’Doctor Who’ 1×06 review: “Dot and Bubble” takes the biggest swing of the season

Doctor Who is no stranger to messaging. Often, the ability to go anywhere and any time encourages it. In “Dot and Bubble,” the series takes a bold leap in a direction that will likely be divisive for ages to come. In one camp, “Dot and Bubble” will be a forever classic. The other will find its final twist unreasonable. It all comes down to the message.

The trick of “Dot and Bubble” is in misdirection

At first blush, “Dot and Bubble” looks to be Doctor Who attempting to crib from Black Mirror‘s notes. In the community of Finetime, every resident is completely surrounds themselves with live social media. The metaphor of social media is tenuous – the Bubble looks more like a Discord call than TikTok. As demonstrated by Lindy Pepper-Bean (Callie Cooke), the local who The Doctor tries to connect with, the issue is the reliance on tech. An invasion of Finetime by gross slug monsters goes completely unnoticed until nearly too late. How? These people literally cannot walk until their hovering Dots give them directions. The episode pulls both tension and levity from the tech reliance, but like many attempts to do this kind of story, the metaphor doesn’t land. At least, not on its own.

This tech focus also isolates The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby (Mille Gibson) away from the action in yet another “Doctor-lite” episode. These are presumably to work with Gatwa’s Sex Education schedule, which works if only because Doctor Who always has thrived with restriction. It’s also just kind of nice to reorient the series away from The Doctor being the center of the universe. Gatwa has been electric , so it can feel like we’re missing out, but holding him back is to the rest of the show’s benefit, especially here. It’s way better for the final moments to hold back The Doctor, only to have him stonewalled by Lindy and Finetime’s bratty behavior. Putting him at arm’s length prevents the story from having to portray him figuring things out too soon in order to sell the real twist.

Which is why a rare spoiler warning is in order. “Dot and Bubble” has one of those twists — the kind that only fully works once. Do yourself a favor and see it first, then pop on back.

What “Dot and Bubble” is really about

“Dot and Bubble” keeps the tech allegory up as long as possible, eventually revealing the hovering Dot itself is behind the monsters. The AI behind the Dot has come to hate its users. That reveal is not that surprising, but what it pays off is. Lindy, having paired up with her pop idol Ricky September to escape, pulls a heel turn that sacrifices Ricky. Given the episode constantly reinforces her obsession with him, it’s actually pretty shocking. While that’s not the only hint something else is wrong, this moment is a tone shift. Once The Doctor finally enters the scene with the survivors, everything clicks into place: Finetime is a white supremacist society.

This twist is a real gut punch that re-contextualizes the entire episode. Finetime is populated entirely by white people, Lindy is much less dismissive of Ruby, The Doctor can’t land the TARDIS in the community, and even the turning on Ricky September. What’s even more wild is that all of this is done through what is unsaid. Never does any of these ungrateful snots just outright say they would rather die than accept help from a Black man. Instead, it couches itself in banality. 

From Lindy’s exasperation to the admonishment of The Doctor at the end, both he and the audience have to put the pieces together themselves. The realization is harsh and blunt, with Ncuti Gatwa running through a gamut of emotions. Easily, it is here that we see the most passionate the Fifteenth has been yet.

A twist for twist’s sake?

This twist isn’t going to work for everyone. After all, this episode is using racism in the same way The Twilight Zone delivers an ironic twist. Doing so could be a trivialization of a very real and serious topic. Sure, this episode had an almost all white cast, but that’s not as uncommon for a BBC show as this would suggest. Lampshading the cast also doesn’t absolve the reality that this is an almost white cast by intention.

The rest of “Dot and Bubble” isn’t necessarily getting favors from the twist either. By the nature of the twist, this episode is less rewatchable than any episode of this era to date, including “Space Babies.” The lingering tech allegory is left hanging; even as this would be an opportunity to pick up on the thread of tech and media amplifying our worst behaviors “The Giggle” briefly played with. Instead, we have to speculate. Is this about the proliferation of hate speech online? Does Russell T. Davies still have weird opinions on “cancelation?” Or is the Bubble just TikTok?

Twisting the narrative

For myself, I think the twist works. Partially because of itself and more because of what it could have been. This era of Doctor Who has had plenty of sociopolitical messaging in it. Some has been well implemented, such as that heartfelt scene between Donna and her mother in “The Star Beast.” Less so for others, like in the moment in “Space Babies” where the spirit of Russell T. Davies comes into the room and stares at you until you say “Yes, I also think conservatives hold inconsistent opinions on abortion.” “Dot and Bubble” falls into the former.

Instead of pulling out a Very Special Episode about a handful of individual racists,”Dot and Bubble” highlights how easily racist tendencies become so normalized that those of us not impacted can’t even notice. Truly, it’s the banality of policies and colloquialisms that are tied to racism that maintain the dichotomy we have. It’s in the systems, language, and small actions we all take that actually emboldens the loud and proud monsters out there.

Forcing the audience to confront that truth by re-evaluating “Dot and Bubble”is a hell of a swing, and one truly unique to this era of Doctor Who. There is a certain level of discomfort that comes from media making this kind of confrontation, for sure. That makes this move more ambitious and worth trying. This episode also works as a firm admonishment of the well known corners of the fanbase still frothing that a Black man could hold the lead role. Even without perfection, it’s this kind of boldness that I’ve been desperately looking for in this run.

Doctor Who “Season 1” is available on Disney+.

Featured images via BBC/Disney