I KNEW THIS WOULD BANG

On first watch possibly my favourite episode of this series.

On a planet there is the enclosed city if Finetime, a place for the rich and young to work two hours a day and party the rest. A Dot (phone/computer) and Bubble that surrounds your head, links you up to social media and tells you everything you need to know, where to walk, what to do, and even when you need the toilet. But there is also something sinster...

Another Doctorlite episode, although less apparent. Its more in the vein of Blink, where we se the Doctor and Ruby on screen and we follow the exploits of the main character Lindy Pepper Bean. Its quite a saccharine world, everything pastely, and bland, and the people we meet seem shallow. At first Lindy ignores the Doctor in much the same way we do with spam email, and cold callers. Its interesting how Lindy can't walk without being told where to go by the Dot. It seems obvious but it is one of those things that if you'e never actually done it then it isn't. I remember watching about people who have been blind all their life, and if they were given sight their back wouldn't be able to tell by looking, which was a cube and which was a ball. You do get to feel for Lindy her world has changed from this safe, secure place, to one filled with horrors.

The episode gripped the whole way through, there are monster killing the residents, but there is the mystery of why some seem ignored by them. One thing I tend to enjoy is when characters don't always get along and we do experience the reality of how humans are, we don't always agree or are reasonable, and we have flaws. Lindy isn't the innocent we believe her to be.

Its hard to review this episode without spoilers, towards the end Lindy sacrifices a 'celebrity' who helps her in order to save herself, it's unexpected, and its why I enjoyed this more. Humans are conflicted, as much as we think we are good or would do the right thing, we often don't. The whole attitude changes at the end, are you are left wondering whether it was worth the Doctor's and Rubys time and trouble. The Doctors reaction (and Ncuti acting) is terrific.

One of the best.

So a bit more spoilers,

We discover that the people of Finetime are racist, even saying that that don't want to be 'contaminated'. It comes somewhat out of the blue, there are some subtle clues along the way, but I never picked up on them. In all fairness its a limited cast.

As Lindy escapes the city she meets with other escapees and the Doctor and Ruby, but it does beg the question of why the Doctor and Ruby didn't pick up on any racism having spent time with the other colonists.

An issue for me is Russell T Davis' comments in unleashed, saying about when did you notice all the characters are white - I didn't. Am I being accused of racism? I live in a small village in the middle of the UK, the only black person I'd see in the village was my wife. But if all the characters were non white actors would I have noticed?

Give Ncuti an oscar NOW. Absolutely fantastic.

the stakes just didnt feel real at all, great foreshadowing though!

POWERFUL ENDING