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It's important for Doctor Who to show that The Doctor doesn't always save the day and that, sometimes, it needs to be someone else.
Posted in: BBC, Disney+, Doctor Who, TV | Tagged: bbc, Callie Cooke, disney, doctor who, dot and bubble, Millie Gibson, Ncuti Gatwa, russell t davies
Doctor Who: "Dot and Bubble" Attacks Our Social Media Addiction
In "Dot and Bubble," Doctor Who attacks social media addiction as a tool of Capitalism and offers the battle cry, "DEATH TO INFLUENCERS!"
Now that "Dot and Bubble" is out, we can discuss Doctor Who with full spoilers since there is plenty to talk about. The episode is a bright-coloured satire on the dangers of technology and our addiction to it. It is a merciless indictment of social media addiction and the kids who grew up to become addicted and warped by it to the point where they might be unreachable. On the surface, it's a gleeful comedy, but Russell T. Davies puts the screws on the characters and the viewer to remind us that, in the end, it's no laughing matter. But Davies' message is clear. It's not "Death to the Daleks"; it's "DEATH TO INFLUENCERS!"
Another Doctor-Lite Episode
This is another episode where The Doctor isn't in much of it. Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson only appear to Lindy on screen to talk her to safety. Either this is an early episode that was filmed during the season, or they were off filming the two-part season finale during the production term. The episode is carried by a guest lead, just like in 2006's "Love and Monsters" featuring Marc Warren and "Blink," which was Carey Mulligan's first major role. Callie Cooke plays Lindy, a gal from the future who lives a breezy, worry-free life on a neigbouring planet with a cushy job doing data entry like her fellow twentysomethings, away from any troubles on their home planet. They're all influencers liking and emoji-ing each other's likes. Her mother, played by Susan Twist in her latest mysterious cameo, is a bigwig in the company that owns all the tech that runs her life. She and her friend group all chat via a digital bubble – in other words, a social media app. Then The Doctor and Ruby slide into her DMS to warn her that the friends that have been going missing are not glitches in the app. Something is hunting them. It's quite funny that in this episode, The Doctor and Ruby can only help via a Zoom call.
Cooke plays Lindy with steady arrogance and complacency, but her eyes and face slowly reveal her confidence cracking as she tries to fight panic. It's a delicate balance since Lindy is a character that would be completely unlikable in the hands of a less nuanced actor. She never quite becomes heroic, so you never know which way she's going to swing, whether she'll do the right thing, and by the end, she fails the biggest tests. Cooke's performance is subtle enough to convey the fear and uncertainty still lurking even though she falls back into her privilege and chooses to reject the Doctor's offer, perhaps wondering if perhaps she made the wrong decision.
Doctor Who Replays an Old Sci-Fi Classic
"Dot and Bubble" seems influenced by E.M. Forster's one Science Fiction story, "The Machine Stops," where a woman in a future where everyone lives by themselves in individual bubbles and only communicates via electronics is forced to get out when the machine that powers their houses and communications is sabotaged by rebels and shuts down at the end, resulting in widespread death and destruction.
The bubble in "Dot and Bubble" is a digital one that keeps Lindy and her friend group isolated even as they move around in the world. Everything is hunky-dory. Everything is about likes and swipes for fashion, music, and products in an echo chamber they're all happy to live in because why wouldn't they? Life is great. Until The Doctor and Ruby (who has to pose as the type of customer services rep everyone hates) open their eyes to what's really happening – the bubbles they're in stop them from noticing there are giant slugs eating them! Like "The Machine Stops", it's the woman's son who rebels against the dependency of the machines. In "Dot and Bubble," it's pop idol Ricky September (Tom Rhys Harries) who steps up to stay away from social media addiction and discover the giant slugs before anyone else does.
Once Again, Capitalism is the Villain – Along with Big Tech
"Dot and Bubble" is an indictment of Capitalism, Big Tech, and social media that has brainwashed an entire generation of young people into marching to their doom. Karl Marx wrote, "Religion is the opium of the people." In this episode, and in real life, social media has become the religion of the people. It is the church they can't stop visiting nonstop. It creates the bubble they choose to stay in by showing and telling them what they want and congregating with only people who agree with them, and they unthinkingly echo the same attitudes and beliefs. Lindy and her friends become orphans because Capitalism killed all their parents and left them to die.
Lindy and her friends are children of the rich elite of their world, and their helicopter parents have put them on a neighbouring planet where they can live in comfort while doing meaningless data-entry jobs while thinking everything is well and good. The bubble they're in keeps them from noticing anything while giant slugs show up and eat them. The slugs were actually created by the companies Lindy's mother and the other parents worked for, and now they've run rampant and eaten everyone back on the home planet. That the slugs are eating their way through the kids alphabetically is a dark joke – these predators are bureaucratic!
One subtle detail you might have missed: Lindy and her people have blue blood. "Blue blood" is slang for the Royal family, aristocrats and the upper class, so class privilege, tribalism and prejudice are right up front in this episode.
The Revolution is Led by an AI
The AI that runs the entire bubble network has become sentient and grown to hate these vapid, privileged rich kids and decides to just kill them by growing giant centipede-like slugs to eat them in alphabetical order. That is hilarious. Yes, it's kind of an evil AI story, but here the AI is all of us!
Lindy is Not a Hero
Lindy is the first main guest character leading a Doctor Who story who's not heroic but downright selfish. For all her platitudes about morals, she's virtual signaling and is only out for herself in the end. She sells out Poor Ricky September, who decided to be a hero and tried to protect her by letting him get killed before it got her. She lies about it and refuses to take responsibility, preferring to reject The Doctor and Ruby once they're no longer useful to her. There's a subtext to this: Lindy and her friends are all white and rich, while the Doctor is black and Ruby is working class.
Yet, the script pities Lindy and her friends. They're selfish idiots because that was how they were raised and taught. The bubble is their whole world, so it's hard for them to live without it. They're practically infants without the bubble to guide them. Lindy can barely even walk without the bubble telling her where to go. They have virtually no life or survival skills whatsoever. When they decide they can go forth and live in the uncharted and untamed world beyond their city, away from the giant slugs, it's a pipe dream born from the can-do attitude they were taught with when they were taught no lessons in how to survive in their wild with only the clothes on their backs. This unfounded and unearned self-belief is a death sentence. They're going to die, and the Doctor and Ruby can see this even if they refuse to. Lindy doesn't even know her mother is dead, and she's another orphan in the series' recurring motif.
The Bleakest Ending in the History of Doctor Who
"Dot and Bubble" has the bleakest and most pessimistic ending in the entire 60-plus history of Doctor Who. Lindy and her fellow survivors fall back into their usual attitude once they're safe. It's like the shutters came down the moment they're out of danger, and they become arrogant, entitled narcissists who reject anyone not in their group. Tribalism wins out. They've been raised to be so sure of themselves that they believe they can survive in the wilderness with no discernible survival skills whatsoever. The Doctor and Ruby are witnessing a whole race of people marching cheerfully to extinction. Lindy and her friends don't even know they are the last survivors of their race, and they decide they'd rather be right in their bubble than safe. Davies has never shied away from showing people at their worst, and neither has Doctor Who even before he came along. The Doctor and Millie are watching a group of orphans arrogantly trot off to their deaths.
Davies and Gatwa Reveal Yet Another Side to the Doctor
It wouldn't surprise me if this were one of the first episodes and scenes Gatwa shot for the season once he was finished with shooting the final season of Sex Education for Netflix. For a Doctor-Lite episode, Davies opted to show yet another side to the Doctor never seen before. The Doctor disregards all pride and dignity and tearfully begs Lindy and her friends to let him save their lives. When they refuse and opt to go to their doom despite warnings, the Doctor breaks down into a howl of heart-breaking anguish. This hits especially hard when you remember that Gatwa escaped the Rwandan genocide when he was a child when his family took their family to the UK. The Doctor's reaction to Lindy and her friends' racist rejection of his offer to help rings too true to every person of colour who gets ignored or dismissed for their skin colour. "You're not one of us" and their fear of being "contaminated" could not be less explicit. The entire cast this episode is white except for Gatwa.
In the Classic series or even the revived era, the Doctor would have either made a dogmatic speech about Man's capacity for self-destruction or just quietly left with their companion. Instead, Davies and Gatwa are declaring this is a different Doctor, one whose heart is on their sleeve and feels the pain of every doomed creature in the universe as someone who has witnessed the death of literally millions over several lifetimes. It is the Doctor's reaction at the end of "Dot and Bubble" that lifts it above a nasty joke into a heartfelt warning. That's Davies' mode now: absolute sincerity.
There's One Thing, though…
Is that ending really the end? The Doctor has never abandoned people in danger. Do you really think they'll leave these idiots there to die? You can't save someone who refuses to be saved, but they tend to change their minds when they are well and truly screwed. The tragedy would have really hit if Lindy and her buddies rejected The Doctor's plea at the end and then got killed immediately. Sure, the ending of "Dot and Bubble" makes Davies' point about human self-destructiveness, but the Doctor could just come back in a week and see if Lindy and her buddies are still alive. If they're not dead by then, they'll almost certainly be begging for rescue. When you think about it, The Doctor might have been less heartbroken and merely shrugged, knowing they're going to have to come back to save these morons.
Unless The Doctor just decided "the hell with these racists" and never bothers to come back. Protip for life, kids: your racism will get you killed.
A Warning to Children
Davies probably "Dot and Bubble" as a warning to children before they get addicted to their phones and social media apps. That's when they can still be taught not to be mean or arrogant and to use critical thinking. An adult would probably watch this episode and nod grimly at the confirmation of every negative stereotype they have about "da yoof," and it may be too late for anyone over 13 who's already dug deep into their social media bubble.
Doctor Who is now streaming globally on Disney+.
Doctor Who Season 1 Episode 5 "Dot and Bubble"
8.5/10
Now that “Dot and Bubble” is out, we can discuss Doctor Who with full spoilers since there is plenty to talk about. The episode is a bright-coloured satire on the dangers of technology and our addiction to it. It is a merciless indictment of social media addiction and the kids who grew up to become addicted and warped by it to the point where they might be unreachable. On the surface, it’s a gleeful comedy, but Russell T. Davies puts the screws on the characters and the viewer to remind us that, in the end, it’s no laughing matter. But Davies' message is clear. It's not "Death to the Daleks"; it's "DEATH TO INFLUENCERS!"
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