#RUBY AND BUBBLE

[zanderbobs]

Can't believe we got the opposite of "just this once, everybody lives" in the form of "just this once everybody dies because they're fucking racists"

[paintdoktahwho]

spacism?

[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.

[scottishmushroom]

Every Doctor Who fan after watching Dot and Bubble:

[rosemarysdragon]

i know that some people are going to look at ruby and the doctor crying at the end of the episode and think that that was the show having them mourn over these teenagers going off to die, but i truly believe that those tears were from anger— ruby’s from the frustration of seeing your best friend be treated with such disrespect and disgust, and the doctor’s from the sheer indignation of it all, being so close to helping people, saving them, only to see that those people would rather stay in their own prejudices. and it seems there’s nothing you can do to change it. the rage and grief that comes with that

[doctor-who-dvd]

"Hold on, I've seen her before"

"Yeah she's like- she's the face of the ambulance on Kastarion 3."

"No no no, I've seen her somewhere else"

GUYS THEY'RE FIGURING IT OUT THEY'RE BECOMING AWARE OF HER

[stevenrogered]

I don’t care what you think. Okay? You can say whatever you want. You can think…absolutely anything. I will do anything…if you just allow me to save your lives. 

[gallifreyanhotfive]

Reminder to the Doctor and Ruby that Ricky September has TWO hands!!!!

[mel-is-a-melon]

the fact that the both of them are heartbroken over not being able to save these bitchy racist rich kids - they’re better people than me bc I would’ve waved them goodbye from the door of the TARDIS with one finger

[i-like-media]

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!

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.

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.

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

[clarissasbakery]

wow book!!! it’s crazy how many girlfriends you fumbled!!!

[davidtennan-t]

Before watching Dot and Bubble: ew those slugs are not it

After watching Dot and Bubble: my queens, my slimy allies, my heroes, my ride or dies, my good time boys

[thecoolguy24601]

Watching Dot and Bubble like

[fallenrocket]

I can't stop thinking about the Doctor's reaction at the end of "Dot and Bubble." That penny drop moment, the stunned laughter followed by the scream of futile anguish followed by the silent tears. Fantastically played by Ncuti Gatwa, and for me, it's a reaction that absolutely makes sense for this situation and this Doctor.

First of all, of course the Doctor wants to save them and gets desperate when they won't let him. Of course he does--that's just who the Doctor is. We've seen them save vile, self-serving humans before, we've seen them offer Sycorax and Rachnoss and Daleks a last chance. No matter how these people have treated him or what they think of him, he still wants to be able to save them.

I keep thinking about how his laughter gives way to a scream. That's very fitting for his Doctor in particular. For all of Fourteen's "rehab," it's clear that Fifteen still has his issues, and I've seen them in the moments where he shouldn't be smiling. The way he briskly tells Ruby that Gallifrey is gone, the way he seems to shrug off not knowing whether Susan was killed with the rest of the Time Lords. It makes a lot of sense to me that he would laugh before he would scream.

Then too, there's the laughter being in part due to his surprise. The Doctor knows they've been Black before, because Thirteen met the Fugitive Doctor and saw the hints of their pre-One past in the Matrix, but he doesn't have those actual memories of the experience of being Black. He's not used to walking around in this skin, with this face. I'm sure he noticed how rude and distrustful Lindy was to him, but he didn't catch why. Not until the end. And it's so dumb and hateful and pointless and absurd, and she's going to die because of it, so in that very first moment, what can he do but laugh?

Finally, I've also been thinking about Ruby crying for him, wanting to comfort the Doctor but knowing she can't make it better. Millie Gibson does a beautiful job as well, capturing Ruby's reaction to a tee without drawing focus from Ncuti's powerhouse performance.

[shot-in-the-sky]

Unproblematic Besties

[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.