Doctor Who Does Black Mirror | Dot and Bubble (Review & Analysis) 

Harbo: hit the like and subscribe button Me who already liked and subscribed: *well alright then*

Thank you for another fantastic review. I'm someone who didn't like the episode so it was interesting hearing an opinion of someone who did (and such a detailed one). Definitely the best ending of the series period. But that's kinda it for me personally. My problem is that I already know it's commentary. Heck, I'm black and I've live it constantly. So I'm stuck on the fact that it just... wasn't entertaining for me. The episode just seems to live or die by its commentary and the twist wasn't really a twist at the end for me. Without the Doctor or Ruby I didn't feel attached to any of the characters and heck I was right with the dot and wanted Lindsey dead before even the title sequences or that reveal. The most interesting part was Ricky and yeah I will say I was surprised he didn't turn out to be an AI robot there to lure Lindsey to her death, because he just seemed too perfect and also too Deus Ex machina (like he showed up at exactly the right time and Lindsey wouldn't have been able to even walk without him). But that I was it. I will say I appreciate how the episode went about the inevitable. The part of the dot branding the black guy as an unsolicited request and ruby as just fine is a nice look into systematic racism and the episode as a whole goes beyond the surface level buzz word racism/racist society has overused and actually gets into in/out-group homogenity and pure ignorance. I love how the commentary isn't just social media is bad, but specifically on the echo chambers it's led to (really unfortunate how the promise of the internet was an interconnected global world and yet it's led to such fragmentation as these platforms just try to keep their users complacent and happy). It's just the real consequences of living in bubbles and not just being disconnected from reality, but never having the opportunity to gain real cognitive function or move past basic BASIC natural traits like different=bad. So I do appreciate the episode. But I honestly like your review more than the episode itself (which is what I'm replying to say in my too many words way). It's shorter, more entertaining because I'm not following someone infuriating, and gets the message across clearly 😂. I just really hope this episode doesn't go over too many people's heads or gets oversimplified (but I know it will). I live this and know have to deal with this. But there's a lot of people in the world that could benefit from realizing this is just who they are. You don't have to be overtly prejudiced to fall into being complicit of systematic racism. Unfortunately we all have in/out group homogenity that leads to implicit biases and we're living in a modern hellscape that takes advantages of these faults and throws us in echo chambers to boost screen time all for ad revenue.

That went hard

live homeworld slug reaction

King of the world.

@@rinmixxbeautiful reference

"And I thought it ... good"

Excellent work by my editor Duncan!

1. It's very well done. Also gave me a mild heartache, Finetime Harbo is a terrifying concept (also sounds like a brand of sweets we'd have.) 2. Surprised to see the Ink Tank here of all places, that's a nice surprise.

It's the Ben 10 guy!!

Absolutely brilliant episode. It was solid NuWho, and I feel the Doctor's reaction and reply - that they can say and think what they want, as he remained who he always is... Was key for younger audiences watching, particularly young teens. Sometimes, people will hate you, for circumstances beyond our control, but we can't let that change who we are inside, no matter what is believed, or spoken out. All in all, the episode was beautiful, and possibly my favorite episode of the season so far.

His subscriber count also grew from one interface to another :D

mine didn't. I assume many normal decent people would do the same if it's their life vs. a stranger. people just don't want to die and they panic and will do anything to survive.

☝🏽 Especially when you look back and see all the context clues that Pepper Bean has been dropping throughout the episode. It was there from the start.

It took three watches for me. I basically missed all the racism the first time (which, I guess, just shows how isolated from reality I am), and the second time I caught the subtext... The third time, yeah. It's right there the whole way through and you're like.. how did I miss that.

She could easily have been agist or just a snob. It doesn't mean that you are isolated from reality it just means you know you live in England where the majority of people in most places apart from huge cities are white. Don't feel ashamed for that that's just the way things are

@@MichaelJohnson-kq7qg Took me three watches to get all the subtlety.

Even watching the first time when she revealed they were all rich kids I went, "Ah, so that's why they're all white".

I disagree. While Ricky’s death was brutal, the main character’s death was implied. Did she even die? Also Ricky was probably a racist also. Also the home world was probably less racist and less in-a-bubble, but they still all died. I’d say the main character got a way with a lot more than she deserved. Which doesn’t make any sense. So basically the theme is: racist people exist and they do just fine

​@@alvadagansta Ricky was the only resident of Finetime to not negatively react to seeing the Doctor, so likely not a racist. And they really drove home that the racists were going to their deaths. Like, *hammered* in for that entire last scene. Ricky is maybe up for interpretation, but the rest of them dying is presented as a certainty.

@@alvadagansta The whole concept of the episode was showing the willingness to break social barriers, figuratively and literally, in order to do something right and just. Ricky was ready to save another life despite the risk, and Lindy proved that she's incapable of it when she left him to die, with her ignorance winning over her conscience. And the end makes it pretty clear that they won't make it out there. They're pampered, sheltered rich manchildren who never got any tools to survive life's dangers. The Doctor tells them he can help them make it out alive and Lindy and the others actively ignore him because in their eyes, their opinion isn't worth it. Honestly, good riddance because real life is never that karmic.

Remember when the Doctor punched racists instead of crying like a baby? Pepperidge Farm remembers.

@@ChrissieBear 1. Comparing 15 with 12 is pointless because their personalities are day and night. Might as well compare between 6 and 8 while you're at it. 2. The Doctor never experienced it himself. This is his first time realizing what it's like to he unable to do what he does best because a bunch of racist idiots avoid him like the goddamn plague. Like I said, this is basically a fate worse than death for someone who's bread and butter is saving lives.

An interesting take on this episode. Does that mean that racism is inherent to our nature? That theme is fairly common in science fiction. The odd bit, I've seen it in real life in various villages etc. Folks in each village think they're the best and others are second rate. I would have preferred this episode look at mental illness, including the subtle ones caused by social media. A more Whovian episode would have the Dot becoming sentient and it realizes the miserable existence it has with the Bubble heads (my nickname for the users). It decides to kill them all off which would eventually kill it too since there wouldn't be anyone left to make power etc. for it to use. The fact that it destroyed the home world, regardless of race, implies this scenario. The Doctor would then have to solve this mental illness crisis, both on the Dot and the Bubbleheads, to save them both. Such an episode would develop the Doctor more, explore mental health issues and possibly more of the racism angle in a Whovian way.

What happened?

im intrigued

Those were dark days indeed

I am glad someone else saw the episode and immediately thought “haha this is literally brainrot culture” as well

Bro felt just like the Doctor too? Which I think was the intention

Was it just me or was watching the slug monsters move sideways behind the people on the cameras funny

@@SuperHeroStoriesUnlimitedyeah the way the people were caught while talking in the bubble was hilarious! I thought it was intentional though. Like, they knew it was funny when making it.

I felt it was worse than racism, given the criminal comment because Ruby was in the same room as The Doctor. When you watch it again all those comments are suddenly SO obvious! That said, during the first viewing, the “I thought you just looked the same” really stood out

@@chrisknight2631 yeah they way the bugs walked kinda fast sideways with their legs was so funny

​@@chrisknight2631 I wouldn't say it's worse than racism as that seems to water down the concept, it's just the harsh reality of racism in older days.

Possibly… he was still part of finetime and egotistical 😂

Yeah I always took it that she was so used to not feeling genuine attachment that she refused to reckon with the idea her mother is dead

I feel that after all the therapy 14 does on Earth with his “new found family”, The Doctor can now fully embrace all his emotions. One moment that sticks out to me, is when Clara is taking to 11 in TNoTD, after the meeting with Paternoster Gang and Professor River Song, and finds out about his grave and Trenzalore, he starts tearing up, but immediately tries to just shrug it off like it’s nothing and leaves the house to go be in the TARDIS. But The Doctor crying isn’t something new, all Doctors from 2005 onwards (except War & Fugitive) have all cried, with 10/11 crying multiple times, and 10 just breaking down at points. One thing is for sure, Ncuti is talented af performer.

I like that this doctor is more open with his emotions, he still has that personality trait where he tries to bottle things up but I like that he doesn’t shy away from showing his emotions

I think because he did it in every episode (almost every) It was hard to empathize because he was just perpetually sad and emotional.

Honestly I think they should of skipped the 'next time' moment for this one. I think it would be fine without that, just ending on that heavy moment. It honestly is a pretty stark moment to end on to let it sit.

@@DeprecatedSCmoffat probably would’ve done that, not to glaze though

I thought the doctor massively overreacted why is he so invested in these awful people. If they choose to sail off to their own inevitable deaths that's up to them we do have freedom of choice. Let them go he offered and they refused, for whatever reason it's still their choice however stupid.

I think he's never been a minority before so he's only ever seen racism second hand so he's completely baffled that he's not able to save people that any other incarnation coulda saved

@@andynelzz on virtually every other alien planet the doctor will be a minority 🙄

They didn't make it very far though

The Dr. is still essentially a superhero, they do have failures, but I get your point.

The only way it could be better is if the Doctor had a Time Lord Victorious moment and forced some of the Finetime colonists inside the TARDIS against their will.

I understand. I agree. But Chibnall is just not a writer equal to the task.

They did this in the witchfinders

@petra2578 yh I forgot about that episode icl

I also think they would have been bashed for talking about being a woman too much. There were sprinklings of it throughout her era.

I didnt get it. Thought she just thought it was an impossible idea that sounded too much like magic to be true.

Rosa dealt with real racism, but this is a pantomime parody of imagined or perceived racism, the woke politicized version of racism that's used as a political weapon.

That was the line that made me rethink all the other subtle jabs as initially I thought it was because they weren’t part of the local upper class

@@rozzgrey801 Yes, rosa de dealt with real racism, but the episode was soo on the noose thats almost sounded like a parody.

@@rozzgrey801this is subtle racism, which is more prevalent today. Rosa, while being too on the nose, was kinda doomed from the start in that regard because of the time period. The way racism is talked about in Dot and Bubble is more like it’s online, which makes sense. It’s not outright until the Doctor meets the finetimers in person

Maestro isn't an orphan? Their parent is just The Toymaker, who's imprisoned in a box bound in salt. This is like saying anyone with parents in jail is an orphan.

@@dominickeijzer5844 yeah that's what I was thinking when I read that, cause she says in the episode that the Toymaker is her father

@@dominickeijzer5844 she acts as the doctor killed the toymaker.

Maybe Ruby Sunday was the REAL Orphan 55 all along...🤔

@@dominickeijzer5844 It could be effectively the same for a child (growing up without a parent), and I think the Toymaker did abandon them at some point previously, but I'm not sure at what stage.

So black people are the only people in the whole universe to experience racism? Too on the nose for the allegory to be meaningful.

I would really love to have him discuss this with Martha at some point.

I'm sure at some point in time and space he has been to somewhere that discriminates against white people, black people aren't the only ones in the entire universe who face oppression. He has certainly faced it being a Time Lord. The gut punch is that these people refuse to be saved, I think the Doctor is above being so offended at a remark about his skin colour.

The Doctor, is used to be in a position of authority. His companions are generally suborantant to him. So while he may feel for racism, he hasn't in his memory, had witnessed his authority being taken away from him like that.

It's even more than that. For the first time ever the color of the Doctor's skin prevents the Doctor from being the Doctor. They refuse his help because of their racism. He wants to save them but they refuse and walk to their deaths and he can't do anything.

What does it mean to be blue blooded?

​​@@roguexxrenegade it's an expression for royalty and/or very very rich people who come from "old money" (where wealth is hereditary going back lots of generations). For example, there are some families in the USA who are "old money" because they immigrated there in the 1700s/1800s, coming from maybe a moderate background but were able to grow their wealth, because back then slavery was legal so they didn't have to pay the workers and could just rake in the profits. They became so rich, they were basically considered royalty but without a crown.

I thought their blood was more blue-green then just blue but that's a good catch- Also I thought the red was the glare of the bot's lighting.

@@carolinemcgovern4488 it was the light, but in film language, it could symbolise blood without showing anything, thus keeping the rating low enough for standard broadcast

Holy crap i didnt make that connection and it was right friggin there 😭

Same, as a black person I did not care.

Also depends on whether you are British or maybe Australian/NZ. Not everyone is American: there it really is true that we are becoming a nice shade of brown over the generations. My grandkids are technically bi-racial, it's very common now in Canada. Who can be racist when we're integrating at the marriage/grandkid level? But, that's Canada and the U.S., and probably Brazil and parts of South America; Britain could be different -- it looks mostly white to me -- especially the areas I know personally: Wales and the North.

​@@gameburn178 lots of interracial marriages in the UK no worries

Same but I like how subtle this context was though

I mean Daleks are supreme, so it sounds less farfetched.

I think that's an amazing theory! Like, I believe it. I also like the theory that the villain from Rosa came from Homeworld.

@@carolinemcgovern4488 Yep. It also shows how the Doctor dodged one by not letting the Finetimers into the Tardis: we've seen what a white supremacist with access to time travel might attempt.

Now that would be an interesting AU….. TO THE WRITING DESK! 🤪

Perhaps like South Park, you're so not-racist that you didn't notice skin colour at all.

@@Here_is_Waldo I would love to use that as an excuse but honestly I think it was a combination of white privilege and naive optimism.

@@alexfoxleigh9443 Don't beat up on yourself for having the intelligence to be self aware. You didn't ask for privilege. And you saw through it. Relax and be happy you're one of the good guys! One of the smart guys!😄

Because it's not racism. Really the fact we categorize isms as we do unfortunately leads to us... not really understanding this. This is plain and simple in-group/out-group homegenity effect. Where racism stems from. Races in humans literally aren't even a thing. It's just a history of people being unable to comprehend those with a different appearance from them and immediately viewing outsiders as threats which has been worsened by people taking advantage of this fact to maintain power. In this episode (dot and bubble) the focal character literally lives in a bubble. Racism isn't an accurate description this episode. It's just plain ignorance and echo chambers making the focal character constantly feel like they're right and ignore reality. Think about all the algorithms on social media which have just led to everyone adamantly thinking they're right 24/7. To crank it up a notch these are rich 20 somethings who spent their whole lives pampered and already view themselves as the cream of the crop. AND THEY'VE NEVER SEEN OR TALKED ANYONE WHO DOESN'T LOOK OR ACT OR COME FROM THE SAME BACKGROUND AS THEM. Elitist would be a better word for them, but really they're just ignorant and don't trust (and beyond that look down on) anyone that isn't and hasn't been in their echo chamber since they were born. Lindsey also didn't trust Ruby or want to talk to her on the basis that she's not in her friend group but she looked more like her so she was willing to give her chance. Lindsey also constantly fell back on what felt safe and familiar to her even when the reality showed that those things couldn't help her. In the beginning there's a sequence where she seriously considered walking forward into the monster because her dot told her to and wouldn't listen to ruby or the Doctor. She also fell back to her useless friend group. Even when she was told the dot was trying to kill her it took her forever to turn it off. She's not racist, she's someone who never faced reality and lived in a bubble (like in the episode title and how their bubble operates). I don't understand woke culture and I try to stay away from it, but I have to ask does it actually imply anything about actually understand progressive ideas and the root of the problem? Speaking as someone whose black and had to learn this. Racism isn't an actual thing people are one to one another. People just act with prejudice to each other and again races don't actually exist in humans (there's not enough genetic differentiation and if you follow them through history the definitions are highly volatile and abstract and constantly changing with the times and based on the region). Racism only exists as the systematic treatment of people based on the social construct of race. It's why it makes it interesting that the prejudice on blast can go unnoticed and why I'm truly so frustrated we've devolved the term "racism" to be a buzz word insult/joke (that's actually how I use it myself in conversation because it doesn't seem to hold any real meaning otherwise anymore). I don't say this to be insulting, but the fact is people don't actually understand what racism is and instead confound it with multiple abstract ideas that hide the root cause of it all. Then we're just left not confronting anything.

Same with me; it sailed past my head. It really shocked me how I was totally blind to the blatantly obvious. As soon as it was pointed out to me, I immediately recalled the numerous cues throughout the episode. Compare and contrast to the Chibnall era, when you were conked over the head with a sock-wrapped brick with the moral of the story.

I really wanted to like boom but I found it so long and hard to finish!

Cuz you're a good guy.

Nice to have these meaningful teaching episodes that gets everybody thinking, but NO....not all the time. Doctor Who is fun. Lets keep that element front and center.

@@pamelawelch5955 I sure didn't expect that ending.

Nor I.

Thats exactly what I thought. As I said in an earlier comment I thought it was about them being rich until I watched reviews and feel depressed over not getting it. To be fair, I've only encountered very blunt racists in real life so far, like a man commenting about a black stewardess asking him to open his luggage: "Comes here from Africa and thinks she can boss around."

I’ve seen a lot of comments like yours and I think it has something to do with viewer nationalities. A lot of the US viewers caught on the racism, but a lot of the UK viewers saw classism, instead. Just thought that was interesting

@@j.i.nthenobody54 I'm not from UK but Austria, but as I said above I've only encountered very blunt racists so far in my country.

@@MrSukram777 well, here in the States, some people are more subtle with it

I'm from the UK. And yeah, my initial take was "oh the episode is taking a swipe at rich people ignorantly doing whatever they feel like" - a classism commentary, with a racism twist at the end. It was a FULL DAY later when it occurred to me that everyone in the episode was white, don't get that in TV much these days, isn't it considered racist or something - that's when I realized the episode was all about racism really I feel like an idiot for not even realizing at the time. I worry what it suggests about me. I don't identify as racist, but maybe there's some conditioning I wasn't aware of before :/ It's good to have stories that challenge the audience! :)

They're in the homeworld, too - and they were there first - so that doesn't really work. I get the feeling the Dots just worked with existing lifeforms that are ubiquitous, and just made them bigger.

His end gets people talking and thinking. Win...win!

There's a lot of binary thinking going around about Ricky. Myself, I would read him as being "on the journey": He's been raised in the same racist society as the rest kf them, but his curiosity about history presumably means he's encountered enough other ways of thinking that he's starting to break that down - as we see in his immediate willingness to listen to the Doctor. If they'd met in person, Ricky might still not have felt *comfortable* around him, but he'd probably have recognised where that discomfort came from and not been an a-hole about it. A bit like I was around gay men, circa 30 years ago.

@@therealpbristow I think Ricky being on the way to deconstruction makes a lot of sense he's not 100% unproblematic yet (As no one is) but he's trying to break the racism down - and as you said he's not gonna be an a-hole.

Where shall I send the wreath 😆

First watch made me think it's a solid, above average mid-season episode. But the more I thought about it the more I liked it, and after the second watch I reckon it's one of RTD's best episodes outright. I think his handling of social issues has been very poor and condescending in this new era, leading to very lazy writing. But he absolutely nailed this one. Hopefully he'll understand that it's not the social commentary most people have a problem with, it's the bad writing. Dot and Bubble is how it should be done.

Let us honor that hill!!!!

The slugs aren't in the woods, they're in the city. Don't get me wrong, Lindy and her friends are pretty much guaranteed to fail immediately... But not because of the slugs.

Yeah, it's a good story that becomes great at the ending - but there are plenty of plot holes if you think about it too much Doctor Who used to be less careless in that way

Way too many plot holes. It was very confusing whether it was supposed to be Earth about 5 years in the future or whether it wasn't completely alien planet. It didn't look alien at all and why were they playing yellow dot bikini song which is from Earth a few years back made no sense

@@CyberSlammer2024 well the yellow polka dot bikini song means that it's from our future then right

@@tzarg yes but in that case it's very hard to relate to if it's in the future where people have settled on another Earth type planet. All a bit weird confusing and no context

Lol. "Masterclass" on being obvious from minute one.

I really didn't. I felt the 'off', but couldn't pinpoint it.

I think most didnt see racism but theyre probably not going to comment because its usually the people who see problems in everything who are perpetually online. Some people were thinking this was classist.

@@namename9998 100% Classist, almost private schoolers towards public folk. Game off major Ja'ime vibes.

Noticed it when Lindy said she thought it was another guy who contacted her earlier. Or rather, noticed that that was likely what they were going for. However, I'm pretty sure the "voodoo" and "contamination" lines were late additions to the script, because RTD or someone else figured out that without being more explicit about it, most people won't realize what they wanted them to realize. Because other than the "you all look the same" line (and even that one is arguable), there's nothing there that is inherently racist as opposed to other kinds of discrimination - or in most cases even just general distrust of someone outside your bubble. The system marking the Doctor as "unsolicited" could simply be because, well, he is? When did "unsolicited" suddenly start meaning "wrong skin color"? Lindy's disgusted reaction could (and, more realistically, would) simply be the simple reaction to getting some intrusive spammer harassing you. It's not hard to figure out why Ruby *isn't* marked "unsolicited" and is (somewhat) accepted by Lindy, when it's their second attempt to contact her: Ruby has a cover story; and the Doctor has things like the psychic paper to get past such authentication systems. It's not unreasonable to assume that they simply hacked their way past that system in one way or another. And yeah, all of the rest could just as well be classism - or general xenophobia - or whatever kind of discrimination you want. Seeing it as inherently racist just shows a different kind of bias - about how you, or people around you, are mostly discriminated. People not noticing that 20 people are white when they live in a country where, say, 97 out of 100 people are white - isn't bias. Expecting them to notice it... is.

​@@thejither Saying something is voodoo is the same as saying something is magic or witchcraft. Saying something is contaminated doesnt mean its about color. Germaphobes say stuff is contaminated without it having to do with color, religion or anything else. Looking the same isnt ist because dogs/cats/fish of the same breed all look the same to most people but no one gets upset when they say that. Unless someone has distinguishing features they will blend in with people who look the same and that goes for all colors. Werent the dots responsible for what people saw? If they were responsible for the unsolicited notice then wouldnt the dots be ist not the people?

In this episode, both Ruby and the Doctor recognise Susan Twist. ... There you go. =;o]

Yet here you are talking about it.

I'd like to make an addition to this, 73 Yards specifcally also feels less like a Doctor Who episode and more like a full on fable. A fantasy story with some horror elements telling a simple but important moral through a method that leaves you very... uneasy afterwards. Hansel and Gretel type vibes.

I will stop watching the show if this is right. Absolutely pathetic cynical meta writing.

@@vaporock Alright then.

[BLINKS] The Death Sheep from Hell? How did *he* get into this? =:oo

That's the thing. There were small hints, lines, and actions that said these groups were racists. Could easily skip it and I almost did until I watched someone reaction and realized quickly.

@@lionofdemise i only realized it afterwards, and only because of watching reviews. I thought their rejection was due to them being the upper class (which wouldve still been fitting to their society), but realizing it was being racist made me a bit depressed and self-doubting for not getting some hints like her first reaction or "you two are in the same room?". I genuinely didnt get they were being racist to him when rejecting him.

Don't be depressed. It was a terribly clumsy, kak-handed and unconvincing way to 'tackle racism'. The Dr Who 'Rosa Parks' episode dealt with racism in an intelligent and realistic way, but this is just a silly story that does nothing to question racist attitudes, it just parodies them.

was very noticeable by Lindy talks she said a lot of racists things but in a passive aggressive way

@@rozzgrey801 actually I thought some characters in Rosa to be far more of a parody (like the bus driver who immediately stops his holiday when they tell him about black people planning to attack his bus or sth)

I think the bubble is for everybody on the planet, or maybe just the rich, so I think Lindy’s lived with it all her life

I'd imagine it did exist outside of it, just on a much larger scale. Thing is though, we're never told exactly when they go there anyways. There's genuinely a chance they could of been there from birth, or hooked on social media from the age of a toddler. I mean the phrase Ipad Kids exists for a reason. Considering rich parents are totally the type to expect a tablet to be enough to babysit a two year old, its like that on a much bigger scale

I assumed based on the fact that we see a slug on the devastated home world and the fact that the mother says she is only a bubble away from Lindy, that they use the same dot and bubble on the home world too as the ai has clearly gone rouge there as well. This would jeanbthat for as longcas they have been able to walk they have always had the bubbles and probably learnt to walk using the arrows.

It's also such a shallow reason given to it that doesn't hold up. Like at all. The dot learned to hate them because they yap too much? For the commentary the episode is trying to make, the reasoning is just so shallow it hurts it. Also if that is the case it should prioritize someone like Lindsey over Ricky whose revealed he doesn't even spend that much time on his dot. I also find it hard to believe it'd kill the entire homeworld population based on that and leave the 20 something rich elists snobs spending the most time on dot alive the longest. Like why not kill based on screen time? If we're going with the ridiculous explaination of rogue AI, it'd have at least been consistent with the reason given for it.

More info please!

@@pamelawelch5955 it’s a different bubble

Also, i really dont see where the extra budget is. Bland empty sets?

me.

they look so cute

The good news is, it doesn't matter. =:o} Classic Who used to regularly mot tell us when and where we were, largely because the TARDIS team didn't know themselves. One thing that's been different in the revival is the TARDIS being more reliable and the instruments actually telling the Doctor where he is, which he then tells us. For some stories, you need that contextual info, but for this one, it doesn't really matter, because RTD's point is that this kind of baseless prejudice, in one form or another, never fully goes away and can/will always take root and flourish again.

@@therealpbristow I see, thank you for explaining. :) I grew up mostly with the TNG era of Star Trek with their ridiculous sensors.

That's basically what I thought, I read Lindy as xenofoob (the Doctor is not from their planet) and classist (Ricky is older, probably not one of the rich kids, but a paid entertainer, so a 'servant' and therefore expendable).

Nope. This is why I wasn’t a fan of the episode. I didn’t make a big deal about skin colour at all because I wouldn’t on a daily basis. Most people wouldn’t unless it’s a big racist idiot taking issue. I feel like this episode, as pointed out by Davies himself, is trying to imply that if you didn’t figure it out then you’re unconsciously bias. Personally, I don’t agree with that because skin colour is the last thing anyone that isn’t racist thinks about. This is where I start feeling like the season is a mixed bag in quality.

It's only the identity politics crowd that sees everything through the lens of race that saw it as obvious, technically it was left vague enough that you could argue you are right it was because he was a different species, though it was obvious what the intention was.

If it was racist then why did Ricky have to die? Why did his name have to change. This supports the classism idea more than racism.