Doctor Who Series 14, Episode 5
“Dot and Bubble”
Posted by Sage
And here I thought “73 Yards” was going to be the most divisive episode of the season…
Following up an experimental, extremely Doctor-light episode with an experimental, somewhat Doctor-light episode is a scheduling choice, but I’m reserving judgment on that until we have the full breadth of Series 14 in front of us, just in case “Rogue” leads into what I assume will be a two-part finale, “Villa Diodati”-style. What we know now is that Ncuti had other commitments that production needed to work around, and in a vacuum, an episode where he is mainly a face on a screen is a clever way of solving that problem without disappearing him completely (again).
That story is “Dot and Bubble,” which opens with our main character, Lindy Pepper-Bean (a chilling Callie Cooke), waking up in her perfectly appointed pastel apartment and instantly activating the 360 screen that she and all the other residents of Finetime wear around their heads all day long and literally cannot function without. She’s surrounded by the faces of her friends list (and presumably her followers), and she has to consult a contact named Dr. Pee (the greatest IMDb credit ever?) to find out whether or not she needs to urinate. Aesthetically and otherwise, it immediately calls to mind the Black Mirror episode “Nosedive,” starring Bryce Dallas Howard. But while that parable is about the loss of identity and agency that happens when every aspect of our lives is presented for consumption and approval on social media, it was clear from those early scenes that RTD had another moral in store, albeit still tech-related.
It didn’t take me more than a few minutes to clock that everyone in Finetime is white. Would it have stood out if it had just been the speaking cast? I’m not sure, but the fact that it’s the background artists too, and especially with our first full-time Black Doctor, it felt intentional immediately. I didn’t predict where the episode would end up, but it’s pretty hard to miss the glaring red warning that frames the Doctor’s rectangle when he first pops up or the disgust on Lindy’s face when she sees him. “Dot and Bubble” is sneaky in this way, however. Lindy seems sheltered and privileged and stuck-up, and it’s initially possible to read her as just that: a poor-little-rich-girl archetype whose world will be opened up by her encounter with the Doctor.
By no means does the script go out of its way to make Lindy likable, however. She calls Ruby “stupid” and “offensive,” she says she “can’t wait” for the Doctor to “be disciplined” for forcing his way into her Bubble, and she’s nearly incapable of helping herself in any way, even if it just involves turning her head or walking in another direction. She complains about having to work “two long hours” a day and is proud to say that “Mummy” pays for everything. Even before the turn that shows just how vile she is, Lindy just plain sucks, and I think we’re challenged to consider if we have any sympathy for her why that is.
In fact, everyone falls for it. Ruby and the Doctor stay with her every step of the way as Lindy cuts a path through the giant slugs (Have I not mentioned the giant slugs yet?? Working class heroes.) to safety. But she’s much more pleased to receive the help of Ricky September, a super dreamy singer and influencer who turns out to be the only resident of Finetime curious enough to ask questions and think beyond their gilded cage. He shows up like a knight in a fairy tale and promises to get Lindy out of danger, to the point where Ruby and the Doctor are practically coo-ing over their meet-cute (while also simultaneously fighting over him). You want to believe that it is what it looks like, but to do so would be to ignore everything we know about Lindy so far. There’s a coldness to her in general; those friendships she claims to hold so dear are all comprised of bland, impersonal platitudes – likes and comments. Ricky even remarks on her callousness to her face, but it lands like a joke in a moment I’m still not quite sure what to make of.
Lindy is like all the other 17- to 27-year-olds in Finetime – she was never taught to take care of herself, so the only survival skill she has is a willingness to throw another body – any other body – in the path of the threat. And she believes that she’s perfectly entitled to do this. The wealthy parents are not a physical presence in “Dot and Bubble” – other than our old pal Susan Twist, of course – but the civilization that birthed this micro-society looms large. Presumably, they staked a claim on another world (and who knows who or what they stole the land from and banished to the “Wild Wood”) and installed their children there, wanting them to live without a single obstacle or decision to trouble themselves over. The “substack processing” is almost certainly just busy work, probably the result of some research into the minimum amount of effort the kids would have to exert just to remain cognitively sound. And even if Finetime itself is new, it’s the result of generations of choices and technological advancements, all reaffirming the priorities and biases of this society.
Technology is what you make of it – it’s created by humans, shaped by humans, and weaponized by humans. Algorithms reflect our behavior back at us. Bots learn to be hateful by processing the digital footprint of actual trolls. White coders and engineers who don’t know what possible racist outcomes to account for are designing tools that are used on a global scale. So no, this is not the “smartphones are bad” episode or the “social media is bad” episode. We’re already living in a world where AI is enhancing racial biases in ways that directly impact people’s safety, health, and livelihoods. Whatever the Homeworld is, they’ve streamlined white supremacy over who knows how many hundreds or thousands of years.
I wish that the episode were more explicit about the reason the software created the slugs, because I’m seeing interpretations that give it way too much credit. To believe that the Dot was turning against the citizens of Finetime because of their racism would be to believe that there’s something inherently “good” about the program, despite it being created for entirely shitty reasons. On top of that, these people are living in an ethnocultural bubble – a perfect, offense-free existence in their minds – so it’s unlikely that they’re even discussing their prejudices all that much. I took what the Doctor says (“I’m not being rude, but I think it’s learnt to hate you.”) to mean that the program simply got so annoyed with all of these vapid, helpless d-bags that it decided to kill them off just to have a little peace.
And would that it have worked a little faster. In the final scene, just after Lindy sics the Dot on Ricky to save her own skin, she meets Ruby and the Doctor in the flesh. And again I want to shout out guest star Callie Cooke here, as this seemingly bubbly girl reaches her final despicable form. Even with the way she spoke to them in the Bubble, it’s jarring how she initially ignores them completely, then has to force herself to say a stilted thank you. It’s not that unusual for someone in peril to refuse the Doctor’s help or to not be especially grateful – the show has played with that convention many times before. It’s Lindy’s smirk and the Doctor’s cynical chuckle as he realizes what’s happening that put us into new territory.
And however this scene landed for you, Ncuti’s performance is undeniable. About 15 emotions pass over the Doctor’s face as he processes that these people would rather take a Jungle Cruise boat to their deaths than to share a ship with him, and I love how he allows them all to manifest in his physicality too. It’s so stupid, so utterly pointless – that’s the only explanation I have for why he offers that they can “say whatever [they] want” and “think absolutely anything” about him if they’ll just let him take them to safety. And even then, it’s an upsetting, unnecessary line. I do believe that the Doctor would plead with the survivors to just be reasonable instead of turning immediately away, but cut out those phrases and it’s the same effect.
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Of course, racism is a through line in this episode, but because we all come to Doctor Who with different life experiences, what was glaringly apparent for some was subtle to others was a “twist ending” to still more. The conclusion of “Dot and Bubble” hits hard, and that is both a strength and a flaw. We leave the Doctor reeling from this gut punch, and there’s no time for unpacking or venting or healing. (His M.O., historically, has been to just keep moving on, but for many reasons, that’s not appropriate to invoke here.) My generous hope is that this era will continue to be aware of the Doctor’s identity as a Black man (and preferably through the lens of Black writers!), not to heap trauma on him, but to give us a fuller portrait and more than just shock and anger to chew on.
Timey Wimey Observations:
- I have spent way too long thinking about an in-universe explanation for Ricky’s cover of “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.” At first I thought maybe that was a clue to the society’s origins, but the Finetime residents have green blood, so they’re not human. I guess it just somehow made its way to the stars? What a choice.
- I chuckle to myself every time I think about this tweet:
- Have Lindy and her friends ever even seen each other below the waist? Are they doing full-body fit checks maybe? I have so many questions about the mechanics of The Circle: Doctor Who Edition.
- All of the kids’ names sound AI-generated, and maybe that’s the point.
- Susan Twist is really the Bad Wolf of this series, and I couldn’t be happier to be getting breadcrumbed by RTD again all these years later.
- The looking through the Bubble effect was really cool, well done, Disney money.
- On rewatch, Lindy walking into that pole twice? Hilarious. I hope she gave herself a concussion.
- “You still have battery problems??”
- The slugs are gross, but the visual of them eating the kids whole is pretty goofy and even funny. Ricky’s death at the hands(?) of the Dot is so much more brutal on purpose. Lindy makes sure that happens and feels no remorse over it.
- Somewhat related, the residents of Finetime seem to have wiped any form of the words “dead” or “dying” from their vocabulary, other than using them as hyperbolic slang. (“If I ever met him, I would simply die!,” one of the twins says about Ricky.) Big “unalived,” “schmurdered,” “grape” TikTok vibes. Self-censorship is desensitization!
- Loved how Millie supported Ncuti’s performance in the last scene, especially the way she reached for the Doctor a couple of times and drew back before finally putting a hand on his shoulder. She doesn’t know what to say or do in that moment, and I think it’s notable that she goes back to the TARDIS first.
- When will the TARDIS interior return from the war??
What are your “Dot and Bubble” thoughts? Share them with us in the comments!
Featured Image Source: Disney+
I was just flummoxed at the racism of this episode. I just wanted to give Ncuti a big hug and wondered if any or all of his tears in that last scene were real.