“Dot and Bubble”
Doctor Who: Series 14 – Episode 5
Written by: Russell T Davies
Directed by: Dylan Holmes Williams
Synopsis: The world of Finetime seems happy and harmonious. But an awful terror is preying on the citizens. Can the Doctor and Ruby make them see the truth before it’s too late?
For me, these last two episodes of Doctor Who have highlighted the impact that an ending can have on a story, and how much it can weaken or elevate the preceding adventure. “73 Yards”, for the most part, was a truly tense and atmospheric piece of horror until its rushed twist ending undermined a lot of the setup and mystery that made the episode so compelling, whereas the ending to “Dot and Bubble” completely re-contextualized the entire episode taking what might have been a standard allegory to the perils of social media and making it into a conversation about white privilege and racism. The episode was peppered with plenty of ‘micro-aggressions’ that hinted at Lindy and her entourage’s racist beliefs and hierarchy, but they were cleverly covered up by the story to be misconstrued as a class divide. While I didn’t quite realise that the episode was going to directly address racism in its final moments, I did notice the fact that all of the Finetime residents were white, and said that it was unusual for Russell T Davies to not include any diversity.
Before delving too deeply into that final heart-breaking scene, I have to say that I loved the aesthetic of this episode and the heavily-sanitized world of Finetime. Again, my initial assessment was that this was a group of over-privileged influencer-types who had become so connected to social media that they were literally living in a bubble, blocking out the harsh realities of the real world. Davies’ script addresses the banal vanity of these influencers, inevitably drawing comparisons to Black Mirror – particularly the episode “Nosedive” – to the point where I thought that the Mantrap creatures were eating people based upon their popularity ratings. However, the episode wisely moves away from a simple critique on the ubiquity of social media and instead turns into a fun, pastel-coloured survival horror involving a self-obsessed trust-fund baby and killer slugs before its final act twists. Once again, the Doctor is reduced to a supporting role for the second week in a role, but it suits the story and adds a level of vulnerability to those scenes where Lindy is unable to talk to him via the bubble.
Callie Cooke rises to the challenge of taking the lead role in this episode, simultaneously making us root for Lindy Pepper-Bean’s survival whilst finding her unlikeable as a character. Initially presented as inoffensive and somewhat out of touch with reality, I found myself expecting a typical Doctor Who redemption story where she would break free of the system and end up becoming some sort of champion for her people, leading and inspiring others to survival. However, the moment where she reveals her true colours and betrays her saviour, Ricky September, to save her own skin immediately revoked all hopes for redemption, which Russell T Davies then doubles-down on once she reveals her ingrained racism to the Doctor and Ruby.
That final scene was so impactful, it worked on multiple levels – not only was it a surprising twist, especially for people who’d written off the early micro-aggressions as a class dispute, or just general resistance to outsiders, but it was also highlighted racism in a different way to previous examples seen in Doctor Who. Normally, racism is showcased in historical settings; such as the way Martha is treated in “Human Nature”, Bill in “Thin Ice”, and the whole of “Rosa”, but here, Russell T Davies brings it to our future, making it more immediate and pertinent, than presenting it out as an out-dated notion. I also think the ‘shock value’ of incorporating it into a twist makes it all the more effective – I think we all expected the Doctor’s race to be addressed at some point once Ncuti Gatwa was cast, but I was expecting it to come up in a historical adventure, not in some future society that should be better than this. Doctor Who has gained a reputation in the last few years as being “woke” and having its plot dictated by political and social issues, and while I don’t deny that this has certainly become more of a focus in recent years, I must also say that this is one of the better-written examples of using the story to highlight a social ill.
Gatwa’s performance in those final moments – which it was revealed were some of his first scenes filmed for the series – was pitch-perfect and highlights the caliber of his acting. The incredulity, despair, resignation and anger at the situation were so amazingly portrayed on screen in those minutes as he watches Lindy and the others head off towards certain death. It’s one of the most downbeat endings we’ve seen in Doctor Who for a long time, and there’s a grim irony that they would have all gone with him if he’d been one of his earlier incarnations.
The episode was not without its plot holes – for example, why didn’t the Dot machines just instantly kill them all directly like the way it took out Ricky September, and why did it feel the need to eliminate them by alphabetical order. It felt like the plot had been designed a specific way, and so the logic had to be squeezed in to fit that series of events, which to be fair is true of most of Russell T Davies’ scripts. I must admit that I loved the old-school design of the Man Traps, which gave off some classic series vibes. They might not be the most mobile of threats, but I loved the visual of people blindly walking into the wide-open mouths of these slug-like monsters and being enveloped in their tentacles. The design of the Dot and Bubble system was also impressive, giving an eerily realistic visual of what our futures might look like if augmented virtual-reality technology continues to develop.
“Dot and Bubble” was a fun ‘old-school monsters’ sci-fi romp in a series that has been focused on the supernatural. The reduced episode count means that we’ve had back-to-back episodes where the Doctor has been featured in a minimal role, and I think that if we’d had a few more episodes to space things out, it wouldn’t have been too prominent. Living up to the promise of “there’s always a twist at the end”, the revelations at the end of this episode literally had me re-evaluating all of the Doctor’s interactions with Lindy and her friends, and noticing the underlining racism in all of her actions. It’s so effective in highlighting white privilege and how we don’t recognize racism when it is so deeply ingrained into the system. I think this is one of those episodes that will resonate among audiences for years to come, and is an example of where Doctor Who can be socially-aware without overshadowing the story or sacrificing character development. More of this, and less ham-fisted digs at “male-presenting time lords”.
Score – ★★★★ ½
Next Episode: “Rogue”
The Doctor and Ruby land in 1813, where guests at a duchess’s party are being murdered and a mysterious bounty hunter called Rogue is about to change the Doctor’s life forever.
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