#Dot and Bubble spoilers
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
itsclydebitches · 6 months ago
Text
Love it when the kinda half-formed observations you make about an episode finally come to the forefront.
Watching the start of "Dot and Bubble": Hmm, everyone in this episode is very... white.
Halfway through: The Doctor certainly continues to stand out, especially in that bright red sweater amongst all the pastels
Lindy freaking out about the Doctor and Ruby being in the same room together: I suppose that could be due to some cultural taboo about interacting in-person when everyone is supposed to communicate via bubble, but that doesn't track with what we've seen of her work day...
The "twist" that the chronically online, all white, super rich, entitled to the point of satire, willing to sacrifice others without hesitation, oh so eager to colonize people living in a literal bubble (TWO bubbles) are *gasp!* actually, devastatingly racist...
Yeah, that's not a twist. That's all deliberately interconnected. The episode didn't suddenly move from an argument about social media use to an argument about racism; the two historically go hand-in-hand.
6K notes · View notes
donutdrawsthings · 6 months ago
Text
Tumblr media
we were all thinking it
4K notes · View notes
i-like-media · 6 months ago
Text
I was wondering when they were going to play with the fact the Doctor is black now. 13 being faced with how people think of women was one of my favourite things in her era, so I was curious how they were going to treat his skin colour this season, if at all.
And honestly, Dot And Bubble exceeded all my expectations on the matter!
Tumblr media
What a lot of episodes about racism and bigotry do is coddle the viewer. They make clear early on "this is an episode about RACISM and why it's WRONG!" As if you've never heard of the concept before and don't know it's bad. The episode will often portray racism in an extreme sense and show the viewer the main characters are above that.
What Dot And Bubble did, for the entire episode, was letting the viewer figure it out on their own. There was no coddling, only racism as it silently existed. A perfectly pastel and white community with not a single person of colour and the only visible outlier being a goth white kid. And in this world, the first thing the character we follow did, was to block a black guy with a face of disgust.
The title screen rolls and you're left to rationalise it. Surely it was because he was not in her contact list/saying all kinds of mind blowing stuff... Right? Except when Ruby enters her feed and talks about it, she actually replies back... With an eye roll, but she replies... and keeps talking... and listening.
The episode continues, still not a single POC besides the Doctor. They reveal this is an exclusive place for rich people, and eventually the character in question even admits she thought the Doctor was a different person because "I thought you looked the same".
What this episode also does well, is portraying a character we wish to see change and find a better life behind that change. We see Lindy struggle to navigate the world without her bubble, calling herself stupid, and we genuinely hope she DOES learn to be better, even as you slowly pick up on what's been going on sofar. You are left to hope she'll thank him and realise the error of her ways, and maybe find a new drive to think for herself.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
And then she doesn't.
She stays in her bubble, doubling down on how she feels about the Doctor, how they're excited to be like their settler ancestors, and finally CLEARLY revealing to the viewers what's been off this whole time... and the scene asks: did YOU notice the signs? Did you see what went wrong along the way, or did you only notice just now when it's explicitly shown to you? And why do you think that is?
It challenges the perspective of the viewer and tells you to reflect on why you didn't see it coming, and that is so so powerful.
The Doctor's reaction to this scene..... 👌👌👌👌
His mouth is ajar, stunned beyond belief that after all he's done and all he can offer, the offer to literally save their lives, he is reduced to someone who's nothing more than the hue of his skin. He yells at them, telling them he doesn't care what they think of him because he's still the same doctor he's always been, and to still get rejected with a dirty look... Which hits extra hard when you remember how much the Doctor loves being himself. He LOVES being the Doctor again! And he walks with such a pep in his step, celebrating his existence and sharing it with all he meets... and then he tries to save some rich white kids from certain death.
Tumblr media
His performance in that moment was literally phenomenal. It's a narrative that's so powerful and so creative in its execution, my jaw was still on the floor throughout the credits.
This episode is definitely up there as one of my favourites sofar
2K notes · View notes
bigbad-tardis · 6 months ago
Text
I don’t normally do meta analysis on tumblr of Doctor Who episodes but I’ve seen people so far reducing Dot and Bubble as a critique of Gen Z and the obsession with social media and “no one wants to work these days!” When I took away a different interpretation of the episode.
Dot and Bubble is about a group of rich white settlers. They’re so rich that to them two hours of work is too much and by their own admission they spend all their time partying otherwise. But I think it’s that scene at the end that really cemented my interpretations of the episode. The other member of the survivors is like “we can live like our ancestors and tame the wilderness.”
They’re trying to capture the magic of the good old days when they aren’t equipped to handle it, but not because of social media, but because they’re so out of touch with reality due to their rich backgrounds! *Lindy gets Ricky September killed and then tells people a lie in order to save her own skin, but also ends up with an ownership over his memory. She tells everyone that she couldn’t stop Ricky from going back to save more people but her tone reminds me a lot of the people on rich reality shows. “He was so brave.”
Idk where else I’m going with this but just something I noticed and thought was interesting about the episode.
*Edit addition: the reason I brought that up was because it’s the kind of ownership over something that isn’t theirs that is only really found by rich people. See Kim Kardashian wearing Marilyn Monroe’s dress.
1K notes · View notes
Text
you’re not supposed to like Ricky guys just because he smiles and is nice and attractive doesn’t mean he isn’t as bad as the rest of them
Lindy is easy to hate on purpose. Ricky is the level 2 media literacy challenge
1K notes · View notes
toweringclam · 6 months ago
Text
Me after watching the latest Doctor Who episode
Tumblr media
561 notes · View notes
6-and-7 · 6 months ago
Text
Is anyone else worried about Ricky September as a Doctor analogue? Like, he fulfils the Doctor's narrative role when the Doctor can't be there. He knows about the service hatch to safety, check. He offers a guiding hand to Lindy, check. He's clever, he reads, he understands the history of the colony, check.
His homeworld is destroyed. Check.
He knows and hides a terrible truth about his companion's mother. Check?
His companion betrays him.
(To be 100% clear! Ruby is very very very different from Lindy and if she were to do the same thing that would feel wildly ooc! But in general, this feels like it might be RTD laying the groundwork for a massive betrayal arc.)
545 notes · View notes
Text
Tumblr media
571 notes · View notes
whovianbuffalo · 6 months ago
Text
Tumblr media
Dot and Bubble
460 notes · View notes
cookiepoweredtardis2 · 6 months ago
Text
In this house, we stan the slugs who eat racists.
Tumblr media
443 notes · View notes
whatsfourteenupto · 6 months ago
Text
Can’t stop chewing on the question “What other eps would have ended the same way if the Doctor had been black then?”
330 notes · View notes
itsclydebitches · 6 months ago
Text
Still thinking about "Dot and Bubble."
Specifically, I'm thinking about how the racists of FineTime aren't just written to be cruel and entitled, but downright childish too. Lindy - in a move that dovetails nicely into the episode's commentary on social media - has the attention span of a toddler, going on and on about how boring work is even though, from what we're shown, she doesn't have to do anything other than sit there and socialize, which is presumably what she'd be doing if she didn't have to work, right? But since this is something she has to do per orders of the gross old people, she complains. "You're no fun!" she yells at Gothic Paul, the only one in her group taking a mature stance on this issue (and, notably, the only one with a very small number of subscribers).
Lindy lacks the maturity and critical thinking skills we would expect from someone her age. Again, this is definitely a layer of the social media side of the episode's thesis, but she nevertheless demonstrates a kind of emotional dysregulation that's usually only seen in younger, developing children. Lindy does not think for herself and cannot adapt to changes in routine/the way things are "supposed" to be. When told a fact - the police are unavailable - Lindy repeats, "but I really need the police" over and over as if her need is going to magic up a change in reality. She parrots rules and rejects them in equal measure, driven solely by her current desires: "We don't do that [lower the bubble]."/"I can do whatever I want!" She moves from disgusted to infatuated to angry in the blink of an eye, with her anger characterized by childish outbursts and language: "Now shut up I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!" When faced with something life-threatening, Lindy's response is to a) distract herself (by watching Ricky) and b) find a hiding place. Even taking her terror into account, she responds to these situations like someone far younger would. If I cover my eyes the bad thing disappears. If I hide under the bed, I'm safe.
And of course, Lindy's body is monitored in the way you would a child's. She's constantly watched by others, both her peers and, presumably, by the Homeworld. She's told when she needs to use the restroom which for me was VERY evocative of a parent speaking to their potty training child, trying to get them to articulate when they need to go by informing them of when it's most likely. Hell, Lindy literally can't walk without the assistance of this AI parent.
Yes, there are plenty of moments that evoke the very stereotypical, entitled teenager - talk of "partying," bragging about clothes, being obsessed with the guy online - but even more, I think, evoke the child. When Lindy plays the recording of "Mummy," smiling shyly at the praise before throwing out the kind of insults you'd expect to hear on an elementary school playground - "You're stupid" - she reads like she's a kid. Which is a hell of a commentary on her racism. The episode doesn't say that Lindy is literally a child (she's not, she even snaps as much). The episode also doesn't try to claim that being childlike equals harmless (quite the opposite). But equating racism with a childish, dangerously inept, can't-even-walk-or-use-the-bathroom-by-herself white woman... damn if that's not a statement.
481 notes · View notes
cannibalgenders · 6 months ago
Text
I think Dot and Bubble might be one of my all time favorite episodes and since I’ve seen a lot of people being like “but HOW did the slugs get there/nothing was explained” I decided to share my interpretation:
The slugs were always there. I think, given the themes of the episode, the slugs are the indigenous inhabitants of that planet and the FineTime bubble was built around them. The FineTimers never noticed because they simply assumed they were the only thing of note on the planet, and it never became a problem because the slugs aren’t actually predators and the Dots usually navigate to avoid them.
Almost everything in nature is a carnivore if the opportunity presents itself. The slugs didn’t set out to eat anyone really, but with their habitat affected drastically, and the AI literally WALKING PEOPLE RIGHT INTO THEIR MOUTHS, they took the chance they were given.
Hopefully, of course, this means there are plenty more slugs on the outside waiting for Lindy Pepper Bean
265 notes · View notes
greencatalystcomet · 6 months ago
Text
there are just so many little things about dot and bubble that stuck out. SPECIFICALLY ricky september pointing out how hard people used to work, and lindy immediately going "i work hard, too :-(" but also. lindy saying how sustainable her clothes where, and then her friend going "im going to buy a hundred" (the most sustainable thing you can do it not buy more clothes). even in saying her clothes are sustainable, lindy still makes it about "not wasting fine time's resources". having everybody in pastels to make it more obvious how much the doctor's dark skin stood out. lindy immediately blocking the doctor, but even tho she made it clear she didnt like ruby, she was still willing to talk to her and even when she wanted ruby to go away, she swiped her away and didnt block her. really especially the way they were all SO nice to eachother, and SO rude to the doctor in comparison. and they never said, specifically, "we hate you because youre black" but they didnt need to say that to be racist
371 notes · View notes
wasteofdust · 6 months ago
Text
Ricky September was most definitely also a racist.
367 notes · View notes
darthpastry · 6 months ago
Text
Ricky September would’ve gone with the Doctor-
Tumblr media
That is the most privileged dude in their little town who couldn’t even bother to show the least bit of concern for the other people THERE until one of them was right in front of his face. He could’ve used his influence to warn other people earlier. Not to mention how he brushed off the Doctor, even is he was more polite he was still a privileged racist nepo baby
127 notes · View notes