Doctor Who Season 14 Episode 5

Slowly yet surely, it all seems to be improving. The components of this episode were all there, and honestly the most interesting bit of the episode were the last 10 minutes. It just all seemed to fall a little bit out of place, like puzzle pieces that you think should fit, but they won’t stick together. Everything was lined up to be a fantastic episode, and honestly, I’m really enjoying the season more as it goes on, everything seems to be improving as everyone finds their feet. It just fell a little bit short, but it doesn’t mean it was a bad episode.

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The Review

Image by BBC Studios Production

Dot and Bubble is the fifth episode of season 14, and it does mark once more a dramatic improvement from the premiere episodes (look, I’m sorry to keep going on about it, but I still haven’t forgiven the Space Babies episode and I’m not sure I ever will). Set on the planet Finetime, rather than being with our heroes of time and space, we are instead being accompanied by Lindy Pepper-Bean – a girl who is so addicted to the literal social media bubble around her, she’s forgotten how to walk without it. Also, spoiler alert, she’s not a nice character, and it’s unfortunate we’re stuck with her. The actor, Callie Cooke, does such a great job at playing an extremely unlikable character, that I was rooting for her death. Sorry Lindy, but I’m excited to see Callie pop up in more things. 

Guided by a virtual Ruby and The Doctor, before being saved by a real-life Ricky September, Lindy tries to make her way out of her homeworld, before she’s eaten alive by nameless creatures. Frightening in theory, there are scenes of people in their bubble stepping around their friends as they’re being eaten. It feels like Black Mirror meets Doctor Who, and on paper, it all seems to work. 

The problem with having such an alignment, is that with Black Mirror there always seems to be some form of a message. Given the similarities of this episode to the Black Mirror episode Nosedive, especially how it looked and felt (so many pastels), makes me think that maybe the intended message was ‘hey you’re probably a lot happier without the confines and pressures of social media, don’t become reliant on it’. In Nosedive, Bryce Dallas Howard’s character, Lacie, goes through a wild fall from grace in order to realise this. Lindy realises nothing. She saves herself at the expense of someone else, is terrible to the people who warned and rescued her, and leaves. Maybe she dies later, but you don’t know for sure. 

It certainly is a choice to leave the audience with Lindy. There are moments where you’re maybe meant to feel sorry for her, but I’m not sure that translated well, especially given the closing moments, which I think brings me to my constant gripe – the lack of The Doctor.

Once more, The Doctor is missing. Despite the show having his name in the title, it’s beginning to feel like it isn’t his. If he’s not missing, it feels he’s almost incapable of doing as The Doctor does – is this a good thing? That remains to be seen. The writers could explore any nuance of his character, so we can have any insight about who he is – the fact he’s essentially split off from another half of himself, is this stopping him from understanding himself? There is potentially an interesting story laying underneath his character, someone going through an identity crisis, or maybe someone facing prejudices he hasn’t experienced much before, which is somewhat explored in this episode during the last 10 minutes, but that doesn’t seem like enough. Right now though, it seems the writers are wanting to explore more than the titular character. 

Image by BBC Studios Production

I’m hoping, against hope, that the fact it seems he’s doing so little is tied into the fact we see one woman’s face in every episode. Is it all a simulation, or a dream? Probably not, but a girl can wish, can’t she? I did like how The Doctor and Ruby are beginning to take notice of her more and more, it’s starting to get me excited for the reveal. 

In the final moments of the episode, Lindy rejects The Doctor’s offer to take everyone as far away from their planet, somewhere safe, due to the colour of his skin. Even after this rejection, The Doctor pleads with them to see reason, shouting YOU WILL DIE. It isn’t the first time we’ve seen such arrogance from a character that they believe they know better than a Time-Lord, but it is the first time (that I can recall) that it’s because of an internal prejudice.

I think something that was particularly interesting about this episode were the subtle hints leading up to the rejection of The Doctor’s help. The instant block when The Doctor initially reached out. How Lindy spoke to our main characters was equally appalling but she seemed to have a lot more grace for Ruby. At one point she says ‘I just thought you all looked the same’. 

I found the last minutes of the episode to be its most powerful, especially in terms of acting from Ncuti – the scream of frustration from The Doctor, knowing that something so minor as the colour of his skin was going to stop people from accepting his help, from being able to save their lives, because that’s what he does. He does all he can to save lives, even if it isn’t a life the audience may think is worth saving. The Doctor watching them go, and having to accept their fate is such a small, but strong moment. The soundtrack goes hard in this moment, reminding us all why Murray Gold was brought back. 

Also, sidenote, I think it’s very interesting that on another distant planet, a Western religion is so prevalent in their lives, to the point where they would deny help from someone ‘other’. I’m not sure why religion has popped up twice in this series, but I’ll be interested to see if it goes anywhere.

So maybe, ultimately, the message had nothing to do with social media and people’s reliance on it, surrounding themselves with people who fit into their worldview. Maybe there wasn’t a commentary on rich influencers working for 2 hours a day, doing whatever they want for the rest, and still ending up on top. Maybe it wasn’t about AI, and the dangers we face of letting it run our lives so much that we end up forgetting to create, think or even move without it. 

Maybe the message is – some people are cruel, and will be cruel no matter how much you try to help them. 

Whatever the intended message of the episode was, I will say, I enjoyed it a lot more than previous episodes so far, and so I am taking that as a win. It would be good to see more of The Doctor in action, or for next week’s episode to feel like something is happening. Overall though, I think those last moments saved the episode for me, which isn’t great but hey – at least I’m actually looking forward to seeing next week’s episode to see if they can carry this momentum through. 

There is a lot to unpack with this episode, so let us know your thoughts! 

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Where to Watch Doctor Who Season 14?

Doctor Who season 14 can be watched live on BBC One or streamed on the BBC IPlayer for UK residents and Disney Plus for non UK residents, with new episodes releasing weekly.

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