Dot and Bubble (TV story)
Dot and Bubble was the fifth episode of Season 1 of Doctor Who.[1]
Synopsis
Lindy Pepper-Bean is a happy citizen of Finetime. She does her allotted two hours of work and has plenty of friends, but when her friends start to disappear and the Doctor and Ruby Sunday call, she's forced to look beyond her Bubble and confront a horrible truth.
Plot
Lindy Pepper-Bean wakes up in Finetime, activating her Dot, and surrounding herself in her Bubble. Around her swirls a panorama of people in pastel squares. Her friends start talking to her, telling her good morning, and she greets them back, before noting that a friend of hers is missing. Gothic Paul expresses concern about all the people who have gone missing recently, but Lindy dismisses it as others tell her to get out of bed and head to the sink. She watches the new song put out by Ricky September as a request comes in from a man she doesn’t know - the Doctor. He tells her that there are monsters around her in the real world and she needs to listen. She blocks him and goes back to listening to the song.
Lindy walks to work, influencing her friends by describing her clothes. During work she receives a call from someone who says they work for Finetime Industries, Ruby Sunday. The strange woman asks Lindy a variety of questions about the nature of her job and her co-workers. Ruby encourages Lindy to see if her co-workers are in the same room, since none of them are responding in the Bubble. Lindy refuses to lower her Bubble, but eventually relents and peers out between the squares that make it up, looking in front of her for her co-workers. She does not see them. Confused, she’s able to be convinced by Ruby to look to her right as well, where she sees a giant man-trap ingesting one of her co-workers.
Fearful, Lindy tells Ruby Sunday that she wishes to get back to work, but Ruby manages to convince her to lower her Bubble and observe the creature more analytically. Lindy re-activates her Dot and Bubble, dismissing Ruby as she tries to talk to Lindy, flicking through her friends list to take her mind off of what she just saw. Ruby brings herself back to Lindy's attention and refuses to go away, as well as bringing back in the Doctor, calling him "a friend who can help". The pair tell Lindy that she needs to leave without using the Bubble, for one cannot see man-traps while using it. Lindy acquiesces, but as she tries, she repeatedly stumbles into objects - she can't walk without the Bubble. She re-activates it, walking to the elevator, where a man-trap awaits. The Bubble repeatedly tells Lindy to walk forward, as the pair scream at her not to, and eventually she moves away. The man-trap passes by her.
Out in the street the pair have Lindy turn off her Bubble and look around. There are many man-traps visible, ingesting some people, with others walking by completely unharmed. As Lindy recoups from this experience, the pair ask her what Finetime is. Lindy explains that it's where the Homeworld sends people ages 17 to 27, if they can afford it. They work two hours a day, partying the rest of the time. She shows them her mother who sent here there, Penny Pepper-Bean. Upon seeing her mother, Ruby and her friend comment that they've seen her before. The Doctor recognises her as the face of the ambulance on Kastarion 3, and Ruby remembers her from somewhere else.
Lindy gets exasperated with them and decides that she should be talking to her real friends, not them. She starts a group chat with all her closest friends, and tries to convince them that something is wrong, showing them how many people have gone missing from her friends list. Gothic Paul agrees, and says he's been trying to warn them. Lindy explains that people are getting eaten, seemingly at random, but Paul laughs, says that even he wouldn't be that silly. Suddenly, a man-trap lurches on screen next to Paul and his feed cuts off. Lindy and her friends are concerned. Ruby and the Doctor force their way into the group chat and tell everyone that there's a series of locked tunnels under the city leading to a river. They can get there and escape. As this is explained, Lindy's Dot begins to run out of power, the Dcotor having just enough time to advise Lindy to head towards Plaza 55.
On the way, she finds a bevy of man-traps between her and it, standing menacingly. She tries to walk forward, but stumbles, unable to do so consistently without guidance. A voice from the edge of the Plaza tells her what to do, guiding her past the man-traps. It is Ricky September, without a Dot or Bubble. When she gets past the man-traps, he tells her that he actually spends a lot of time reading, outside of his Bubble, and has been trying to warn people, but such videos are deleted. Ricky takes her to the start of the passage underground where Lindy begins to charge her Dot. Ricky uses a nearby planet link to try to contact the Homeworld, but when he pulls up the live-feed, he sees the city in ruins, overrun by man-traps.
To move further down they need to unseal the tunnel, inputting a code of one-hundred numbers. Ruby's friend begins to send them to Ricky as Lindy asks Ruby and the Doctor what's been happening with Lindy's friends. None of them have been eaten, but only one of them ran. Trying to work out why only some people have been eaten, the trio hit upon the idea that it might be in alphabetical order, based on surname. Lindy's shocked, for Gothic Paul died and they still ignored her. They pull up Suzie Pentecost, the last person before Lindy, and watch as she's devoured right in front of them.
The Doctor points out that since people are being killed in alphabetic order, the man-traps are not natural. Perhaps it is an intentional malicious plan, with the Dots attempting to lead people into man-traps. Lindy tries to turn the Dot off, but it refuses, flying through the air and attacking her. Ricky and Lindy swap places, Lindy punching in the numbers and Ricky fighting off the Dot. Lindy manages to finalise the code, but the Dot stuns Ricky, disorienting him. As the Dot turns towards Lindy, Lindy tells the Dot that Ricky's real last name begins with a "C" ("September" is a stage name). The Dot turns towards Ricky and kills him, enabling Lindy time to sneak away.
Further down the tunnels, Lindy finds some other refugees of Finetime, as well as Ruby and the Doctor. The refugees say they've decided to head out into the wilderness, to try and survive. Ruby's friend offers instead to take them in his ship, his blue box that's bigger on the inside. Lindy and the others dismiss this idea from their principles: Due to his skin colour, they cannot travel with him. Furthermore, the idea of continual in-person contact is against their principles, and no box can be bigger on the inside.
The Doctor insists that none of this matters; he just wants to save their lives. He begs and pleads with them. They walk away and travel off in a boat to the Wild Woods. The Doctor and Ruby return to the TARDIS.
Cast
- The Doctor - Ncuti Gatwa
- Ruby Sunday - Millie Gibson
- Lindy Pepper-Bean - Callie Cooke
- Cooper Mercy - Eilidh Loan
- Harry Tendency - Aldous Ciokajlo Squire
- Hoochy Pie - Niamh Lynch
- Valerie Nook - Millie Kent
- Blake Very Blue - Billy Brayshaw
- Gothic Paul - Pete MacHale
- Dr Pee - Max Boast
- Rotterdam Twin 1 - Elloise Bennett
- Rotterdam Twin 2 - Olivia Bennett
- Ricky September - Tom Rhys Harries
- Weatherman Will - Jack Forsyth-Noble
- Alan K Sullivan - Milo Callaghan
- Penny Pepper-Bean - Susan Twist
- Suzie Pentecost - Ellie-Grace Cashin
- Brewster Cavendish - Jamie Barnard
Crew
| Executive Producers Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter with Joel Collins and Phil Collinson |
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| Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources. |
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This episode was produced with the support of incentives for the Irish film industry provided by the Government of Ireland. |
Worldbuilding
Finetime profiles
- Harry Tendency is currently reading Ulysses The Revenge.
- Hoochy Pie's profile has a notice saying she'll perform at Finefest in 24 weeks.
Notes
- The title of the episode was revealed on the official Doctor Who Twitter account on 31 March 2024.[1]
- Davies told Radio Times that he had first conceived the idea for the story around 2010, and discussed it with Steven Moffat. However, the concept was too expensive for the show, so Davies shelved his "vague idea" at the time. He further explained that the episode had more visual effects than "any other episode".[2]
- According to Doctor Who: Unleashed: Season 1: 5 Dot and Bubble, the final scene of the episode was filmed on December 17, 2022 and was Ncuti Gatwa's first day on set[3] after his scenes in The Giggle [+]Loading...["The Giggle (TV story)"].
- The slugs seen on Finetime are called "man-traps" in the accompanying Unleashed episode.[4]
Myths
to be added
Filming locations
to be added
Ratings
to be added
Production errors
to be added
Continuity
- The Doctor and Ruby both recognize Penny Pepper-Bean as familiar, marking a further acknowledgement of Susan Twist's multiple roles across the season. Ruby cannot remember where she has seen her before, but the Doctor recognizes her as the face of the Villengard Automated Ambulance Units.
- The Doctor still calls the TARDIS a "ship". (TV: Twice Upon a Time)
Home media releases
to be added
Gallery
- Main article: Dot and Bubble (TV story)/Gallery
External links
- Official Dot and Bubble page on doctorwho.tv
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 @bbcdoctorwho (2024-03-31). DOT AND BUBBLE
Writer: Russell T Davies
Director: Dylan Holmes Williams
#DoctorWho. Archived from the original on 2024-05-29. - ↑ Morgan Jeffery (2024-04-30). Doctor Who boss says finale contains scenes he's been planning for 50 years. RadioTimes.com. Archived from the original on 2024-04-30.
- ↑ 00:58 - 01:09: Stefan Powell: "Welcome to Cardiff Bay Barrage, 17th of December twenty twenty two. It's eleven o'clock at night, minus two degrees. Ncuti Gatwa's about to shoot his very first scene of the series."
- ↑ Doctor Who: Unleashed: Season 1: 5: Dot and Bubble: 11:45 - 1149: "But never has there been a more gloopy, slurpy, or gnarly eater than the man-traps."
