Physician Who episode 6 shocks with a Black Mirror-style shock

At first “Dot and Bubble,” the newest episode of Physician Who, appears to be borrowing from Black Mirror’s bag of methods. It’s set on Finetime, a planet the place everyone seems to be accompanied by a small spherical AI assistant referred to as a Dot, which tasks a “Bubble” round their heads. Inside their particular person Bubbles, folks stay their complete lives — group chatting, watching humorous movies or performances by pop stars — and they don’t appear to depart besides to sleep. Even strolling is mediated by the Bubble, telling them what number of paces to maneuver in every route, guiding them to the workplace, again dwelling, and to meals. It’s a really “youngsters as of late and their rattling telephones!” type of premise, however once more: solely at first.

The initially blunt metaphor solely will get blunter when the monster of the week is launched: terrifying slug aliens which might be consuming the denizens of Finetime alive, as they obliviously stroll into their gaping maws as a result of they’ll’t see previous their bubbles. Our heroine for the week, the hapless Lindy Pepper-Bean (Callie Cooke), finds her Bubble’s feed intruded on by the Physician (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), who spend the episode attempting to remotely lead her to security, despite her skepticism.

It’s a intelligent setup, one which hearkens again to fan-favorite Physician Who tales like “Blink,” and tropes beloved by writers like Steven Moffat (who, surprisingly, didn’t write this episode): horrible issues on the edge of 1’s notion, a tough restrict on the Physician’s skill to intervene, and a world engineered for conformity, with security depending on characters’ skill to flee societal gravity. This canny construction clashes with the painfully patronizing metaphor on the coronary heart of “Dot and Bubble” — which author Russell T. Davies exploits to obscure what he’s actually doing.

Picture: Disney Plus

As a result of in between the seemingly lazy satire of the terminally on-line youth and the chilling thrills of its plot, Davies quietly drops pertinent particulars about Finetime and what’s actually taking place right here. Who’re these folks? What do they do? Why are they there? Every reply, delivered conversationally in an episode filled with a loud, candy-colored palette, louder social commentary, and one of many creepiest monsters of the season, barely registers. So while you lastly get to the ending and the reality about Finetime is made clear, it’s like the ground opens out from beneath you, and “Dot and Bubble” instantly turns into one of many grimmest Physician Who tales informed in a while.

[Ed. note: This means spoilers for the very end of “Dot and Bubble.”]

In the long run, there is no such thing as a saving the folks of Finetime. The primary trace was in Lindy’s fast dismissal of the Physician’s warnings at first of “Dot and Bubble,” and that she solely started to hear when Ruby Sunday spoke to her. Extra hints piled up, resulting in the reply of what introduced the slug aliens to Finetime within the first place: the Dots. The Dots, of their algorithmic service to their customers, discovered an excessive amount of about them, and grew to hate them. And it’s not due to their tech-addled brains blinding them to the true world; it’s as a result of they’re fucking racist.

Lindy and the opposite Finetime survivors refuse to take the Physician on his provide of protected passage away from Finetime, as a substitute selecting to courageous the wilds the place they face sure dying, simply due to who the Physician appears to be like like. It’s right here the place the final tidbits fall into place: chilling glimpses of selfishness from Lindy, her lily-white good friend group, the truth that Finetime is simply inhabited by the younger grownup kids of the 1%.

Picture: Disney Plus

Up till now, Physician Who has been fairly unconcerned with how the Physician taking over the looks of a Black man would possibly change the dynamic of the present. On the one hand, that is comprehensible, fascinating even — it will be crass and arguably retrograde to instantly topic the Physician to racism the second it turned a potential story final result. It additionally feels intellectually dishonest to behave as if it will by no means matter. Davies, because the white showrunner who engineered this case, selected neither trauma porn nor avoidance. As a substitute he selected specificity: That is how the Physician’s job is tougher now. There are some individuals who don’t need to be saved by him. There are some issues that can’t be solved by cosmically deep wells of compassion and empathy. There are some folks with hearts so imply they won’t even save themselves.

“Dot and Bubble” argues that its hero’s position is to face within the hole and assist even within the face of such surprising contempt, as a result of life is valuable above all, even hateful little ones — presumably as a result of life will be redeemed, and dying is remaining. It’s laborious to just accept this, and Gatwa’s efficiency means that possibly such idealism isn’t deserved right here. He laughs on the madness of the scenario, after which screams in anguish. Who is aware of if it’s the best name, however he made one. He tried.