Doctor Who: Dot And Bubble Review - 5 Ups & 5 Downs

I touched on this briefly in the introduction, but the commentary on technology in this episode gets a big old down. Not because it's necessarily an inaccurate reflection of society, but because 'social media is a corrosive influence' is just about the least original sci-fi theme going these days. 

Society may not have done much in the way of course-correction, but modern audiences as a whole are far more aware of the pitfalls of social media and its effects on mental health than we were ten years ago.

Dot and Bubble elbows its way into a debate that was settled some time ago and adds very little to the discussion – it's been eight years since the Black Mirror episode Nosedive dropped, with a pretty much identical message but infinitely better execution.

RTD feels a bit out of touch with this one, and altogether too proud of his literal 'living in a bubble metaphor' in his behind-the-scenes interview. The attempts to use the lingo of the TikTok generation also fall flat on their face, and are about a decade out of date (no cap).

I get what he was going for, but some of the more exaggerated aspects of this concept – like the arrows for walking, and Doctor Who's new arch-nemesis, Doctor Pee – just feel excessive, bordering on patronising. A little nuance would have been nice.