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<\/a><\/div>\nDot and Bubble<\/i> takes social commentary in Doctor Who<\/i> to all new heights, dropping Doctor Who<\/i> on a social-media dominated world where the concept of the real monsters is explored, and only so much can be done to save them. I loved 73 Yards last week \u2013 an ambiguous folk horror, and it shows that Who has become more of an anthology this week, with Russell T. Davies dipping his toes into the messy waters of the concept of always online. Welcome to Finetime \u2013 you may not like what you find.\n<\/p>\n \nLindy Pepper-Bean is our protagonist, an alien rich-kid, with all the kids played by actors who look a lot older than their actual age, deliberate casting choice, as much as her deliberate casting choice for a friend group is all white, with no room for diversity. Callie Cooke plays the immersive; 80s-stylised character with gutso and enthusiasm, but is so reliant on her technology that she loses the ability to walk without it. It\u2019s obvious that things are not all as they seem with this alien paradise \u2013 Lindy keeps waiting for updates from her mother from the motherworld, and space slugs are constantly eating her friends one-by-one. It\u2019s counting down a ticking clock until it reaches their space on the surname \u2013 and Lindy knows her time may be numbered.<\/p>\n But can The Doctor and Ruby save the day? And will \u2013 more importantly, they want to? A lot of the episode explores the concept of whether everyone deserves to be saved no matter what they are, and Cooke\u2019s parody of the always-online Lindy is so tremendous her line delivery of where she hasn\u2019t had a hug before and it\u2019s a thing that they do now is so well-executed it\u2019s hard not to love. Cooke makes you care about her naivety at the start and you want The Doctor and Ruby to rescue her \u2013 but it\u2019s a testament to her acting that there is something not quite right about her from the start, right from when she dismisses The Doctor but is more welcoming of Ruby; and instantly takes more of a liking to the traditional hero-archtype of Ricky September, the charming and instant match for everything she has idealised \u2013 played wonderfully by Tom Rhys Harris. It\u2019s hard not to think Ricky is a Doctor-in-waiting \u2013 but deliberately created by Russell to fit Lindy\u2019s ideas. \u201cLindy Pepper-Bean, I will get you out of here, I promise\u201d he states, and this noble mirror image of The Doctor further clashes with Linda\u2019s ability to trust him. Ordinarily this would\u2019ve been a Doctor-saving the day moment of happiness and hope \u2013 but here; Dot and Bubble<\/i> skirts around that.\n<\/p>\n \nBut when the finale comes, and come it does \u2013 their friendship cannot last, and we learn with a stunning revelation that Charlie Brooker couldn\u2019t match even in his best days of writing, that Ricky\u2019s surname is ahead of Lindy\u2019s in the alphabet, and despite their match made in heaven, Linda is willing to throw him under the bus for her own survival; desperate as she is. If you didn\u2019t hate Cooke before, you do now \u2013 and when she walks into The Doctor and Ruby\u2019s awaiting arms \u2013 its with the realisation that no matter what The Doctor can do, he can\u2019t save them \u2013 because the Finetimers don\u2019t want to be saved, their religious viewpoint stands in the way of everything that The Doctor believes, and they \u2013 believing themselves to be superior (remind you of anyone?) \u2013 head into the land that can never be tamed to try and tame it regardless of The Doctor\u2019s pleas to come with them. <\/p>\n It’s a tremendous scene for Ncuti Gatwa and reportedly one of the first that he filmed. Who has a history of shooting scenes out of order but one casualty of this means that the bulk of these Doctor-lite episodes have been a victim of circumstance \u2013 we previously used to have one a season in a thirteen episode run; but it feels like we\u2019ve barely had any time to know Fifteen, having arrived fully-formed out of Fourteen, we don\u2019t feel like we\u2019ve grown with him, gotten the chance to learn who he is \u2013 and with the constant time jumps we don\u2019t even get the bonding of Ruby and The Doctor\u2019s relationship either. But what this episode lacks in character building for The Doctor it allows the doomed colonists to betray the Finetimers\u2019 ideological ambitions \u2013 and if anything, Dot and Bubble<\/i> should have stuck with its original title \u2013 Monsters, Monsters Everywhere<\/i> \u2013 because it\u2019s a perfect distillation of these themes.\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n