I seem to be in the minority opinion yet again, but I really didn't like this episode. I have yet to see "Teens always on their phones" commentary done well, both from a commentary standpoint (actually having a point) and a story standpoint (actually having a plot. My god does it get boring.)

It felt like such a nothing story. Whereas most Who stories with little plot at least have fun characters and interesting themes to carry them, this had an unlikable protagonist (and not even in a "love to hate them" way) and barely any of the Doctor and Ruby. Even the tone was inconsistent, and I've seen camp horror done incredibly well, so this is a failure of the writer/director rather than the genre.

This is the third episode in a row to be Doctor/Companion Light, in a short first season for both of them, and I'm really starting to feel like I don't even know who these people are. Other than the final scene, all their moments were shot in a seperate room which did their acting a great disservice.

Then there are all the things that don't make sense. Where 73 Yards had unanswered questions, it at least made up for it with pure vibes. This didn't have any of that. Why did Lindy struggle to walk without the arrow? And then, only a few minutes later she was running and going down stairs with no issue. If the dots could kill everyone, why make the slugs? Why do it alphabetically?

I suspended my disbelief well enough while watching to appreciate the murder of Ricky September. That was a fantastically written and shot scene. You can absolutely believe that Lindy would push him under the bus to save her own skin, but it still comes as a shock. The angle of the shot makes the red light from the dot look like blood splattering the camera lense, an extremely visceral bit of cinematography. This is the only thing saving this episode from 0.5 stars for me.

Then there's the racism. I can't say I noticed all the side actors being white, but when looking over the past 60 years of this show, I don't think I can be blamed for that. This show, and RTD specifically, has had a terrible track record with black characters - in this season alone we've had two instances of the Mammy trope. Seeing that there were no Black writers involved with this episode doesn't help. This isn't a story about racism, and it feels like something tacked on last minute for extra "woke points". It muddles the other commentaries and the other commentaries muddle it. I hope we'll eventually get a proper story about racism written by a person of colour where it gets to take centre stage.

Gatwa was fantastic in the final scene, but it was ruined for me by him trying so hard to save them. Yes, the Doctor has compassion and that's very important, and we see him trying to save other villains in previous episodes, but the same problem people have with throwing the Master to the Nazis in Spyfall II arises here: this is real world racism, and Black people should not have to fight to "save" white people. The Doctor choosing the word "allow" really gets to me.

The one thing I can commend is the visibly queer people taking part in this white supremacy - being part of a minority does not make you immune to pushing down a different one, and that's a good message to have. Unfortunately, I find it difficult to believe this was done on purpose.

All of this together makes for a thoroughly unenjoyable episode for me. The more I think about it the less I like it.