Much like last week\u2019s 73 Yards<\/a>, it\u2019s almost impossible to discuss Doctor Who<\/a>\u2018s latest, Dot and Bubble<\/a>, without delving into spoiler territory \u2013 but for very different reasons.<\/p>\n Saturday night\u2019s outing \u2013 a fusion of political thriller and Welsh folk horror \u2013 kept its puzzling plot under wraps pre-broadcast. But it\u2019s not so much what happens<\/em> in Dot and Bubble as what\u2019s the episode\u2019s about<\/em>\u00a0that\u2019s difficult to get into without giving the game away \u2013 this is a thematically rich offering from writer Russell T Davies, but one that arguably overextends itself by trying to do too much.<\/p>\n Our setting is the world of Finetime, \u201cwhere everything\u2019s fine all of the time\u201d \u2013 but this being Doctor Who, there\u2019s no prizes for guessing that all is not as it appears. Beneath the sterilised, artificial surface, there\u2019s a great darkness lurking \u2013 and the same can be said for Dot and Bubble itself. Don\u2019t be fooled by early glimpses at its technicolour visuals \u2013 the subject matter explored here actually makes for one of Doctor Who\u2019s bleakest episodes to date.<\/p>\n Its exploration of a human (or at least human-like) colony almost entirely dependent on technology will inevitably draw comparisons to Black Mirror<\/a>, something that\u2019s not entirely unintentional, with writer Davies describing the episode as \u201cprobably our clearest step into Black Mirror territory\u201d \u2013 but he\u2019s also insisted that while \u201cit\u2019s Black Mirror-like,\u00a0it\u2019s more\u00a0Doctor Who\u201d, with \u201cthe bones and the blood of our favourite show\u201d and that\u2019s absolutely right. It even strongly recalls a specific story from the 1960s, though to say which would again perhaps be giving the game away.<\/p> Our de-facto lead is Lindy Pepper-Bean, one of Finetime\u2019s privileged citizens who live their lives with blinkers on \u2013 quite literally living in a bubble, Lindy is painfully naive, hopelessly indecisive, and oblivious to the horrors around her. She is also, at points, patronising, rude and self-serving.<\/p>\n In the hands of a lesser performer, the character might have been just too irritating, but the casting of rising star Callie Cooke \u2013 spectacularly good in, amongst other things, BBC One\u2019s woefully under-seen comedy-drama Cheaters<\/a> \u2013 is a masterstroke, with the talented star mining the nuances of Davies\u2019 script to find some deeper complexity to the character.<\/p>\n With Lindy taking centre stage, the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby (Millie Gibson) feature more in supporting roles \u2013 though neither is as absent as the Doctor was from 73 Yards, it\u2019s perhaps best to describe this as a \u201cDoctor and Ruby lite-ish\u201d episode, which might come as a surprise coming so soon after last week.<\/p>\n But rest assured, Gatwa in particular absolutely eats up his limited screen-time \u2013 it\u2019s his magnificent performance in Dot and Bubble\u2019s final scenes that will stay with you long after the credits roll.<\/p>\n Its the abundance of ideas on display here though that are, ultimately, the episode\u2019s greatest strength and its greatest weakness. Dot and Bubble feels like a victim of its own ambition \u2013 it\u2019s a story that has so much to say about the society that we live in, but in its efforts to take potshots at so many different targets, it ends up not as sharp as it could\u2019ve been. The final product is flawed, but undeniably fascinating.<\/p>\n![\"Callie](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2024\/05\/478840-4f48329.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413\" "\\"Callie")
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