Doctor Who "Dot and Bubble" REVIEW
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- Опубликовано: 30 май 2024
- Wow, I need to get out of my bubble more... or maybe not.
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As a black person, I saw immediately that there were no black people on her friends list or throughout the town. I initially chalked it up to bad casting choices but boy was I glad it ended up being an actual story point!
I did not notice, but when she started saying "you're not one of us" I realized they were all white.
I noticed too (white). It's not unusual always even now, but it is unusual on this show to have _no one_ except the Doctor. I even was thinking the rock star didn't have to be white -- but, yes, as it turns out, everybody did have to be for this story.
They were all quite white. Their teeth looked like they could glow in the dark.
I thought it was a bit of a nice jab at classism if the citizens were supposed to be the rich but I was shocked to see it being called out within the ending
I’m black and I didn’t clock it until the very end. I’m so used to white-only communities being used as *shorthand* for corrupt or broken attempts at perfect societies and having it go no further than symbolism, to the point I subconsciously assume it’s always JUST subtext.
JUSTICE FOR RICKY SEPTEMBER
Justice for Ricky man she was convinced she was in love with him but didn’t help him, but yo im actually loving this doctor who season to enjoy doctor who like this feels so nostalgic
I noticed that Ricky was the only character who didn’t have a negative reaction to the doctor.
Ricky was the only person in that world who was educated and self-aware. To be honest, he had more presence in 20 minutes than Ncuti and Millie have had this entire season. Even though the main character was a horrible person, she also had incredible presence too. I hope they bring the actor back for something in the future.
He was so good and kind and I am SO ANGRY AT HER. He saved her life and she killed him! He was trying to save her!
Nothing of value will be lost when the world eats them alive.
@@Tolly7249 Absolutely right. Those slugs have been/ will be doing the world a favour.
Watch the episode again, she immediately blocks the doctor but listens to Ruby. She also also doesn't realize he's the same person she saw earlier and is shocked that he's in the same room as Ruby.
Yeah I didn't figure it out right from the beginning. But when Lindy blocked the Doctor and made a face like she was disgusted I knew something was up with her specifically.
she even says "I just thought you looked the same" which in retrospect is horrifying
More than that, the system automatically flags the doctor and asks if she wants to block him as he's an 'unsolicited request' while ruby gets no such treatment
The system is literally programmed to be racist.
@@OldManFerdiadyeah, that was what first set off an alarm in my head. Then it just got increasingly in your face from there
That's why it's genius. It shows those who haven't experienced it exactly what it feeis like to experience that level of racism. Davies clearly did his research with his team. There Sooo many accurate off colour statements. Even some references to Marcus Garvey. It blew me away.
Edit. Gah I hate my phone.
Ricky September was so nice, that I thought he was an agent of the slugs, until I realized 'he is going to die'
There were way too many numbers to input to not get suspicious
Lol same! Literally thought he’s evil, nope, he’s dead within five minutes
At first, I thought he was going to be a holo-projection of the Doctor's, until she grabbed his hand and fell into him into a hug.
oui moi aussi !
As soon as I saw his face when he saw the homeworld was dead, I instantly knew he was a good guy....and that he would somehow die. But I never did think that it would go down like THAT and the BETRAYAL makes me so mad.
As my mom always said that her mother always said, "You just can't help some people."
It was VERY reminiscent of the Dr attempting mercy on numerous occasions
Now that is so true & your grandma was so right! Trying to help people who don’t want it is so freaking frustrating. I mean, they don’t need to appreciate it, that’s not the issue. (Thinking of my difficult elderly mother this past month from hell tbh) But to head down a road that makes things worse, pushing the limits of kind people’s patience, when you’re right there pulling strings, working full time on the problem, & doing your level best to save them.
Weird timing for this ep & me, thx for bringing that up. Clarifies a lot.
You can't save people who don't want your help
Straight up. I am all for help if you can. I focus on helping the helpers. They are the ones who will save everyone in turn. Case in point the space babies episode slmost ironically @@axlm.808
This is the lesson I took. Some people just don't want to be saved, by you, Doctor.
As a black viewer, I noticed right away that everyone was white and was waiting to see how they handled meeting the Doctor. Have to say I was not disappointed.
precisely being a black spectator, I did not notice at all that there were only white people. because since I was little I have always seen films or series where there were only white people or from time to time you saw a foreigner. so it did not mark me. I told myself that Lindy was a conceding woman! example when the goth spoke, she did not care. it is really only at the end when Lindy's friend said voodoo that I understood! Then I said to myself, it is true that he was rather aggressive with the doctor whereas with Ruby it was more or less okay. In short I think it was one of the best episodes RIP Ricky I am so sad for him. The worst is that I thought he was the bad guy.
You were not disappointed they were racist towards him, so you would have been disappointed if they had treated him normally?
@@yodieyuhdon't be dumb. 🙄.
There is a heavier handed way to discuss that and more thoughtfully written. This was the latter. The sheer amount of comments here and by other posts shows how well Davis did this. People who have no framework for how real day to day racism operates got stuck on the classicism, because that is their closest comparison. Yet, watching so many "get it" is a massive win from the writing team and hopefully the future. Too many very stupid people think all racism is overt. It isn't. It rarely spoken out unless someone is a real f#ck with possible aggression issues. Real racism is like what was shown and yesh hegemony breeds it like a virus. If you do not know that. Shut your trap. Pick up a book. Go for Audre Lorde or maybe Bell Hooks. If you are feeling brave maybe wander into the ethics arguments of the early Harlem renaissance or mid imprisonment discussions of the Apartheid resistance. If you can't do that. Just literally keep it stun. You have too much to read like Ricky to catch up and ask better questions.
@@yodieyuh Well, not disappointed, but considering those people's (trying to be polite here) behaviour, it would have been weird. I am South European, I don't know if you would consider me white in the USA, suppose not.
Russell T Davis actually explicitly said that the episode is supposed to be about racism.
Whats gone on with RTD, series 1-4 were outstanding, its going to get cancelled with the shocking writing atm. The last episode was 10/10, this dot and bubble was shocking, I lasted 10 minutes. Its like they wanna get cancelled.
@@BlastoiceWhat does this even mean? Not saying it’s been perfect but feels like a season 1 again. Good and mixed episodes, but sparks of potential that I’m sure will become greater once RTD has more time in the seat. But the real issue is why are you bringing the term Cancel into this?
@@Blastoiceif you only watched ten minutes, you have no idea it is about.
@@Blastoice So you’re saying that you think an episode you *didn’t actually watch* is bad? Let’s make this clear. An episode you watched 10 minutes of. Not enough to meet the monsters of the episode, not enough to see Ruby, not enough to see the Doctor hold a conversation with the MC of the episode, certainly not long enough to see the conclusion of the episode. So, ultimately, an episode you *DIDN’T WATCH* and you think it’s bad? If the show gets cancelled it will be because of people like yourself who clearly don’t watch Doctor Who, rate it poorly and complain out of your ignorant asses. Your opinion should matter as much as it means, which is nothing. Because you DIDN’T WATCH THE EPISODE.
Really? This was about aliens, not humans. We have no idea if there was more than one race on their planets. You know, like the Daleks, Sontarans etc. He might have thought that, but the episode seems more about social media ala Black Mirror.
Ngl, I snorted when Lindy walked into the pole
TWICE!
Lamp post was my favorite character next to Ricky!
For me it was pretty obvious they were racists. They weren't rude to Ruby and they say that the TARDIS was voodoo?
I didn't notice because she kept calling Ruby stupid, and it seemed like she wanted both of them to go away.
But when alot of comments on dwfan91's video were talking about it, I slowly realized that there were only white people in the colony.
I was so focused on how everybody was acting.
I think it works as xenophobia as well. The community is walled off, we have security so how did the vermin get in? We don't want to contaminate the bloodline.
@@Jansenbakersame here.
Ruby is an orphan, poor
She also said all of you look alike to the doctor and immediately blocked him@@Jansenbaker
Y’know what I love about how Ricky September was handled? He’s written very, *very* “Doctor-ish”.
It was to the point that I wondered very briefly if maybe he was the Doctor in some kind of disguise until they were both on screen together.
And in the end, Lindy treats both with the same level of disposability. It shows that the racism of this society poisons people’s brains and souls so much that in the end even “their own kind” aren’t afforded true caring or consideration.
Ricky was the only one who displayed any true, honest selflessness or thought to others’ feelings, and it shows you that this society is ultimately doomed to turn on each other at the first convenience.
Following that up, you talking about how pompous and rude Lindy is got me thinking- she’s also very rude and mean *to herself.* Her society so discourages basic empathy and understanding that she can hardly afford to give *herself* any.
@@ThePonderer gotta give Callie Cooke props as Lindy. she nailed it along with everyone else.
They're all going to turn on each other the second they realise you can't just 'tame' a world with a wave of the hand and frankly nothing of value will be lost.
The whole 'god given right to maintain the standards of Fine Time' made me want to reach into the screen and claw some faces off.
See, she eventually treats Ricky as disposable, sure, but she's far more willing to accept his help and treat his 'weird' qualities, like not using the Dots and reading actual books, as cool eccentricities compared to how dismissive she is of the Doctor himself. It felt very much like a commentary on how the same behaviour can be treated very different depending on the race and privilege of the person doing it.
@@gaz-l621 I Feel like thats part of the point, plus she had a crush on Ricky.
As soon as she said 'not one of us', I thought, oh, they're racist, aren’t they? And the line about TARDIS being 'voodoo' or whatever cemented it for me.
I had to think about whether there were any black people too... and I dont think so either...
Also, gotta appreciate the subtle gender queerness of Ricky
It admittedly took me a second, and seeing someone else make the observation first on the subreddit, because I was more focused on the classism going on. But man the distinct discomfort I felt when they made it clear the Doctor disgusted them, along with calling the TARDIS voodoo.
First time the Doctor shows up, he's immediately blocked. Then later you see Linda just assume the Doctor is somebody else, that he and "the other guy" just looked the same. Along with having a fit about Ruby and the Doctor being in the same room together. Plus her facial expressions on seeing the Doctor, especially once she gets through the tunnel and sees him in person.
@JH-dh2ws
Ohhhh, man!
The "looked like the other guy" I brushed off as her just briefly seeing him,
and the "in the same room" thing completely passed me by, as I thought "You lied to me." was a little overreacting.
What's Russell being British not American got to do with it?
@alicec1533 As far as I'm aware, voodoo (and therefore bigotry expressing iteself in misunderstnding, demonisation, and dismissal of it) are much more common in the States. Since it's where it originates. That's all.
It's not strange for a person to know history of another country, of course. Just much more common to deal with their own. And I wrote the sentence with Jessie talking about race relations in the States specifically, and how she's sure that UK had a similar problem in mind - so that's the lines along which I was thinking.
@@koscheib5199 It doesn't originate in the States. England had slavery while America was still a colony. England is still pretty darn racist, too.
On a rewatch, it's obvious how racist they are. Since Ncuti's casting was announced, I've wanted an episode where the Doctor's race got in the way (karma for putting their black companions through different racist situations), and I love the guts that RTD had to put that in the futuristic, social media influencer based episode instead of a historical episode. And Ruby's immediate response of disgust and sadness is perfect as a white child of a black parent who would have witnessed racism towards her family and experienced white privilege. I also love that the Doctor still tries to do what they've always done - save the monsters, even when those monsters are the worst of humanity. Because at their core, that's who the Doctor is, and it hurts that these people choose not to be saved.
i was also thinking about how russell chose to address racism in a futuristic society rather than a historical context. definitely a bold choice. and i hadn't thought about ruby's experience with her family being black, that's an insightful point!!
Rosa did this well as well - the antagonist of that is just a racist from the future, with the same grubby attitudes as racists now. I do like the fact that Doctor Who doesn't treat racism like something that can be cured by The Future - that it's just something you'll always have to deal with somehow.
A little disappointed that they didn't do more of that with Jodie Whitaker and sexism, tbh.
The scene ag the end was also the first scene of the season that Ncuti shot. This was shot before Church on Ruby Road.
It appears you're confusing racism with xenophobia. The episode was basicallyy about living in a "bubble" and fearing/mistrusting anything not within their "bubble". It's a stretch of the imagination to imply anything else.
@@mjohnstone2399 ....its clearly about racism. It's a stretch to claim it isn't
This episode makes me want to see the Doctor apologize the Martha EVEN MORE, especially for stuff like the beginning of 'Shakespeare Code' or 'Human Nature'/'Family of Blood'.
Yeah, “walking around like you own the place” worked for the Doctor when he was a white man
Oh my God yes. And you know she would go off if he came by now to apologize. Mickey would have some choice words too
It was Roberts' script, but I think Russell should have more control over stuff like this.
I'd take even an ounce of acknowledgement right now
I loved this episode, especially because of the ending. I picked up on the lack of diversity fairly early on in the episode (mostly because Doctor Who is usually more diverse), but in hindsight now realize I missed a lot of the more subtle signs of racism being portrayed within that world. Things like the immediate disgust at / blocking of the doctor, Lindy's claim later on that she thought the doctor was a second person who just looked the same as the person she'd blocked (ie, the "all black people look alike" thing), telling her friends the doctor wasn't "as stupid as he looks," etc went right over my head.
I'm planning to re-watch the episode later today after convincing my non-white spouse to join me, specifically because I'd like to hear his perspective (and also see how much faster he picks up on those things than I did). What an episode.
Yeah i noticed the "you look the same as the last one", and lack of diversity from the jump but I assumed it was poking fun at influencers, which it still is but yeah there is a lot of subtlety before the reveal. It really played with my expectations of what an average doctor who episode would be and what it was actually saying all along, it handled it well when it has occasionally fallen flat in the past.
I noticed the lack of Black/POC characters very early on, but kept checking because it’s pretty unusual in Doctor Who (for some time now, anyway) and got more and more uncomfortable as the all-white world got clearer. But I still didn’t register the “look alike” remark other than it being odd until I came here (at which point, full smack to the head, *duh*!!). And the “stupid” bit was a total whoosh for me mostly because she used the word constantly in really petty ways. But I was already kind of disgusted with her by the time she & Ricky got to the tunnel door and when she sacrificed him I was pretty much fine with her getting eaten, so the confirmation of white supremacy world with “not one of us” wasn’t surprising at that point. Though I do wonder (and would like to think) if maybe Ricky would have been the only one to go with the Doctor if he’d lived… seems like maybe his self education and introspection might have eroded the racism. So sad he never got the chance…
I know it’s who the Doctor is to save folks even when they’re distasteful, but…does it make me a bad person that I’m not fussed about the remnants of the racist society going off to their doom?
Really liking the darker themed episodes!
i assumed when i first watched it, that The Doctor got blocked on site was mostly due to his approach of being super upfront and just saying the out right problem and issue. And pretty much breaking Lindsay's whole social media pastel super good times vibes and made her feel actual worry and fear for the first time. Where Ruby kind matched the tone and vibe of that world with her speech pattern and presence and stuff...but yeah, i guess it wasn't quite that level.
I assume that Susan Twist was never a big name before appearing in this season of Doctor Who. That said, how lucky for her that not only has she been turned into a meta, running gag for the season, but her real-life name has been incorporated into that gag.
As far as this episode, I also thought the final 10 minutes made the episode a lot better. For me, there's a certain point where if a character is too unrelentingly dumb, it's hard for me to care about them. (The characters in "Boom" had a similar effect for me.) So it was kind of a relief when the show finally told us it was okay to hate Lindy.
Her biggest role before Doctor Who was as Rosie Banks in Brookside in the mid 90s. I didn’t remember her character until I looked her up. She was in one of the most famous scenes of the whole show when her husband Eddie Banks dug up the body of ch1ld abu$er Trevor Jordache whose wife k1lled him in self defence then helped her daughter bury him under the patio.
Other than that, she had a lot of small roles in various shows over the years. Apparently RTD was a huge fan of Brookside, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he remembered her name and decided to create a character around her.
Finetime was 100% full of white-presenting people... I didn't expect to sympathize with the dots and slugs, yet here we are...
Yeah they had to make all of the racist bigoted arseholes white people because DEI can't have you showing non white people as bad people in case there feelings get hurt.😭😭😭 It would have made more sense to make them Chinese or Japanese but Davies doesn't have the balls and Disney don't want to piss off the Chinese and lose all of that revenue. As I can tell from your message White people can be the subject of racism directed at them by idiots too just the same as anyone else.😝😝😝
I actually said fairly early on "Yeah, I'm with the slugs. You eat that rich person"
@@maidenlessjessofchaos4484 Oh my God, I'm just realizing the pun! Eat the rich!
They still never explained where the slugs came from or how they got past the force field just that they were man made and targeting the entire civilization alphabetically….thats so interesting 🥹
@@skunkguccit’s implied that the dots created them… somehow?
On rewatch, I noticed little things like the girl turning her nose up when Ncuti first appears on her bubble, and saying "i thought you might be someone else and you just looked the same", and it definitely just confirmed to me that she and the rest of Finetime are supposed to be read as racists. Which makes sense, a bunch of rich white kids in their little bubble of only other rich white kids.
Even Ricky, when he was like "Yeah, I KNOW what a pulse code is." Read like, "I don't need YOU to explain that to me."
@@joshuaeverett9887 right? I see so many people saying they liked Ricky or even yell "justice for Ricky September" and meanwhile I'm just left wondering did nobody else notice that all of Finetime was racist, not just Lindy? Even if he turned off his bubble sometimes, the books and history that he read isn't suddenly going to NOT be bad...
Even if Ricky was racist due to his upbringing I wanna believe he could have overcome it.
I noticed that Lindy seemed to stop fawning over him when he began to explain he was nothing like her. That he wasn't on the dot much (which is probably why the dot didn't have his info on hand) he was learned and seemed to genuinely have compassion. To a society like that, he would seem like a freak. Honestly, even if he had been racist I think they wouldn't have wanted him to come with them anyway. He was too different.
@@TheLastSane1 Justice for Ricky!
I think it depends on how you want to look at it. But from a pure thematic level then yeah Ricky wouldn’t be racist, or at the very least, see the error in those ways once saved by the Doctor. As he was the only one who occasionally escaped his bubble, he would be more willing to accept outside influence and learn new things.
The racism is very intended, it's deliberately subtle at first but the end is supposed to be a revelation that Lindy is racist but there are little lines from Lindy sprinkled in that you might notice on a second watch.
How she immediately blocks the Doctor but hears Ruby out. How she wasn't sure if the Doctor was the same person she blocked or if they just "looked the same".
The way she reacted to The Doctor and Ruby being in the same room seems really strange but then when she says "through a screen is one thing but in person?" It suddenly makes sense.
I clocked that everyone was white pretty early, but the racism reveal still hit me like a bus.
I honestly preferred this episode over 'Space Babies' and 'The Devil's Chord'. And that is mostly because of the strength of that ending scene.
Same. Space Babies was pretty flat for me overall, I really liked Devil's Chord as a musician and music lover, but this episode was just much stronger overall.
Same!
I really disliked all those spoiled young adults even as I felt sorry for them, until the ending; then I lost the sympathy. And if the young adults weren't meant to be racists, it certainly seemed they were!
No sympathy. Go slugs!
At first I thought the twist was going to be that the reason the kids were getting eaten was because they'd reached 28 years old and were too old for Finetime, and that their parents, needing most of the kids for "working" but not all of them to come home, were having bidding wars on who could come home or not, and if the parents lost the bid, the kids would stay there and get eaten. A commentary on how the rich would eventually begin to eat themselves and their own children when they'd run out of lower level workers to exploit and ruin.
I'm actually glad in completely different ways that I was wrong. I can see how the episode would have worked in Matt Smith's era. It has a very Smith & Pond sort of vibe to it. It would work well in the same series with the Space Whales as a kind of darker counterbalance.
I 100% thought along similar lines. I thought perhaps it may have been a class rebellion with the "unseen poors" outside the bubble letting the slugs in but they weren't attacking people wearing certain types of clothes (she made a big deal about what she was wearing being recycled after all). Then I thought it might have been an insurance thing for the parents or some take-over monopoly attempt to get rid of heirs to other companies.
RTD claims this episode was written back in Matt Smith's era. So...if true...RTD could tell even then where things were going.
Well, he pitched it in the Smith era, I don't think he wrote a script or anything.
I would expect that elements of this episode were in the original pitch, but I don’t think the race element was probably so fully fleshed out until recently. It probably would’ve been a little more ambiguous if Ncuti wasn’t The Doctor.
For Smith it would have to focus more on classism, so would have hit a bit differently
I noticed right away how white everyone was, it’s kind of a survival skill for black people. Super surprised at how the Doctor wasn’t picking up on the way old girl was shading him, and like right away! I mean I guess Doctor only has only been black for couple of weeks so maybe that’s why he wasn’t picking up on the micro aggressions 😒
That is so interesting cause I didn't pick up on it until it hit me in the face with the big flashy neon sign! God I fucking love this episode
Also reinforces how he should have taken those memories of being the Fugitive Doctor. In her Ruth form, she’d lived for years as a Black woma on Earth.
He has never had to face bigotry pointed at him…..
Thus the scream and laugh! It felt (I'm sure it is the unit of action acting choice) he gets it gets it. Even in his alternative bodies he hasn't experienced people who refuse to see his "humanity" "gallifranity" (?) other than Daleks and other less human looking creatures. He had fooled himself into thinking only a few humans are capable of that. Welcome my brother. It is so much deeper.
*imagines The Doctor back watching F.D. Signifier*
It's interesting that Ruby got it quicker than the Doctor
Which makes sense
She was raised by two black women her mother and her grandma
She ironically is more in tune with that stuff than the doctor for that reason
One thing I’ll say is that they made the biggest TARDIS interior set ever and now for 3 episodes in a row it’s been completely absent.
Here's a weird theory: I feel like they filmed this episode and last episode BEFORE they built the tardis set. As long as Gatwa wasn't available I can see them assuming that they had more time before they needed it.
@@B-MC That's correct. 73 Yards and Dot and Bubble were the first stories filmed for Season 1
@B-MC the set was built back in Mid-2022 so it was already standing by this point.
@@friendlyotaku9525 oh yeah! I'm dumb on this one. Of course they built it back in the 60th.
We talk about the slugs and dot being the monsters, but the point was that, in the end, it was the entitled humans who were the monsters.
How many times have we seen the doctor attempt to offer a way out to the Big Bad, only to have them reject him? This was just a slower burn of that trope.
This is the perfect introduction of racism for 15. The centering of Lindy as the main vehicle for the episode is perfect way to set up the episode.
I kept picking up on the micro aggressions, but it wasn’t until she called him stupid and then horrible. The voodoo line made me rage, but the one where Lindy made it seem as if he was the Mammy. Implying that she was more important based on the existence as a person.
Something that is true: Racism and classism never lets anyone win, even if you seem to be getting ahead.
P.S. A fun Whovian game to play is "Which Doctor would have just walked away at the end?" My votes would be Nine, Eleven and Twelve.
And well they should.
The classic era? 1, 6 and 7 would have walked away, the rest would have tried to save those disgusting spoiled rich brats.
What do you think?
The one thing that bugged me was that she didn’t know how to walk without arrows but immediately after finding Ricky September she’s like running on her own avoiding stuff it was weird writing to me
I couldn't help noticing that the entire time she was thanking them, she was only looking at ruby. It was clearly an intentional choice, her eyes only focused on Ruby... O.o
One thing that occured to me after watching the episode was that the dot didnt simply learn to hate humans. It probably learned hate FROM them.
This is an episode you can watch without knowing Doctor who. You don't need a introduction, it works on it's own. It does feel a bit black mirror like indeed.
My first thought when I saw the preview from last week was that it looked like the social credit episode of BM with Bryce Dallas Howard.
That, and “73 Yards”.
I love this show for precisely the reasons others will hate it. I love the moral, cultural, social, and political aspects. And the overall show. I simply loved it, especially the ending.
The Doctor always saves people and so it frustrated him when they refused help. The Doctor never had to deal with racism. Maybe he will understand what Billie, Martha, Yaz and Ryan went through.
That was powerful, the last few minutes. You felt every emotion, the moment, everything felt like shattered glass
I want to give the Doctor a hug 🫂
The entire society being white was noticeable relatively quickly, but I did chalk it all up to Rich people being rich (very white) but the ending put everything into perspective, and I reevaluated everything leading up to it. Amazing
Man this one really just wrecked me. What a brutal episode.
I was gonna be mad at them focusing on the perfect happy white blonde couple of conventionally attractive Brits, but then Ricky stopped sucking, and then he died. And then Lindyw as the worst.
So yeah. That was. A lot.
The story was literally "eat the rich". I hope that helps as an intent.
Something funny about this. The "anti-woke" crowd is going to complain about "obvious and annoying agenda shoving", meanwhile the first time the show actually touches on the Doctor's racial presentation is subtle enough that I had to wind it back to double check it was what I thought it was. Though I suppose it slid that in under the cover of a very blatant "don't bury your head in your phone" message, huh? (I did at least think this was probably the most interesting and tense way I've ever seen that message conveyed, however.)
I definitely need to rewatch the episode to catch everything, but on first viewing alone, that was great. I like how following Lindy's perspective made me see her as the unlikely hero of this story so it caught me off guard when she did things that don't fit into that, like essentially pushing Ricky into the way of the system to buy herself time to escape. The worst thing is that I still kind of sympathize even despite the indications she's just a selfish rich kid. The power of being presented as the protagonist, I suppose. Or the horrifying reality that no matter how spoiled or entitled or racist a rich kid is, they're still a person.
The anti-woke will especially hate this episode. Ironically, they'll never appreciate that "rich", dumb, discriminatory people, also look down on "poor/working/low/middle" class, dumb, discriminatory people.
I don't think it is a coincidence that the song that kept coming up was Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini, a song from 1960, the start of perhaps the most nostalgic decade for conservatives, definitely in the middle of the two biggest. I only know the exact year because I have a "Best Hits of 1960" vinyl somewhere (compiled by a certain evil celebrity who is mercifully dead)
This episode was so smart. So many of the critic for social media is focused on the media itself, that it neglects to note and see that the main reason it is so bad is because of the inherent prejudice in our own society, that it merely focuses and magnifies the racism and bigotry we suffer from. I loved that "Bubble Lindy" was always "ON", she was pretty, she was nice, she was a bit ditsy and impatient with the Doctor, but ultimately more of a spoiled child than an actual mean person, whereas "IRL Lindy", when her bubble was off, had no faculty of her own and was completely self absorbed, even before she sacrificed Ricky September ("this is the best day of my life!" - "Ehhh.. people are dying.." - "Still!")
I thought it was going to be like Day of the Triffids, where the "monsters" were just regular creatures happy to have dinner literally walk right into their mouths without having to do anything.
Having them controlled(?) by the AI to eat people in order, I'm not sure how that works, but I'm happy to be, like, "yeah whatever" about it.
i think they are happy to eat whatever, the ai is just feeding it in order
@@mel-burnes But that doesn't explain why they were deliberately ignoring her, for example in the elevator.
On Doctor Who Unleashed, they revealed that the ending scene was the very first scene Ncuti filmed for the series (excluding the special episodes). That must have been really intense for him.
I had to laugh at the end of the episode though because their escape boat looked exactly like the OG design of the Jungle Cruise boats at Disneyland. Another sign of how privileged yet clueless they were that their boat was aesthetic & not functional.
Former Disney CM here, and I thought the same thing. 😅
I was on the fence about the rich people racism, but then I remembered how upset Lindy got when she found out that the Doctor and Ruby were in the same room together and how she said that was against the rules. Didn't think anything about it at the time, but then I also remembered she kept blocking/ignoring the doctor and not doing the same thing with Ruby, and not it's at least head cannon that they were racists on top of everything else.
It was a completely white supremacist society. That's the point.
This is the first time the Doctor, now he's black, actually realises what it's like to lose white privilege. Ncuti's performance as he runs through the range of the emotions from "this is comically absurd", to trying to bargain using humility, through to the despair of realising THIS, petty racism, is going to be the reason he can't save everyone, is absolutely brilliant..
This episode will need a rewatch for me. The whole series will, obviously, but I think knowing what's going to happen and looking for clues will increase my enjoyment of it. There's a lot that isn't explained about the world itself that feels slimy. My wife and I were discussing before we watched this, and she said it reminded her of the book "Pretties" by Scott Westerfield. Definitely similar vibes with the self-centered, superficial young people and a sinister underbelly.
With this season, I really feel RTD’s anger, and I’m here for it.
I had realized the racism side of stuff very early, so i had guessed the ending farily early as well. A lot of the ways they were commenting on it is the same stuff that i have to hear people talk around me living in a very rural midwest town. Saying that every black person looks the same, some are smarter than they look, pretty much everything mentioned in the episode. Its heartbreaking to see this still be an issue in the world.
13:06 It was definitely very subtle, but after that ending I’m certain that Lindy’s dismissiveness of The Doctor and receptiveness to Ruby wasn’t just the differences in their demeanors, but Lindy’s overt racism. She even admits that she thought The Doctor was just some other guy before she realized he was the one she’s blocked before - that’s how low she ranked in his awareness. It seemed like an odd thing to say at the time, but in retrospect it’s clear that she thinks “they” all look alike.
I had to watch the last few minutes twice, because it was all so subtle. I couldn’t figure out at first why Lindy was acting that way, but it was only after witnessing Ncuti’s reaction that it all clicked, because it was all so deliberately subtle: they’re not just rich, privileged d-bags, they’re rich, WHITE, privileged d-bags with a dash of British classism to boot.
White audiences I’m sure are so used to just not seeing minorities that when they’re absent we don’t even notice, and I think that the casting deliberately played into that here. I really had to think if I’d seen anyone else who wasn’t white, and started inventing people who weren’t actually there. These people aren’t just in bubbles, but they’re in white supremacist bubbles.
That whole thing about “taming the wilderness” and an overexcitement for the idea of “pioneering” is also a very white attitude. Who knows what’s out there on that planet? Their entire culture was also in a literal bubble - not unlike the Time Lords who in the classic series separated themselves from “regular” Gallifreyans in domed cities, the connotations of which were as deliberate back then as the likely deliberate visual connections in this episode. There could be others out there. Do they know? Do they care? They only want to spread and uphold the culture snd standards of Finetime, even though they almost went extinct because of them. Chilling.
Lindy was barely even able to look at The Doctor in person, still preferring to speak to Ruby if she dared even interacted at all. I couldn’t tell if her deal Ruby was by association with The Doctor, or also because of her less posh accent. Then you go back and see these acting subtleties throughout. It’s all over. All very deliberate.
Did you notice that when they told her that her mom was dead she asked "So she's in the sky?" and acted almost happy about it? It reminded me of the little girl from Boom when they told her that her dad was dead, I wander if we'll get and ending like dark water and death in heaven with Peter Capaldi where the people aren't actually dead but are being uploaded to a mainframe or simulation somewhere like in those episodes?
That is a nightmare scenario. I would not doubt, it is very possible
That arc was dark, powerful, and sad at the same time
The answer is magic.
I take both Boom and this moment about dead people being “in the sky” as a critique of religion. In Boom, people are in endless religious wars that they don’t question because of their faith. In this, people stifle the very natural reaction of grief by saying “oh well I should be happy for mummy if she’s in the sky, how nice for her”. In both cases, religion blinds them to reality. It allows them to continue to do terrible things because faith either clouds their reason, or it numbs the emotions that might lead to change.
I had noticed the lack of colour and her attitude, I could tell they were building something but I didn't expect them to be so blunt. I'm so glad they did though, that was well done. It reminded me of the SG1 episode where Odo played a fascist.
Unlike all the DS9 episodes where he plays a fascist.
@@BalooSJ well he’s had practice
I loved this episode! The bold choice to make the main character totally unlikable to the point where the AI's genocidal instinct feels totally justified!
I literally Laughed Out Loud when she walked into the pole, which was the first real comedy this season to hit me like that. The twist was jaw dropping, but Totally In Character for someone so vacuous and self-centered. And yes, the refusal of help was about class, about status, about wealth, but also about skin pigment too, as Ncuti is the only black actor in the episode. My only gripe is the Doctor's tears. I don't think they were worth them this time. I've defended his emotions this season, but this time was a bridge too far. The laughter and scream was enough.
btw I recently discovered your last best hope for a fun podcast and it's great. I'm currently skipping about during work looking for reactions to my favorite scenes, like Morden's head on a pike. Good stuff!!
Right. Not worth one single tear. But that does not reflect badly on the Doctor, rather the opposite.
I think the tears were totally understandable. This is the first time in thousands of years that his skin colour has stopped him from being able to save people. That's devastating. And the knowledge that it may happen AGAIN? God, I can't even imagine what that feels like.
I think the fact that it's a racist society is on text, haven't seen anyone mention it in the comments, but Lindy says "I thought you all looked similar, but you're actually tye same person" at first I thought i misshesrd it or something, but the ending confirmed it for me.
As soon as I saw the array of faces in the bubble in the beginning, I asked why they were all white people - it looked weird. Also, compare reactions to The Doctor and reactions to Ruby.
This is the second YT video I watched about the episode. The first didn't seem to even pick up on the racism.
It's pretty reasonable to wonder whether Susan Twist was a real name. I wondered it about Nick Frost when he played Santa Claus. Elizabeth Montgomery was credited as Pandora Spocks when she played Samantha's cousin, Serena, on _Bewitched._
the final sceen was actual Ncutis first sceen filmed after the bi-generation sorry for the spelling mistakes i'm dyslexic
+
everyone was white
I spent most of this episode thinking "This is a bit heavy-handed," but then we got to that ending and it became clear the hand was only so heavy to make the punch at the end that much harder.
I think the most obvious reading is, perhaps, not the intentional one (i.e. I don't think the people of Finetime are *literally* all white and racist to a black man; I suspect it's more xenophobia than skin color within the fiction even though it's impossible not to read it that way), but nonetheless, I'm morbidly curious about what the conservatives who are inexplicably Doctor Who fans are saying about it.
I'm loving the creature design this season. If Disney wanted to put out a fancy artbook like the ones they've done for their Star Wars movies and shows, I'd buy it in a heartbeat like I did for those shows. A lot of the creatures feel like the sort of things that would have been done with cheesy rubber suits back in the day, but they're being done *well* with modern technology.
This is one of those episodes I think needed a bit more time to breathe and just a few more lines of technobabble to explain *why* things are the way they are in this setting to really sing.
I'm sure it's too much to ask, but I'd love for the Doctor (maybe some future Doctor) come back to Finetime in a few centuries and see what became of these sole survivors, whether they're bleached bones left behind after the slugs ate dinner, somehow cobbled together a just-as-crappy but technically-functioning town, or whether future generations rejected their parents' bigotry and uselessness and made something of the ruins of Finetime.
Also, am I the only one who got serious David Bowie vibes off of Ricky September?
Oh yes! The ending is what completely turned this episode around for me too! I immediately turned around to watch it again and it was amazing how many not so subtle hints there were that mostly went over my head the first time watching and how many things I hated on first viewing - how awful Lindy was, the lack of diversity, etc. - turned into really clever world building details. It wasn’t pleasant viewing on first viewing because of what I expect from Doctor Who, but I appreciate that that was the point and what made the twist so good at the end too.
And WOW Ncuti was amazing here! So far there hasn’t been a single episode he hasn’t knocked out of the park but the ending here was amazing!
you know how in some horror movies there are a mulitude of charaters you want to see die. someone must have must have taken every single person like that in the world and put thim on this colony. expect for ricky septemper the one compartment and worth while person
I think I need to rewatch this one. But I’m not sorry to say I wouldn’t have minded if Lindy got eaten. Or at least revealed for the coward she was after throwing Ricky under the bus. Although her friends wouldn’t have cared. This was one time when I didn’t want to see any tears from the Doctor, because none of them were worth it.
Someone else mentioned that and I am gonna say what I said on the Facebook episode chat.
He isn't crying for them. He is crying for him and Ruby. When you are dedicated every day to wanting to be the best person you can be, having to choose to stop helping hurts.
I see this with doctors and educators I work with all the time. It breaks their literal hearts to have to give up. It's not who they are. Going against your own ethics will always be the gravest pain yoy can cause yourself!
@@Firegen1 well spoken.
This season started out slow but it keeps getting better with each new episode. The last two being the best so far. Really looking forward to next week.
I was rooting for the monsters.
Im going to be completely honest, I was only half paying attention to this episode until like the last 15 minutes. I hated the people in this episode, even before the twist of what I thought was initially classism. I just hate the self-absorbed social media thing. But the end really brought it up and made me hate them even more. And rewatching it looking back it's racism more than classism. And I’m ashamed that I didn’t catch on sooner.
Absolutely Same! I was only half watching. I didn't like Lindy at all from the beginning.
This really brought back a bunch of moments for me. Immediately last week I picked up when Ruby identified the Doctor as Black in 73 Yards. Their character has largely adopted “being” Scottish or from the North. This was different yet not because we have seen the strong character of the Ruth Doctor. Further, the Doctor had Black and Indigenous identities through the Timeless Children but that would still be something to process which speaks to the context of both the Doctor and Ruby being “adopted”. Multiple layers yet really directly about race. Big moment for the Doctor at the end. They literally went through all the stages of grief as a response to the people wanting to stay in their bubble despite obviously going off to die (with the delusion that they are going to colonize the “new world”).
It’s so much about race that the catfight between the Doctor and Ruby over Ricky September was a fun throwaway moment.
The ending hit rather dark and I enjoyed it.
Just saw a video in a side bar proclaiming that this episode is "evil" and "anti-white/Christian". And it had the usual comments, about how this is NOT how Doctor Who is supposed to be - because apparently the Doctor getting really annoyed by the people he feels obligated to save is some kind of wild out-of-nowhere development that doesn't belong in the show.
So yeah, it's angering exactly the right people and that makes me very happy.
In other words, they never watched a day of Doctor who in their lives.
Genuinely surprised that crowd are capable of detecting subtext. They must have read it somewhere online.
It's interesting that the first time the Fifteenth Doctor is confronted with racism is in a future setting, not a past setting, like how the Thirteenth Doctor was first confronted with misogyny in The Witch Finders but the future in the Whoniverse is not the utopian future of Star Trek and we already saw future racism with Krasko in Rosa.
Even the dot was racist. When the doctor appeared on her screen there were all these warnings about it being an unsolicited request. No warnings when Ruby appeared. Granted maybe the doctor soniced it by the time Ruby got on the line, but I doubt it.
Sounds more like a setting thing than the AI caring.
@@TheLastSane1 or the bias of the original programmer
This is Russell prodding at the idiots.
I got the distinct feeling right away that Lindy wasn't responding well to the Doctor because he was black. Despite his being as polite as humanly possible, she also called him "rude" and implied that it wasn't okay that they met in person. Over the bubble was just barely acceptable. It does seem to be part of the racist past here in the US, where, to racists, just meeting a black person would have been considered "vulgar".
There felt like a meta quality to Ncuti yelling, “Let me save you!!” …because it felt like the story and the story of Gatwa playing Dr. Who, merged for that moment - and he was addressing the recalcitrant members of the ‘white’ audience to accept him as the hero.
Poor Ricky. Such a loss.
I think along with racism it was a commentary on how rich people think poor people are dirty or unworthy and will contaminate them. In a monarchy like the UK I see that having pointed context. Of course class discrimination is pretty widespread here in US as well.
True. Though sadly black people were thought of as dirty by racists. Even in the episode where the Doctor turned human & Martha was a maid, the white people she served critiqued her cleaning because how would she know if her hands were clean her not with “those hands”
Loved this episode and the racism jumped out for me about 15 minutes in, and it was increasing but still mostly not suuuuuper obvious. The last scene made the episode so much better. Great acting by both Rubi and The Doctor
The racism thing was confirmed in the extra show
I loved when RTD called Lindy a monster.
Like you needed confirmation.
@@radic888 No, we didn't need confirmation. She is disgusting... And the actress did a great job.
The protagonist was basically an evil version of lacy pound from nosedive
Unrelated to the overall plot, but I found it so hilarious that Ricky was dancing to ‘Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini’ by Bombalurina. They were a novelty pop group put together by Andrew Lloyd Webber (which is why they were named after a character from Cats), and headed by kids’ TV presenter Timmy Mallet who was known for wearing bright outfits with novelty glasses, hitting people over the head with a giant pink foam mallet, and generally being loud and annoying. I loved him. (He now travels the UK by bicycle and paints landscapes, and he has a website for his art called ‘Mallet’s Palette’. He’s super wholesome.)
The group also featured Dawn Andrews who’s married to Gary Barlow from Take That. Itsy Bitsy reached number 1 on the UK charts in 1990 and was their only big hit. Only Russell T Davies would think about bringing back Bombalurina in 2024 and I love him for it.
The song was first released in 1960 by an artist named Bryan Hyland. Wikipedia says that version reached number one in the US.
@@thatotherted3555 I know it’s a cover, but the version used in the show was the Bombalurina version and it was a big part of early 90s British pop culture, so that’s why I specifically referred to that version.
@@CarysCreatesThings Oh, I didn't realize that. My bad.
@@thatotherted3555 It’s all good. Look up the Bombalurina music video, it’s so ridiculous 😂
For some of us, it's the major negative to the episode. Timmy f'ing Mallet.
The racism wasn't subtext, it was very much text. Had literally any of the other Doctors (I'm not counting the pre-Hartnell incarnations for this) they might have gone with him. That's part of the magnificence of the ending, that The Doctor isn't even trying to change their hearts or minds, he just wants to save them and they'd rather take the unknown, certain in their own superiority.
Watched on Nebula, here to comment. Finetown had no black people there and I didn't notice until the end, then had a chat with my partner about how that had to be intentional as Dr Who is usually quite diverse.
I felt full on called out by my own failure to notice what in retrospect feels like a glaring detail. This episode made me sit back and really notice a blindspot I had, how used I am to seeing only white faces in stories.
At first, Lindy reminded me of a character that Catherine Tate does who can’t be bothered. But, she got so irritating that I didn’t care if she lived. And I thought the Doctor is better than me because I would just let them go and die.
I got those Catherine Tate vibes too! She even has a similarly shaped face!
Initially I (a white, but non-British person) thought this episode was a great litmus test of racial awareness (do you see the twist coming or not, and if not why?) but a few black friends have actually mentioned that one additional reason why some people don't see the "what kind of town is Finetime" twist coming, might also have to do with the fact that Doctor Who still has a lot of racial inequality to combat behind the scenes. The first script writers of color wrote for Jodies doctor, five years ago. that's still just two episodes in the main show. Even in modern who there have been episodes that accidentally had a (near) fully white cast, so having a white cast on purpose this episode failed to stand out to a lot of viewers, perhaps simply because of the kind of show that Doctor Who has been.
So yeah, white viewers but also the white production of Doctor Who still have a long way to go for the criticism that this episode wanted to make to fully stick, but also good on them for making the episode now.
I noticed there were no people of colour but it was not a red flag initially. However, i put this down to the fact that not many white people in the UK have friends (not simple aquaintences) who look visibly different to them.
The ending was a gut punch though. But there are so many layers particularly disecting power and upper classes in British society... how the likes of Boris Johnson who seemingly acts like a harmless bafoon but he has written xenophobic articles in the past became Prime Minister and how his 'affable' and ditzy persona masks the damage he can do with his privilege.
You are correct, this was filmed in the first block of filming alongside 73 Yards and in fact that ending scene was the FIRST scene Ncuti Gatwa filmed and... WOW!
You’re wrong about Ncuti and Millie not being on set. They were there throughout the whole shoot. Unleashed showed them ✌🏻🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈✌🏻🔷🔷
The Dots weren't evil. The Dots were saving the universe. Dots good. Giant slugs good. Bubbled people evil.
Rewatch it! And count the micro aggressions…. It’s more than the lack of black people in the episode. She called the Dr stupid, dumb, a criminal… She didn’t recognize him the second time she saw him because she thought they all looked the same. She literally called the police on him! The amount of casual racism that goes unnoticed on the first watch is insane.
And this is why it deserves an Emmy. That is what casual racism feels like. Everyone ignores it until it's undeniable. Then they react. It sucks soo much.
Did anyone else think they boarded the Jungle Cruise at the end of the episode?
so i dunno if this for all uk but where i lived a while she was dressed as the kids that u knew where racist the tanning of skin the approating of black british slang, i saw really early there were no one but white people and a lot of people with blue eye contacts so i got a eugenics vibe too. i really loved it. the way she spoke to him was also very coded uk racism too. (at least in region ive been in for years)
This wasn’t really about our social media “era” but about something far more sinister and sadistic.
Being Italian, that initially reminds me of covid deniers
As others have said, Ncuti is the only black person (hell, pretty much the only non-white person) in the entire episode. I didn't notice this at first, but... oof.
Also, poor Ricky September! The companion that never was. You could tell he'd have gone with the Doctor in a heartbeat.
This season feels like Doctor Who again. And yes, it might be Murray Gold being back. In this episode you really felt it. I missed him so much during Jodie's time.
Nothing but white people, and variation among them is heavily restricted. Alexander Paul getting called Goth Paul not because he's actually Goth in any appreciable way, but because his pastel outfit comes with purple hair and eyeliner. Variation will be tolerated so long as it's subservient to homogeny. Shades of conservative baby names - common, traditional names with "unique" spellings because they crave individuality but prioritise conformity. The more I look back on this episode, the more clear the paralells to modern white Conservatism become apparent.
Ricky would have gone in the tardis 😢
Really enjoyed the episode, although I really didn't like Lindy
I never thought I would want so many people to get what was coming to them.
4:00 rtd confirmed in unleashed that it was mostly filmed along side 73 yards and the last scene was actually ncutis first (besides the end of the giggle obvs)
I also liked the use of colonialism at the end " we will tame this land" over confidence. And for all we know it was not so much hating the humans on both worlds for their wittering on, it may have been a hate of their deeper vileness that we only see fully at the end. Great episode.
Yeah initially I also thought it was subtext but on re-assesment I think they were explicitly just racists. They intentionally single out the doctor distinct from ruby when they gave their little inferioirity rant
I didn't think it was subtext, they literally had a problem with him for being black, no other reason.