I found it weird how at first Lindsey and September really seemed to mirror The Doctor and his companions. His dialogue and the shots of them escaping together seemed to be deliberately similar, and then boom, headshot! I cackled out loud
I truely believe that was Ncuti’s “I am the Doctor” moment there. No big speeches, just the pure rage and laughter at the stupidity of the Finetimers. Also interesting little detail, Ruby tries to initially comfort him but then flinches and backs away when he gets really enraged. Her first experience with the fury of a Timelord.
Tory bubble, MAGA bubble, or FIDESZ bubble, are the same. It could be racist, yes, but living in a society (in Hungary) where a big chunk of the society lives in a bubble like this, where you could spend ages trying to reach people and warn them that the Orange Monster is in fact eating them. At the same time, they are only fed information from the state-owned media and state-sponsored propagandists, it is pretty painful to reflect on, but that is our daily reality over here.
Really loved hearing your thoughts :) I liked the moments Ricky apologised for hugging her and then asked for consent before holding her hand. I think if the audience hasn't picked up on Lindy's comments (and the fact that everyone on Finetime is white), it bolsters the idea that the people in this society are a little "stupid" as Lindy says and very sheltered, but at heart they are decent; and then you realise they're all racists, so the whole thing about asking for consent seems like such a minor, performative thing, if that makes sense. They are so kind and respectful to each other in this almost over-the-top way that you often see in online spaces, but in the real world (with real people who don't fit into their little group), they are actively hostile. It was interesting to me. I actually think this is the strongest one so far. I noticed quite early on that everyone on Finetime was white, so I was a little discomfited throughout waiting for the Doctor and Ruby to make the connection. It really worked for me because, I think if the Doctor were human, they might have felt uncomfortable much earlier one. However, the Doctor has travelled around the universe with this shield of whiteness for such a long time, that they don't have the human understanding of what it means to appear in an all-white society as a Black person. I did also love how it appears at first to be a "phone bad" episode, and will definitely appear that way to a lot of people until the very final scene. Obviously there is a lot of commentary on social media, etc., but more in the way that it can isolate you, keeping you "entertained" and constantly validated in your (in this case, white supremacist) Bubble. It really worked for me.
That consent point you made is actually very good. Makes sense. I think My initial reaction to it in the episode was like "oh, phone bad now they're teaching us about consent" was worried it was going overboard. Obviously in Hindsight it all makes sense now! Great points! :D
"The more I speak it out loud the more it makes sense." Brilliant episode. I think it's just, so well done. One of the better social commentary episodes. It's not being performative about it or anything. Perfectly "subtle" yet so overt at the same time. So much racism in our lives going unnoticed and ignored by those who aren't subjected to it daily, simply because it isn't always just some sort of loud physical and verbal violence. I think it did an awesome job on what it set out to do and was brilliant , and I really liked it. I appreciated having a hated protagonist. It's pretty daring imo to do your story and make your main lead very much not the good guy.
I really think River Song could have been one of doctor who's strongest arcs but the fact that series 6 and onwards beat it like a dead horse every episode really killed what could have been from the Library episodes setup
HE BUG WAS INTERESTING - DISNEY STAR WARS TURNED UP IN THE EPISODE WITH THE, LIGHT SABER TRAINING WITH THAT PATHETIC TINY BALL, THE LORD OF THE RINGS ENDING PLEASE END THE SERIES
HE BUG WAS INTERESTING - DISNEY STAR WARS TURNED UP IN THE EPISODE WITH THE, LIGHT SABER TRAINING WITH THAT PATHETIC TINY BALL, THE LORD OF THE RINGS ENDING PLEASE END THE SERIES
To be fair there wasn't much of a story here it felt really dragged out. So the main character is annoying and stuck in her bubble we got that within 5 minutes. She then spends 35 minutes being bloody annoying and stupid. The doctor and ruby are just annoying also in this. At the end it turns out she is also racist. Why would anyone be surprised she is a horrible character. The doctor agrees to save her despite this. Ncuti then decides to get angry and act. And then he just cries like he seemed to do all the time. Nobody cares that these horrible people are probably going to their deaths. Good riddance. There is literally nothing deeper to this. It is a 5-minute idea dragged out over 40 minutes. Couldn't wait for it to end and was hoping everybody in it was going to get eaten by the big bugs. And finally where the hell is this Disney budget it looks cheap and some of the scenes go on way too long.
just a note: Exposition dumps on television are normal and encouraged, specially when shows are written to be "second-screen" tv shows. They are not normal in movies, but they are demanded by producers/studios in most shows.
There's something so interesting about the Doctor's fondness for humanity. He loves mankind but we can't help but disappoint him. There were a few good examples in Eccleston and Tennant's runs - MIdnight, the Titanic xmas special where only the worst passenger survived
They literally live in their own bubble and have lost the ability to even see what's going on around them - and someone who's not like them can scream "Look at this problem there" as much as they want....
The fact I was cheering the bloody slugs to eat Lindy said something about it. The actress did such a fantastic job of making me hate the character she did. That is some seriously good acting if you can do it. I loved the episode, although not beaten 73 yards personally. Solid 8 I think. Also, Ricky was done DIRTY, rip Ricky. Ncuti gave a good speech at the end, you can see how betrayed he felt after working so hard on Lindy. Also, the chibnall video looks exciting ❤
IIR, Moffat wanted Victorian Clara to be the companion, but the BBC thought modern audiences wouldn't relate to her, so he had to go with a modern Clara instead. It's too bad because I liked Victorian Clara and was meh at best on modern Clara. I'm so glad you did not like Kill the Moon, since I hate it. It just feels like some really intense Right to Lifer broke into the writers' room and forced them to pen this screed about how a BAAYBEE is more important than the lives of the entire human race, minus the people on the moon. Plus the science is so wrong. Okay, Doctor Who has never been strong on science, but this really is off the charts bad. Oh, you left out the message in In The Forest of The Night that if you have a diagnosed mental illness and are hearing voices, what you reaally should do is ditch you psych meds. I always thought Moffat's biggest downfall was refusing to let go of the female characters he loved. Not so much Amy, partly because pairing her with Rory gave her a different story arc from the others, but River Song and Clara just went on too long for me. River had her original character, which I remember being pretty intelligent and interesting, became, as you noted, a one note woman who was there for sexual innuendo and being emotionally damaged. Clara just stayed on past her sell by date. I think having her be a companion for a couple of episodes with Capaldi made sense, but after that I think she should have left for a new companion. Even if they wanted her for the entire season, Last Christmas was the perfect way to write her off. They then could have added Bill or focused on The Doctor/Missy relationship. Admittedly, by that time, Moffat was running out of ideas and the show, seemingly was running out of budget. Maybe Moffat should have left when Matt Smith did, although I have no idea who would have made a decent replacement show runner, Davis wasn't interested at the time and Chibnall did not "get" Doctor Who, except for the occasional historical episodes. I think Clara suffered from being so "special" and she took the focus off The Doctor, during Capaldi's run, and made her the main characters, the one that was smart and capable, while The Doctor became a socially awkward dude who needed not cards to deal with people. River was hampered by being MADE for The Doctor and Moffat didn't have a vision for what to do with her. Missy, OTOH, was a match for The Doctor without overshadowing him. Thanks for the review. I'll probably skip the Chibnall recap, because listening to unending misery isn't my thing, but I am going to go back and watch your review of the Russel Davis era.
Omg this made me realise I am so blind to (less obvious) racism 🤦🏼♀️ I was so confused at the end why the doctor didn’t want to save everyone else, why he just left everyone else there and didn’t seem to care. Makes sense now that they don’t want to be save by ‘him’… I think I will rewatch and do better to spot micro-aggressions in the world. Very interesting and different type of episode!
Really love the ending but not as sold on the rest as a lot of other people seem to be. Also I'll be watching the last 2 eps in cinemas too! Can't wait.
I detested her which means she did a good job of a horrible script. I was hoping that they'd either throw salt on the slug or the slugs would eat um on the way out. 😐 Susan I have a theory the doc's 1st companion something to do with both him and Ruby.
I actually watched it, and then I was confused at the ending and did not quite get it. Then I watched it again and saw all the subtle racist comments. I was actually angry after watching it a second time. More mad at the white privilege and assumption of superiority over others. Others may disagree, but this was an excellent episode. It makes you see past everyday nuance to see what is really happening.
Loved this episode. I wonder how many people watched this all the way through without realising it was about racism until the end when their own bubble burst hey hey commentary. I know a number of minorities who caught on quickly but most white people didn't. For why the AI used slugs and not the little gravity balls, my favourite theory is that it's because the AI really does "hate them." It wants them to die slowly and terrified being eaten to death after walking into a monster due to their own vapid stupidity. As for them not knowing how to walk properly: I'm pretty sure they had the bubbles on the Homeworld since the AI and slugs managed to wipe them out too. They likely had them from a young age. That's also why Ricky was so apologetic about the hug, they've almost never had any real live human contact or intimacy.
I really like how this episode is very much in the doctors perspective like Lindy is the worst but she is the protagonist because the doctor is rooting for her to win, he is like the audience member in this situation.
Guys Bowel Movement has just made his video review for Dot and Bubble. As expected it’s just him screaming in the microphone trying to kill are eardrums.
Bowelstrek’s dropped his review of the episode and I think we can be assured that he’s definitely pissed off about in all the best possible ways. He made some questionable comments on it but I’m not sure if I should spoil all of them as I want it to be a surprise if you react to it. I will say that there is one moment where he experiences joy of seeing a trans person getting eaten by the slugs. That being Gothic Paul whose actor is trans and he’s happy about it. Yikes. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jgnQiBbdW4o.htmlsi=Kb9wfoK7_LwffiBI
I really like the way this episode hides what it's really doing behind a much more obvious and played out "Kids these days need to look up from their phones" message. I thought I knew what the commentary was so I wasn't paying attention to the microaggressions until the "voodoo" comment. It's blindingly obvious on a second viewing but wow, so well done. For what it's worth I do also like the slug monsters and the horror scenes with them in the first half, probably the best possible presentation for that sort of commentary, and it's nice to get a new alien monster design. Not my favorite of the season, Devil's Chord, Boom, and 73 Yards rank above it in terms of enjoyment, but this was way stronger than I expected and the twists actually hit me very hard. Poor Ricky, man.
A great episode, I would imagine the doctor was so angry at the end because its the first time he's come up against rascism because of the colour of his skin.
I like that 15’s first time experiencing racism isn’t in a historical episode, but in a futuristic setting. It strongly counters the idea that this kind of prejudice is just a thing of the past.
It was shit. Lets be honest. Theyre now on disney plus and i hope they get better (the episodes) but theyve been shit so far. Ever now and then we get a "wow" "that's good" kinda moment but again, shit
There were soooo many overt and subtle signs of racism scattered throughout the episode: 1. Lindy was revolted and blocked the Doctor when he first appeared on her feed. 2. Lindy didnt block Ruby. She was more receptive to Ruby when she appeared on her feed. Lindy spoke to Ruby and believed her over the Doctor. 3. When the Doctor appeared for the second time on her feed, Lindy asked him if the monsters "have something to do with you" (she didnt ask Ruby this, just the Doctor) 4. Lindy told her groupcall to listen to the Doctor and that "i know this is wrong and after this is all over he will be so disciplined, i cant wait, and he doesn't look as atupid as he looks" (of course due to the color of his skin) 5. No person of color lived in Finetime 6. Lindy was shocked to learn that Ruby and the Doctor were in the same room together in such close proximity 7. Lindy told the Doctor "Didnt I block you? I knew it. I just thought you looked the same, but you're the same person I blocked. I was so right to hate you." (Implying all black people look the same) 8. When they met, Lindy told Ruby and the Doctor "Gosh, you two, this is strange." (meaning a white and black person working together) 9. And a few more microagressions towards the Doctor before they met in the final scene AND in the final scene where the racism got blatant.
Also notice how the option to block was there immediately with the Doctor but not Ruby, it’s like the algorithm is deliberately designed to filter out non-white people.
It says a lot that Lindy loved Ricky September but didn't like The Doctor, despite Ricky sharing a lot of the same qualities as him. The only thing separating them was the colour of their skin. I mean Ricky even found out his home planet was destroyed like it was his own personal Gallifrey.
The only thing I would change is to not have the bubble UI have a big flashing red text alert mode come up with flashing red borders saying “unsolicited contact” or whatever it was when the doctor first called. If he had just been treated as normal and she dismissed him since he wasn’t on her lists (or just a normal white text “unknown caller “) Basically I want it all to come from her and not the computer telling her he shouldn’t be talking contacting her. I get it can be seen as commentary as the system enforcing the thought process but I feel it muddies the water giving her an actual normal reason to block what seemed like a spam caller
They didn't spend their whole life learning to walk, homeworld used the Dots as well, the mother says it and the slugs invaded there which means they gotta be there
the first thing a lot of people didn't noticed she block only the beginning Ruby she trust fast. She said in the middle to Doctor: ''you all look the same'' this was making me more uncomfortable already, as a black person, by the ending scene was all confirmed
7:05 tbh i think the constant questioning of consent to the littlest things is supposed to be satirical to fit their pompous/stuck-up attitudes. the finetime society is such a sheltered and privileged area and i'm more than certain it's criticising this obsessive behaviour along with their characters.
This entire episode can be easily been shortened down to the so called Dot killing all the humans when ever they like no one gives a sh¿t anyways what gives with the slugs?? An utter nonsense this series. Added more questions to the pile then last week
@jeckjeck3119 so this Dot can't recharge itself does it say it needs someone to charge it? And it's so smart that it can grow creature think it will be hindered by battery's?
