Review: Doctor Who, “Dot and Bubble” | Season 14, Episodes 5
Doctor Who goes Black Mirror
I try to watch each episode of Doctor Who at least twice before I write my reviews, but about halfway through “Dot and Bubble,” I started to wonder if I could ease up on that practice this week. The episode seemed so simplistic in its themes and so basic in its staging that I couldn’t imagine what a second viewing would reveal that a first viewing didn’t. Then we got to those game-changing last five minutes and I’m not sure I’ve ever been more eager to revisit an episode with fresh eyes.
That’s because “Dot and Bubble” is essentially one big sleight of hand trick that uses Doctor Who viewers’ assumptions about storytelling against them. When Doctor Who introduces a new episodic protagonist, we’re generally supposed to like them—even if they start from a fairly naïve place. (Think Lynda-with-a-y in “Bad Wolf”/“The Parting of the Ways.”) And since I assumed this week’s episode was one big Black Mirror-esque parable about phone-obsessed Gen Z kids needing to l…