Doctor Who Social Club

I think this one is better seen as a black mirror episode starring the doctor than it is a doctor who episode. The overall plot is OK as an introduction to the finale, I'll need to reserve my thoughts on the two parter as a whole once I rewatch the next episode.

I was never a fan of reality shows, so I didn't really like that part of it first time I watched, nor this time. There is something interesting I noticed here, is that the station could have easily automated everything in a dystopian hellscape, instead the humans are assisting in managing and controlling the shows, which makes it worse (in a good way). I feel like the trope of this kind of televised murderporn used to be a kind of niche in scifi with stories like The Running Man, but more recently you have stories like Squid Game that are reaching into the mainstream, and I have to wonder if that's a sign of things to come. It hits harder with the news coming out this past week of the french streamer dying live while being tortured by his captors, and apparently no-one lifting a finger to stop it.

The story also uses the "your whole civilisation depends on the abuse of a child" plot point. That's a good litmus test for when things have really gone off the rails - are you willing to sacrifice innocents for the status quo. My only small gripe there is it's only been 100 years, things must have gotten pretty bad for a society to change that much on so little time. Given it's the future, the before times are probably within living memory for a lot of people. This is sort of acknowledged with an offhand remark about big brother housemates that went on strike some time ago.

On news, the doctor having to face the consequences for his meddling is a good plot point. So often the doctor jumps in, changes time, and then leaves without ever looking back. Here he is forced to confront the fact that, when he shuts down the news, no-one "does the right thing" as he would have done, nobody steps up to take charge and make things right, no-one comes together. Instead he makes a power vacuum that leaves things worse than when he started. This plot point is undermined by the fact that the Daleks would never allow this to happen anyway, it otherwise would have been a great idea to explore. It's important especially now in the Fake News era, and at a time when younger people show an increase in distrust of democracy. Might be worth revisiting.

One thing the episode does very well is setting the stakes for what is happening. It starts off presenting things as incredibly bland, but then Rose gets thrown into the deep end very quickly with blood on her hands. Then the Doctor is shown acting incredibly nonchalantly when we the audience know what's about to happen, and that makes the big brother death more impactful. For once they didn't play any background score and just kept it silent, which really helps a lot. On top of this we get foreshadowing of Lynda with a Y joining the doctor, and he is incredibly taken with her, so when Rose gets killed at the end of the very tense quiz head to head you do wonder for a moment if she was killed off for good (or you would if you weren't rewatching). The only thing that doesn't really fit is Jack's story. I never really got the sense that he was in any danger, and the handling of his episode is a bit disjointed from the rest of the episode. The whole "Nude barrowman" thing hasn't aged especially well.

The handling of the bad wolf meme and the eventual reveal that the Daleks have been behind everything is great. As a kind watching this, even though it lacks any subtlety, I loved it. The episode would have been better without the satellite 5 "last time" recap the and the 100 years later title card, this was too hand-holdy, and the implication is that the Daleks have been pushing things for a lot longer than just 100 years anyway. That does make the, what I felt was unsatisfying, blob monster from the previous Sattelite 5 episode a bit better.

The doctors final line "I don't have a plan and doesn't that scare you" is great. No amount of planning will help you go up against a lone wolf.

Random notes:

• In The Weakest Link, Ann Robinson is basically just playing herself, robot not required.
• I now have those 2 or 3 bars from the big brother music now stuck in my head, they're going to be there a while.
• I'd seen Nisha Nayar in a few other BBC shows, forgot she was in this one. I looked her up on IMDB, and in addition to Tracy Beaker that I remember her from, turns out her first role was one of the kids in the doctor who serial "Paradise Towers". Neat.
• In the time between Cardiff and Now, the tardis crew went off to 14th century kyoto. I want to see that episode.
• From a quiz question, Cardiff has a massive pyramid built in it's centre. We also get a torchwood namedrop here.
• I don't like the fluorescent blue bloom effect in the control room - it's very early 2000s, of this era, and is reminiscent of bad graphics in video games of the time.
• The economy of this time is said to be in ruins, which makes one wonder why the weakest link contestants were playing for money when no-one else was, and why the control room folk were doing what seems to be a paid job. It feels a tad inconsistent.