Episode Discussion: Dot and Bubble

Television Doctor Who (2023-)
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Glad that I missed the ACAB discussion, and I’m not really back here to touch on the racism angle, other people are still talking about it.

What I do want to contest is that this isn’t a story about social media; it’s entirely a story about social media, and I think there are a couple of things that point to it - first of all, the Dot and Bubble system itself. Apart from navigation, the only thing we really see it do is provide a social feed, and not just that, a social feed from THE SECOND you wake up. Now, in real life, I know for a fact that when I wake up and the first thing I do is check Reddit, or whatever, I will feel terrible for the rest of the day. My brain will instantly begin dopamining to look for the same sort of kick it gets from reading outrage-bait headlines and stupid comments. I won’t be able to comfortably engage with anything that requires ten to fifteen minutes of concentration, because the things that provide you your dopamine early in the morning are inevitably what your brain will seek throughout the rest of the day. (It’s why I do my best to listen to music first thing in the morning before I look at my phone [and wouldn’t you know it, the only Finetimer who engages with music in any meaningful way, even if it is functionally a TikTok, is Ricky, who actually takes his bubble off and reads.]). This is the effect social media is having on brains - did you know that TikTok and YouTube shorts scroll up because upward eye movement is connected to dopamine spikes in the brain? They’re designed to keep you addicted. So the obvious end point is social media that wakes you up, and gives you ABSOLUTELY no choice but to be connected to your network. It sounds and looks awful, but it’s not much of a leap from what we do now.

It’s literally a wall of screens that provide you no context or further information on the people you’re viewing. It IS Twitter, very overtly. Which leads me into, sort of, my next point.

The Dot growing to hate its users. Don’t you think if Twitter somehow became sentient it wouldn’t immediately [EXPLETIVE REDACTED] hate us? It makes perfect sense, but follow me down this path for why the moment in the basement where Lindy betrays Ricky just firms up that yes, this is a story about social media and how it will destroy us. Because Ricky September is Lindy’s idol. He’s her hero, despite the death she has seen, meeting him makes this “the best day of her life” (and boy, doesn’t that feel like us too?). Except, as the episode continues, Lindy learns that Ricky isn’t really the same as her. He removes his Bubble, he reads. She seems relatively OK with it, considering it transgressive but possibly attractive? Except until the time comes where it’s her life, or Ricky’s. Ricky is no longer useful to her, but also far more importantly, he is no longer the Perfect Image of Ricky that the Dot has provided her. The most important thing about this scene though, and why it makes the social media commentary so valid, is how she kills him.

She doxxes him.

She knows everything about him, including his real given name. And now, when social media (The Dot) wants her dead for, as we will come to understand, the extremely bigoted vapid views that she and her society all hold, to protect herself, she tells it that Ricky’s real name is Coombes, that he isn’t who he says he is, the implication that he might not even belong with them at all. She reveals this intensely private thing (there’s also the deadnaming comparison to draw but that isn’t in my wheelhouse, although more to come shortly) and immediately, the Internet Hate Machine turns on Ricky and kills him. I think the point of this episode is that yes, social media is bad, but it’s only really bad when humans get hold of it. I’m still kind of working on this analysis, but there’s something there.

I think the even darker analysis to take though is that this is Russell absolutely firing against the queer community. All the Finetimers are white, but you can also argue that in styling, conversation, etc, a lot of the Finetimers are very Gen-Z queer coded. I think there’s a lot of this episode that is Russell, a gay man in his 40s/50s, actually doing something to fire back at tenderqueer culture and the homogeneity of gay identities. Like, this is a super happy shiny society of the future, where from what it seems, consent is an extremely important thing, generally the language is a lot of non-specific internet positivity, etc, etc. I think there’s definitely something to be said about pinkwashing here, tied in with the fact that 15 has NEVER been more queer-coded than in this episode, but as a Black queer man, he is still rejected by the white monolith of the Finetimers.

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This was definitely the episode of this season so far I least enjoyed while watching, though that isn’t a metric to say whether or not I liked an episode or whether it’s a good one. In terms of that, I keep going back and forth. Right after watching, I didn’t like it at all, though since then I have thought a lot about it and I definitely appreciate it more now. In that sense, the episode achieved what it was meant to do, I think, making people think and sparking conversations. Whether it actually portrayed the things it wanted to portray in an accurate/effective manner is a different question and one I don’t feel component to answer.

Regardless of all of that, the acting was phenomenal, for me, the last scene was where Ncuti Gatwa went from playing the doctor to playing THE doctor, truly fantastic acting (and his first scene to film, too!). Millie was obviously more subtle next to him but also amazing, and Callie Cook too.
Though honestly I’ve been missing the closer moments of the doctor and Ruby these last two episodes, their dynamics are amazing and I adore how they’re constantly holding on to each other, I’m happy we’re leaving the doctor-lite episodes behind for now.

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I remember a time when Doctor Who was an entertainment program, and yeah, it would sometimes have messaging or social commentary in it (i.e. The Green Death, The Sunmakers), but its primary function was entertainment. I don’t think that’s the case anymore. Now it seems like, if it manages to entertain, that’s a bonus, but that’s not the primary goal.

That said, did Dot and Bubble entertain. Yes, it generally did. And it was interesting to me that just as we were really starting to feel like Lindy was capable of personal growth, she showed her most selfish, and then her most bigoted, self. I liked that they twisted my expectations there.

Frankly, I saw this episode as a condemnation of elitism, and did not see anything reflecting racism when I watched it. Blinders? Probably. I’ve read the argument defending that position, and I do see it now. I could still argue that Lindy’s dismissal as “not one of us” or whatever she said is just elitism, but I tend to buy the idea that the indications of racism really were there.

In isolation, then, I felt this was a good episode. I could use a few more stories that are nothing more than fun adventure stories, though.

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With respect, the show has been making social commentaries since at the first season at least - The Aztecs and The Sensorites both have pretty explicit messages in them. Doctor Who has always been social commentary, and frankly your “if it manages to entertain, that’s a bonus, not the primary goal” is a little condescending and edging pretty close to “DOCTOR WOKE”.

Just because you’ve always been able to gloss over the social messaging in favor of what you find entertaining doesn’t mean that it hasn’t always been part of the show’s characters, and if you’re willing to accept that you probably have blinders up about the episode, you’ve essentially shattered your own argument.

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Science fiction has always been a way of making social commentary about current events. Just look at stuff like Star Trek or Star Wars, The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, Black Mirror, etc. There’s very little Science Fiction that isn’t social or political commentary.

It’s become fashionable lately to say “it’s gone woke” about everything - see again Star Trek Discovery which apparently “went too woke” because the cast weren’t all cishet white men and they dared to use pronouns :scream:

I think this is just a case of the social commentary has gone from something you understand and can easily agree with, to newer things that you may no longer be comfortable with, and it says more about the person complaining than it does about the show.

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Well, I absolutely agree that the show has had social messaging throughout its history. I didn’t suggest this is something new. I even mentioned a couple cases from Classic Who, and certainly could have cited more.

I don’t know, maybe I’m just finding some of the messaging more heavy-handed than it used to be. For example, there was a feminist message in The Monster of Peladon, but the story wasn’t about feminism. Compare that to, say, Orphan 55 or Praxeus, which were as subtle as a brick about global warming and pollution…just seems like it has become more forced.

I would consider the message about racism in Dot and Bubble to be a good counter-example - doesn’t hit you over the head, not by a long shot. The episode is so loud in its condemnation of people living in social media bubbles, that the other message was positively muted by comparison.

I know it doesn’t sound like it from these comments, but I am not against social messaging in Doctor Who. I feel that in general I have applauded it over time. But I feel like the balance between message and story has been a little off in recent years.

In retrospect, I do regret making that comment in relation to this particular episode, because I actually thought this was a pretty good episode, and the bubble commentary integrated well into the story being told. I stand by my opinion, though, that the show is doing more messaging than it once did. I also accept that it’s only my opinion, and YMMV.

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OK! Understood.

And if it’s doing more social commentary than before, maybe it’s because we need it more now?

I can’t think of a single episode where the ‘social commentary’ distracts from the episode and makes it worse. In fact, if an episode has a message to convey, I think it’s a stronger episode for it.

I only regret that the ending of Orphan 55 had a very “lesson from the teacher” feeling to it, but if that one scene was cut, the fact that Earth was destroyed by global warming is a perfectly normal trope to use, and has been used dozens of times in all sorts of media including Doctor Who. I’m not accusing you of this, but to me the only person who could be offended by it is a climate change denier.

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You might very well be right there.

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Also, there are only 8 episodes a season, so they can’t really have much fluff in the season. Episodes are probably going to be either related to the arc or big things they really want to do.

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I want to be clear on something. There hasn’t been a message presented in the series yet that I have been offended by. Not a single one.

Not liking the presentation is not the same as not liking the message.

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The eight episode season is just the poison of modern television making. We are currently in a world where the filler episode doesn’t exist. For me, it makes Dot And Bubble succeed on more levels; from the front, it does look like a filler episode (Doctor-lite, as I suppose we would call it. No matter how much you love Love And Monsters, it’s filler; no development happens, it’s a fun slice of life romp) but it actually contains probably the most developed characterization we’ve gotten for The Doctor so far. Ditto for 73 Yards and Ruby; I don’t understand the argument that we have barely gotten to know The Doctor and Ruby when, imo, the past two Doctor-lite episodes have told us immense amounts about both of them, all disguised as “filler episodes”, except of course you can’t really make those anymore with an 8 episode run. It’s making the best of both worlds.

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BTW, “only 8 episodes a season” is my biggest complaint about the show by far.

Who do I see about that?!

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I know the complaint has been levelled at the modern series, particularly during Chibnall’s time, that the ‘messaging’ is too overt and in your face but I think there are a number of reasons for this.

As @shauny says, in some cases its because the messaging is about things some viewers may find uncomfortable (such as the pronouns elements of The Star Beast) or are politically charged meaning people react to them more viscerally.

Some of it may seem heavy-handed but, when our planet is going to hell in a handcart, maybe a bit of bashing us over the head with stuff is needed to get us to wake up and actually do something about it. Is Doctor Who the place for this? Well, why shouldn’t it be - it’s a popular family show which appeals to a broad audience so why shouldn’t is be used for sending us a message? Orphan 55 is always given as the worst example (or Praxeus) but the suggestion that they aren’t ‘fun adventures’ at the same time is nonsense - I mean Hyph3n and Benniiiiiiiiiiiiiii! and hiding from Dregs stalking a holiday camp? That story isn’t 50 minutes of preaching and I don’t even find the ‘speech’ at the end any more egregious than Capaldi’s anti-war speech in The Zygon Inversion and yet people rave about that and cite it as one of the Doctor’s defining moments.

And this idea that the classic series was subtle is a misnoma too. The ‘message’ of Galaxy 4 couldn’t be more blatant and it’s laid on with a trowel.

The Green Death literally has characters such as Professor Jones, shouting and stomping about the evils of pollution and Global Chemicals. It’s hardly subtle when the maggots have been turned into monster by the pollution! The Green Death is a story where the message is front and centre from episode 1 right up to the end.

Is the message of The Sunmakers subtle - not even slightly (although it’s one most kids wouldn’t get but you can be sure the adults will pick up on it as soon as Cordo starts getting charged death taxes he can’t afford and decides he’ll have to commit suicide instead!).

And whilst the ‘social media’ aspect of Dot and Bubble is pretty unsubtle, it’s used to comedic effect and actually has a good point to make. Being the parent of two teenagers whose phone screen is never far from their face, those scenes were not lost on them. The racism angle, however, was much more subtle to the point I imagine (in fact, I know) some younger viewers will have missed it.

The simple fact is that Doctor Who has always been a ‘political’ show but just as it’s always been an adventure show, a horror show, a comedy show, a fantasy show, a science fiction show, a romantic show etc etc, certain stories, certain eras have leant into different aspects of it more from time to time. It all, always there in the melting pot and tapestry of the show it’s just that sometimes something more obvious floats to the surface or something hits us a bit more clearly than at other times.

Everything is okay with the show. It really is.

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I’d only just got that flaming Timmy Mallet song out of my head…

And YouTube decides to put this on autoplay.

We will never be free of this song

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