I think that this episode was good. It was a nice interesting plot. I almost got a bit of a Black Mirror vibe from it.
My problem is that we had two Doctor-lite episodes in a row in a short season, to begin with. I think that if Ncuti was unavailable for these two episodes it would have been better to make 73 yards as a two-parter. In this way, we would at least get more character development on Ruby.
The best part of the episode must have been when the Doctor is faced with racism in the end and that is what will kill those kids in the end. Such a nice touch after the main character (forgot her name) killed September. Also explained why there were no people of color in Finetown.
Oh the end point of āInfluencerā social media VR headset capitalist society where people canāt even walk without being āinfluencedā, thereās a political commentary right there 
This is really my kind of Doctor Who. We got a Macra Terror, The Happiness Patrol, Paradise Towers societal atmosphere, all the trappings and colours of a āperfectā, happy society with a sinister backdrop that canāt be perceived by the ādronesā.
Definitely my favourite RTD penned episode in this RTD2 era by quite a bit, a 4,5/5 
is what I initially rate it as. Beautiful, well directed and well acted. And with amazing giant slug things 
I saw the racism coming a mile off and was really looking forward to see how the Doctor would handle the situation, and it was heartbreaking yet glorious. The way Ncuti starts laughing and crying just conveyed every bit of emotion in that situation.
And again this weird ambivalence from RTD about wealth, either people with wealth are total idiots or they are super kind - thereās never some sort of middle ground when it comes to money for RTD.
But yeah, loved it! And you are naturally all invited to join my Bubble 
Imho the last episode was a brilliant 9. This one was even more brilliant: 9.8/10.
It had all the exceptional emotional story weaving of the last episode, plus a simpler story and thereby fewer opportunities for logical holes.
So for me, it worked even better than last weekās episode.
What also helped, for sure: The story mirrors my views, which are somewhat cynical. 
It examines the influence of social media. It delves into human nature and our decision-making. Are we drawn to comforting falsehoods or stark truths? The stories awnser and mine: Probably more the former and much less the later. Just to clarify - I do not think thatās good or bad, imho it just is. And naturally, a story that echoes my opinion is one I can appreciate more than, say, a story with themes I disagree with.
I do hope we get a more optimistic episode next time. All doom and gloom is not good. Balance in all things.
But for me personally, the best episode of the season and just a really good standalone story with brilliant acting.
Regarding the 0.2 missing for a straight ten: Squeezing in last minute the theme of rogue AI (the threat could just have been nature or something) complicated the story by introducing a second theme (the first being the danger of living in a bubble). It kind of paid off, but in my humble opinion, that was one theme too much.
Have to say: Quite happy with Doctor Who on Disney+. Wouldnāt have thought to get an episode like that. So far, the seemingly more lighthearted influence of Disney has provided a good balance without hindering what Iād imagine to be a harder-to-sell episode like this one. 
Gotta admit, outside of Ncuti being brilliant in the ending, almost nothing about this one worked for me. Seeing as a lot of people loved this, Iām much more willing to just chalk it up to this kinda black mirror-esque stuff not being my cup of tea. Following around a terribly unlikable protagonist for 40 minutes being a terrible person and doing terrible things with jokes that werenāt really landing for me really ruined any chance the ending had of saving it. Iām really glad other people are digging it though. Iām hoping that once we get through the Doctor-lite hurdle and I can get a real solid handle on this era I can maybe come back and re-evaluate it in the future, but right now just a complete clunker for me. Onwards to next week though!
Interesting thoughts and sorry that this episode did not work for you. But mostly welcome to the forum @coolredson 
it would be nice if you introduced be nice if you introduced yourself over at Introductions
Well, that was quite an episode.
I did quite enjoy this one. Ricky September was obviously the standout here, and I agree with the people comparing him with Pex.
Lindy, well, was a terrible person, but it fits. She was a rich kid living in her own little bubble. I pretty much wrote her off with what happened to Ricky. (Especially since I had a better idea at the time. I was thinking impromptu marriage to Ricky and take his last name. 
)
Great world building and social commentary, interesting technology, all in all great episode.
(Of course, the terrible thing is Iāve always wanted something like the bubble tech, except that Iād want to be able to see the real world beyond it and just have it be an overlayā¦)
Found myself thinking of Live 34 during this one for some reasonā¦
*Sits in bubble searching for reactions to this episode*
And youāll never know how many of us there are in the room with you
(Que sinister laugh)
Mind you, I wouldnāt worry too much about the inhabitants of the planet. Taking a quick jaunt into its future, hereās a quick look at one of the survivors!
Wow. I absolutely loved that!
The Black Mirror style of the episode was excellent, and despite it technically being both Doctor-lite and Companion-lite (90% of their scenes all filmed separately later), there was a near-constant presence of the Doctor and Ruby so it didnāt feel like they were gone.
And that final scene. Brilliant. Hats off to RTD for not pulling his punches.
The 13th Doctor has faced a space racist, and misogynistic characters, and now the 15th Doctor faces a racist planet. And he acted exactly as I would expect - he didnāt preach at them, tell them off, or leave them to die - he practically begged them to let him save them.
That is an epic moment in Doctor Who history and it brings this episode up to a 4.5/5 for me.
I was had a little trepidation about this Season when I first saw Space Babies and The Devilās Chord, but these later episodes, and rewatching those too, has firmly put this season and this Doctor as one of the best Iāve ever seen. Iām so happy right now 
Honestly, donāt know that itāll stay this way, but for me, itās been feeling like they started off with the worst of the season, and the season has been getting better and betterā¦
Oh and I almost forgot - I loved that The Doctor had the hots for Ricky September 
The Doctor is canonically queer (again) and I am here for it 
Really enjoyed that episode. I went in absolutely dreading it but as boomer takes on gen z go it was fine, only a couple of eye rolls and I found it largely entertaining. As with all of Russellās recent episodes I felt there were holes that could detract from the story - what do you mean the dots made the slugs? what do you mean they wiped out Homeworld? - but in this episodeās case it wasnāt too big a deal.
Iām really taken by the slugs, Iāve been a fan ever since the filming pictures, great concept and execution. Iām glad the Doctor and Ruby had as big of a presence as they did and that ending hit like a truck. Completely casts the prior 40 minutes in a new light and so many little moments I wrote off become great big "Oh"s. I hope the Doctor was right about them not standing a chance on their own, they deserve whatās coming to 'em!
Extremely unsure how I feel about this one! Really wasnāt a huge fan of most of the commentary - until the ending reveal it really did just feel like stereotypical boomer āoh those danged kids always on their phones!ā and that always makes me roll my eyes. That being said, the ending couple scenes where everything comes together ruled, especially the final scene. Ncuti Gatwa you rule!!!
My problem with Lindy is while the performance was good, I found her unlikeable, but not in the love to hate way, until she leads to Rickyās death. And because of that it made it harder to enjoy the episode. Oh and unrelated but still a spoiler, I think the twist that the dots were the bad guy was a bit dumb lol
On the positives, the audio design was incredible and led to real tension; loved how the episode was directed and again I thought the final scene was perfectly done and was amazingly subtly foreshadowed.
Really liked this one. Was also worried it was going to be a āthose damn kids are always on their phoneā commentary but thought what we got was a lot more interesting.
I read online that this story idea was originally for the Eleventh Doctor. Now wondering how it would have worked. Without adding a POC guest character I donāt see how the episode could have hit the same notes.
Feeling a bit higher on this one after sitting with it for a bit and seeing people talk about it, but I still definitely am not loving it as much as a lot of other people.
I donāt want to talk at all definitively about the handling of the racism, thatās really not my place, but there is definitely something that feels really off to me about the way that we only really see negative impacts of the racism on the racists themselves, and where it does have emotional impact on our one Black character, thatās also largely tied to the fate of the racists. That said, Ncutiās performance of the scene is incredible, and specifically that little annoyed laugh into the scream of pure hopeless frustration as he processes whatās happening is perfection. Iām unsure how I feel about leaving the impact of the racism on him to just the very last few minutes of the episode, as I think it could have had more impact in an episode he was more fully in that could be something like his Witchfinders, but at the same time Iām very hesitant of the idea of an episode that potentially consists of him basically spending the whole episode facing racial abuse. Either way, I also really feel like the first episode to deal with the first (mainline) Black doctor experiencing racism really should have had a Black writer involved at least in a writerās room, and the lack of any in the first season continues to stand out to me as the biggest unforced error of this era.
Aside from that: really the main thing thatās keeping this episode not too highly rated for me is that even though I respect that the ending makes it clear that Lindy being unlikable was very intentional, and I respect whatās being done narratively with that, it doesnāt retroactively make the last 40 minutes of following an entitled, racist, annoying, spoiled rich bitch around through a fairly dull plot any more enjoyable.
It also just really feels like it doesnāt explain why the dots are killing them well enough. Like I assume that weāre supposed to gather that it hates them for basically all the reasons we do, but then if thatās the case Iām slightly confused at why everyone on the homeworld has been killed, when I would assume that the whole planet is not entirely the rich white people. This is kinda the point where it feels like it fails to escape the āphone badā kind of take, despite the rest of the episode doing fairly well with it. Also just no explanation at all for why they bother with the slugs if the dots can just kill people themselves.
And one final issue for me personally was just that the format at the beginning where we almost entirely saw close up shots of Lindy or the view of her bubble with the moving background had me feeling so claustrophobic and started giving me a headache and I think if it had gone any longer than it did before shifting to more regular shots I would have had to take a break in the middle.
Overall 2/5 for me, but could see it going up a bit with a rewatch.
Youāve all shared so many interesting thoughts about this episode that I have very little to add.
I liked it a lot. It didnāt play like a Doctor-lite episode, as the Doctor and Ruby were indirectly with us through most of it. Both Ncuti and Millie are excellent, but I found Ncutiās performance in Boom and Millieās last week to be superior (the final scene here represents an all-time high moment for Ncuti).
I liked the classic āperfect utopia hiding a terrible secretā vibe that RTD was going for. Doctor Who has several great stories with similar premises. The commentary on spoiled rich kids, social media bubbles, and overreliance on technology is equally appropriate. I agree that some of the tonal shifts feel a bit jarring. This one goes from light-hearted slapstick to tense moments and serious drama.
The script isnāt complete without fault. I donāt feel it develops the narrative a lot in the middle, and it doesnāt justify the existence of the slugs (the Dot is a very capable killer by itself) or why exactly everyone was killed (and in alphabetical order, for that matter). And the bad A.I. angle is kind of tucked in at the end as well.
The production is amazing. I love Finetimeās clean and colourful look, the Bubbleās interface, and the really solid CGI on the slugs.
Iām ashamed to admit that I didnāt notice that no one in Finetime was a person of colour, nor that the final scene addressed racism. Reading your comments and thinking more about the final scene makes the episode hit harderāmany small moments suddenly make more sense. And that last scene is definitely a bold and strong moment. Making Lindy such an unlikable protagonist and showing us clearly why, in the end, is also a brave move.
Initially, I wasnāt entirely enamoured with Ricky September (another iconic RTD character name), as I felt he was a bit excessive. However, the moment Lindy had him killed left me in shock, because I didnāt want to lose him.
The Susan Twist mystery lingers, but goes nowhere. And the future still hasnāt solved the battery problem 
Anyway, I give it an 8/10, but it may change upon rewatching.
For a much shorter and simpler review:
The slugs are icons, and I will stan them until the day I die, even if their reason for existing was not at all properly explained.
This suffers from āVincent and the Doctorā syndrome for me, where an excellent and impactful and emotional ending does not do enough to make a story that I otherwise was not much enjoying my time with into one that I love.
I loved that. Given it 8/10 but that may go up. Did not expect much from the trailer but that was pretty great.
Lindy was a great performance, seeing how she struggled to adapt without the dot was interesting, the Doctor and Ruby being present throughout through the bubble was a novel use. when she turns the Dot on Ricky was a great scene. What a horrible person, took me by surprise.
Interesting seeing the comments about the planet being racist, I didnāt pick that up but will rewatch it with that in mind. Makes sense of why they were rejecting him at the end, i was struggling to grasp the reason. Ncuti gave a wonderful performance there though.
Like 73 Yards, defo an episode Iāll rewatch soon. Even if Iāve not enjoyed all the episodes individually, I am loving the experimental nature of this season x