom to have an ongoing war for infinite deaths and profit out of them. It is such a great tragedy.
His suffering seen so many people who could live so easily, and yet, all of them dooming their fates because they continue a sistem that don't wants their survival.
I originally thought it was about classism than I read twitter and it said Lindy was a racist.
The episode makes it pretty damn explicit. Maybe you're just not very observant?
@@HOTD108_ When did you know it was about racism?
When Lindy said “he’s not as stupid as he looks” when she said that it clocked in that there was no other person of color in fine time and then everything else stood out more to me
@@panduh_go_crazy-.-9957 First time around I didn't connect that to race, she did call Ruby stupid too. I thought it was her way of talking down to ppl outside her friends list.
I still think this is about classism because she also called Ruby stupid etc. But it doesnt change conclusion because classism and rasism are highly correlated
"It's not an idea that had any build-up." The build up is there throughout the episode. The entire point is that much like IRL racism today, a lot of it is subtext, not immediately obvious unless you know what to look for. Some examples:
The entire town of Finetime is coloured with bright pastels. Even "Gothic" Paul doesn't wear anything that could be considered actually black.
When the Doctor tries contacting Lindy, his message is listed as 'UNSOLICITED' with the option to accept or block, but when Ruby contacts her, her message is put through easily and without the option to block.
When Ruby brings the Doctor into the call after Lindy lowered her Bubble and spots one of the slug creatures eating one of her co-workers, Lindy's first response is to ask if the creature has anything to do with him.
Lindy is shown to be horrified that the Doctor and Ruby are in the same room, even though she herself has been in the same room as many other people and has no reaction to a pair of twins being in the same room together. It's specifically the idea of a black man and a white woman being in the same room together that offends her, though she seems to exclaim it as being because they lied to her.
No matter how the Doctor speaks to her, Lindy perceives it as either deliberately disrespectful or aggressive-if he's nice to her, he's condescending, if he's more direct, he's being mean. Meanwhile Ruby's attempts at flattering her go over perfectly fine, despite being pretty much in exactly the same register as the Doctor's.
After Lindy manages to escape her office and recognises the Doctor as the person she blocked earlier, she first says she just thought he looked the same, not that he was the same person. In other words, she's seen so few black people in her life that she has trouble telling them apart.
During the group call, when the Doctor puts himself through and explains what they all need to do, Lindy begrudgingly tells her friends to listen to him because, in her words, "he's smarter than he looks".
When Lindy attempted to call the police, it could charitably be painted as a response to the slugs, and a further showcase that she is out of her depth. But in the aforementioned group call, Lindy mentions how she "can't wait" for the Doctor to be "disciplined", suggesting that she may have intended to sic the police on him as well.
I appreciate your correction for your last video 😅 I was actually pleasantly surprised by this week's episode. I thought the ending was really impactful and it definitely got a lot of people talking. There were a few things that could've been cut or changed though. I thought the racism thing was initially about him being an 'alien' to them, not about skin colour, but I suppose it still worked. I liked his acting.
Give it a re watch knowing they're racist - you'll see throughout that Lindy exhibits loads and loads of racist behaviours e.g "he will be disciplined", "i thought you just looked the same". RTD challenges us to think how far we made it in without noticing it was about race. That is cause for self reflection on our part. I'm with you, i didn't notice until the end, but there were plenty of hints and maybe that says more about us.
This is a really rewarding rewatch kinda episode and my favourite of the series so far
I love your reviews and Im so happy to see you experimenting, but I do think this speaks to the reviews being rushed. They feel less like a review and more of a first impression, no time to digest the media or theorise about it.
Personally I think upping your production (green screen, new mics, edit styles, etc) and making the reviews strictly weekly, has made them a bit weaker. Don't over exert or push yourself, Id rather you just take your time and have fun with it.
I totally get that TH-cam is a mf of an algorithm, so you need that initial traction, but if thats the case, use your old editing style. For me personally, your thoughts and developed opinions are what matter, not physically seeing you
All love though, sorry if this comes off as a Karen comment instead of constructive!
Harry, I am a longtime follower and patron of yours. Believe me when I say that the only reason I even watched the Chibnall era episodes was in anticipation of watching your reviews.
This review, however, is one of the few that simply misses the mark, and which, quite frankly, sounds about white.
Agree. Enjoy the channel, but it was clear by the end what this episode was about and that's coming from someone who was brought up in a tiny village in Yorkshire with a 100% white population
Reading through some of these comments I can 100% understand not picking up on racism.
The scene at the end where they say the doctor will contaminante them and all that, I just picked that up as he was an outsider rather than one of the "fine time" people or whatever they are.
8:04
It was. It was filmed on Swansea University’s Bay Campus which in and of itself is a Dr. Who allegory. When it was being built they thought the tidal lagoon was going ahead that would slow down the tidal erosion. Unfortunately the lagoon never happened and the English wanted it built somewhere in London so the campus is gradually sinking into the sea apparently. There’s a clock tower which has a massive crack in it from the uneven foundations.
Yeah I have been at Bay Campus this year I was so odd watching and realising the episode was filmed there. It was filmed the year before I was there so I didn't know it was set there until she went outside
i do wonder what would have happened if it was one of the other doctors, they still would have been an outsider and technically old as a hell, and even if it was one of the other doctors lindy still would have screwed the doctor over like she did ricky, justice for ricky.
Yeh it was all filmed on Swansea Bay campus
Where is my BENNNIEEEEEEEEE ?!?!?!
I struggled to understand the relationship between the dot (presumably the projector) and the bubble (the AI system) itself. If you only say dot what happens? Do you still see the external world? The dot itself turns hostile later on, but...how is this controlled? Has it become AI/self aware?
Idk if this has been pointed out elsewhere, and it might be a reach - but Ricky and Ruby have the same initials, both are blonde, similar earrings, and are both musicians - I thought it was a bit of a strange occurrence that likely is just a coincidence and isn't significant - kinda funny though
Another thing is that the psuedo leader guy is called Cavendish... shouldn't he have died ages ago?
Perhaps it stemmed from the mediocre acting, but I got a bit of a creepy vibe from Ricky when he was first introduced, leading me to think he was potentially a villain, and it was only with the lingering shot of him realising Homeworld was decimated that I realised this wasn't the case.
Oof Well you’re Jordan Peterson subscription makes sense now