I was at first focused on the vapidity of Lindy’s face. She was so very superficial and incapable that the racism just didn’t stick…until the end. I thought she was just dumb as a box of hair.
Yep. I missed it in the first go 'round. But I did have a moment not quite halfway thru when I thought, "Where are all the Black Finetime residents?" EVEN THEN, I didn't fully grasp the scope, though I knew there was something going on. I still thought it was mostly about wealth disparity and maybe RTD was making a comment about how race is tied to that...sigh.
As for the time travel aspect, I remember a Star Talk ep where they were dealing with time travel. I can't remember who the guest was, but he asked Chuck Nice when he'd like to travel to. Chuck said, "I'm a Black man in America. I'm not going anywhere before 1985. If there aren't parachute pants, I'm not going." Makes sense to me.
Ncuti Gatwa is fucking brilliant as an actor and as the Doctor. I just finished "5.73 Yards" and while a good ep it was missing Gatwa. "Boom" was so good, and pretty much featured Gatwa's full acting range and powerful screen presence, so maybe he needed a break for "5.73"?
Anyway, "Dot and Bubble" is queued up though it's received mixed reviews. It seems the "mix" is folks uncomfortable with their tired anti-social media message being deftly subverted into a harsh dunk into racist and white privilege.
Thank you for this review. I'm looking forward now to the episode. Sometimes I skip "everybody dies in the end" television episodes, but thanks to you, I know this one is done with purpose and power.
I take the fact that this still went over my head until I read your review and one from Gizmodo as evidence that I've just got some more work to do. Life is a journey of learning.
Brilliant episode and I especially appreciate your analysis because at the end I was asking myself 'why DIDN'T I see this? Everyone was white.' (Also, am I the only person who was kind of hoping their boat would emerge from the tunnel and...oh darn, there's a waterfall! No? Just me?)
I did recognize the racism pretty quickly, but I spent 15 years in EEO and heard all the weird excuses for why people were complete jackwagons to those who didn't look like them. It was chilling. I don't know about anyone else, but I immediately assumed every one of those helpless, useless children was going to die pretty quickly. After all, where did those people-eating bugs come from?
I also thought that the screen shot of the home world being destroyed was a fabrication of the dot, because if not everyone on the home planet is in a constant bubble, the sluglike people-eaters would have been noticed a lot sooner. The dot wanted to isolate these particular idiots and the dot allowed in the slugs that would eat them.
I am an old white guy and I am embarrassed to admit that I was one of the many clueless people who didn’t recognize the racism right off the bat.
Like most, I thought it was a commentary on our ubiquitous phones. RTD brilliantly switched it up and gave us this fantastic tale.
I was also annoyed by the treatment of Martha throughout the 3rd season. She was such a good character that the writers just didn’t understand and they continually wrote this smart and capable doctor as if she were a lovesick school girl with a crush. Very disappointing.
BTW SER, the Robert’s Court declared racism over in 2014 so there is no more racism. (I am adding the obligatory /s)
I haven’t watched Dr. Who since David Tennant was the doctor. This episode interests me greatly and even though I now know the twists I’ll be looking for all the points you discussed. I’ll have to be honest with myself to see if I would have missed them as well. And some of us old white boomer women love the Twilight Zone and Black Mirror.
Lindy seemed like an unambiguous clone of MTG from the first scene, and I just couldn’t shake that resonance. I thought the show was brilliant, as is your essay. When the Doctor cries, seeing the stupid supremacists row into their oblivion, I realized this character has much more empathy than I can claim.
That sounds like an interesting episode--I haven't seen any Doctor Whos but noticed the actor playing the Doctor bears a resemblance to the actor who played the hilarious Alan Johnson on "Peep Show".
From your description of the episode, it sounds a bit like the bigot character is rationalizing her anti-black racism as (more socially acceptable) anti-male sentiment--"I have reason to fear all men, because statistically men are dangerous, even if not ALL men are" does sound a lot like something Stephen Miller or (sigh) Scott Adams would say about black men in general. How often does it seem that generalizations about one group (where those generalizations are more socially accepted) are used as substitutes for the (less socially accepted) generalizations about others?
Yes racism is alive and well💔😢 I have a couple of stories I could tell but I always cry when I tell them😢 I'll never understand hating someone based on the amount of melanin in their skin. It's just unbelievably stupid.
I was at first focused on the vapidity of Lindy’s face. She was so very superficial and incapable that the racism just didn’t stick…until the end. I thought she was just dumb as a box of hair.
Excellent analysis!
Thanks
Yep. I missed it in the first go 'round. But I did have a moment not quite halfway thru when I thought, "Where are all the Black Finetime residents?" EVEN THEN, I didn't fully grasp the scope, though I knew there was something going on. I still thought it was mostly about wealth disparity and maybe RTD was making a comment about how race is tied to that...sigh.
As for the time travel aspect, I remember a Star Talk ep where they were dealing with time travel. I can't remember who the guest was, but he asked Chuck Nice when he'd like to travel to. Chuck said, "I'm a Black man in America. I'm not going anywhere before 1985. If there aren't parachute pants, I'm not going." Makes sense to me.
Ncuti Gatwa is fucking brilliant as an actor and as the Doctor. I just finished "5.73 Yards" and while a good ep it was missing Gatwa. "Boom" was so good, and pretty much featured Gatwa's full acting range and powerful screen presence, so maybe he needed a break for "5.73"?
Anyway, "Dot and Bubble" is queued up though it's received mixed reviews. It seems the "mix" is folks uncomfortable with their tired anti-social media message being deftly subverted into a harsh dunk into racist and white privilege.
Thank you for this review. I'm looking forward now to the episode. Sometimes I skip "everybody dies in the end" television episodes, but thanks to you, I know this one is done with purpose and power.
I take the fact that this still went over my head until I read your review and one from Gizmodo as evidence that I've just got some more work to do. Life is a journey of learning.
Brilliant episode and I especially appreciate your analysis because at the end I was asking myself 'why DIDN'T I see this? Everyone was white.' (Also, am I the only person who was kind of hoping their boat would emerge from the tunnel and...oh darn, there's a waterfall! No? Just me?)
I did recognize the racism pretty quickly, but I spent 15 years in EEO and heard all the weird excuses for why people were complete jackwagons to those who didn't look like them. It was chilling. I don't know about anyone else, but I immediately assumed every one of those helpless, useless children was going to die pretty quickly. After all, where did those people-eating bugs come from?
I also thought that the screen shot of the home world being destroyed was a fabrication of the dot, because if not everyone on the home planet is in a constant bubble, the sluglike people-eaters would have been noticed a lot sooner. The dot wanted to isolate these particular idiots and the dot allowed in the slugs that would eat them.
I am an old white guy and I am embarrassed to admit that I was one of the many clueless people who didn’t recognize the racism right off the bat.
Like most, I thought it was a commentary on our ubiquitous phones. RTD brilliantly switched it up and gave us this fantastic tale.
I was also annoyed by the treatment of Martha throughout the 3rd season. She was such a good character that the writers just didn’t understand and they continually wrote this smart and capable doctor as if she were a lovesick school girl with a crush. Very disappointing.
BTW SER, the Robert’s Court declared racism over in 2014 so there is no more racism. (I am adding the obligatory /s)
I haven’t watched Dr. Who since David Tennant was the doctor. This episode interests me greatly and even though I now know the twists I’ll be looking for all the points you discussed. I’ll have to be honest with myself to see if I would have missed them as well. And some of us old white boomer women love the Twilight Zone and Black Mirror.
You missed a LOT of very good Who between the 10th Doctor and the 14th.
I’m sure I have. May catch up at some point.
Lindy seemed like an unambiguous clone of MTG from the first scene, and I just couldn’t shake that resonance. I thought the show was brilliant, as is your essay. When the Doctor cries, seeing the stupid supremacists row into their oblivion, I realized this character has much more empathy than I can claim.
Terrific analysis! Embarrassed Becky here (old and white, natch) who missed all of the indicators leading up to the "twist". 🤦♀️
That sounds like an interesting episode--I haven't seen any Doctor Whos but noticed the actor playing the Doctor bears a resemblance to the actor who played the hilarious Alan Johnson on "Peep Show".
From your description of the episode, it sounds a bit like the bigot character is rationalizing her anti-black racism as (more socially acceptable) anti-male sentiment--"I have reason to fear all men, because statistically men are dangerous, even if not ALL men are" does sound a lot like something Stephen Miller or (sigh) Scott Adams would say about black men in general. How often does it seem that generalizations about one group (where those generalizations are more socially accepted) are used as substitutes for the (less socially accepted) generalizations about others?
The problem with your analysis is that she didn’t show fear of the Doctor, she was exasperated and contemptuous.
Ah, now I recognize that actor--he's the pal of the main guy from "Sex Education."
Could play the son of Alan Johnson, though!
Brilliant episode! I've always loved Dr. Who🤗
Yes racism is alive and well💔😢 I have a couple of stories I could tell but I always cry when I tell them😢 I'll never understand hating someone based on the amount of melanin in their skin. It's just unbelievably stupid.