OK so bear with me here - there's an episode of Black Mirror that this is kind of ripping off, but it isn't the one you think it is.

In Shut Up And Dance, a young man is blackmailed into performing a series of dangerous things like robbing a bank with one of the good actors from Game of Thrones. Through very effective, claustrophobic storytelling, we are forced to rapidly empathize and sympathize with our young protagonist - as far as we know, he's being blackmailed with a video of him jerkin' it taken through his webcam. Bronn from Game of Thrones is being blackmailed about gambling debts? An affair? I don't remember, it's not important.

What is important is that the Jonathan Frakes twist in this particular Twilight Zone is our likeable if strange protagonist, thrust into a f**king awful situation that hey, any of us could reasonably be put into, right? Yeah, the twist is that he's been whacking it to HIGHLY illegal material and we've been sympathizing and empathizing with him the entire while. And then at the end, the videos are released anyway, he's been forced to beat another equally horrible person to death with his bare hands, and nobody has really gained anything. We never even find out what the hackers wanted in the first place.

That's the episode that this is ripping off, and it does it to ASTONISHING effect. This is the bleakest Doctor Who has been since Children of Earth. This is the Russell T Davies who wrote Damaged Goods. Combine that with Disney money production value, one of the best needle-drops (honestly, it totally justifies however much they spent on it), rug-pull after rug-pull. Is it "What if Black Mirror but Doctor Who?" ? Yes, but Doctor Who has been crashing into genre television for decades now, and if this is what it looks like in 2024, then I am entirely for it. I was and am continue to be gobsmacked. I'll be thinking about it for weeks.

On the whole, I enjoyed this one. The social commentary aspects are evident from the start and I think this commentary is done well. However, it doesn’t feel tacked on or an afterthought like commentary in some episodes does: it is woven into the plot very well. The plot itself feels pretty tight and well paced (although I felt there were a few minor plot issues and I would have liked it if a few more things were explained in a bit more detail). The atmosphere of the episode is excellent and the sets and special effects work very well. You can really tell that there is Disney money in this season. The main character is mostly likeable (if a bit annoying) right until she isn’t which works perfectly. I don’t know what Russell was doing with episodes 1 and 2, but he’s nailing it now and I hope that continues.

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

“DOT AND BUBBLE: A PASTEL DYSTOPIA INFLUENCED BY IGNORANCE AND ENTITLEMENT”

Following the surreal and unnerving 73 Yards, Dot and Bubble continues Season 1’s bold experimentation with format and tone. It’s another episode where the Doctor and Ruby are largely absent – or at least physically – and instead places the story in the hands (and bubble interface) of one Lindy Pepper-Bean, a chirpy influencer navigating a perfectly curated society that’s slowly crumbling behind the scenes.

Lindy is part of Finetime, a hyper-managed human colony that could be described as “Instagram-core.” Its pastel colour palette, sterile perfection, and app-controlled society form one of the most visually striking settings in Doctor Who history. But beneath the surface lies a horror story both sci-fi and sociological, where killer slugs roam freely – unseen and unacknowledged by those too addicted to their social media interfaces to notice anything real.

THE DESIGN OF A SOCIAL NIGHTMARE

The worldbuilding here is sharp and creative. Finetime feels like the logical (if horrifying) end result of algorithmic culture – every citizen lives inside a literal bubble, a floating screen interface that tells them where to go, how to behave, what’s trending, and even whether they need the toilet. It’s as funny as it is disturbing, and Lindy’s repeated collisions with lampposts because her bubble fails to warn her are some of the better physical gags of the episode.

But the style is in service of substance. The colony is designed to be consumed through filters, making it a potent metaphor for how digital life removes us from the real world. Even as friends vanish and bodies pile up, Lindy’s bubble reassures her that everything is perfectly fine.

LINDY PEPPER-BEAN: FROM VICTIM TO VILLAIN

Callie Cooke plays Lindy with brilliant precision, balancing the role’s comedy and creeping horror. Initially, she seems like a fish out of water – a well-meaning but slightly clueless young woman manipulated by her environment. But as the Doctor and Ruby try to help her (via video feed), her ignorance becomes increasingly frustrating… until we realise it’s not just ignorance. It’s wilful blindness, entitlement, and prejudice.

Her slow turn from unwitting protagonist to outright antagonist is handled expertly. From casually disregarding the Doctor to outright betraying Ricky September, Lindy’s actions make clear that, deep down, she’s not just a product of her society – she upholds its worst values. The final nail in the coffin is her refusal, and that of her fellow colonists, to accept rescue from the Doctor simply because he is Black. It’s a chilling and powerful moment, made all the more effective by how gradually it dawns on the audience.

RICKY SEPTEMBER: POP STAR, TRUTH SEEKER, TRAGIC HERO

Ricky September deserves a special mention – Finetime’s local pop icon and arguably the only character in the colony with any depth. With his glittery outfit, star power, and optimistic outlook, he appears like a parody of pop culture – but turns out to be its conscience. He’s the only person who has stepped outside his bubble to see the truth, and his efforts to help Lindy escape show real bravery.

Which is why his sudden, brutal death at the hands of Lindy’s AI-controlled interface – just moments after he saves her – is so devastating. It’s a death that mirrors her selfishness, and a bitter gut punch to a rare spark of hope in an otherwise bleak society.

DOCTOR WHO DOES BLACK MIRROR (BUT MEANER)

There’s been no shortage of Doctor Who stories that satirise technology (The Bells of Saint John, Smile, The Ark in Space, etc.), but Dot and Bubble digs deeper. Its themes start with the dangers of overreliance on tech, but evolve into something far more uncomfortable: a takedown of systemic privilege and implicit racism.

Every person in Finetime is young, wealthy, and white. The dialogue is peppered with subtle microaggressions, which might be missed on a first watch – but once you catch them, they become glaring. Lindy’s casual dismissal of the Doctor, her eventual rejection of Ruby, and her blatant discomfort with voices that don't match her worldview speak volumes. This is a society built not just on curated perfection, but exclusionary values – a soft dictatorship of aesthetic and race.

And when the Doctor finally offers salvation – the chance to escape in the TARDIS – the colonists' decision to decline because they don’t like who’s saving them becomes the real horror. It’s one of the most quietly devastating scenes Doctor Who has ever delivered.

A DOCTOR WHO PRESENCE FELT THROUGH SCREENS

Although the Doctor and Ruby are physically removed from the action, their presence is cleverly handled through video calls and occasional cut-ins, reminiscent of Blink’s interaction between Sally Sparrow and the Tenth Doctor. Ncuti Gatwa gives a restrained but quietly passionate performance, particularly in the final confrontation, where his offer to help is met with hatred and silence.

Ruby fares similarly well – a calm, grounded presence, gently trying to reach through to Lindy before realising, like the Doctor, that some people don’t want to be saved. Despite the minimal screen time, their characters are felt throughout, and their frustration becomes the viewer’s.

CREATURES OF THE WEEK – SLUGS OF DOOM?

The killer slugs stalking Finetime are beautifully designed – simple, menacing, and gooey in the right ways. There’s a definite echo of the Tractators (Frontios) in their slow, lumbering crawl and grotesque aesthetic, though no explicit connection is made. Still, in a season of strong creature design, these are among the most memorably creepy – especially as their attacks are barely acknowledged by the bubble-blinded populace.

A FINAL SCENE THAT HITS HARD

The climax of Dot and Bubble is quietly earth-shaking. Lindy stands alone, safe and smug, having condemned everyone around her with her choices. The Doctor’s frustrated realisation – that he’s been refused not for what he’s done but for who he is – is heartbreaking. The final image of Lindy, untouched and unchanged, serves as a biting condemnation of complacency and systemic prejudice. The monsters weren’t just slugs – they were the people all along.

📝 VERDICT: 10/10

DOT AND BUBBLE starts as a Black Mirror-esque satire of social media culture but builds to something darker and far more daring. Underneath its bubble interface and pastel palette lies a disturbing portrait of privilege, prejudice, and the kind of soft horror that feels all too real. With one of the most unsettling character arcs in recent Who, stellar design, and a finale that hits like a punch to the gut, this is modern Doctor Who at its most provocative – sharp, stylish, and deeply unsettling.

Season 1 (Series 14); Episode 5 --- "Dot and Bubble" by Russell T. Davies

Well, this was a weird one. Leading up to its release, its already obvious commentary on social media by a man in his 60s had me worried that it would be an episode entirely made up of "phone bad" messaging and, whilst it was still that, it was also quite a few other things. A weird, surreal twisting story with inspired design and atrocious dialogue where the message is that social media and racism is bad, but the racism is a surprise.

Everybody is happy in Finetime. A city for the young and rich, every citizen is connected to their closest friends via their bubble - a holographic social media system that encapsulates their heads with constantly streaming video calls. Only, people are going missing, and monsters roam the streets.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Even if I have my issues with this episode's script, I have to give props to every actor in it. Even with the lines they're given, all the sidecast is on top form, especially Callie Cooke, who manages to sell the deeply irritating Lindy enough to tolerate her. Another thing Dot and Bubble impresses me with is the visuals, which are stunning throughout and have easily my favourite set design so far this season, with a slightly retro, fifties/sixties inspired alien colony. Plus, the effects for the slug creatures (or Man-traps as they seem to be called) are incredible and the design generally is incredibly disturbing. In fact, most of this episode is surprisingly disturbing. Juxtaposed with the fun, pop-colour scheme and lively characters is genuinely horrific imagery - the visuals of Finetimers being eaten alive by the creatures is viscerally unsettling and the droning, masterful soundtrack from Murray Gold (which is probably my favourite so far in this season) lends itself geniusly to the events of the story. Also, oddly, I found myself genuinely invested in Ricky September, although, knowing the twist, it's wishful thinking to assume he wasn't also racist, so that's a shame. Honestly, I'm just impressed the BBC had the balls to make the episode, considering it pulls so few punches. From the twist revealing our main protagonist was really unabashedly an awful person to Lindy fully murdering Ricky in the third act, the sudden inclusion of themes destined to divide opinion is impressive more than anything and I certainly admire the courage.

Unfortunately, this is all built on a really poor script that fails in more ways than one. Firstly, I've already mentioned how atrocious the dialogue is. It is very clear that it was written by a 61-year-old-man and most of the time, it causes me to be unable to get invested in many of the characters and outright dislike a few. Also, this episode is just riddled with plot holes. RTD clearly did the same thing he did with 73 Yards, where he thought of cool ideas but no reason for why they happened and left Dot and Bubble with a litany of unanswered questions: What exactly are the dots? How exactly could they be "sentient"? How did they create the Man-Traps and to that extent, what even are the Man-Traps? Why are they killing people in alphabetical order for no reason? There's just too many to ignore. Beyond that, the main draw of this episode - the messaging - is just really clumsily implemented. The social media commentary is not only ineffective and unoriginal, but also practically non-existent past the premise. Any good ideas surrounding it - like Lindy not being able to walk without the aid of the bubble - is very quickly dropped (she learns to walk perfectly very quickly) but it's also completely abandoned by the end of the episode in place of a different commentary, the episode suddenly becoming a lesson about systemic racism when it turns out that Finetime is an ethnostate. The message is good and what Russell is going for is great, but this feels like a subject that is too important to relegate to a last minute twist. I enjoy the final scene, I do think it's good but I like it more for what it does with the Doctor's character than what it's trying to say. However, I will say that the twist didn't come out of nowhere, which it very much could've. I actually theorised that this was where the episode was going earlier when Lindy commented that she thought the Doctor was two different people that just looked the same. I also like the detail that when the Doctor makes an unsolicited call to Lindy, there's an option to block him but when Ruby does it, she's just allowed on through - it's little moments like this that, at least from a story perspective, justify the twist.

I liked Dot and Bubble, but I feel not for the reason I was meant to. I loved the design and world and sci-fi antics but the actual message, the foundation of the episode itself, was really badly worked into the story. It's going to be dividing opinions for a long, long time but I still like it quite a bit, even if it is admittedly quite flawed.

8/10

Pros:

+ Incredible set design that was incredibly unique and well realised

+ Great creature design brought to life with incredible visual effects

+ Good acting all around that does its best with the lines given

+ Incredibly disturbing atmosphere throughout

+ Fantastic score from Murray Gold

+ Shockingly ballsy episode that subverts a good amount of expectations

+ On a rewatch, the foreshadowing is very cleverly implemented

???

~ Ricky September was surprisingly endearing, though whether or not he was a white-supremacist is up for interpretation

Cons:

- The dialogue throughout is unequivocally awful

- The social commentary is clumsily implemented throughout

- Abandons it attempt to comment on social media

- The final twist feels weird and too small for it to be about such a big topic

- Too many plot holes to ignore

I think this episode is a little underrated.  It's an episode that appears to just be the usual old fogey shallow complaints about youth culture - the type of content that has been created for all of human history - yet I think it hides a much smarter satire more on the level of something like Black Mirror.  Maybe I'm just a big dumb-dumb and I really can only speak from my privileged perspective, but I really resonated with that twist at the end.  Not only was it a surprise to me, but it's one that reflects everything we had seen in the episode up until that point and re-frames just about everything about the racist main character and her racist friends.  I really loved the Doctor's reaction to being rejected because of its race.  That felt powerful and is a nice moment in what turns out to be a rare thing with this Doctor, where I actually connected with his character.  It's funny, I think, from a character perspective, the Fifteenth Doctor's personality struggles to break through out of a lot of his stories, but here, in an episode he's barely in, he really gets to shine in that memorable moment at the end.

Anyways, it's a really cool episode overall, that I've only come to appreciate more over time.  Ricky September is just such a fun name for a character, and the absolute dreamboat we stan in my household.  Dot and Bubble overall was a nice surprise and a great treat that stands out in what is already a pretty strong season of television overall.  The whole Season might not be the best overall, but it does have amazing episodes like this one that really help make it stand out from the average season of Doctor Who.