- 11 hours ago
Nothing is accidental. Here’s our breakdown of Doctor Who Season 1's fifth episode - Dot and Bubble!
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00:00Hello hello everyone it is Sean Verrick here for Who Culture. I hope you're doing well. If you
00:04aren't give me a cuddle. We are going to go through all of the easter eggs now and details
00:09from Dot and Bubble and I think it's safe to say this episode has got people talking. I hope you've
00:15watched our ups and downs video that was released the other day. So what we're going to do straight
00:19away is jump straight into number 21 which is right from the off we're introduced to the Dot
00:24and Bubble concept with the citizens of fine time including Lindy's close friends revolving
00:28around her head in a giant colorful bubble. You can see dozens and dozens of faces floating by and
00:33while you might have thought that some of these faces were computer generated in some way they're
00:38actually all real people. 30 supporting actors were dolled up with multiple different costumes and
00:43hairstyles so they look like different characters. They were then given different prompts and props
00:47and lines all to create the illusion of every screen containing a unique character and then in
00:52number 20 Lindy notices that one of her close friends Jimbo is missing. If that name rings a
00:58bell that's because it's one of Russell T Davies go-to names whenever he has a random side character
01:03in one of his episodes. Think about season one the episode the end of the world the ninth doctor
01:07dubs one of his spider droids on the platform Jimbo. Jimbo is also the name of one of the workers
01:11at Adipose Industries who apparently keeps the printer well stocked. Jackie Tider also mentioned
01:16someone called Jimbo in the end of time part two who was supposed to give her and Rose a lift
01:20and most recently Wild Blue Yonder saw the 14th doctor and Donna label the slow-moving white robot
01:27on the spaceship Jimbo. Hello Jimbo! It's basically good old Jimbo he's been with RTD and Doctor Who
01:33from the very beginning. Number 19 we're going to stick with the bubble and the overall concept for
01:38this episode. This is an idea that's been percolating in Russell T Davies mind for a very long
01:43time. We went into this on the ups and downs. He originally pitched the concept of visible Twitter to
01:49Steven Moffat in April 2010 during the launch of season five. Matt Smith's first series as the
01:5311th doctor. This means that dot and bubble could have actually been an 11th doctor story which is
01:58interesting when you consider the fine time citizens attitude towards the 15th doctor specifically. The
02:03reason it wasn't made back then is simply because it was too expensive and with the floating CGI bubbles
02:06on screen for most of the runtime yeah that makes perfect sense in my head. Number 18 so while the
02:12idea of dot and bubble actually predates Black Mirror which started in 2011 Russell T Davies has called
02:18this episode Doctor Who's clearest step into Black Mirror territory. Black Mirror of course is an
02:22anthology show which mostly depicts futuristic dystopias and some bloody scary sci-fi technology
02:28tackling relevant societal and political issues in an allegorical manner. Try saying that 10 times fast.
02:33One of the clearest comparisons to dot and bubble is the Black Mirror episode Nosedive which revolves
02:38around a society where everyone is addicted to their phones and they can give people a rating out of
02:42five stars. The higher your overall rating the better you'll be able to live. Everyone in that world
02:47is heartless underneath their shiny social media exteriors which certainly rings true of the
02:51citizens of fine time as well which we particularly find out toward the end. Number 17 Lindy finally
02:58gets out of bed and we get a walk through her apartment so there's bright pastel colours everywhere
03:02and quirky furnishings bring this world to life beautifully but the cleverest detail is actually
03:06the amount of circles that are subtly hidden around the place. Every single window is circular as are
03:11Lindy's light fittings, rug, bathroom, mirror and some of the shapes in her wall art. Aside from fitting in with the
03:16offbeat design of the episode this subtlety plays into the idea that these people are literally trapped
03:21in their own bubbles. The world around them is circular, it is an echo chamber. Less subtle is the giant
03:28Simpsons movie dome surrounding fine time but listen sometimes Russell D Davis likes to go for the obvious
03:32farting politicians approach, do you know what I mean? Like number 16 then and Lindy enters her bathroom
03:38and we meet arguably one of the greatest characters in fiction, Dr P. Dr P is played by actor Max Boast
03:44and this isn't actually his first connection to Doctor Who, sort of. Boast features in a few episodes
03:49of Sex Education alongside Shooty Gatwa where he played a character called Tom Baker which is of
03:53course also the name of the man who played the fourth Doctor. Number 15 after the title sequence
03:57we get an establishing shot of fine time complete with a weatherman explaining that there's something
04:01wrong with the weather satellites. The reason he says this is because the weather in Wales during
04:05January when the exterior scenes was shot was expected to be bleak and windy and surprise surprise it
04:11was and so because fine time is supposed to be this perfect sunny utopia the line about a problem with
04:17the weather satellites was used to explain why it was windy and dull. Not gonna lie we've got a little
04:23bit of trouble with the weather satellites. Number 14 and we're gonna stick with that establishing shot
04:29for a second and all of the buildings we can see this skyline have been added in post-production
04:33to make fine time seem more futuristic. According to the director Dylan Holmes Williams the aim here was to
04:38make fine time look Blade Runner-y. And if you go back and look at some of the cityscapes in Ridley
04:43Scott's original 1982 Blade Runner complete with their giant holographic people beamed onto the walls
04:48you can absolutely see the comparison. Number 13 and Lindy arrives at her office for a hard day's work.
04:54Well a day's work. Well work. On the desk in front of her is an interface of some kind and I'm sure it's
05:00no coincidence that this interface looks exactly like the common shape of a video game controller. To me this
05:06suggests that they're either doing essentially meaningless work that they're just playing a game
05:10they're messing around or they're just not really doing anything important almost as if it's some
05:15sort of distraction technique. Number 12 Lindy lowers her bubble at Ruby's instructions and we
05:21get our first gloriously disgusting full view shot of one of the space slugs. RIP Bertie Lester we
05:26hardly knew ya. As revealed in the behind the scenes material these space slugs do actually have a
05:31name they're called Mantraps while Russell D. Davis also refers to them as things in the Doctor Who
05:36magazine. Mantraps is quite an apt name in more ways than one not only do they eat humans but the
05:41physical onset version of the creature actually had three fully grown men inside of it operating it.
05:47Imagine that for a bizarre day of work. The name Mantrap of course is also tied into Star Trek which we
05:53know Russell D. Davis is a big fan of. The Mantrap which featured a monster that sucked the salt out of
05:59people's blood the salt of empire if you were is the first ever televised episode of Star Trek the
06:05original series. Fun. And of course The Thing is one of the scariest sci-fi movies ever made.
06:12Number 11. Throughout this episode we see Lindy being a lot more hostile towards the Doctor than
06:17she is towards Ruby asking if the Mantraps are something to do with him saying that he's going to
06:21be disciplined when all this is over and many more instances. These all hint towards that final moment
06:26where Lindy is revealed to be a massive racist and this was also hinted in some of the costuming too.
06:32Lindy is wearing a blue top while the Doctor says bright orange and blue and orange also just so
06:37happen to be directly contrasting colours. Number 10. Lindy says that all the fine timers do is work for
06:43two hours a day and then party and Ruby quips back it's like Love Island the planet. Love Island is
06:48obviously an incredibly popular British reality show where a group of conventionally very hot people
06:53live together on an island for a bit and that's it. That's the show. It is like bubble gum for the
06:58eyes. In Doctor Who Unleashed, Russell T Davies also describes fine time as Love Island for the rich so
07:04Love Island was clearly on his mind when he was devising Dot and Bubble. And at number nine it's
07:09time for this week's twist watch. For those who still aren't aware of what's going on here Susan
07:14Twist is the name of an actress who has had seven completely different roles since Doctor Who returned
07:19last year. She played Isaac Newton's mate Mrs. Meridrew in Wild Blue Yonder, the woman in the
07:24pub in the church on Ruby Road, the comms officer in Space Babies, a tea lady in the Devil's Court,
07:29the ambulance interface in Boom, the hiker in 73 Yards and now Lindy's mother Penny Pepperbean.
07:36Tantalizingly this is the first time both the Doctor and Ruby have fully recognized her. Now that they're
07:42aware of this mystery too I wouldn't be surprised if there was a confrontation between them and Twist's
07:46character in Row. Let us know your theories on this one as it develops, not long to wait until we find
07:50out the truth which is also a scary thing to say because we're more than halfway through the season.
07:55At number eight Lindy convenes an urgent meeting of all her remaining friends by using the command
08:00Priority One. Like Jimbo this is another one of those words or phrases that's popped up in the
08:04show a few times before. In the series three finale Last of the Time Lords also written by Russell T
08:09Davis, Professor Doherty accesses the Priority One Communications Network when she's ratting out
08:13Martha Jones to the Master. Then in Day of the Doctor Kate Stewart mentions Priority One when
08:18she's asking for access to the Black Archive. Priority One was also the name of a distress signal
08:27in the Doctor Who Star Trek crossover comic Assimilation. Number seven another reused word or
08:32phrase this time a number number 55. The Doctor informs Lindy that her escape conduit has an access
08:38point on Plaza 55 and this seems to be one of Russell's go-to numbers because he's used it
08:43multiple times already in this era. In the Star Beast the Doctor and Donna both say that she has
08:47only 55 seconds to live after the Doctor activates the Metacrisis and in The Giggle the Galvanic Bean
08:52platform is locked at level 55. Earlier in Dot and Bubble Lindy also says that her t-shirt is a classic
09:01design from the year 5-5. Why 55? Who knows? Number six sees Lindy bumping into Ricky September and one of
09:08the first things he does is grab her hand to lead her away from the slugs. The grabbing of a companion's
09:13hand is a very Doctor-esque move that we've seen a lot over the years. It's the Doctor taking charge,
09:18commanding the situation and often leading their companions away from danger. I think this was done
09:23intentionally on Russell D Davis's part to make Ricky seem like the most Doctor-esque character possible.
09:29He's brave, he's level-headed, he's smart and constantly reassuring and protective of Lindy,
09:34he fills the role we typically expect of the Doctor. The reason this is important is that it
09:37shows how accepting Lindy is of a white Doctor in stark contrast to her treatment of the 15th
09:44Doctor at the end of the episode. Number five, Lindy and Ricky go through a door that takes them
09:50down to the underground tunnels and on that door is a symbol that bears a striking resemblance to the
09:54iconic PlayStation triangle button even down to the exact same green colour. I'm not really
09:58sure what this symbol means in the context of fine time, this door leads them down that the arrow is
10:04pointing up. Like we mentioned earlier with the video game controller on Lindy's desk it could
10:08play into the idea of how the fine timers treat everything as fun and games or it could just be
10:13a cool shape. Number four sees the Doctor describing Lindy's dot as an anti-grav device and this is more
10:18interesting than it first seems. What happened to Mavity Doctor? Now sure this could be an oversight from
10:25Russell T Davis but let's not forget that the Doctor still remembers the original word for Mavity,
10:29he even says gravity in Wild Blue Yonder before quickly correcting himself when Donna notices.
10:38What's more interesting is that Ruby doesn't seem to notice, though to be fair she is slightly
10:41concerned about the impending murderous dot at this time. Number three, one of the big twists in the
10:47episode is that the dots are evil. Shock, horror, ah who saw that coming? This leads to a sequence where
10:52Ricky September fends off Lindy's dot with a metal pipe and the way he holds the pipe in certain
10:56moments is very evocative of the sequence in Star Wars A New Hope where Luke undergoes lightsaber
11:02training by fending off a small floating dot. Number two, at the end of the episode we finally
11:06meet the Doctor in the flesh and he's wearing that bright orange jumper complete with a 10th Doctor-esque
11:11long coat. This was actually the very first 15th Doctor costume that was revealed all the way back
11:15in December of 2022. At the time we all assumed it would be his main costume. How wrong we were.
11:21That fashionable rogue. The Doctor also wore this costume during an early scene of the church on
11:25Ruby Road and hopefully we see more of this look in the future. It might just be his best costume yet.
11:30Number one, as the Doctor watches the fine timers sail away, Murray Gould's fantastic score cranks up
11:36and we can hear what sounds like a little snippet of the long song, you know the 11th Doctor's
11:40regeneration theme, merging into a dark rendition of the 50th Doctor's theme. Murray Gould of course was
11:45the composer on Doctor Who between 2005 and 2017 and often reuses motifs and themes to add more
11:51depth to certain scenes. In Space Babies for example, Snippets of Gold's Gallifrey theme plays
11:55when the Doctor talks about being the last of the Time Lords, we also heard this in Wild Blue Yonder.
11:59So if this is a reprise of the long song, that's something Gold would definitely do if nothing else
12:04to get nerds like us excited about an iconic piece of Doctor Who music.
12:09And that is everything for our list today. So much to go through in each of these episodes.
12:13I want to say a big massive thank you to Ellie who contributed to this and to Danny as well,
12:18who put together so much of this. You are both legends. Keep things wibbly wobbly until I'm
12:22talking to you again and I will see you soon. Thanks very much.
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