Doctor Who Is NEW!: Dot and Bubble

Let's start this week's edition of Doctor Who is NEW! at the end.

It's Friday night and Andrea and I are sitting on our sofa as the closing credits of this new episode of Doctor Who play us off for another week.

Flummoxed, I ask, "What the hell was that?"

Andrea observes, "I'm sad.... AND angry!"

How did a new episode of Doctor Who leave us in such a state?

I'll explain more after the break.

Caution: Spoilers!! 

Dot and Bubble

by Russell T Davies  

OK, two weeks in a row and we're getting very little Doctor in our Doctor Who.  We get a bit more of Ncuti Gatwa  than we did in last week's "73 Yards" but mostly it's Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson interacting via social media on electronic screens save for one in person scene at the end.  

Most of this episode takes place from the perspective of Lindy Pepper-Bean (Callie Cooke), a perky, incessantly happy young woman with her floating AI "Dot" and  a virtual reality “Bubble” around her head. She lives in a community called "Finetime" where it's not all fun and games.  Lindy has a data entry job that she has to work at a whole TWO HOURS A DAY while her Dot recharges then the rest of the day is for having, well, a fine time. 

Listening to Lindy and the others in her interactive chat bitching about having to work two hours of day makes me want to reach through the screen and slap them. 

But this isn't what makes Andrea and I angry. 

We'll get to that. 

Meanwhile trying to get Lindy's attention away from the mundanity of her virtual world are the Doctor and Ruby.  People are disappearing from Finetime and stuck outside the protective dome that surrounds the community, the Doctor and Ruby need someone to help them by dropping their Bubble and actually looking around.  

Bugged and annoyed by this intrusion on her day, Lindy finally lowers the Bubble and sees what she's been totally oblivious to all day: giant bug creatures eating people.   

Gross!!! 

As only a virtual presence, the Doctor and Ruby do what they can to guide Lindy to safety. 

Except...  the giant bug creatures are not trying to eat her.  

Why? Why are the giant bug creatures eating some people but not others?  The Doctor struggles to determine a pattern.

Meanwhile in the real world, Lindy gets help from online superstar (and Lindy's idol) Ricky September.  

Ricky's cute.  And smart, witty, charming, compassionate, capable. Hell, I think I'm in love with him. Anyway, Ricky guides Lindy to a room where they are safe from the giant bug creatures  while the Doctor has sussed out an escape route to an underground river.  There's a locked door between the safe room and the escape river but the Doctor has worked out the code sequence which Ricky is entering to unlock the door. 

AND the Doctor has worked why the giant bug creatures  are killing some people and not others.   

The giant bug creatures  are killing the inhabitants of Finetime in alphabetical order.  

Which means the killings are part of plan. 

A plan developed by the AI Dot.  

Forced to listen to the insipid ramblings of self absorbed privileged young people, Dot has learned to hate these people and is killing them. 

In alphabetical order.  

And it's now working it's way through the letter "P" and one Lindy Pepper-Bean is next. 

AND if the Dot can't get the giant bug creatures to a victim, it will do the job itself. It starts zapping lasers at Lindy.   

Ricky tells Lindy to take over entering the codes in the door lock while he throws himself into harms way to save Lindy from Dot. Ricky is knocked down just as Lindy unlocks the door but too late to stop Dot from killing her.

Except...

Lindy reveals Ricky September's real last name actually begins with the letter "C"  and that means Dot needs to kill Ricky before it can kill Lindy Pepper-Bean.   

Lindy runs through the door and slams it shut, leaving Ricky no chance to escape Dot before he is slaughtered.  

What the hell?  REALLY?  

We come to the underground river where Lindy is not the only one who has made it here.  Also present is the Doctor and Ruby with the TARDIS.   

The escapees plan to get away in a boat down the river to live in the wilds beyond the Finetime dome.  

There is no way these pampered young people are going to survive out there.  The Doctor offers to take them in the TARDIS to a truly safe place. 

They refuse.

Why?

As Lindy puts it, "Because you, sir, are not one of us."  

How is the Doctor different from these people? These people who are young. And rich. And white. 

Wait! Is that it? Are we dealing with some good old fashioned racism here?!?!

Every single person on screen in the Bubble was white.  

The only person that Lindy tried to block was the one black guy who showed up in her feed, the Doctor.  

These people don't deserve to be saved!

But the Doctor still pleads with them to let him save them.

They pull away in their boat, lest they become "contaminated" down the river out in to the wild where they will surely die.  

Flummoxed, I ask, "What the hell was that?"

Andrea observes, "I'm sad.... AND angry!"

Whoa! 

OK, props to Russell T Davies for a tight script.  

But not so much loving that this is 2 Doctor Who episodes in a row with the Doctor in a supporting role.  I mean, in terms of this being a 61 year old TV show, way to go in finding new ways to tell stories! 

But given this is whole launch on the Disney+ platform is being billed as a "Season 1" which means potentially a lot of new eyes checking out Doctor Who for the first time, this seems a questionable time to go all experimental before we really get a handle on who this Doctor really is.   

And making the POV character so unlikeable, that was a risk. Callie Cooke has to do a lot of heaving lifting using only her face in most shots and making us care about a character who inherently doesn't care about others.  You keep hoping she's learning to get beyond her petty self centered privilege and then....

Dot killed Ricky! YOU BASTARD!!! 

Lindy callously sacrifices Ricky to save her own skin and then fucking lies about it?!?!? 

And then...

AND THEN...

Racism?!?!   Really?!?!?!

Andrea said, "I'm sad.... AND angry!"

Me too! With an emphasis on the angry!! 

Russell, you OWE me a good time for next week's Doctor Who.