Tripwire’s Man In Los Angeles Reviews Episode Five of Doctor Who Season One

The Banality Of Evil

Tripwire’s man in Los Angeles Robert Cave just reviewed Doctor Who Season One: Dot and Bubble …

Dot And Bubble
Writer: Russell T Davies
Director: Dylan Holmes Williams

What an ending! What could have easily been a fairly inconsequential Black Mirror-style satire on social media bubbles had a much darker sting in the tail than I think anyone was expecting. And it would not have had anything close to the power and impact it has without Ncuti Gatwa. The Doctor has encountered people who are their own worst enemy before. He’s failed to save people before. But watching the Doctor’s frustration and powerlessness at his inability to save people from the lethal consequences of their own prejudice is righteously devastating.

Yes, this episode is all about racism and privilege, but Russell T’s genius is in never once stating so explicitly. Instead, the audience has to put in the work to get there themselves. Different audiences will get there at different speeds. It’s the same with the shockingly simple twist that the residents of Finetime, a protected colony city of privileged rich kids, are being killed in alphabetical order. It really is that simple. All the clues are all there from the start. This is an episode that rewards repeated viewings.

I also think this story works well as an empathy test. At what point do you realise that everyone in Finetime is white? How long do you excuse their ignorance, vanity and stupidity? Their selfishness. When do you realise just how bad the episode’s main protagonist really is? And that she is not an outlier, but is in fact just a typical example of her society? Do you think that her society deserves its fate? Is the Doctor’s empathy greater than yours? How do you feel about that? I am also really curious to see how this story lands with non-white viewers. Are there any things that I am missing?

Callie Cooke is magnificent as the spoiled, self-centred, solipsist Lindy Pepper-Bean. The weight of the narrative rests on her embodiment of the banality of evil. The costumes and make-up all excel in invoking a brilliantly bland beauty of vacuous, yet still doomed youth.

I liked the dumb joke about Lindy not being about to accomplish the most basic of tasks, such as walking, without constant guidance and praise. It is a silly and slightly annoying conceit, but it works. The first time I watched, I laughed at the unguided Lindy walking into the lamppost. The second time, I was actively cheering team lamppost, team slug and thinking that evil AI Dot had some valid points, actually… but there’s more; watch how Lindy interacts with the Doctor from the moment she first sees him and throughout. People are often dismissive of the Doctor, but this was different. She blocks him on first sight, but not Ruby (Millie Gibson). She constantly denigrates him; she assumes that he is stupid and is responsible for the slugs and that he needs to be “disciplined”. Her inability to even recognize that she has seen the Doctor before because “I thought you just looked the same”…

It is immensely pleasing how consistently the story’s theme is repeated throughout the narrative. As Ruby says quite early on “we just can’t reach you Lindy, we’re trying, but we can’t.” – even Lindy herself is left wailing “I told you! I told You! Why didn’t you listen to me? I told you!” But (almost) all of Lindy’s friends do ignore her. Just as she ultimately ignores and reject’s the Doctor. That is tragedy.

And it’s even more devastating than you might first think, because it truly didn’t have to be this way. Because not everyone on Finetime is the same. There is Ricky September. He can walk, really well, even without the arrows and prompts telling him where to go. He reads and has empathy enough not just to help others, but to even conceal the terrible news that everyone on Homeworld has already been eaten by the slugs to protect Lindy.

The more I think about this episode, the more important Ricky seems to become. For a good chunk of the story he functions as a surrogate Doctor, performing the heroic acts of saving folk that would normally fall to our TARDIS-toting friend. For a while I even suspected that Ricky might even be the Doctor in disguise. But no, Ricky is actually more important than that: he is the only Finetimer that treats the Doctor with respect, who immediately accepts his experience and expertise as valid. Ricky is vital to the narrative as an example of Homeworld/Finetime society who is shown to be capable of nobility. He might sing brilliantly vapid pop tunes, but he also reads. He demonstrates that there is and always was another way that did not have to include prejudice.

It is pointed out within the episode that everyone in Finetime follows Ricky. He genuinely might have been able to convince or inspire the other survivors to trust the Doctor, to let him save them. But Lindy sacrificed Ricky to save her own skin, pointing out that Ricky September wasn’t his real name and that he should come higher up than her in the alphabetical kill list the AI was using.

Like all the best short stories, this episode has a certain ineluctable quality to its narrative.

It is not just what the story is, but the way it is told that makes it so great. Slowly, with the active collaboration, and implication of the audience, no matter their background. It is the kind of story that really benefits being told on a Disney platform, with its unparalleled reach into homes across the planet.

Yes, there is another appearance of the actress Susan Twist, here playing Lindy’s “Mummy”. This time both the Doctor and Ruby notice her but set aside her familiar face as a mystery for another time. And that may well be, but I think it is significant that this time the character Twist plays is almost certainly dead. Her characters are apparently not always safe or powerful and are likely not manipulating events. Could it be that the true “secret” of Susan Twist is that she isn’t linked to any season-spanning plot, outside of pointing out that these stories have a literal as well as metaphorical twist? I guess only time will tell. Next Week, Doctor Who does Bridgerton!

Here’s Callie Cooke on Finetime too

Callie Cooke Talks Doctor Who’s Finetime