Dr. Who Reaction 14x5 - Dot and Bubble
Added 2025-07-19 14:00:02 +0000 UTC
Comments
"Stand up. Turn left. Forward. Forward. Forward. Turn left. ...", Dot, "Dot and Bubble" This is a brilliant episode - with a great twist. "Jiminy, you're stupid. We come here from the Homeworld. No stinky old folk, just people ages 17 to 27. I mean, no, not just anyone. If you can afford it, obviously.", Lindy Pepper-Bean, "Dot and Bubble" I didn't pick up on the racism early on my first watch - because I was working on another theory during the episode. From the "17 to 27" line I thought the reason Lindy didn't want to interact with the Doctor because he was too old - and therefore outside her social group. In the same way, she did allow Ruby to talk because she was in the right age range - and actually Ruby did get herself into her conversaion with Lindy by lying and saying she was doing a system check. I got it wrong - until the final scenes made it clear. "His surname is Coombes. He was born Richard Coombes. Cos I know everything about him. He changed his name to Ricky September when he reached 50,000 followers, but check your files. He was born Coombes. 'C' comes before 'P'.", Lindy Pepper-Bean, "Dot and Bubble" Callie Cooke did a really good job of presenting a character who was shallow, but that you hoped the crisis might get her to learn how to cope - until finally demonstrating the real monster that she was. As mentioned before, humans are the real monsters, aren't they? "Dot and Bubble. Hiding place, please.", Lindy Pepper-Bean, "Dot and Bubble" I have read that RTD had the idea behind this story as a Matt Doctor + Amy story. Of course that wouldn't have included the underlying racism against the Doctor. But a story with people living in a bubble and slug-like Mantrap creatures devouring the unobservant is a good story anyway. However, it was decided that it would have been impossible to make the episode at that time. But the story idea came back at the right time for a Doctor-lite-ish story. BTW: the Mantraps remind me of some Classic Who monsters - but that's not too surprising. They do look a bit like a Earth woodlouse or tardigrade (and if you want something that really looks alien - check out a tardigrade), so we have seen similar designs before. "Where's Ricky? Is he with you?", "He went back. He said he had other people to save. I couldn't stop him. He was so brave.", Ruby and Lindy Pepper-Bean, "Dot and Bubble" Wow, what a monster! I suppose this is another story where the "wrong" person survives - remember "Voyage of the Damned"? - although none of the surviving passengers of the "Titanic" turned out actually to be an antagonist. "I don't care what you think. And you can say whatever you want. You can think absolutely anything. I will do anything if you just allow me to save your lives.", The Doctor, "Dot and Bubble" Ncuti is acting his socks off here! "We don't even see them drown or being eaten by a really big fish.", Nicole, Reaction to "Dot and Bubble" A not uncommon reaction. A line from sesskasays' reaction to "Dot and Bubble" springs to my mind: "You know, kind of, by the end of this I was slightly 'Team Slug'", sesskasays, Reaction to "Dot and Bubble"
Andrew Vignaux
2025-07-22 02:41:39 +0000 UTCApologies. I was a bit over-judgemental in my post.
Stephen Foreman
2025-07-20 11:03:04 +0000 UTCThis is a brilliant episode and I'm ashamed to say I didn't pick up on the racism stuff until I was seeing reviews online afterwards. When you look at it with hindsight it's more obvious, for example if you look at any of the photos in Pepper-bean's bubble there are no non white people there. It is a very powerful episode. I gave it 4/5 although I think with time that should really now be 5/5.
Jade Ellis
2025-07-19 23:22:53 +0000 UTC
