10 Times Doctor Who Wanted You To Hate It

3. Lindy And The Finetimers (Dot And Bubble)

Dot and Bubble is an episode that was designed, in almost every aspect, to be hated by its viewers.

In a way it was a strange decision for the big Disney debut season to have an episode that nobody would want to watch again, but there's no denying that Dot and Bubble is extremely effective in its mission.

Lindy Pepper-Bean quickly earned the mantle of one of the most hated Doctor Who characters ever upon the episode's broadcast in 2024, and she'd probably rank quite highly even without the climactic revelation that her and her friends are massive racists. She's vain, annoying, and selfish – which, again, is the point – and the ending tips her over into truly detestable territory.

Everything from Lindy's betrayal of Ricky September through to the Doctor's anguished screams is shocking stuff, and particularly painful because it prevents the Doctor from doing the one thing he loves to do: saving people. Even when those people probably don't deserve it.

RTD didn’t just want people to be disgusted by the residents of Finetime either.

As he told Doctor Who: Unleashed, he wanted us to kick ourselves for not realising their true nature sooner (a fact signposted by stuff like the subtle microaggressions in Lindy’s dialogue). He said:

“Will you be ten minutes into it, will you be fifteen, will you be twenty, before you start to think, ‘Everyone in this community is white’? And if you didn’t think that, why didn’t you? That’s going to be interesting. I hope it’s one of those pieces of television you’ll see and always remember.”

It’s the exact opposite of a story with a nice, neat ending. It's uncomfortable viewing that fills you with disgust – not exactly one you'll be keen to rewatch in a hurry.