Dot and Bubble
Story 309, Season 1 Episode 5
Doctor: The Fifteenth Doctor
Companions: Ruby Sunday
Pretty pastels and bright colors abound in Dot and Bubble, which is all about how we can get less screen time.
The Review
Lindy is an ordinary girl living an ordinary life in ‘Finetime’, which is basically the dumbest future society to ever live. I have never indulged in Black Mirror, but it’s my understanding that a lot of episodes are like this was the social commentary. Basically a bunch of rich kids are sent to the planet where they live in a ‘bubble’ that tells them where to walk and where to go absolutely everywhere. They supposedly do a lot of partying too, whatever that looks like. The Doctor and Ruby contact Lindy on her bubble which is where they stay most of the story trying to get this basically incompetent woman to safety. The design of the giant people-eating slugs is pretty great, and they somehow fit right into this pastel world. Lindy ends up sacrificing singer Ricky September to escape…and all of these idiots go off into the woods to surely die, ignoring the Doctor’s protests. And here’s where my idealistic white self gets exposed: I noticed early on everyone was white, but still wasn’t processing that everybody were racists at the ending, initially thinking it was just idiotic xenophobia.
Really, the whole thing kind of fell flat for me. I know Space Babies has drawn a lot of ire, but I thought it had a lot of propulsive energy and some genuinely touching moments. Nothing in this story is bad at all, and I appreciate how weird and outlandish it is. I’m all for the show taking swings, but while 73 Yards was a masterpiece, this was largely the miss. The true villain is the technology that wants to kill its impotent human masters…by devouring them with giant slugs? I suppose the message is to not fall out of touch with the real world, and not spend all of your time on screens. Then there’s the racism angle, which is a hell of a gut punch ending but there’s more of the Doctor being furious than many repercussions. The Doctor specifically called out Susan Twist though!
In some ways, Dot and Bubble is just as bold as 73 Yards, and after reflecting with it for a day, the insidiousness of the racism of Finetime and how Lindy’s racism is foreshadowed is quite clever. My initial read on this episode was wrong, but ultimately I think Lindy was a bit too exhausting to be spending time with.
8.25/10: The racism twist at the end does not come out nowhere, but at least for me it was a bit too subtle that it threw me off-guard. I’m glad this one is resonating for so many people though.
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