#Dot and Bubble spoilers

[itsclydebitches]

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.

[donutdrawsthings]

we were all thinking it

[bigbad-tardis]

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.

[seph-on-an-irrational-planet]

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

[toweringclam]

Me after watching the latest Doctor Who episode

[6-and-7]

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.)

[diamond-rings-and-gutter-bones]

[whovianbuffalo]

Dot and Bubble

[cookiepoweredtardis2]

In this house, we stan the slugs who eat racists.

[whatsfourteenupto]

Can’t stop chewing on the question “What other eps would have ended the same way if the Doctor had been black then?”

[cannibalgender]

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

[itsclydebitches]

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.

[greencatalystcomet]

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

[wasteofdust]

Ricky September was most definitely also a racist.

[emtheanxiousdragon]

Guys should I like… feel bad that I didn’t notice everyone in Finetime was white until the racism twist? Like I hated Lindy’s attitude but thought she was acting that way to both Ruby and the Doctor, I seriously didn’t pick up on it.

I feel like that says something really bad, but I don’t know what????? If I wanted her to stop and trust the Doctor but didn’t realize the issue was caused by him being black, am I part of the problem??????

[marlinspirkhall]

The society in Dot and Bubble as a mirror to Gallifrey. They could have saved themselves from destruction, but they were too invested in saving a 'utopian' society built on colonisation. As a mirror of The Doctor's incredibly one-sided relationship with the society which literally took everything from them and then remade him in their image. They spent 12 incarnations as a white man, learned hard truths about themselves the first time they were a woman and now he's experiencing racism (again) but they have no memory of the previous times. I need to go to sleep.but my god, what a way to take the baton that was handed to you and run with it