There may be one key factor it’s worthwhile to find out about this week’s Physician Who: the titular character isn’t in it very a lot.
Yep, that’s proper – it’s one other ‘Physician Lite’ episode, of a form. However the place final week’s glorious 73 Yards was extra within the vein of 2008’s ‘Flip Left’, the place the present’s co-star takes the reins for an unbelievable showcase of their prowess, that is extra within the vein of one of the well-known Physician Who episodes of all of them – 2007’s ‘Blink’.
With fifteenth Physician Ncuti Gatwa’s Physician Who filming schedule overlapping together with his remaining work on Netflix’s Intercourse Schooling, these types of episodes had been in the end a necessity of manufacturing – however usually that want creates one thing lovely. Stress makes diamonds, because the saying goes.
Dot and Bubble is not any 73 Yards, although. It’s actually no Blink. However the way in which it toys with the template that episode set for an episode low on the Physician is fascinating, thrilling, and bold.
Mainly, each The Physician and companion Ruby Sunday spend nearly all of this episode on video screens, interacting with the characters of a world that we get to know for the very first time throughout the confines of this episode’s run time.
The world of Finetime is a vibrant, vibrant place the place all the things is okay – thus the identify. Besides, after all, that is Physician Who. Every little thing is not effective. The subject material is outright bleak, in reality – and comparisons made within the run as much as airing between this and an episode of Black Mirror are certain to persist after the episode is launched.
The lead of the episode is the sickly-sweet Lindy Pepper-Bean, one of many denizens of Finetime. Callie Cooke does a superb job of bringing Lindy to life, instilling her with a way of likeability regardless of being the relentlessly egocentric common citizen of a self-absorbed nation metropolis full of people that reside and breathe their social media. It’s tough to make a personality like this work as a lead, however Cooke pulls it off.
The bubble of the title refers to a couple issues within the story each corporeal and metaphorical, just like the Simpsons Film model dome that retains Finetime protected from the skin world, or the globe-like ‘bubble’ that surrounds one’s head after they’re accessing their social media interface. However greater than something it refers to Lindy’s ‘social bubble’, the friendship group and nice huge video name that The Physician and Ruby in the end invade seeking solutions as to why the individuals of this world are disappearing. That is Physician Who, so there’s monsters – however there’s extra to what’s occurring than first meets the attention.
Whereas 73 Yards was author Russell T Davies masterfully stretching one eerie concept to its limits, Dot and Bubble is him spinning many plates directly. The result’s an episode that feels slightly muddled by comparability. At worst, it even feels slightly clunky. Given we barely know Gatwa’s Physician at this level, it’s simple to mourn how he solely seems on a video display for many of the episode, even when (not like final week) he does have loads of dialogue and a powerful presence all through.
The episode’s themes and commentary, which I will not get into right here for spoiler causes, deserves a lot dialogue. The ultimate stretch drives the episode’s concepts residence powerfully, as we see The Physician encounter one thing he really by no means has earlier than. It seems like a watershed second for this incarnation of the character. It is a robust finale to an episode that absolutely carries messages and themes as delicate as a sledgehammer – but it surely’s in that supply that Dot & Bubble most keenly works.
As a standard-issue Physician Who journey it is rather less robust – one thing that continues the theme of this season struggling to supply up pretty commonplace belt-and-braces romps. In previous sequence’ episodes like that had been regarded as ‘filler’, however that filler allowed the stuff like 73 Yards and Dot and Bubble to sing. On this new period, with its decrease episode rely, the ‘alien of the week’ filler is missed. With Dot and Bubble, what we get as an alternative is idea-rich, if flawed – however I count on within the years to come back it should come to be regarded with an growing fan appreciation.
