Very good episode. A critical essay on the evil of racism and its greatest flaws, lack of empathy and ignorance. To me the planet represents the ultimate evolution of "idealized purity of the arian race", which in the end is its own downfall. Ncuti Gatwa is masterful in showing the Doctor's empathy and pain, when his plea to save them falls, on the deaf ears of ignorance.
Shockingly good. Went into with low expectations, noticed the racism right away, but was still surprised by the outcome (mostly hoped for a redemption arc for Lindy...but then the Ricky thing happened and nope -- that was the 'twist' for me, honestly: Lindy was beyond help/hope). Not the most perfect execution on concept, imo, as I think it needed a little more of an edit, as I often think about RTD's work. But I enjoyed it.
One point on your (excellent) essay: perhaps the episode also forces us to learn about ourselves. I never noticed any of the ‘hints’ throughout the episode. On rewatch, they were obvious and, arguably, abundant. I feel this episode has taught me about the main character, about society and also about ME: WHY did I not notice? Am I willing to accept? What else am I willing to overlook, consciously or subconsciously? This episode literally leaps through the screen and makes the viewer a participant. As I commented elsewhere, for an episode that should have been ‘social media is bad’, it hit me in places I was not expecting. Bravo NuWho 👏🏼
this is my personal favourite episode so far i think its the vibe and how well i thought lindy was written, didnt think it would top boom or 73 yards tho
The inability to walk without the arrows isn’t particularly unrealistic. A large chunk of our brain’s sense of balance comes from our visual system establishing a horizon. Her brain has adapted to using the arrows and the bubble grid for that reference. At uni, I did an experiment on this as part of my biopsychology course. It takes about 20 to 30 minutes for the brain to adapt when you shift the orientation of the horizon and during that time you can’t walk in a straight line and feel motion sick/dizzy.
I agree! And I can't understand why so many people are annoyed by the "I can't walk" bit, which can be explained fairly easily, and nobody seems to care that she doesn't know when she needs to pee, which to me is WAaay harder to explain!
@@pamelawelch5955yh...like I really don't need that kinda person, pop up in front of my face,tell me I should pee or pinch off a 🍞,.....and remai there lol🤣🤦♂️ I'd hope they go away after a few seconds!🤪✌️🍻
I really liked Lindy in that "oh she's so out of her depth I can't wait to see her rise to the occasion" way, and that moment of her betraying Ricky shook me to the core. It made me realize that maybe I was only rooting for her because of her place as the protagonist and not because she was actually capable of growing as a person. It was such a good and surprising twist on the classic "we're following this bystander instead of the Doctor" story, I'm really glad this exists.
I think she does have the potential to grow as a person, but that’s less so the point of her character to me. As she watches the doctor’s face deepen in painful disbelief, as they slowly depart on the boat, you can see in her expression, (my interpretation of Callie’s performance anyway) Lindy gauging that the doctor is beyond what she sees of him; she feels she can trust him, his kindness, and his knowledge. He radiates these attributes, and most characters that meet the doctor, feel this too. And yet, she chooses to forgo him, anyway. I think that choice, when faced with the truth, is the point of Lindy. She chooses to fight for her life when faced with the slugs, the murderous dot, but she doesn’t with the doctor. It’s hatred, not ignorance, that doomed these people
[non-black POC opinion] i think it's really important that the episode showed that the homeworld was overrun by the slugs and destroyed... not only does the doctor want to save the residents of finetime because the doctor wants to save everyone, there's a personal aspect to it as well what w/ him being the last of the timelords again. they are the last living people of their world and they're all going to die because they can't see beyond their bigotry and prejudice. i really appreciate that rtd isn't just saying "racism is bad" with this episode, but also "racism is stupid" and "racist societies are inherently destructive and will eat themselves alive". as well as the fact that this was a story set in the future, so there's also "racism still exists and is not just a thing of the past". it's a vast improvement on social commentary from the chibnall era, and it's an impressive amount of nuance given to the topic considering he's a middle aged white man and also the fuckups he had in his first era w/ mickey and martha. next time it's addressed i would really like a writer of color handling it though
Now this perspective. ...yh thats good,I can go with that...cause I honestly 'liked when Ncuti knelt down and screamed in that angry anguish,I felt that!I felt it in this sense that right there was FINALLY him showing the DOCTOR..thats just me though, I'm trying to like him,but the 'DOCTOR ' vibes,I've felt from him just a few times..and it's more impacting when thinking he's the last of his, they are for their race,...and they're going out blind and asshat stupid lol!!..let's hope this last half of season 1,(wow already lol)builds up,IN HIS FAVOR.. I don't care about the color and his lifestyle etc,nope dc,I just want him to come out,...AS THE DOCTOR,NOTHING MORE😁✌️🍻🤟
Something interesting to consider about the home world is that the slugs aren't really that destructive to the world around them. Their method of hunting is mostly just waiting for people to walk into them and they don't wreck the streets or anything. Meanwhile we see with Lindy that when her life was at stake, she easily turns on the person she admired most. Given that the ending shows that Lindy is an expected outcome of their system and culture, you have to wonder how responsible the Slugs are for what happened to home.
Interestingly, I’ve actually seen a few poc in this thread say they’re glad a white man was able to handle this topic well - because they’re actually really tired of ALWAYS having to be the ones talking about this topic. So r.e. Your last point, while it’s always good to want to hear a poc voice, I do wonder if they’re maybe a little sick of feeling like their stories are only ever wanted if they’re about racism.
@@LordofFullmetal yeah, that is a valid point. my respect for rtd honestly shot up a lot knowing that he was able to handle a topic like this properly. to me though i feel like we can still have both: an episode like dot and bubble written by rtd, as well as more POC in the writer's room (regardless of everything, a non white writer will be best equipped to tell these stories). it certainly helps that dot and bubble is more a scathing critique of white supremacy than it is "about" POC: i feel like rtd wanted to leave that to a non white writer
Long live the sucky slugs! 🐌 isn’t it about time? They got full recognition in inclusiveness! Not just relegated to playing evil people yeah Russell so disabled people can’t be evil but mollusks can be! Molluskphobe!!!
As a WOC, I liked this episode solely in the sense that it's actually what experiencing racism is like. Russell said in the behind the scenes video on the DW channel that people kept asking him about a Black version of The Doctor going to the past experiencing racism, and Russell thought what about now and how he could still experience racism now. This episode is very much like what racism is now. It's people making these off-putting rude comments and valuing a white person more than you and all of these awful little interactions that once you're able to put them together you realize you're not the problem, the problem is that the reason the other person is acting like and and treating you like that is because they're racist. I don't know if Russell consulted with any BIPOC folks in writing this, I'd hope he did, but it's not far off from what current racism looks and feels like.
As a white straight cis man this episode reminded me that modern racism (and bigotry) in practice isn't exactly as overt as we expect. If you're not on the receiving end of all those microaggressions they're easy to handwave away as something else. The pastel classism (see Gothic Paul being dismissed over and over) overshadows the racism.
The fact that so many cis white fan bros are still arguing "you're reading too much into it" "why's it always got to be about race, it's about class obviously" etc etc shows just how much they nailed the micro in micro aggressions in this episode. I didn't catch all of them the first time through - I'm white and queer with chronic illness, so my experience with micro aggressions is different from these, but I've experienced enough I recognised quite a few. The "you all look the same" one was the most egregious, clearly race related one I noticed up until the voodoo comment in the end reveal. I wondered whether that was going to be addressed, and ooh boy was it.
@nealjroberts4050 that hand waving is exactly how people hide behind being "not racist" (ie they don't use overtly horrible words) rather than working towards being anti-racist (where you can see racism as it happens even at the micro aggression level and work to stop it).
@@writeonshell I'm glad you're also acknowledging that it can be hard to spot if you lack the experience of it and not blanket accusing people of hiding behind their unawareness.
@@nealjroberts4050 Yeah, I struggle to say that anyone who didn't/doesn't notice the micro aggressions or the lack of POC is an inherently racist person and not just ignorant of the issue. Sometimes it is literally just being sheltered and not knowing better - I grew up in Suburbian Australia and could count the number of POC at my school on my hands so I learned bad habits and thought\said things that I now understand had racist foundations. I have been working in the years since to override them and point them out to others like me when I see it. I have no doubt there are still beliefs or words or phrases I need to find and root out (not just racism either, but also ableism and homophobia/transphobia that were buried inside some of my early interactions and modeling by adults in my life which is fun as a queer disabled person). Ultimately, you don't know what you don't know. I'll admit I get frustrated that some people are still trying so hard to say this episode isn't about race (and don't stop to listen to the reasons why it's blindly obvious if you scratch just a fraction of an inch below the surface) but for those who need it pointed out but listen once it is, I think Hanlon's razor comes to mind (You know - never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity/ignorance). At least up until the point that ignorance is used as a shield against having to learn (e.g. "I didn't know" after the 15th time of having that same thing pointed out). So long as people are willing to listen and learn so that they can reduce the harm they put out in the world, I think they're on the right track.
@@Joe_Brennan_ Indeed, you could see it that what RTD did was create a "bubble" for us, the audience, as well. He created a "bubble" where every microaggression had its "plausible deniability", so we'd dismiss our qualms and stay inside the safe "bubble" he'd created for us, and not peek through the cracks to see the racists, who were there all along. And this, of course, adds that second layer to all this. All the (mostly white) people who watched and didn't notice anything was amiss with this future society, didn't spot the microaggressions, dismissed any concerns because it couldn't be naked racism, could it? We were also in our own "bubble" watching this. Inside a bubble of white privilege. Inside a bubble of heteronormativity. After all, everyone's commenting on them all being white. But, also, did you see any hint of gay or lesbian or trans in their society? Did we see anyone with a disability? Lindy talked about everyone always being at their desks - no consideration that someone could be off sick? Hmm, possibly because no-one ever is sick (we know, from Lindy's bubble, that they have their own AI "doctors" monitoring their stats at all times). Real-life Nazis tend not to stick to just one trait - skin colour - that is "inferior". They come up with a whole list of "undesirables" that don't match their fascist conformity. We know they're racists because the Doctor is black and that's what they reacted to. But what if he'd been openly gay, or Ruby had given Lindy a cheeky lesbian wink, that their reaction would have been any more favourable? We're inside our own bubbles too. RTD played on that to bamboozle us, and create a little narrative "bubble" of his own, to stop us seeing the racists just beyond it.
I was really not on board in the first half.. I laughed at some of the absurdist stuff but I thought it was being unnecessarily mean to Gen-Z and teenage girls specifically.. which is fairly well-trodden ground and is basically what Black Mirror devolved into But that ending, good lord.. it feels like the one where the message is the most subtle which I loved, and an actual satisfying twist
@@Joe_Brennan_ Absolutely. I think it would be my favourite of the series if it weren't so uneven. I think 73 Yards was better overall since that felt like every scene built on the last, but this one left more of an impact
As a Black person, this was incredibly done as an episode exploring not just racism but white supremacy. And I'm glad Russell wrote it, as a white man. Because to be honest, having the onus to talk about these things constantly put on us, it's good to have it recognized that racism and white supremacy are white people issues.
Racism isn't only a white person issue there are plenty of other races that have such issues. It's just in the US it's the most prevalent and talked about. Any part of humanity can be stupid and bigoted it's just white people who are the most obvious example in day to day life. White supremacy is obviously a white person problem though.
FACTS!!! It’s a yt ppl problem that they invented that has harmed innocent lives so it makes perfect sense to me to have a yt writer (RTD) go in depth into the micro aggressions that poc face on a daily basis. Loved his portrayal and how easy it could be dismissed because it is reflected in our reality.
This was a very The Rings of Akhaten-type episode. It was just an average enjoyable episode and then right at the end, the Doctor gives a performance that I will come back and watch for years.
I agree 100%. 3 minutes of runtime at the end turned this from a 6/10 episode to an 8+ minor Modern Who Classic. My potential favourite of the series along with Boom.
Me too. I kept waiting for them to reveal that he was a douche bag. I thought that there were moments where he felt like his interactions with Lindy were stilted, like he was hiding something. I now wonder if that was meant to convey a sense of shyness and awkwardness interacting with real human beings.
@@docweidner they are in the middle of trying to save this race of people and they talk about how they fancy someone. Planting the gay message. It was pathetic and not needed. And the doctor is like a million years old. Plus Ricky was disgusting looking lol
@@Joe_Brennan_ Indeed, the more and more I think about it, this episode had no "social media = bad" message at all. Not really. It was just a mechanism. A red herring. RTD was lulling you into an expectation of "oh, just a Black Mirror rip-off, then" - feeding that before the episode aired quite deliberately - exactly so that you wouldn't see the racists just beyond your own bubble. After the initial introduction of the bubble, they rapidly stop being the focus. The dots are turned off, the battery runs out. The camera angle started inside the bubble, but it was mostly "outside looking in" by the latter half of the show. In the later parts of the episode, the bubble is serving no more function than being a (video-based) "walkie talkie" to communicate with the Doctor and Ruby outside. It was built up to be a metaphor, but it was no more than the mechanism in the episode itself. To put you in the frame of mind to not see the reality underneath it all. To create a "bubble" around the audience, so we didn't see the racists just outside our bubble were there all along. The more I think about it, this episode has nothing whatsoever to say about social media. Other than, yes, it's another mechanism by which evil can propagate. But, at the end, everyone's dot and bubble was off. Once naked, the true evil were the people themselves. And the dots were not responsible for that at all. They, in fact, got genocidal and wiped them all out (because Lindy and her friends wouldn't last five minutes outside, would they? So there is no-one left now and the dots succeeded, even if they were denied having the final blow), because they'd just had enough of their shit and went nuts. We can't call the dots "good guys" - because they did just commit genocide and not even "nice" genocide, as it was by being eaten alive by slugs - but we can understand their rage and frustrations that they at least ceased to be the black-and-white "bad guys" of the episode. They are still murderers and that can't be excused, but you totally get why the dots became so filled with rage. You understand it, even if you can't ever condone nor endorse it. So, by the end, "social media = amoral = neither good nor bad = just a narrative mechanism" at most?
I had a thought that The Doctor would face racism now due to being in a non-White regeneration, but assumed it would be set in the past like the 40s or 50s. Seeing it happen here in the future with a cruel twist ending just makes it even more unsettling. None of those people are going to survive.
Iirc RTD said that was the point. He specifically wanted this episode to be in the future, because he was making a point about how people see racism as a relic of the past when it’s actually still out there and going strong.
I don't read their helplessness as a "phone bad" thing. With a reveal it becomes preposterous that they feel superior to the Doctor while they couldn't even walk without a bubble.
If anything I think it feeds into the worldbuilding of FineTime and the larger culture. Looking at the details and acknowledging the function of racism in upholding hierarchies, their society seems very authoritarian (someone pointed out the gendered safety blankets!), so it's not as simple as phones bad but that media can be used by power to uphold unjust systems by manufacturing algorithms in certain ways that filter out views that might challenge you of challenge power. It also reflects the idea of willful ignorance, that they avoided all forms of challenge up to a challenge of their racist world views. Even if it's in the interest of their own lives they'll choose a familiar and comforting lie.
@@gota7738 Such a great point! I saw someone else pointing out about Gothic Paul - how he was pointing it out, wanting to make a lot of noise, but as soon as it impacted him and HE had to do something to fix it, he balked and ran. It's easy to read a statement in there about keyboard activism. There's also a statement about parasocial relationships when she takes is so willing to blindly believe Ricky September because he's Ricky September but is ready to turn on him in an instant because she doesn't actually care about him beyond that. I think that's what I've loved about this episode and the discourse around it. There are so many layers. Are they all intended? Only RTD knows. But do they work with the story? Absolutely.
In fact, beyond the first few scenes, the "social media = bad" aspect died off very quickly indeed. We got to see it, but then the episode increasingly ignored it. "Dot off", the battery running out - the camera angle was inside Lindy's bubble at the beginning, but it was outside looking in thereafter. Indeed, after those first few scenes, where we were introduced to the bubble - to understand it all - then it rapidly became just an "intercom" between Lindy and the Doctor / Ruby. Just a "walkie talkie" with video capability. The episode very rapidly stopped giving a shit about the bubbles, and actually they were mightily handy as a means of communication. No, this episode had nothing whatsoever to do with "social media = bad", I feel. That was just the mechanism by which the story unfolds, but it really is not remotely the focus of the episode. You could even say "that was the red herring" - he showed us Chekov's gun to set up our expectations that the gun would be fired later. It was a distraction to stop you noticing the racism laced throughout, because you were too busy looking at the bubble as being the problem, not the people inside those bubbles. But, no, it turns out that the true evil here were the people all along. I mean, we can't excuse the dots wanting to kill them all - genocidal mass-murder remains evil, no matter the provocation or how much the people being wiped out deserve it - but you can completely understand their motivations. That we could say that, after the twist, while maybe it's going too far to say the dots and slugs were "the good guys" - you can't excuse genocide, by people being eaten alive, for any reason - they did certainly stop being the black-and-white "bad guys" of the episode. I don't think "social media = bad" was remotely the point at all. That was just the distraction - making folks think "oh, just a Black Mirror rip-off episode", so that they didn't see what was coming. It was a red herring. I don't think it actually says anything bad about social media at all. Not really. The criticism is of bubbles and group think. And, like, racial segregation, Apartheid, the Nazis, etc. - all of that happened without any social media at all. it's not the technology at all, it's the people inside that "group think". If you stop and think about it, that's actually what was being said. Everyone's bubbles were off at the end of the episode. It was just the people themselves that were evil all along.
This is a great depiction of how we deal with racism. The fact we can see it in our face up close and not recognise it tells a story. My semi negative was the death of Ricky. It made Lindy irredeemably. The problem is it gives an impression that only irredeemable people can be racist. The truth is everyday people who seemingly nice people can hold racist views.
It would have been interesting to see what Ricky would have done if he’d been there. Would he have been the only one to go with the doctor because he was the only one with knowledge from outside the bubble? Would he have been just as racist despite being a good guy who risks his life to save others? Or would he have acknowledged that this was wrong, but gone with the others anyway? All of those would have been an interesting commentary.
I think many people would sacrifice a stranger's life to save their own. She never had real connections with people, she only just had her first hug, her empathy isn't well developed. Saving your life would be a priority for many people. Unless the other person is a family member or a close friend...
I do think it’s interesting that a number of reactors and reviewers only got the racial aspect after going on Twitter. That’s more interesting, as Joe said. He excused the protagonist’s behavior toward the Doctor until having it spelt out and looked back. I think this episode reveals more about the viewer who didn’t see or recognize the prejudice or even the parallels with what Ncuti is getting outside of the show via the rage baiting channels on social media. His reaction at the end was perfect because it’s the senselessness and frustration racism causes. Here’s a thought experiment, there are times when folks of colour get treated this way but also have to convince the dominant culture of what is happening to them. The Doctor’s physical reaction is how it feels….utterly helpless and maddening. No words can describe.
I've rewatched all the episodes this series, but this was the first time I went back and watched that last scene 3 extra times in the few hours after my first watch, followed by a full rewatch before Saturdays rewatch. For the foreseeable future I'm addicted to an episode of Who again. I've really missed this feeling
While I haven't rewatched any episodes yet because of revising for gcses, I have felt compelled to rewatch all the episodes on multiple occasions. I feel like this series is really rewatchable.
I'm really not sure who this is appealing to and why it is appealing to some people even though the ratings are declining. Maybe it's appealing to very young people or under 20? Everyone I know older like myself can't stand this rubbish. Yearning for intelligent well-written fast-paced Doctor Who
I think you summed it up perfectly. No one had high hopes for this episode, bit of a goofy name and the concept did look like it was very much going to be one dimensional and slating social media. But how it was a commentary on echo chambers and people that surround themselves like that was so clever. The twist didn't shock me as much as other people but very much agree that on repeat viewings there is going to be a lot of moments or lines that stick out so much more.
Its disturbing how the usual suspects dont understand the point of the ending with this one, genuinely a shocking twist, but its unsurprising that they see it as preachy when its a subtley told message about important issues that could continue to plague society all the way into the far future.
In my opinion the first half of the episode was just okay standard Doctor Who AI turns evil but the twist that Lindy was willing to betray Ricky and all the citizens of Finetime are racist pieces of sh*t who would rather doom themselves than let a black person help them made it amazing. Speaking of racist pieces of sh*t as mentioned before it is because of you I know Lawrences Fox exists I want to thank you for that because I just learned what a miserable life he is living. Even though I'm atheist I want to bless you in the name of all gods.
It’s funny how RTD has said that episode 4 was the best thing he had written when I think this episode is the one that actually stood out to me the most in this series. Boom is still probably my favourite so far but this is the one that i think best showcases the potential of this new era and what they can do with Ncuti’s Doctor going forward
@@magnetmountain33 How, exactly, does it do that? Whilst I can understand some of the annoyence, like what RTD said about Davros (which has cased annoyence even in the disabled community) I think overall this era has felt more like Doctor Who and brought back some of the missing bombasticness and cheaseyness.
@@magnetmountain33 We're watching the same series. I'd say Maestro is as good as any cheasey villain. Of course it goes without saying that Maestro is not as good as the daleks villain wise, but was different, bringing in some of the bombasticness that has been missing. I'm coming at this as a blind person who does not focus on visuals, who legitimately has no reason to care about an actor's colour because I can't see them on the screen and from a pacing standpoint, this feels more like Who than Who has felt for these past few years. What I will also say though is Devil's Cord has a negative: the musical number at the end. I'm a huge musical theatre fan and even I thought it went on for too long.
What does it say that throughout my first watch I just kept thinking “ooooh Russel did NOT think about the optics of that line!”? Number one concern was that the white writer may have written some things that others might perceive as racist.
I watched it after it aired on tv cause i missed it so i had a good almost 24 hours of small spoilers and stuff. So i knew going in it was about more than what i was thinking initially, and i guess i was worried that that was gonna weaken it for me, but if anything, i think it added to the experience! Knowng how awful she is at the end kinda highlights the microaggresions she throws at the doctor throughout the episode
I was in the same boat. I was expecting this to be trash, but it ended up being one of my favorites. This had my favorite moments from Ncuti and helped cement him more as the Doctor for me. I actually like it more than Boom. 73 Yards is still my favorite of the season, but honestly I'm really glad to have enjoyed the bulk of the season.
I took the walking thing as rich kids having their entire lives planned out for them so straying from the path their parents set is confusing but maybe im reading to much into it lol
2:14 I agree. Like it was rather in your face about it but the part where the girl looks to her left and sees a monster eating someone then starts scrolling through her dot to distract herself was too real even if it was an extreme example.
I have to say, I really liked the big twist. That twist, of course, being 15 minutes in, is me suddenly realising im actually getting really invested into this episode.
Admittedly I was the oblivious white girl who didn't realise that Lindy was being racist at the end until twitter pointed it out. But after a rewatch it makes so much sense. I think this episode is a great fun watch which has produced a lot of fun and interesting conversations amongst the Doctor who community.
I’m glad it wasn’t just me. Even when my wife (who, for the record, is obviously smarter than me) pointed out, I thought that was just A way of interpreting it and not THE way of interpreting it with the episode shouting it very loudly from the beginning. I’m left wondering what my obliviousness means and REALLY hoping that it’s something benign.
I juust realised the poetry of the ending. These people are so unprepared that they have zero chance of surviving on their own in the wild. While staying in their little bubble about what their society deems appropriate, they walked straight into the waiting jaws of death just like they'd been doing with the slugs
I will agree, the twist didn't come out of nowhere. Lindy betraying Ricky might have, but she was shown to be a horrible person so it's not that surprising. I'll admit, even after the credits rolled, I missed the racism part, but I can see it in retrospect. I think I might've changed how the slugs and the Bubble were linked. I feel the explanation for the alphabetical killing was a bit overdone, just like explaining the Bogeyman was, but the racism was underexplained. Maybe having the Dots directing people into the slugs would've been a better monster justification, but that could have been too close to ATMOS back in Series 4.
Its so frustrating. It was there the whole time, the ending just reveals it in a way that was shocking in a poignant way if you didn’t notice. Everything clicks and it retroactively makes the whole episode amazing
@@georgeashley6643 my experience was noticing it early since it was only white faces in the bubble and there where some close ups on people with blond hair and blue eyes at certain points that felt extra close up, so for me it was less of a shock reveal and more of a steadily peering over the edge to only see their hollowness growing and growing. while im commenting on the cinematography the way rickys death was framed was brilliantly brutal and really stuck the landing on how cold choices made in that space where.
I saw someone say that the "not being able to walk without the bubble" wasn't her literally not being able but her not wanting to be without her bubble and looking for an excuse and I think that might be the intention
She does say "I'm so stupid!" She's clearly in a lot of emotional distress, and frustrated that she can't walk independently. This feels like more of a leap than just "she's clearly been using it for ages, and is no longer used to using those parts of her brain so actively."
She probably doesn't have the neural connections for walking independently as she's been so dependent on the bubble for so long. Similar to how a person who's been blind for years may become unable to process visual stimuli even if they get the physical cause of the blindness fixed.
I have seen every episode of this series twice - once at midnight when it drops, then once the next day with my family - and every single one has gotten better on rewatch (which is really impressive in its own right) but none more so than this one!
For the walking, I think that may be like it's for us if we'd walk on a path in these turning tunnels where you can't stay up straight because your eyes tell you need to turn to the side. Their nervous system isn't used to seeing anything but the bubble, it's sensory overload.
I didn't like Lindy from the start. She was annoying and really hard to root for. But I figured she would probably have some redemption by the end, so I went with it. Then she sold Ricky out. I literally yelled BITCH at the tv. As bad as I felt for Ricky, I felt more satisfied that I was never meant to like this person at all. This episode is far better on a rewatch. But I feel really stupid, for a whole lot of reasons. The line about not recognising The Doctor because she thought he just looked the same, I chalked it up to her being an idiot. But it's so blatant that _I_ then felt like the idiot for brushing it off like that. So many other little things are recontextualised and it works great. But the thing I feel most stupid for was that I knew. I was aware of the leak that the episode would end with the reveal of them all being racist. I had ignored that outright because I thought it was some crazy fake leak, possibly made up by someone trying to shit on the shows "wokeness" or something. It sounded that way to me. "There's going to be an episode where The Doctor lectures a bunch of racists at the end." I thought there was no way. And technically, it wasn't. Because it wasn't a lecture. It was The Doctor desperately trying to be The Doctor and save them. Not only was I wrong to think this moment wouldn't happen, it worked out far better than I ever would've thought.
Don't worry, I'm not an oblivious white guy, but definitely felt like one at the end of this episode. I'd noticed that everyone in the bubble was white, but then thought maybe I'd just seen it wrong and didn't really think about it again until the end. I hope those people on the boat experience a similar fate to the rich people at the end of 'Don't Look Up.'
I am really hoping we get some sequel episode to this. The Finetime kids are clearly have a lot of racism and general prejudice in them however they are also products of a very sheltered life. Would be intersting to see them in a few years with some of them realising they where bastards and trying to make some sort of amends while others may double down on their bad world views. The GOAT Ricky September proves that some of these kids may have potential for redemption. Lindy would double down on her views and would make a great antagonist in some sequel episode.
@@EditedAF987Agreed. They even have to have an AI tell them when to pee. I don't see how they could possibly survive in the forest. Especially if there are any predators.
An unexpected banger of an episode. Stuff that happened and that was said in the episode hit me like a brick after the ending, honestly. In terms of the main theme of the episode, it definitely did what Rosa completely failed to do back in 2018 in the Chibnall Era.... which was praised at the time? (but hey at least Chibbers didn't write it by himself!!!). In terms of Ruby and the Doctor, it STILL feels like we barely know them as characters- what with the speedrun of The Doctor's backstory in Space Babies, Ruby's brief introduction in TToRR, episodes where they're both out of the picture for most of it, the weird dynamic of instant best friends, Ruby getting a TARDIS key straight away- it still leaves a lot to be desired but that might be because of the reduced episode count and everything being VERY experimental in terms of a new era of the show? Perhaps everything feels a bit of for a plot reason?
Yeah the episode count has definitely affected storytelling. I'd much rather things look a bit worse and have more episodes than have way less amazing looking episodes. And it's especially annoying that bothe the first two and last two episodes are coming out/came out on the same days, giving us only 6 weeks of the show.
@@ogpandamonium The two-part finale has been confirmed to spread over two weeks. The reason you might be thinking the same day is because of the cinema release, which plays Legend of Ruby Sunday the week after general release and leads directly into Empire of Death as it's midnight screening. Legend fo Ruby Sunday hits general release on 15 June and Empire of Death hits on the 22nd.
@@jukesy1992 oh nice! Yeah I thought that the cinema release was on the legend day so it's good that we get it spread out. Does make the cinema release even more pointless as you've already seen half of it but it's good for us home watchers.
I think we already know that she retains SOMETHING from 73 Yards because in the first scene she says she’s been to wales twice but at the end in the new version of the same scene she says she’s been 3 times and the can’t really remeber when the 3rd was.
I enjoy how annoying and at times insufferable Lindy Pepper-Bean is because on a first watch, there's an expectation she would get some growth and become more likeable, but then the twist of the episode completely pulls the rug out from under you.
I was so oblivious to the racism theme that even when my wife and I were discussing it at the end and she pointed out that they rejected the Doctor because he was black, I STILL didn’t think that’s what they were doing - I thought they were rejecting him because he wasn’t from their society and therefore they didn’t trust him (I was COMPLETELY oblivious to the fact that a character referred to the TARDIS very deliberately as “voodoo” as a racial pejorative). I even still didn’t fully appreciate it when my wife pointed out that she’d realised that everyone on the planet was white (a connection I’d utterly failed to make). I thought that it was commenting on the fact that rich families are often white due to inherited wealth from exploitative ancestors and STILL didn’t straight away think that they were saying “this is a planet full of racists!” Even though it turns out that the episode was screaming this at me VERY loudly. Suffice to say, I’m feeling very, VERY stupid and wondering how I failed to make the proper connections and what that says about me as a person…
Well, I'd say it just says that you haven't experienced the exact experiences that would make you pick up on that sooner, which is okay because no one knows what experiences one other person has and now you know how to spot it in future. I also didn't notice at first until afterwards cause I also didn't have the specific experiences. Plus, I also think its because this episode is the first time in a while Doctor Who has been properly subtle. It screams loudly once you notice it but it doesn't force your attention on it right away, so it gives you more time to think on it. I've noticed a lot people saying they're not sure what it says about them, IMO it just says we're A) either not used to subtlety cause of writing standards in Media nowadays or B) Simple not people who have experienced the nessecary events to make us pick up on these things as naturally as other people, so its just edcuated us more and we should be happy about that cause it helps us more in future. I am rambling a bit, sorry.
@@DeprecatedSC, thank you for saying that. I honestly hope that you’re right. I rightly find racism in all its forms utterly abhorrent and am generally what some people would call “a lefty snowflake”, but I felt so blindsided by the racism that felt shame that I didn’t immediately get it even after the episode had ended. I think the best case scenario is just that I’m blindly optimistic because of my inherent privileges (white, middle class, Home Counties, cisgendered, straight-passing male).
I didn't either because I can suspend RL for an alien race... if they were all blue skinned I'd have felt the same way. The color I kept noticing...was pale blue. Everybody-except the dr- is wearing it. Could denote a class, or nation (think of a flag pattern or Avatar tribal colors) and there is the Dr in bold orange and brown plaids!
I'm glad we're starting to get past this #RIPDoctorWho trend that has been forced on us and we can finally just enjoy the show at face value and not have to bat off all the people who just want the show to die because it represents everything they hate in the world.
I thought Space Babies was genuinely terrible Who and that the Devil's Chord was... Alright. But I'm glad we've had 3 strong, challenging episodes back to back now. If the detractors aren't on board here then nothing will make them happy, Doctor Who isn't for them.
@@jensablefur155 I agree with Space Babies, but I think that was aimed at a very young audience, and not at me, a 37 year old man. Devils Chord yes I agree more or less, I did really enjoy Maestro, but I think there were a lot of holes, the Beatles insertion could have been done a lot better, and the final song was awful. I think detractors are fine, I appreciate good criticism, but the vast majority of detractors now (or at least the loudest) don't really care about Doctor Who, they are part of a political movement aimed at attacking anything that doesn't pander to their personal politics, and that's not constructive criticism, that's shutting down free speech.
Lmao love the Community reference, I’ve been watching through the show for the first time while this new Doctor Who season has been coming out and I love it
This one is my favourite yet! I have also been super excited for Boom and 73 Yards for weeks, but had no expectations for this, and had a much much better experience watching this one. The structure and pace was just better / more balanced. The feeling that parts of the script were left underdeveloped, that has been present in every RTD 2 ep yet including everything through the 60th specials to Boom & 73 Yards, was finally gone! Every element of plot in the episode finally felt adequately explored at worst, and done exceptionally at most parts of the episode. The commentary evolving from one on "social media echo-chamber bubbles" to "politically charged segregationist bubbles" basically was handled with grace. The slow, subtle, careful revealing of Lindy going from an assumed innocent damsel in distress to "entitled rich bitch" was done astonishingly well, the episode kept on giving us little clues about how shallow and self-obsessed, and it all just seemed like weird little character quirks until the dot went off on Ricky. Speaking of which, Ricky bloody September! What a wonderful wonderful bit of the episode. First we think he'll just be the "insert social media celebrity character here" present in every tv show that does the "sci-fi commentary on social media" bit. Then we think he'll be the perfect Prince Charming love interest of the story, then he turns out to sorta be the perfect companion the Doctor could have, brave, curious, selfless, clever, charming, quick on his feet, etc. Really gave me Astrid Peth vibes too, stuck in a life he doesn't feel he belongs to, is a much more contemplative and introspective thinker than the people he is around etc, and of course, the end he meets. Seemingly unlike most people, I also loved what the origin / reason of existence for the slugs turned out to be. An AI, working on pure cold logic and without the heroic human ideals the Doctor lives by, coming to the conclusion that the segregationist, separatist community they serve are evil bastards that need to be taken down; and doing it in a way clever enough that at the end of it the AI wouldn't be blamed for rising up against its "masters", but it would be seen as a natural disaster of sort is brilliant already. A machine realizing if they gotta take a society of humans down, they gotta do it in a way where they would neither be caught during it, nor would have people come after them afterwards is on its own a concept strong enough to hold together a whole episode of Doctor Who. But the Slugs, beings the machine creates, that seem like natural native lifeforms of the planet the colony is set up in, being not only perfect weapons for the machines planned genocide, but also perfect clean-up is the cherry on the sci-fi cake! That's why the dot doesn't just attack people, the slugs get rid of the bodies, digest it. If it weren't for the Doctor, all that was gonna be left would've been a ghost town, overrun by "nature". And oh the town, Finetime being a dull, boring, unimaginative town; the facade of the perfect town, not even being a thing that had any effort put into it outside of the peoples lives inside the dot and bubble, even without any slug or ai shenanigans. The whole project full-on clearly being a cheap scam to get a few quids off of ritch dickheads, like what most private schools have become, or what most of these "work and travel" schemes are. Only interesting and desirable to the rich and ignorant, simply because they got convinced by corporate-speak, not because anything in Finetime has any actual merit. Explored throughout the episode through Doctor and Ruby questioning Lindy, trying to understand, what the purpose, appeal, and function of finetime is, just to realise the point is there is no point in Finetime existing. No reason, no benefit. Corporate just had to tell the racists they could give their kids a place segragated from all they disapprove, filled only with what they approve; and voila, cash has been made 😂 Ncuti gave his as yet best performance in the small time he had, and we got to see a side of The Doctor we don't often see; "angry and not able to do anything about it" angry not at the "villain" of the episode but at the people he's trying to save. Frustrated that when people raised in their own bubbles, go into fight or flight mode, their prejudices and belief in their own superiority will overshadow anything he can say or do. You can help someone, only as much as they let you. If their shitty little echochamber is what they turn to, what they try to seek comfort in, what they use to cling to life; you cannot change in a moment, how their mind has been conditioned to work for years. Genuinely think this has become one of my alltime favs, up there with Midnight and Planet of the Ood!
Me and my partner were watching Fallout recently, a show that does that thing of making it very diverse ignoring any kind of relationship between ethnicity and class. As if racism never existed. So when this episode reached the moment where they say they are all rich kids we thought that it was great that Doctor Who was not ignorning that and that all those rich people where all white people. But we thought it was just a subtle codification, we were not expecting the show to go fully into that. To me it was my favourite 15th doctor episode. Which is a pretty high bar.
Me and a mate watched it in the woods expecting the next ‘Love and Monsters’ and I was honestly astounded how invested I was. The twist was great, the execution was really stellar, performances were brilliant and the messaging was done in a surprisingly nuanced way that we’d never seen before. Loved it. Genuinely my favourite episode of the season.
@@Joe_Brennan_ I like what you did there 😂 But I mean in the more broader idea that most people disliked it at the time aha. I myself like it, but it’s just the easiest story to throw as a “the one everyone dislikes” for a comparison.
Didn't expect this episode to be my favourite episode in the season so far. Was it the best? No I dont think so, but did it suprise me in ways I wasnt expecting and keep me HELLA engaged. YES. I fully get the criticism that maybe the first time the Doctor is racialised (in universe AND for the audience) should have been done by a black writer. But seeing the Doctor racialised like that for me came as a huge shock. And it made for something completely unique that I've never seen in Who before. It hurt to watch, I felt a LOT. Looking back at the episode too, the breadcrumb trail of a society built on racist values is obvious but I'm enjoying seeing how much I missed. Because of that, it's my favourite of the season so far. Also again, a shout-out to how wonderful it is to have someone discuss media in such an engaging way that isnt full of hyperbole and having to have the hottest take. Just to have an honest discussion about what we love is wonderful. Thanks JBoi.
I watched with my partner and after the cold open me and him were singing “phoooone baaaaad” over the theme tune cause we also thought it was gunna be a black mirror esque technology bad episode and by the end we were both very impressed with it.
That the racism wasn't called out was a bold move, I think. Ruby recognised it and didn't see the point to trying to talk them around and The Doctor didn't care but wanted to help. I wouldn't mind betting RTD lobbed that in there as some sort of, "So, what do you have for this, anti-wokers?"
If im honest the bad one for me is probably Rogue, it really doesnt look like my thing, ill give it a watch but what you were saying about this one, im thinking about rogue, just not into the whole dance ball type of thing.
I held off on watching this episode until today because I honestly thought I wasn't gonna like it at all, but now I'm surprised to say it's probably my second favorite of the season behind Boom and above 73 yards. This season really keeps on surprising me, because I feel like it just keeps getting better and better.
It's funny to hear everyone compare last week's episode to "Midnight" when in my opinion at least, this was the episode had more in common with Russell's earlier masterpiece. Obviously they aren't on the same level of quality, but the same scathing cynical nihilistic streak that ran through "Midnight" also runs through "Dot and Bubble", the Doctor getting confronted by a truly horrid and disgusting side of humanity and being left shaken by his experience while the repugnant human characters getting off scot-free . On the whole, I found myself enjoying "Dot and Bubble" a lot more than I expected to, largely for the same reason as everyone else did (the early reviews calling it "Black Mirror without the bite" didn't help). It's got a nice balance of goofy camp and a surprising amount of suspense, I actually found the slugs to be an unexpectedly effective menace, and really well-executed from a technical perspective. I also think it was a rather creative choice to have the protagonist be a very unpleasant and unlikeable character, in sharp contrast to other Doctor-lite protagonists, and Callie Cooke does a fantastic job at playing this vapid self-centred narcissist, it's the most I've found myself hating a fictional character in quite some time. And talking of excellent performances, Ncuti's work in that last scene is just exceptional, the way he goes from confident and charismatic, to desperately and futilely pleading to reason, and ultimately just succumbing to rage and despair at these people's ignorant stupidity and bigotry is just so powerful. We'll wait and see what happens by the end of the season, but based on this episode and "Boom", I think he may just end up being one of the best Doctors we've ever had
The first couple eps didn’t jive with my sensibilities but I’m starting to think this season might be wonderful actually! I’ll probably like the first few when I rewatch.
I feel like we needed one more scene where we see that fate of the racist nepo-baby ‘survivors’ as they immediately meet their doom once they leave the Doctor behind
I kind of prefer that it was left up to interpretation? We know that their bigotry and incompetence is what will get them killed, do we need more than that? Not giving them any more time in the episode or our thoughts can be more satisfying, in a way.
@@finnley1506I agree that it's better to leave it open ended, but I think it's more because showing them killed off might send the message of; "Don't worry guys, leave the racists alone and they'll sort themselves out" Which is a bit dangerous to send. The strong, strong implication is that one way or another they'll get themselves killed. But what if they get lucky? What if they run into another Ricky September or The Doctor out there? With an episode like this I think the intention is for them to stay in our thoughts and leave us angry, because this problem exists in our world right now and a lot of our media and institutions are asking us to not look.
Joe, once again I agree with you completely! Your thoughts are my thoughts and honestly when I release a video about the full season it's bound to be both redundant and derivative lmao! I was really impressed and surprised by this episode and a big reason for that was that I wasn't expecting such a cutting commentary on society and its future. I completely agree that this era is lacking diverse writers and this is not the story for RTD to write, but I cannot deny that there's genius throughout the episode. You'd expect an episode that tackles racism to be set in the past but I really liked that it was in an imagined future, that it was indicating a dark future for many attitudes that are perpetuated by certain groups today. That was wonderful, and the entire final scene was beautiful. Seeing the racists get carried off in a boat, imagery that harkens to many racist calls for immigrants to leave countries on boats, was so poignant, and executed with a lot of subtlety, as you say, not without much obvious dialogue, just done so incredibly. I was enjoying the episode a lot but those aspects really made me fall for it. Great stuff, the season has a lot of range and I'm having a blast with most of it!
Wait, I didn't even pick up on the boat thing! OK, this is actually amazing and contextualizes it even more different. This episode has so many layers to it, and I mean that genuinely.
I thought the boat thing was particularly interesting because the one guy at the end of was using such colonizer language. It just made the whole boat thing creepier to me.
i think the thing with the ending that surprised me is that they actually acknowledged the racism. and not just in a "oh that must be hard for you. anyway!.." kinda way
I love how this episode taps into the biases of its audience and challenges then. Not in a preachy, patronising, way but in a truly striking way that is confronting and compelling. The more I think about this episode the more I like it.
I agree; I thought this episode would be just okay and it ended up being so fantastic!! I didn't realize that they were racist until browsing reddit, which is so bad and white of me. The ending is explicit, yet I thought Lindy's society was just upset the doctor wasn't born there. Browsing reddit, I realized how much I missed, and I want to keep questioning my assumptions and look for hidden bigotry. Great stuff here, and the acting was soooo good.
Ruby remembered, emotionally, being in Wales three times at the end of "73 Yards," rather than two at the beginning, so it makes sense that she would recognize Susan Twist even if she doesn't know from where. Edit: 25:20 - I actually think this episode rises above "Boom." Pretty easily, honestly lol.
I’m a POC and I was reluctant to call it racism until the end. Had my eyebrow raised at some things Lindy said and was like nah it can’t be until the end were I had a text book pikachu face made sure everyone saw what a saw via the internet and was like damn guess I was right.
I definitely went into this episode with the attitude of "I'll watch it because I love DW, but I'm not particularly looking forward to this one" and was pleasantly surprised. I will be excited for this one when I do a full series rewatch I think, the only ep so far that I won't is Space Babies, so 4/5 is pretty good going. I was fearful that with the lower episode count any clangers really stand out, but so far it seems that "quality instead of quantity" is prevailing, which is really nice.
Wouldn't this have been an interesting time to have tried the psychic paper? Would playing the "obedience to authority with credentials" card have worked in this case, and how would it have been interpreted? It was omitted, I think, because the reaction would have revealed too much too soon.
Mixed race British person here. I think portraying racism in a futuristic setting is very important, and I don't mean scifi allegories for racism (not that those are bad, they definitely also tell us important things), but literal, human racism. Because (particularly in the uK) we often think of it as an in the past, solved problem, and we need to be reminded it's not, and that we need to keep educating ourselves or we'll start backsliding. I remember when Rosa was new people questioned why Krasko would be a racist in the far future, and thought the episode would be better without them. Those people need to open their eyes and look at racism in policing, politics and sport around them today. These episodes show us the bad future, but we can change it by standing against racism - sort of like Orphan 55's environmental message but without literally telling us the moral.
My viewing experience seems to be a somewhat different to a lot of you. I too didn't at all pick up on the race thing, but the class angle seemed very pertinent to me. I picked up that it was in indictment of how rich kids use social media quite quickly, and I wasn't terribly surprised when Lindy killed September. The twist at the end did surprise me tho One thing which really struck me was the way that Lindy used her being saved by September for social credit, even using her knowing him in that was after he died, felt incredibly real to me. That's what people like this do
I thought there was a lot of good stuff in this episode, especially at the end, but alarmingly found myself feeling bored for a few minutes in the middle which isn't something I've ever experienced during Doctor Who before. I'm hoping it will land better on a rewatch, but I just couldn't shake a feeling of 'can we actually see the Doctor now please?' because the Doctor is such a good character and Ncuti portrays him so well that his absence is starting to make the series less engaging to me. I very much agree that this series is suffering somewhat from a lack of conventional episodes - not that I'd want rid of any of them, but you need some standard adventures in-between because otherwise the show has no 'normal' to make the abnormal different. That all seems a bit negative, but on the whole there's been plenty I've enjoyed so far and I'm still feeling excited for each upcoming episode and enjoying watching 15 and Ruby, which wasn't always the case in previous series, so I'm definitely still feeling positive about the current era.
“ just this one time, everybody dies”! -wow, what a counterpoint to the original! I was not that hopeful, but really liked it in the end. I kept waiting for it to be something more subtle than racism, but nope, pure George Wallace ( I’m generation Jones, 😎) level hate and alienation. I wonder if Ricky was also a racist? Are they all? In any case I didn’t see his death coming. She was worse than “just” a racist but I don’t know if it’s a total condemnation of a self absorbed generation. Again, are they all, like that? I remember in the seventies the criticism of the then current, “me generation”; the “greatest generation” harshing the Boomers? The fact that they didn’t even investigate the potential of the Tardis speaks to their cultural provincialism. Excellent episode and review, though your ageist, references to be people in their sixties was a wee bit grating 😎
I think this episode only works because of the twist. Without it would be boring commentary on look how stupid modern technology is making these youngsters (insert old aged voice here) But the twist absolutely transforms the episode. Also the racism/ lindy isn't a good person twist reveal was so well executed and written. Also I really like the working/original title for the episode "Monsters, monsters everywhere"
I like how the messaging in this is so subtle that it doesn't hit you until the end. I mean in retrospect there were Red Flags that when you rewatch become much more noticeable.
Did anyone think it odd when the Doctor and Ruby finally stood face to face with Lindy Pepper-Bean? They stood at a distance from each other and didn't interact naturally. It was like they were filmed at different times and then put together later. Is this what happened?
Love ruby and the doctor gushing over and bickering over Ricky Rip consent king Ricky 😔 he seems like a character that wasn’t “born and breed” like Lindy came up through his influencer role
I loved this episode in the first 5 mins such a tense and exciting but funny story, and that twist and ending was shocking in the best way possible trully one of the most unique and experimental episodes of the show and one of my favourites
14:15 Yes that was a bit silly it would've made more sense if maybe the people were being culled by whoever made the tech or something but they did a similar thing with the company in 'boom' so maybe they didn't want to do that again?
A very pleasant surprise for me after most this series has left me cold. My favourite episode of this series in fact I don't think I've liked the show this much since Village of the Angels.
I think it was an entertaining episode and was something different from Who which I appreciate. After watching my only takes are. Will people watch this episode again after knowing the reveal? I feel like this episode will be remembered for that while the rest of it will be forgotten. A bit like Zygon Inversion. We remember the 12th Doctor’s speech but no one talks about what else happened. I think the second is more of a personal wish but RTD imo does great with horror on a personal level, Midnight is a great example and Dot and Bubble with its characters. He just knows how to write people you can be disgusted by and I wish he’d tap into it more. Comparing to Space Babies which is an okay episode but felt like fluff whereas dot and bubble has meat on its bones and has things to say. I hope I’m getting my thoughts across well?
Ricky September was such a fascinating character and so cleverly written. He is written exactly as The Doctor would be written :- the way he talks to Lindy, the secrets he kept from her to keep her level headed, the speeches, promising to get her out safe, his calm competence. And when Lindy is with him she acts like any companion would act with the Doctor. Lindy treating him differently totally differently to the real Doctor when they are essentially the same character in every way except from skin colour is so good. He represents the safe, white Doctor that certain people were upset at not getting, and Lindy represents the bigotry of accepting one but not the other.
This episode challenged a lot of my habitual assumptions and prejudices in such a way that was just so well executed. Holding a lens up to myself as I found myself cheering for Lindy’s potential growth with Ricky, despite literally nothing to support it, met with the jarring rug pull of his death was one of the few moments I’ve gasped at a show. Then to realize I hadn’t noticed the homogeny of the rich kids until the comment about getting contaminated, it was a powerful moment that I’m so glad I went into blind. I feel Ricky served the purpose of showcasing that these people aren’t incapable of being somewhat better or more aware; they just choose not to.
Google - Psychopath vs sociopath: 'Sociopaths tend to act more impulsively and erratically compared to psychopaths. Sociopaths generally struggle to maintain a job or a family life, whereas psychopaths may be able to do so. While psychopaths generally struggle to form attachments, sociopaths may be able to do so with a like-minded individual.' I say she's a psychopath.
I overall liked the episode. I feel that RTDs range as a writer has increased dramatically since his 1st era. It was an interesting choice to have a protagonist who is so vapid, helpless and incompetent, and basically just a horrible person. The part about the racism was what kind of lost me, not because I don't think it's a problem in contemporary society that's worth exploring, but because I wonder about them situating it in a society that exists on another planet, thousands of years in the future. It seems to be suggesting that racism, specifically racism by white people directed at darker skinned people, is a constant and unchanging facet of human existence that will persist to the end of time. This seems like a horribly pessimistic view of humanity's future. I think that I would have appreciated a little more context concerning the society and how it got this way. It looks like a society that has possibly used eugenics to deliberately homogenize itself and they are so sheltered that one wonders when they ever would have even encountered anyone who doesn't look like them, let alone learned all the appropriate racist insults. Anyway, I think the episode was well executed, but I don't necessarily accept its underlying premises.
This series has been really good which is a great surprise because I was really worried about it. I'm not super excited for rogue though. I'm excited to see a new writer but the next time trailer didn't look super interesting.
Shockingly good? Shockingly bad? Neutrally mixed? Let me know!
Very good episode. A critical essay on the evil of racism and its greatest flaws, lack of empathy and ignorance. To me the planet represents the ultimate evolution of "idealized purity of the arian race", which in the end is its own downfall. Ncuti Gatwa is masterful in showing the Doctor's empathy and pain, when his plea to save them falls, on the deaf ears of ignorance.
Shockingly good
Shockingly good. Went into with low expectations, noticed the racism right away, but was still surprised by the outcome (mostly hoped for a redemption arc for Lindy...but then the Ricky thing happened and nope -- that was the 'twist' for me, honestly: Lindy was beyond help/hope). Not the most perfect execution on concept, imo, as I think it needed a little more of an edit, as I often think about RTD's work. But I enjoyed it.
One point on your (excellent) essay: perhaps the episode also forces us to learn about ourselves. I never noticed any of the ‘hints’ throughout the episode. On rewatch, they were obvious and, arguably, abundant. I feel this episode has taught me about the main character, about society and also about ME: WHY did I not notice? Am I willing to accept? What else am I willing to overlook, consciously or subconsciously? This episode literally leaps through the screen and makes the viewer a participant. As I commented elsewhere, for an episode that should have been ‘social media is bad’, it hit me in places I was not expecting. Bravo NuWho 👏🏼
this is my personal favourite episode so far i think its the vibe and how well i thought lindy was written, didnt think it would top boom or 73 yards tho
The inability to walk without the arrows isn’t particularly unrealistic. A large chunk of our brain’s sense of balance comes from our visual system establishing a horizon. Her brain has adapted to using the arrows and the bubble grid for that reference.
At uni, I did an experiment on this as part of my biopsychology course. It takes about 20 to 30 minutes for the brain to adapt when you shift the orientation of the horizon and during that time you can’t walk in a straight line and feel motion sick/dizzy.
I agree! And I can't understand why so many people are annoyed by the "I can't walk" bit, which can be explained fairly easily, and nobody seems to care that she doesn't know when she needs to pee, which to me is WAaay harder to explain!
@@pamelawelch5955yh...like I really don't need that kinda person, pop up in front of my face,tell me I should pee or pinch off a 🍞,.....and remai there lol🤣🤦♂️ I'd hope they go away after a few seconds!🤪✌️🍻
@@pamelawelch5955 Yeah, I kept thinking: 'Are the dots trying to give her a UTI or something?'
@@NicoleM_radiantbaby I think it was an initial attempt at killing the finetimers through dehydration and maybe it was taking to long
They said in the episode it was to make sure they were monitoring their fluid intake so as not to overconsume resources
I really liked Lindy in that "oh she's so out of her depth I can't wait to see her rise to the occasion" way, and that moment of her betraying Ricky shook me to the core. It made me realize that maybe I was only rooting for her because of her place as the protagonist and not because she was actually capable of growing as a person. It was such a good and surprising twist on the classic "we're following this bystander instead of the Doctor" story, I'm really glad this exists.
Yeah you definitely do read into her character more because of her place in the format and I think challenging those assumptions is so clever
Yeah it's a similar thing to when people think the joker or walter white are cool because theyre the main characters.
So placesT!!! I think you just found a new category of hate😂
Agreed! It's a great example of protagonist doesn't necessarily = good person
I think she does have the potential to grow as a person, but that’s less so the point of her character to me. As she watches the doctor’s face deepen in painful disbelief, as they slowly depart on the boat, you can see in her expression, (my interpretation of Callie’s performance anyway) Lindy gauging that the doctor is beyond what she sees of him; she feels she can trust him, his kindness, and his knowledge. He radiates these attributes, and most characters that meet the doctor, feel this too. And yet, she chooses to forgo him, anyway. I think that choice, when faced with the truth, is the point of Lindy. She chooses to fight for her life when faced with the slugs, the murderous dot, but she doesn’t with the doctor. It’s hatred, not ignorance, that doomed these people
[non-black POC opinion] i think it's really important that the episode showed that the homeworld was overrun by the slugs and destroyed... not only does the doctor want to save the residents of finetime because the doctor wants to save everyone, there's a personal aspect to it as well what w/ him being the last of the timelords again. they are the last living people of their world and they're all going to die because they can't see beyond their bigotry and prejudice. i really appreciate that rtd isn't just saying "racism is bad" with this episode, but also "racism is stupid" and "racist societies are inherently destructive and will eat themselves alive". as well as the fact that this was a story set in the future, so there's also "racism still exists and is not just a thing of the past". it's a vast improvement on social commentary from the chibnall era, and it's an impressive amount of nuance given to the topic considering he's a middle aged white man and also the fuckups he had in his first era w/ mickey and martha. next time it's addressed i would really like a writer of color handling it though
Now this perspective. ...yh thats good,I can go with that...cause I honestly 'liked when Ncuti knelt down and screamed in that angry anguish,I felt that!I felt it in this sense that right there was FINALLY him showing the DOCTOR..thats just me though, I'm trying to like him,but the 'DOCTOR ' vibes,I've felt from him just a few times..and it's more impacting when thinking he's the last of his, they are for their race,...and they're going out blind and asshat stupid lol!!..let's hope this last half of season 1,(wow already lol)builds up,IN HIS FAVOR.. I don't care about the color and his lifestyle etc,nope dc,I just want him to come out,...AS THE DOCTOR,NOTHING MORE😁✌️🍻🤟
Something interesting to consider about the home world is that the slugs aren't really that destructive to the world around them. Their method of hunting is mostly just waiting for people to walk into them and they don't wreck the streets or anything.
Meanwhile we see with Lindy that when her life was at stake, she easily turns on the person she admired most.
Given that the ending shows that Lindy is an expected outcome of their system and culture, you have to wonder how responsible the Slugs are for what happened to home.
@@steve-0493 Yes this was the Ncuti's "Nobody human has anything to say to me today!" moment.
Interestingly, I’ve actually seen a few poc in this thread say they’re glad a white man was able to handle this topic well - because they’re actually really tired of ALWAYS having to be the ones talking about this topic. So r.e. Your last point, while it’s always good to want to hear a poc voice, I do wonder if they’re maybe a little sick of feeling like their stories are only ever wanted if they’re about racism.
@@LordofFullmetal yeah, that is a valid point. my respect for rtd honestly shot up a lot knowing that he was able to handle a topic like this properly. to me though i feel like we can still have both: an episode like dot and bubble written by rtd, as well as more POC in the writer's room (regardless of everything, a non white writer will be best equipped to tell these stories). it certainly helps that dot and bubble is more a scathing critique of white supremacy than it is "about" POC: i feel like rtd wanted to leave that to a non white writer
Can't think of a time when I've watched Doctor Who before and literally said 'Let them die' in reference to the humans.
I’m sure I’ve thought it when people were moderately annoying but no one really stands out
@@Joe_Brennan_ every human in orphan 55
As I can’t post it as a GIF: th-cam.com/video/bM_QDyr5NaM/w-d-xo.htmlsi=6LL4RHDHzqEWFypI
Just this once.... everybody dies
@@LurpakSpreadableButterand just this once we were all happy about it
I identified with the slugs more than that vacuous creature...
The slugs were heroes
They, grew, on me! 😎
Long live the sucky slugs! 🐌 isn’t it about time? They got full recognition in inclusiveness! Not just relegated to playing evil people yeah Russell so disabled people can’t be evil but mollusks can be! Molluskphobe!!!
fun fact: the slugs are called mantraps
@@Redracer96 *man, not mat.
As a WOC, I liked this episode solely in the sense that it's actually what experiencing racism is like. Russell said in the behind the scenes video on the DW channel that people kept asking him about a Black version of The Doctor going to the past experiencing racism, and Russell thought what about now and how he could still experience racism now. This episode is very much like what racism is now. It's people making these off-putting rude comments and valuing a white person more than you and all of these awful little interactions that once you're able to put them together you realize you're not the problem, the problem is that the reason the other person is acting like and and treating you like that is because they're racist. I don't know if Russell consulted with any BIPOC folks in writing this, I'd hope he did, but it's not far off from what current racism looks and feels like.
As a white straight cis man this episode reminded me that modern racism (and bigotry) in practice isn't exactly as overt as we expect. If you're not on the receiving end of all those microaggressions they're easy to handwave away as something else. The pastel classism (see Gothic Paul being dismissed over and over) overshadows the racism.
The fact that so many cis white fan bros are still arguing "you're reading too much into it" "why's it always got to be about race, it's about class obviously" etc etc shows just how much they nailed the micro in micro aggressions in this episode. I didn't catch all of them the first time through - I'm white and queer with chronic illness, so my experience with micro aggressions is different from these, but I've experienced enough I recognised quite a few. The "you all look the same" one was the most egregious, clearly race related one I noticed up until the voodoo comment in the end reveal. I wondered whether that was going to be addressed, and ooh boy was it.
@nealjroberts4050 that hand waving is exactly how people hide behind being "not racist" (ie they don't use overtly horrible words) rather than working towards being anti-racist (where you can see racism as it happens even at the micro aggression level and work to stop it).
@@writeonshell
I'm glad you're also acknowledging that it can be hard to spot if you lack the experience of it and not blanket accusing people of hiding behind their unawareness.
@@nealjroberts4050 Yeah, I struggle to say that anyone who didn't/doesn't notice the micro aggressions or the lack of POC is an inherently racist person and not just ignorant of the issue.
Sometimes it is literally just being sheltered and not knowing better - I grew up in Suburbian Australia and could count the number of POC at my school on my hands so I learned bad habits and thought\said things that I now understand had racist foundations. I have been working in the years since to override them and point them out to others like me when I see it. I have no doubt there are still beliefs or words or phrases I need to find and root out (not just racism either, but also ableism and homophobia/transphobia that were buried inside some of my early interactions and modeling by adults in my life which is fun as a queer disabled person).
Ultimately, you don't know what you don't know. I'll admit I get frustrated that some people are still trying so hard to say this episode isn't about race (and don't stop to listen to the reasons why it's blindly obvious if you scratch just a fraction of an inch below the surface) but for those who need it pointed out but listen once it is, I think Hanlon's razor comes to mind (You know - never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity/ignorance). At least up until the point that ignorance is used as a shield against having to learn (e.g. "I didn't know" after the 15th time of having that same thing pointed out).
So long as people are willing to listen and learn so that they can reduce the harm they put out in the world, I think they're on the right track.
Literally true. I meant into this thinking it would be generic "social media bad" stuff but it actually went deeper
He bamboozled us
Agree. It hit me in places I wasn’t expecting
Instead of going with “social media bad” it told us HOW it can be used for evil.
@@Joe_Brennan_ Indeed, you could see it that what RTD did was create a "bubble" for us, the audience, as well.
He created a "bubble" where every microaggression had its "plausible deniability", so we'd dismiss our qualms and stay inside the safe "bubble" he'd created for us, and not peek through the cracks to see the racists, who were there all along.
And this, of course, adds that second layer to all this. All the (mostly white) people who watched and didn't notice anything was amiss with this future society, didn't spot the microaggressions, dismissed any concerns because it couldn't be naked racism, could it?
We were also in our own "bubble" watching this. Inside a bubble of white privilege. Inside a bubble of heteronormativity.
After all, everyone's commenting on them all being white. But, also, did you see any hint of gay or lesbian or trans in their society? Did we see anyone with a disability? Lindy talked about everyone always being at their desks - no consideration that someone could be off sick? Hmm, possibly because no-one ever is sick (we know, from Lindy's bubble, that they have their own AI "doctors" monitoring their stats at all times).
Real-life Nazis tend not to stick to just one trait - skin colour - that is "inferior". They come up with a whole list of "undesirables" that don't match their fascist conformity.
We know they're racists because the Doctor is black and that's what they reacted to. But what if he'd been openly gay, or Ruby had given Lindy a cheeky lesbian wink, that their reaction would have been any more favourable?
We're inside our own bubbles too. RTD played on that to bamboozle us, and create a little narrative "bubble" of his own, to stop us seeing the racists just beyond it.
I was really not on board in the first half.. I laughed at some of the absurdist stuff but I thought it was being unnecessarily mean to Gen-Z and teenage girls specifically.. which is fairly well-trodden ground and is basically what Black Mirror devolved into
But that ending, good lord.. it feels like the one where the message is the most subtle which I loved, and an actual satisfying twist
I think the strength of the ending kind of transforms the rest of the episode so effectively
@@Joe_Brennan_ Absolutely. I think it would be my favourite of the series if it weren't so uneven.
I think 73 Yards was better overall since that felt like every scene built on the last, but this one left more of an impact
The Doctor challenging his belief of saving people due to an inherent feeling of justice, now THATS what I call an INNER CONFLICT
I still can't believe chibnall unironically wrote that line
Not an original thought but honestly the best thing about this ep wasn’t just ‘racism bad’ but ‘racism really fucking stupid’
That’s a fun point
As a Black person, this was incredibly done as an episode exploring not just racism but white supremacy. And I'm glad Russell wrote it, as a white man. Because to be honest, having the onus to talk about these things constantly put on us, it's good to have it recognized that racism and white supremacy are white people issues.
Racism isn't only a white person issue there are plenty of other races that have such issues. It's just in the US it's the most prevalent and talked about. Any part of humanity can be stupid and bigoted it's just white people who are the most obvious example in day to day life.
White supremacy is obviously a white person problem though.
FACTS!!!
It’s a yt ppl problem that they invented that has harmed innocent lives so it makes perfect sense to me to have a yt writer (RTD) go in depth into the micro aggressions that poc face on a daily basis.
Loved his portrayal and how easy it could be dismissed because it is reflected in our reality.
This was a very The Rings of Akhaten-type episode. It was just an average enjoyable episode and then right at the end, the Doctor gives a performance that I will come back and watch for years.
I agree 100%.
3 minutes of runtime at the end turned this from a 6/10 episode to an 8+ minor Modern Who Classic. My potential favourite of the series along with Boom.
I, too, thought Ricky Spetember was secret evil.
Luring them to the slugs, 🤣...yh,could've 🤪✌️🍻
And the doctor and ruby saying how much they fancy him when they are trying to save people's lives was really sickening
@@CyberSlammer2024 How so? That seems kind of standard for Dr. Who, they sometimes get sidetracked for a second.
Me too. I kept waiting for them to reveal that he was a douche bag. I thought that there were moments where he felt like his interactions with Lindy were stilted, like he was hiding something. I now wonder if that was meant to convey a sense of shyness and awkwardness interacting with real human beings.
@@docweidner they are in the middle of trying to save this race of people and they talk about how they fancy someone. Planting the gay message. It was pathetic and not needed. And the doctor is like a million years old. Plus Ricky was disgusting looking lol
My hot take is that this is my favourite episode of the series so far. I didn’t expect to like it either but I like it the more I think about it.
More and more people are saying this, a truly shocking outcome
@@Joe_Brennan_ I promise I had this opinion before this video came out
@@Joe_Brennan_ Indeed, the more and more I think about it, this episode had no "social media = bad" message at all.
Not really. It was just a mechanism. A red herring.
RTD was lulling you into an expectation of "oh, just a Black Mirror rip-off, then" - feeding that before the episode aired quite deliberately - exactly so that you wouldn't see the racists just beyond your own bubble.
After the initial introduction of the bubble, they rapidly stop being the focus. The dots are turned off, the battery runs out. The camera angle started inside the bubble, but it was mostly "outside looking in" by the latter half of the show. In the later parts of the episode, the bubble is serving no more function than being a (video-based) "walkie talkie" to communicate with the Doctor and Ruby outside.
It was built up to be a metaphor, but it was no more than the mechanism in the episode itself. To put you in the frame of mind to not see the reality underneath it all. To create a "bubble" around the audience, so we didn't see the racists just outside our bubble were there all along.
The more I think about it, this episode has nothing whatsoever to say about social media. Other than, yes, it's another mechanism by which evil can propagate.
But, at the end, everyone's dot and bubble was off. Once naked, the true evil were the people themselves.
And the dots were not responsible for that at all.
They, in fact, got genocidal and wiped them all out (because Lindy and her friends wouldn't last five minutes outside, would they? So there is no-one left now and the dots succeeded, even if they were denied having the final blow), because they'd just had enough of their shit and went nuts.
We can't call the dots "good guys" - because they did just commit genocide and not even "nice" genocide, as it was by being eaten alive by slugs - but we can understand their rage and frustrations that they at least ceased to be the black-and-white "bad guys" of the episode. They are still murderers and that can't be excused, but you totally get why the dots became so filled with rage. You understand it, even if you can't ever condone nor endorse it.
So, by the end, "social media = amoral = neither good nor bad = just a narrative mechanism" at most?
I had a thought that The Doctor would face racism now due to being in a non-White regeneration, but assumed it would be set in the past like the 40s or 50s. Seeing it happen here in the future with a cruel twist ending just makes it even more unsettling. None of those people are going to survive.
Iirc RTD said that was the point. He specifically wanted this episode to be in the future, because he was making a point about how people see racism as a relic of the past when it’s actually still out there and going strong.
I don't read their helplessness as a "phone bad" thing. With a reveal it becomes preposterous that they feel superior to the Doctor while they couldn't even walk without a bubble.
If anything I think it feeds into the worldbuilding of FineTime and the larger culture. Looking at the details and acknowledging the function of racism in upholding hierarchies, their society seems very authoritarian (someone pointed out the gendered safety blankets!), so it's not as simple as phones bad but that media can be used by power to uphold unjust systems by manufacturing algorithms in certain ways that filter out views that might challenge you of challenge power.
It also reflects the idea of willful ignorance, that they avoided all forms of challenge up to a challenge of their racist world views. Even if it's in the interest of their own lives they'll choose a familiar and comforting lie.
@@gota7738 Such a great point! I saw someone else pointing out about Gothic Paul - how he was pointing it out, wanting to make a lot of noise, but as soon as it impacted him and HE had to do something to fix it, he balked and ran. It's easy to read a statement in there about keyboard activism.
There's also a statement about parasocial relationships when she takes is so willing to blindly believe Ricky September because he's Ricky September but is ready to turn on him in an instant because she doesn't actually care about him beyond that.
I think that's what I've loved about this episode and the discourse around it. There are so many layers. Are they all intended? Only RTD knows. But do they work with the story? Absolutely.
In fact, beyond the first few scenes, the "social media = bad" aspect died off very quickly indeed.
We got to see it, but then the episode increasingly ignored it. "Dot off", the battery running out - the camera angle was inside Lindy's bubble at the beginning, but it was outside looking in thereafter.
Indeed, after those first few scenes, where we were introduced to the bubble - to understand it all - then it rapidly became just an "intercom" between Lindy and the Doctor / Ruby. Just a "walkie talkie" with video capability.
The episode very rapidly stopped giving a shit about the bubbles, and actually they were mightily handy as a means of communication.
No, this episode had nothing whatsoever to do with "social media = bad", I feel. That was just the mechanism by which the story unfolds, but it really is not remotely the focus of the episode.
You could even say "that was the red herring" - he showed us Chekov's gun to set up our expectations that the gun would be fired later. It was a distraction to stop you noticing the racism laced throughout, because you were too busy looking at the bubble as being the problem, not the people inside those bubbles.
But, no, it turns out that the true evil here were the people all along.
I mean, we can't excuse the dots wanting to kill them all - genocidal mass-murder remains evil, no matter the provocation or how much the people being wiped out deserve it - but you can completely understand their motivations.
That we could say that, after the twist, while maybe it's going too far to say the dots and slugs were "the good guys" - you can't excuse genocide, by people being eaten alive, for any reason - they did certainly stop being the black-and-white "bad guys" of the episode.
I don't think "social media = bad" was remotely the point at all. That was just the distraction - making folks think "oh, just a Black Mirror rip-off episode", so that they didn't see what was coming.
It was a red herring. I don't think it actually says anything bad about social media at all. Not really.
The criticism is of bubbles and group think. And, like, racial segregation, Apartheid, the Nazis, etc. - all of that happened without any social media at all. it's not the technology at all, it's the people inside that "group think".
If you stop and think about it, that's actually what was being said. Everyone's bubbles were off at the end of the episode. It was just the people themselves that were evil all along.
This episode was surprisingly much better than expected and I love the design of the slug monsters
They’re lovely aren’t they, beautifully simple
This is a great depiction of how we deal with racism. The fact we can see it in our face up close and not recognise it tells a story.
My semi negative was the death of Ricky. It made Lindy irredeemably. The problem is it gives an impression that only irredeemable people can be racist. The truth is everyday people who seemingly nice people can hold racist views.
I personally consider every overtly racist person to be irredeemably bad.
It would have been interesting to see what Ricky would have done if he’d been there. Would he have been the only one to go with the doctor because he was the only one with knowledge from outside the bubble? Would he have been just as racist despite being a good guy who risks his life to save others? Or would he have acknowledged that this was wrong, but gone with the others anyway? All of those would have been an interesting commentary.
I think many people would sacrifice a stranger's life to save their own. She never had real connections with people, she only just had her first hug, her empathy isn't well developed. Saving your life would be a priority for many people. Unless the other person is a family member or a close friend...
I do think it’s interesting that a number of reactors and reviewers only got the racial aspect after going on Twitter. That’s more interesting, as Joe said. He excused the protagonist’s behavior toward the Doctor until having it spelt out and looked back. I think this episode reveals more about the viewer who didn’t see or recognize the prejudice or even the parallels with what Ncuti is getting outside of the show via the rage baiting channels on social media. His reaction at the end was perfect because it’s the senselessness and frustration racism causes. Here’s a thought experiment, there are times when folks of colour get treated this way but also have to convince the dominant culture of what is happening to them. The Doctor’s physical reaction is how it feels….utterly helpless and maddening. No words can describe.
THIS!
I've rewatched all the episodes this series, but this was the first time I went back and watched that last scene 3 extra times in the few hours after my first watch, followed by a full rewatch before Saturdays rewatch. For the foreseeable future I'm addicted to an episode of Who again. I've really missed this feeling
This one especially is such a rewarding and gripping rewatch
While I haven't rewatched any episodes yet because of revising for gcses, I have felt compelled to rewatch all the episodes on multiple occasions. I feel like this series is really rewatchable.
While crying out in desperation and asking them why they don’t make proper television anymore???
@@magnetmountain33 what makes you say that?
I'm really not sure who this is appealing to and why it is appealing to some people even though the ratings are declining. Maybe it's appealing to very young people or under 20?
Everyone I know older like myself can't stand this rubbish.
Yearning for intelligent well-written fast-paced Doctor Who
I think you summed it up perfectly. No one had high hopes for this episode, bit of a goofy name and the concept did look like it was very much going to be one dimensional and slating social media. But how it was a commentary on echo chambers and people that surround themselves like that was so clever. The twist didn't shock me as much as other people but very much agree that on repeat viewings there is going to be a lot of moments or lines that stick out so much more.
Its disturbing how the usual suspects dont understand the point of the ending with this one, genuinely a shocking twist, but its unsurprising that they see it as preachy when its a subtley told message about important issues that could continue to plague society all the way into the far future.
The one I've seen the most is "It's about class, not everything needs to be about race"
🙄🙄🙄 Talk about running straight into the point.
In my opinion the first half of the episode was just okay standard Doctor Who AI turns evil but the twist that Lindy was willing to betray Ricky and all the citizens of Finetime are racist pieces of sh*t who would rather doom themselves than let a black person help them made it amazing. Speaking of racist pieces of sh*t as mentioned before it is because of you I know Lawrences Fox exists I want to thank you for that because I just learned what a miserable life he is living. Even though I'm atheist I want to bless you in the name of all gods.
It’s funny how RTD has said that episode 4 was the best thing he had written when I think this episode is the one that actually stood out to me the most in this series. Boom is still probably my favourite so far but this is the one that i think best showcases the potential of this new era and what they can do with Ncuti’s Doctor going forward
Making Russell T Davis clearly certifiable😂 as well as being a psychotic narcissist
@@magnetmountain33 How, exactly, does it do that? Whilst I can understand some of the annoyence, like what RTD said about Davros (which has cased annoyence even in the disabled community) I think overall this era has felt more like Doctor Who and brought back some of the missing bombasticness and cheaseyness.
@@jukesy1992 dude are you watching the wrong series?
@@magnetmountain33 We're watching the same series. I'd say Maestro is as good as any cheasey villain. Of course it goes without saying that Maestro is not as good as the daleks villain wise, but was different, bringing in some of the bombasticness that has been missing. I'm coming at this as a blind person who does not focus on visuals, who legitimately has no reason to care about an actor's colour because I can't see them on the screen and from a pacing standpoint, this feels more like Who than Who has felt for these past few years. What I will also say though is Devil's Cord has a negative: the musical number at the end. I'm a huge musical theatre fan and even I thought it went on for too long.
What does it say that throughout my first watch I just kept thinking “ooooh Russel did NOT think about the optics of that line!”? Number one concern was that the white writer may have written some things that others might perceive as racist.
LOL, SAME! I was ' Oh no, is RTD being tone-deaf about racism again?'...until it got worse and worse and the end happened.
Colour me surprised!
I watched it after it aired on tv cause i missed it so i had a good almost 24 hours of small spoilers and stuff. So i knew going in it was about more than what i was thinking initially, and i guess i was worried that that was gonna weaken it for me, but if anything, i think it added to the experience!
Knowng how awful she is at the end kinda highlights the microaggresions she throws at the doctor throughout the episode
It really adds this incredible layer of discomfort to all those previous moments
I was in the same boat. I was expecting this to be trash, but it ended up being one of my favorites. This had my favorite moments from Ncuti and helped cement him more as the Doctor for me. I actually like it more than Boom. 73 Yards is still my favorite of the season, but honestly I'm really glad to have enjoyed the bulk of the season.
I took the walking thing as rich kids having their entire lives planned out for them so straying from the path their parents set is confusing but maybe im reading to much into it lol
That’s more credit than I was giving it but you might be onto something actually
It's possible and a fine metaphor but I just took it as a genuinely funny way to lighten the mood without compromising the important message.
@nicka3697 yeah more than willing to see it as a silly bit of physical comedy I'm just a nerd who loves reading into everything lol
2:14 I agree. Like it was rather in your face about it but the part where the girl looks to her left and sees a monster eating someone then starts scrolling through her dot to distract herself was too real even if it was an extreme example.
i love how finetime is basically just vault 29 from fallout
I have to say, I really liked the big twist. That twist, of course, being 15 minutes in, is me suddenly realising im actually getting really invested into this episode.
Thank you for putting these videos out every week, really enjoying listening to your commentary and analysis of each episode as they come out.
Thank you! I’m glad you’re enjoying them
Admittedly I was the oblivious white girl who didn't realise that Lindy was being racist at the end until twitter pointed it out. But after a rewatch it makes so much sense. I think this episode is a great fun watch which has produced a lot of fun and interesting conversations amongst the Doctor who community.
I’m glad it wasn’t just me. Even when my wife (who, for the record, is obviously smarter than me) pointed out, I thought that was just A way of interpreting it and not THE way of interpreting it with the episode shouting it very loudly from the beginning.
I’m left wondering what my obliviousness means and REALLY hoping that it’s something benign.
I wouldn’t say it was great fun 🙄🔷
@@CashelOConnollythen why are you watching a review praising the episode? You just wanna torture yourself or something?
I like that discussions of racism aren’t limited to historic episodes, like racism is solely an issue of the past.
This is a really interesting point actually
I loved this episode, it was the first one i considered rewatching
I rewatched it yesterday, changes everything
I juust realised the poetry of the ending. These people are so unprepared that they have zero chance of surviving on their own in the wild.
While staying in their little bubble about what their society deems appropriate, they walked straight into the waiting jaws of death just like they'd been doing with the slugs
I will agree, the twist didn't come out of nowhere. Lindy betraying Ricky might have, but she was shown to be a horrible person so it's not that surprising. I'll admit, even after the credits rolled, I missed the racism part, but I can see it in retrospect.
I think I might've changed how the slugs and the Bubble were linked. I feel the explanation for the alphabetical killing was a bit overdone, just like explaining the Bogeyman was, but the racism was underexplained. Maybe having the Dots directing people into the slugs would've been a better monster justification, but that could have been too close to ATMOS back in Series 4.
people thinking the ending coming out of nowhere are telling on themselves a lil bit.
Its so frustrating. It was there the whole time, the ending just reveals it in a way that was shocking in a poignant way if you didn’t notice. Everything clicks and it retroactively makes the whole episode amazing
@@georgeashley6643 my experience was noticing it early since it was only white faces in the bubble and there where some close ups on people with blond hair and blue eyes at certain points that felt extra close up, so for me it was less of a shock reveal and more of a steadily peering over the edge to only see their hollowness growing and growing. while im commenting on the cinematography the way rickys death was framed was brilliantly brutal and really stuck the landing on how cold choices made in that space where.
I saw someone say that the "not being able to walk without the bubble" wasn't her literally not being able but her not wanting to be without her bubble and looking for an excuse and I think that might be the intention
She does say "I'm so stupid!" She's clearly in a lot of emotional distress, and frustrated that she can't walk independently. This feels like more of a leap than just "she's clearly been using it for ages, and is no longer used to using those parts of her brain so actively."
She probably doesn't have the neural connections for walking independently as she's been so dependent on the bubble for so long.
Similar to how a person who's been blind for years may become unable to process visual stimuli even if they get the physical cause of the blindness fixed.
I have seen every episode of this series twice - once at midnight when it drops, then once the next day with my family - and every single one has gotten better on rewatch (which is really impressive in its own right) but none more so than this one!
For the walking, I think that may be like it's for us if we'd walk on a path in these turning tunnels where you can't stay up straight because your eyes tell you need to turn to the side. Their nervous system isn't used to seeing anything but the bubble, it's sensory overload.
I didn't like Lindy from the start. She was annoying and really hard to root for. But I figured she would probably have some redemption by the end, so I went with it. Then she sold Ricky out. I literally yelled BITCH at the tv. As bad as I felt for Ricky, I felt more satisfied that I was never meant to like this person at all.
This episode is far better on a rewatch. But I feel really stupid, for a whole lot of reasons. The line about not recognising The Doctor because she thought he just looked the same, I chalked it up to her being an idiot. But it's so blatant that _I_ then felt like the idiot for brushing it off like that. So many other little things are recontextualised and it works great. But the thing I feel most stupid for was that I knew. I was aware of the leak that the episode would end with the reveal of them all being racist. I had ignored that outright because I thought it was some crazy fake leak, possibly made up by someone trying to shit on the shows "wokeness" or something. It sounded that way to me. "There's going to be an episode where The Doctor lectures a bunch of racists at the end." I thought there was no way. And technically, it wasn't. Because it wasn't a lecture. It was The Doctor desperately trying to be The Doctor and save them. Not only was I wrong to think this moment wouldn't happen, it worked out far better than I ever would've thought.
Don't worry, I'm not an oblivious white guy, but definitely felt like one at the end of this episode. I'd noticed that everyone in the bubble was white, but then thought maybe I'd just seen it wrong and didn't really think about it again until the end.
I hope those people on the boat experience a similar fate to the rich people at the end of 'Don't Look Up.'
I am really hoping we get some sequel episode to this. The Finetime kids are clearly have a lot of racism and general prejudice in them however they are also products of a very sheltered life. Would be intersting to see them in a few years with some of them realising they where bastards and trying to make some sort of amends while others may double down on their bad world views. The GOAT Ricky September proves that some of these kids may have potential for redemption. Lindy would double down on her views and would make a great antagonist in some sequel episode.
A few years? I’m not sure they’ll even survive a week.
@@EditedAF987Agreed. They even have to have an AI tell them when to pee. I don't see how they could possibly survive in the forest. Especially if there are any predators.
@@EditedAF987exactly those kids are screwed
Her last name is Pepper-Bean. Like Mrs Bean, Donna's teacher!
The name of a vegetable given to a woman
@@Joe_Brennan_ The names of two vegetables, given to a woman
An unexpected banger of an episode.
Stuff that happened and that was said in the episode hit me like a brick after the ending, honestly. In terms of the main theme of the episode, it definitely did what Rosa completely failed to do back in 2018 in the Chibnall Era.... which was praised at the time? (but hey at least Chibbers didn't write it by himself!!!).
In terms of Ruby and the Doctor, it STILL feels like we barely know them as characters- what with the speedrun of The Doctor's backstory in Space Babies, Ruby's brief introduction in TToRR, episodes where they're both out of the picture for most of it, the weird dynamic of instant best friends, Ruby getting a TARDIS key straight away- it still leaves a lot to be desired but that might be because of the reduced episode count and everything being VERY experimental in terms of a new era of the show? Perhaps everything feels a bit of for a plot reason?
Yeah the episode count has definitely affected storytelling. I'd much rather things look a bit worse and have more episodes than have way less amazing looking episodes. And it's especially annoying that bothe the first two and last two episodes are coming out/came out on the same days, giving us only 6 weeks of the show.
@@ogpandamonium I'm pretty sure we're getting the legend of ruby sunday and then the empire of death the next week
@@ogpandamonium The two-part finale has been confirmed to spread over two weeks. The reason you might be thinking the same day is because of the cinema release, which plays Legend of Ruby Sunday the week after general release and leads directly into Empire of Death as it's midnight screening. Legend fo Ruby Sunday hits general release on 15 June and Empire of Death hits on the 22nd.
@@jukesy1992 oh nice! Yeah I thought that the cinema release was on the legend day so it's good that we get it spread out. Does make the cinema release even more pointless as you've already seen half of it but it's good for us home watchers.
I think we already know that she retains SOMETHING from 73 Yards because in the first scene she says she’s been to wales twice but at the end in the new version of the same scene she says she’s been 3 times and the can’t really remeber when the 3rd was.
I enjoy how annoying and at times insufferable Lindy Pepper-Bean is because on a first watch, there's an expectation she would get some growth and become more likeable, but then the twist of the episode completely pulls the rug out from under you.
Same. I think there's a great amount of talent in making someone annoying on purpose. And I give props to her actress for doing such a good job.
I was so oblivious to the racism theme that even when my wife and I were discussing it at the end and she pointed out that they rejected the Doctor because he was black, I STILL didn’t think that’s what they were doing - I thought they were rejecting him because he wasn’t from their society and therefore they didn’t trust him (I was COMPLETELY oblivious to the fact that a character referred to the TARDIS very deliberately as “voodoo” as a racial pejorative). I even still didn’t fully appreciate it when my wife pointed out that she’d realised that everyone on the planet was white (a connection I’d utterly failed to make). I thought that it was commenting on the fact that rich families are often white due to inherited wealth from exploitative ancestors and STILL didn’t straight away think that they were saying “this is a planet full of racists!” Even though it turns out that the episode was screaming this at me VERY loudly.
Suffice to say, I’m feeling very, VERY stupid and wondering how I failed to make the proper connections and what that says about me as a person…
Well, I'd say it just says that you haven't experienced the exact experiences that would make you pick up on that sooner, which is okay because no one knows what experiences one other person has and now you know how to spot it in future. I also didn't notice at first until afterwards cause I also didn't have the specific experiences.
Plus, I also think its because this episode is the first time in a while Doctor Who has been properly subtle. It screams loudly once you notice it but it doesn't force your attention on it right away, so it gives you more time to think on it.
I've noticed a lot people saying they're not sure what it says about them, IMO it just says we're A) either not used to subtlety cause of writing standards in Media nowadays or B) Simple not people who have experienced the nessecary events to make us pick up on these things as naturally as other people, so its just edcuated us more and we should be happy about that cause it helps us more in future.
I am rambling a bit, sorry.
@@DeprecatedSC, thank you for saying that. I honestly hope that you’re right. I rightly find racism in all its forms utterly abhorrent and am generally what some people would call “a lefty snowflake”, but I felt so blindsided by the racism that felt shame that I didn’t immediately get it even after the episode had ended. I think the best case scenario is just that I’m blindly optimistic because of my inherent privileges (white, middle class, Home Counties, cisgendered, straight-passing male).
Being working class I picked up on the classism but still missed the racism until hindsight!
I didn't either because I can suspend RL for an alien race... if they were all blue skinned I'd have felt the same way.
The color I kept noticing...was pale blue. Everybody-except the dr- is wearing it. Could denote a class, or nation (think of a flag pattern or Avatar tribal colors) and there is the Dr in bold orange and brown plaids!
I feared it would be a new "Space babies". But this episode was great. The three last episodes has all been wonderfuly dark.
I'm glad we're starting to get past this #RIPDoctorWho trend that has been forced on us and we can finally just enjoy the show at face value and not have to bat off all the people who just want the show to die because it represents everything they hate in the world.
I thought Space Babies was genuinely terrible Who and that the Devil's Chord was... Alright. But I'm glad we've had 3 strong, challenging episodes back to back now.
If the detractors aren't on board here then nothing will make them happy, Doctor Who isn't for them.
@@jensablefur155 I agree with Space Babies, but I think that was aimed at a very young audience, and not at me, a 37 year old man. Devils Chord yes I agree more or less, I did really enjoy Maestro, but I think there were a lot of holes, the Beatles insertion could have been done a lot better, and the final song was awful.
I think detractors are fine, I appreciate good criticism, but the vast majority of detractors now (or at least the loudest) don't really care about Doctor Who, they are part of a political movement aimed at attacking anything that doesn't pander to their personal politics, and that's not constructive criticism, that's shutting down free speech.
Lmao love the Community reference, I’ve been watching through the show for the first time while this new Doctor Who season has been coming out and I love it
I spend most of my life thinking about that show
@@Joe_Brennan_ you should make a video on it! Maybe about what you’d like to see from the upcoming movie?
I definitely want to, I have opinions
This one is my favourite yet! I have also been super excited for Boom and 73 Yards for weeks, but had no expectations for this, and had a much much better experience watching this one. The structure and pace was just better / more balanced. The feeling that parts of the script were left underdeveloped, that has been present in every RTD 2 ep yet including everything through the 60th specials to Boom & 73 Yards, was finally gone! Every element of plot in the episode finally felt adequately explored at worst, and done exceptionally at most parts of the episode.
The commentary evolving from one on "social media echo-chamber bubbles" to "politically charged segregationist bubbles" basically was handled with grace. The slow, subtle, careful revealing of Lindy going from an assumed innocent damsel in distress to "entitled rich bitch" was done astonishingly well, the episode kept on giving us little clues about how shallow and self-obsessed, and it all just seemed like weird little character quirks until the dot went off on Ricky.
Speaking of which, Ricky bloody September! What a wonderful wonderful bit of the episode. First we think he'll just be the "insert social media celebrity character here" present in every tv show that does the "sci-fi commentary on social media" bit. Then we think he'll be the perfect Prince Charming love interest of the story, then he turns out to sorta be the perfect companion the Doctor could have, brave, curious, selfless, clever, charming, quick on his feet, etc. Really gave me Astrid Peth vibes too, stuck in a life he doesn't feel he belongs to, is a much more contemplative and introspective thinker than the people he is around etc, and of course, the end he meets.
Seemingly unlike most people, I also loved what the origin / reason of existence for the slugs turned out to be. An AI, working on pure cold logic and without the heroic human ideals the Doctor lives by, coming to the conclusion that the segregationist, separatist community they serve are evil bastards that need to be taken down; and doing it in a way clever enough that at the end of it the AI wouldn't be blamed for rising up against its "masters", but it would be seen as a natural disaster of sort is brilliant already. A machine realizing if they gotta take a society of humans down, they gotta do it in a way where they would neither be caught during it, nor would have people come after them afterwards is on its own a concept strong enough to hold together a whole episode of Doctor Who. But the Slugs, beings the machine creates, that seem like natural native lifeforms of the planet the colony is set up in, being not only perfect weapons for the machines planned genocide, but also perfect clean-up is the cherry on the sci-fi cake! That's why the dot doesn't just attack people, the slugs get rid of the bodies, digest it. If it weren't for the Doctor, all that was gonna be left would've been a ghost town, overrun by "nature".
And oh the town, Finetime being a dull, boring, unimaginative town; the facade of the perfect town, not even being a thing that had any effort put into it outside of the peoples lives inside the dot and bubble, even without any slug or ai shenanigans. The whole project full-on clearly being a cheap scam to get a few quids off of ritch dickheads, like what most private schools have become, or what most of these "work and travel" schemes are. Only interesting and desirable to the rich and ignorant, simply because they got convinced by corporate-speak, not because anything in Finetime has any actual merit. Explored throughout the episode through Doctor and Ruby questioning Lindy, trying to understand, what the purpose, appeal, and function of finetime is, just to realise the point is there is no point in Finetime existing. No reason, no benefit. Corporate just had to tell the racists they could give their kids a place segragated from all they disapprove, filled only with what they approve; and voila, cash has been made 😂
Ncuti gave his as yet best performance in the small time he had, and we got to see a side of The Doctor we don't often see; "angry and not able to do anything about it" angry not at the "villain" of the episode but at the people he's trying to save. Frustrated that when people raised in their own bubbles, go into fight or flight mode, their prejudices and belief in their own superiority will overshadow anything he can say or do. You can help someone, only as much as they let you. If their shitty little echochamber is what they turn to, what they try to seek comfort in, what they use to cling to life; you cannot change in a moment, how their mind has been conditioned to work for years.
Genuinely think this has become one of my alltime favs, up there with Midnight and Planet of the Ood!
Me and my partner were watching Fallout recently, a show that does that thing of making it very diverse ignoring any kind of relationship between ethnicity and class. As if racism never existed.
So when this episode reached the moment where they say they are all rich kids we thought that it was great that Doctor Who was not ignorning that and that all those rich people where all white people. But we thought it was just a subtle codification, we were not expecting the show to go fully into that.
To me it was my favourite 15th doctor episode. Which is a pretty high bar.
Me and a mate watched it in the woods expecting the next ‘Love and Monsters’ and I was honestly astounded how invested I was.
The twist was great, the execution was really stellar, performances were brilliant and the messaging was done in a surprisingly nuanced way that we’d never seen before.
Loved it. Genuinely my favourite episode of the season.
So what you’re saying is, it gave us the next Love and Monsters
Love and Monsters is really good, just silly (for me, not a negative)
@@Joe_Brennan_ I like what you did there 😂
But I mean in the more broader idea that most people disliked it at the time aha. I myself like it, but it’s just the easiest story to throw as a “the one everyone dislikes” for a comparison.
When I was watching and that reveal came I literally said, “Oooooh, they’re racists.”
And my mum commented, “I’d wondered why they were all white.”
Didn't expect this episode to be my favourite episode in the season so far. Was it the best? No I dont think so, but did it suprise me in ways I wasnt expecting and keep me HELLA engaged. YES.
I fully get the criticism that maybe the first time the Doctor is racialised (in universe AND for the audience) should have been done by a black writer. But seeing the Doctor racialised like that for me came as a huge shock. And it made for something completely unique that I've never seen in Who before. It hurt to watch, I felt a LOT. Looking back at the episode too, the breadcrumb trail of a society built on racist values is obvious but I'm enjoying seeing how much I missed. Because of that, it's my favourite of the season so far.
Also again, a shout-out to how wonderful it is to have someone discuss media in such an engaging way that isnt full of hyperbole and having to have the hottest take. Just to have an honest discussion about what we love is wonderful. Thanks JBoi.
"Dot and Bubble" goes so much harder than it has to, and had some genuine moments of cover your mouth horror. Fantastic episode.
I watched with my partner and after the cold open me and him were singing “phoooone baaaaad” over the theme tune cause we also thought it was gunna be a black mirror esque technology bad episode and by the end we were both very impressed with it.
That the racism wasn't called out was a bold move, I think. Ruby recognised it and didn't see the point to trying to talk them around and The Doctor didn't care but wanted to help. I wouldn't mind betting RTD lobbed that in there as some sort of, "So, what do you have for this, anti-wokers?"
If im honest the bad one for me is probably Rogue, it really doesnt look like my thing, ill give it a watch but what you were saying about this one, im thinking about rogue, just not into the whole dance ball type of thing.
I held off on watching this episode until today because I honestly thought I wasn't gonna like it at all, but now I'm surprised to say it's probably my second favorite of the season behind Boom and above 73 yards. This season really keeps on surprising me, because I feel like it just keeps getting better and better.
I was so proud of myself to see the twist half way through, really surprisingly enjoyed it
It's funny to hear everyone compare last week's episode to "Midnight" when in my opinion at least, this was the episode had more in common with Russell's earlier masterpiece. Obviously they aren't on the same level of quality, but the same scathing cynical nihilistic streak that ran through "Midnight" also runs through "Dot and Bubble", the Doctor getting confronted by a truly horrid and disgusting side of humanity and being left shaken by his experience while the repugnant human characters getting off scot-free .
On the whole, I found myself enjoying "Dot and Bubble" a lot more than I expected to, largely for the same reason as everyone else did (the early reviews calling it "Black Mirror without the bite" didn't help). It's got a nice balance of goofy camp and a surprising amount of suspense, I actually found the slugs to be an unexpectedly effective menace, and really well-executed from a technical perspective. I also think it was a rather creative choice to have the protagonist be a very unpleasant and unlikeable character, in sharp contrast to other Doctor-lite protagonists, and Callie Cooke does a fantastic job at playing this vapid self-centred narcissist, it's the most I've found myself hating a fictional character in quite some time. And talking of excellent performances, Ncuti's work in that last scene is just exceptional, the way he goes from confident and charismatic, to desperately and futilely pleading to reason, and ultimately just succumbing to rage and despair at these people's ignorant stupidity and bigotry is just so powerful. We'll wait and see what happens by the end of the season, but based on this episode and "Boom", I think he may just end up being one of the best Doctors we've ever had
I feel like everyone’s series ranking top 3 is gonna be a tight race between Boom, 73 yards, and now this!
The first couple eps didn’t jive with my sensibilities but I’m starting to think this season might be wonderful actually! I’ll probably like the first few when I rewatch.
I’m so glad to hear that it’s winning you over
I feel like we needed one more scene where we see that fate of the racist nepo-baby ‘survivors’ as they immediately meet their doom once they leave the Doctor behind
I kind of prefer that it was left up to interpretation? We know that their bigotry and incompetence is what will get them killed, do we need more than that? Not giving them any more time in the episode or our thoughts can be more satisfying, in a way.
@@finnley1506I agree that it's better to leave it open ended, but I think it's more because showing them killed off might send the message of;
"Don't worry guys, leave the racists alone and they'll sort themselves out"
Which is a bit dangerous to send.
The strong, strong implication is that one way or another they'll get themselves killed. But what if they get lucky? What if they run into another Ricky September or The Doctor out there?
With an episode like this I think the intention is for them to stay in our thoughts and leave us angry, because this problem exists in our world right now and a lot of our media and institutions are asking us to not look.
Joe, once again I agree with you completely! Your thoughts are my thoughts and honestly when I release a video about the full season it's bound to be both redundant and derivative lmao!
I was really impressed and surprised by this episode and a big reason for that was that I wasn't expecting such a cutting commentary on society and its future. I completely agree that this era is lacking diverse writers and this is not the story for RTD to write, but I cannot deny that there's genius throughout the episode.
You'd expect an episode that tackles racism to be set in the past but I really liked that it was in an imagined future, that it was indicating a dark future for many attitudes that are perpetuated by certain groups today. That was wonderful, and the entire final scene was beautiful. Seeing the racists get carried off in a boat, imagery that harkens to many racist calls for immigrants to leave countries on boats, was so poignant, and executed with a lot of subtlety, as you say, not without much obvious dialogue, just done so incredibly.
I was enjoying the episode a lot but those aspects really made me fall for it. Great stuff, the season has a lot of range and I'm having a blast with most of it!
Wait, I didn't even pick up on the boat thing! OK, this is actually amazing and contextualizes it even more different. This episode has so many layers to it, and I mean that genuinely.
I thought the boat thing was particularly interesting because the one guy at the end of was using such colonizer language. It just made the whole boat thing creepier to me.
i think the thing with the ending that surprised me is that they actually acknowledged the racism. and not just in a "oh that must be hard for you. anyway!.." kinda way
I love how this episode taps into the biases of its audience and challenges then. Not in a preachy, patronising, way but in a truly striking way that is confronting and compelling.
The more I think about this episode the more I like it.
I agree; I thought this episode would be just okay and it ended up being so fantastic!! I didn't realize that they were racist until browsing reddit, which is so bad and white of me. The ending is explicit, yet I thought Lindy's society was just upset the doctor wasn't born there. Browsing reddit, I realized how much I missed, and I want to keep questioning my assumptions and look for hidden bigotry. Great stuff here, and the acting was soooo good.
"he's probably not gonna sing in the episode" famous last words
Ruby remembered, emotionally, being in Wales three times at the end of "73 Yards," rather than two at the beginning, so it makes sense that she would recognize Susan Twist even if she doesn't know from where.
Edit: 25:20 - I actually think this episode rises above "Boom." Pretty easily, honestly lol.
I’m a POC and I was reluctant to call it racism until the end. Had my eyebrow raised at some things Lindy said and was like nah it can’t be until the end were I had a text book pikachu face made sure everyone saw what a saw via the internet and was like damn guess I was right.
I definitely went into this episode with the attitude of "I'll watch it because I love DW, but I'm not particularly looking forward to this one" and was pleasantly surprised. I will be excited for this one when I do a full series rewatch I think, the only ep so far that I won't is Space Babies, so 4/5 is pretty good going. I was fearful that with the lower episode count any clangers really stand out, but so far it seems that "quality instead of quantity" is prevailing, which is really nice.
Wouldn't this have been an interesting time to have tried the psychic paper? Would playing the "obedience to authority with credentials" card have worked in this case, and how would it have been interpreted? It was omitted, I think, because the reaction would have revealed too much too soon.
probably because it won't work through a screen
Mixed race British person here. I think portraying racism in a futuristic setting is very important, and I don't mean scifi allegories for racism (not that those are bad, they definitely also tell us important things), but literal, human racism. Because (particularly in the uK) we often think of it as an in the past, solved problem, and we need to be reminded it's not, and that we need to keep educating ourselves or we'll start backsliding. I remember when Rosa was new people questioned why Krasko would be a racist in the far future, and thought the episode would be better without them. Those people need to open their eyes and look at racism in policing, politics and sport around them today. These episodes show us the bad future, but we can change it by standing against racism - sort of like Orphan 55's environmental message but without literally telling us the moral.
My viewing experience seems to be a somewhat different to a lot of you. I too didn't at all pick up on the race thing, but the class angle seemed very pertinent to me. I picked up that it was in indictment of how rich kids use social media quite quickly, and I wasn't terribly surprised when Lindy killed September. The twist at the end did surprise me tho
One thing which really struck me was the way that Lindy used her being saved by September for social credit, even using her knowing him in that was after he died, felt incredibly real to me. That's what people like this do
I noticed the classism too but then I'm working class.
Still missed the racism until it was so overt not to.
I thought there was a lot of good stuff in this episode, especially at the end, but alarmingly found myself feeling bored for a few minutes in the middle which isn't something I've ever experienced during Doctor Who before. I'm hoping it will land better on a rewatch, but I just couldn't shake a feeling of 'can we actually see the Doctor now please?' because the Doctor is such a good character and Ncuti portrays him so well that his absence is starting to make the series less engaging to me.
I very much agree that this series is suffering somewhat from a lack of conventional episodes - not that I'd want rid of any of them, but you need some standard adventures in-between because otherwise the show has no 'normal' to make the abnormal different. That all seems a bit negative, but on the whole there's been plenty I've enjoyed so far and I'm still feeling excited for each upcoming episode and enjoying watching 15 and Ruby, which wasn't always the case in previous series, so I'm definitely still feeling positive about the current era.
All hail the true heroes of the episode, Star Trek's First Televised episode: The Man Traps!
But seriously this one was incredible.
Goodie Slugs are great
“ just this one time, everybody dies”! -wow, what a counterpoint to the original! I was not that hopeful, but really liked it in the end. I kept waiting for it to be something more subtle than racism, but nope, pure George Wallace ( I’m generation Jones, 😎) level hate and alienation.
I wonder if Ricky was also a racist? Are they all? In any case I didn’t see his death coming.
She was worse than “just” a racist but I don’t know if it’s a total condemnation of a self absorbed generation. Again, are they all, like that? I remember in the seventies the criticism of the then current, “me generation”; the “greatest generation” harshing the Boomers?
The fact that they didn’t even investigate the potential of the Tardis speaks to their cultural provincialism.
Excellent episode and review, though your ageist, references to be people in their sixties was a wee bit grating 😎
Really lovely well-rounded review! I think it actually made me appreciate the episode even more, and I already had quite a positive opinion on it
I think this episode only works because of the twist. Without it would be boring commentary on look how stupid modern technology is making these youngsters (insert old aged voice here)
But the twist absolutely transforms the episode. Also the racism/ lindy isn't a good person twist reveal was so well executed and written.
Also I really like the working/original title for the episode "Monsters, monsters everywhere"
I thought I had the plot figured out nearly half a dozen times, only to have the story take a left turn.
I like how the messaging in this is so subtle that it doesn't hit you until the end.
I mean in retrospect there were Red Flags that when you rewatch become much more noticeable.
Did anyone think it odd when the Doctor and Ruby finally stood face to face with Lindy Pepper-Bean? They stood at a distance from each other and didn't interact naturally. It was like they were filmed at different times and then put together later. Is this what happened?
Will you be going to see the last 2 episodes at the cinema on the 21st?
I rarely EVER have plans but I will unfortunately be watching Taylor Swift that night
Sadly, my local cinema isn't screening it! Cineworld.
Love ruby and the doctor gushing over and bickering over Ricky
Rip consent king Ricky 😔 he seems like a character that wasn’t “born and breed” like Lindy came up through his influencer role
Eh, still was racist probably
The racism twist didn’t make me think it was gen z, rather it was about people being stuck in political echo chambers online
I loved this episode in the first 5 mins such a tense and exciting but funny story, and that twist and ending was shocking in the best way possible trully one of the most unique and experimental episodes of the show and one of my favourites
14:15 Yes that was a bit silly it would've made more sense if maybe the people were being culled by whoever made the tech or something but they did a similar thing with the company in 'boom' so maybe they didn't want to do that again?
A very pleasant surprise for me after most this series has left me cold. My favourite episode of this series in fact I don't think I've liked the show this much since Village of the Angels.
My favourite so far this series it was a genuine surprise in a good way
I’m surprised how many people are saying it’s their proper favourite
I think it was an entertaining episode and was something different from Who which I appreciate.
After watching my only takes are.
Will people watch this episode again after knowing the reveal? I feel like this episode will be remembered for that while the rest of it will be forgotten. A bit like Zygon Inversion. We remember the 12th Doctor’s speech but no one talks about what else happened.
I think the second is more of a personal wish but RTD imo does great with horror on a personal level, Midnight is a great example and Dot and Bubble with its characters. He just knows how to write people you can be disgusted by and I wish he’d tap into it more. Comparing to Space Babies which is an okay episode but felt like fluff whereas dot and bubble has meat on its bones and has things to say.
I hope I’m getting my thoughts across well?
Ricky September was such a fascinating character and so cleverly written. He is written exactly as The Doctor would be written :- the way he talks to Lindy, the secrets he kept from her to keep her level headed, the speeches, promising to get her out safe, his calm competence. And when Lindy is with him she acts like any companion would act with the Doctor.
Lindy treating him differently totally differently to the real Doctor when they are essentially the same character in every way except from skin colour is so good.
He represents the safe, white Doctor that certain people were upset at not getting, and Lindy represents the bigotry of accepting one but not the other.
This episode challenged a lot of my habitual assumptions and prejudices in such a way that was just so well executed. Holding a lens up to myself as I found myself cheering for Lindy’s potential growth with Ricky, despite literally nothing to support it, met with the jarring rug pull of his death was one of the few moments I’ve gasped at a show.
Then to realize I hadn’t noticed the homogeny of the rich kids until the comment about getting contaminated, it was a powerful moment that I’m so glad I went into blind.
I feel Ricky served the purpose of showcasing that these people aren’t incapable of being somewhat better or more aware; they just choose not to.
Google - Psychopath vs sociopath:
'Sociopaths tend to act more impulsively and erratically compared to psychopaths. Sociopaths generally struggle to maintain a job or a family life, whereas psychopaths may be able to do so. While psychopaths generally struggle to form attachments, sociopaths may be able to do so with a like-minded individual.'
I say she's a psychopath.
Every day is a school day!
I overall liked the episode. I feel that RTDs range as a writer has increased dramatically since his 1st era. It was an interesting choice to have a protagonist who is so vapid, helpless and incompetent, and basically just a horrible person.
The part about the racism was what kind of lost me, not because I don't think it's a problem in contemporary society that's worth exploring, but because I wonder about them situating it in a society that exists on another planet, thousands of years in the future. It seems to be suggesting that racism, specifically racism by white people directed at darker skinned people, is a constant and unchanging facet of human existence that will persist to the end of time. This seems like a horribly pessimistic view of humanity's future.
I think that I would have appreciated a little more context concerning the society and how it got this way. It looks like a society that has possibly used eugenics to deliberately homogenize itself and they are so sheltered that one wonders when they ever would have even encountered anyone who doesn't look like them, let alone learned all the appropriate racist insults.
Anyway, I think the episode was well executed, but I don't necessarily accept its underlying premises.
This series has been really good which is a great surprise because I was really worried about it.
I'm not super excited for rogue though. I'm excited to see a new writer but the next time trailer didn't look super interesting.
I'm also wondering if that might be the point, as I think these next three episodes, Rogue and the finale, could all have some surprises.