Too bleak, or a useful satirical conversation-starter for young viewers?
Warning: thisDoctor Whoreview contains spoilers.
When teasing Dot and Bubble, Russell T Davies described the episode toDoctor Who Magazineas a step intoBlack Mirrorterritory.
Davies has form in this department.
Though of course the Doctor always tries to anyway.
And its made pretty explicit why.
Theyre all massive racists.
All of Lindys friends in fact, all the inhabitants of Finetime are white.
That would have been the obvious option and perhaps the easier one.
Instead, the Ncuti Gatwa eras first real engagement with racism comes in a technologically advanced far-future setting.
Were in no doubt about the gravity of whats happening.
But as withBlack Mirror, theres a point where the bleakness starts to feel nihilistic.
There is a streak of mean-spiritedness throughout Dot and Bubble, much of which is expressed as dark comedy.
Of course, discussions of racismshouldbe uncomfortable.
But as a theme, it deserves more engagement than we get here.
Its bigger and more important than a vicious twist ending.
Theres a lot of good stuff in Dot and Bubble, directed by Dylan Holmes Williams.
The production design is solid.
The slugs are memorably horrible.
A lot of the dark humour lands.
Theres certainly some deeply bitter humour to be mined from the ending.
But we need a bit more than that fromDoctor Who.
Undoubtedly, part of the fun ofDoctor Whois being able to see it try on different outfits.
But Doctor WhodoesBlack Mirror needs to be more than the sum of those parts.
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