“Dot and Bubble” from Doctor Who makes people cheer for snails

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the fifth episode of series 14/season 1 of Doctor Who“Point and bubble”.

The popular BBC science fiction series Doctor Who usually makes us fear the strange and threatening monsters that the time-traveling alien has to face, but after the latest Black Mirror-like episode “Dot and Bubble,” which aired on Saturday, viewers have no problem with the slug-like creatures eating a lot of people.

The episode has been dubbed “Doctor-Lite” because the protagonist is not Ncuti Gatwa's 15th Doctor (instead, he appears in a series of short digital scenes alongside his companion Ruby Sunday, played by Millie Gibson). The story concerns a character named Lindy Pepper-Bean, who lives in a futuristic world for wealthy 17- to 27-year-olds called Finetime.

And instead of talking to other people face to face, the inhabitants of this planet communicate through a digital interface or sphere (called a “bubble”) projected onto them by a small metal sphere (called a “dot”, hence the title).

The description of the Russell T Davies episode reads: “The world of Finetime seems happy and harmonious. But a terrible terror is plaguing the citizens. Can the Doctor and Ruby show them the truth before it's too late?”

As “Dot and Bubble” progresses, we learn that the sluggish monsters were created by the Dots, who “learned to hate” the humans they had to listen to for days.

We also learn that Lindy (played by Callie Cooke) and the rest of the residents of Finetime are racists. No black people are seen on the planet. Lindy immediately blocks the Doctor when he tries to help her (but reluctantly listens to Ruby when she tries to help her). She says that 15 “isn't as stupid as he looks,” and another character, Brewster Cavendish, warns against getting “infected” by him.

“Dot and Bubble” ends with the survivors boarding a boat and heading out to “fight” and “possess” a faraway place called “The Great Beyond”, although the Doctor warns them that they will die and he can use his Tardis to transport them to a safe place instead.

And while the residents of Finetime rejected the doctor's offer of help and failed to see the bigger picture, viewers on Twitter/X joked that the snails might have been right to eat the ignorant youngsters:

Doctor Who It continues next Saturday with the sixth episode of the eight-part series “Rogue”.

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