Doctor Who Season 1, Episode 5 Recap With Spoilers: “Dot and Bubble”

A new episode of Doctor Who, starring Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor and MIllie Gibson as Ruby Sunday, debuted tonight on Disney+. Showrunner Russell T Davies wrote the latest episode, “Dot and Bubble.” We’re here with the recap of the new episode of Doctor Who, Season 1, Episode 5, Dot and Bubble.”

SPOILERS follow for Doctor Who Season 1, Episode 4, “Dot and Bubble.” Recap begins now:

Lindy Pepper-Bean (Callie Cooke) wakes up and tells her “dot” – a kind of floating smart device – to turn on her “bubble.” In the bubble, she’s surrounded by video chats of friends who greet her with good morning. One friend, Gothic Paul (Pete MacHale), comments that one of their friends has been missing for a while, but they don’t worry about it. GPS-like directions instruct Lindy on how to get to the bathroom, where she asks an online doctor if she needs to pee (she doesn’t). She then checks out the latest song from online musician, Ricky September (Tom Rhys Harries). She’s previously interrupted by an unsolicited chat from the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa), who is trying to warn her that she’s in danger. She quickly swipes it away to continue with the song, oblivious to the alien creature in the next room.

After the credits, we get a shot of a city in a bubble. It’s someplace called Finetime, and the Finetime news reports that everything is fine, all the time (except for some minor weather satellite trouble). Lindy continues chatting in her bubble while following the GPS walking instructions to work and remains oblivious to the screams around her.

In the chat, Lindy and her friends talk about how boring their job is and complain about hand “chapping.” Gothic Paul tells them another friend has gone missing, but she ignores him. Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) inserts herself, claiming to be doing a system check for Finetime. A very irritated Lindy explains to Ruby that they all work at data processing for two hours each day and that she shares an office with six people. However, the other people meant to be in the office aren’t responding. It takes some prodding, and Lindy refuses to turn her bubble office, but eventually, she agrees to peek through the chats to look around. No one else is there, at least no one human. An alien is to Lindy’s right. Ruby convinces Lindy to lower her bubble to get a better look. It’s a green, oozy, slug-like creature with a gaping maw and it’s currently consuming one of her officemates alive. Lindy tries to escape into another Ricky September video, but Ruby returns and brings the Doctor into the chat.

The Doctor convinces Lindy to turn off her bubble and dot long enough to leave the office without being eaten. She doesn’t know how to walk without the dot’s help and keeps walking into stationary objects. She turns the dot back on and uses it to leave, but the alien takes no notice. Lindy makes it to the elevator. When the doors open, one of the aliens emerges. Lindy is right in front of it but it moves past her, ignoring her instead of consuming her.

Lindy heads onto the street, lowers her bubble, and looks around. There are aliens all over the place, consuming some people and ignoring others. Lindy finds a place to hide and contacts Ruby and the Doctor. She tells them what she saw, but they can’t find a way into the Finetime bubble. Lindy assumes the creatures must have come from the “Wild Wood” outside the bubble.

Lindy explains that Finetime is a colony settlement for rich young people. Her mommy paid for it. Her mom (Susan Twist) pops up in the chat and Ruby and the Doctor recognize her. The Doctor points out that she was the face of the ambulance program (in the episode “Boom”), and Ruby recognized her from somewhere else. They decide to put a pin in that for now.

Lindy summons up her close friends. Gothic Paul tells them more people are missing. Lindy tells them people are being eaten when Gothic Paul gets eaten on the screen. Ruby and the Doctor get into the chat and instruct them to find an entrance to an underground river that will lead them out. However, Lindy’s dot is running low on power because she didn’t have time to charge it at work.

Lindy’s dot dies and she starts trying to make her way to the riverway access, bumping into a pole as she does. She ends up in front of four aliens and struggles to move past them without walking into their mouths. Suddenly, Ricky September appears (in the flesh) and starts instructing her like the GPS does to help her get through. Ricky takes her hand and they head to the river conduit together.

Ricky tells Lindy that he logs onto the bubble long enough to upload his songs but then logs off to read the rest of the day, which is how he knows about the river. He promises to get Lindy out of Finetime. She says this might be the best day of her life despite the thousands of people dying.

Ricky contacts the home world but only finds a video feed. The aliens have wiped out everyone on the planet. He lies to Lindy, telling her that they’re sending help.

They head down to lower levels, a workspace like a mine or a construction area. Ricky says it’s from when they used to work long hours and get paid in money. The Doctor sends Ricky the numbers for a “pulse code” to unlock the door to the river, but it’ll take a few minutes.

Ruby and the Doctor try to figure out why some people, ignore others. The Doctor realizes that the aliens were given a list and they’re working down it alphabetically. Lindy Pepper-Bean is next on the list. Ricky September continues to assure her that they’ll make it out.

The Doctor puts together that the creatures must have been given the list. He theorizes that the dots are sentient and hate the humans of Finetime. Before she can turn it off, Lindy’s dot turns violent and begins attacking her, and Ricky steps in to defend her from the dot while she inputs the code numbers. The door opens, but Ricky gets knocked down. As the dot moves toward Lindy, she shouts that Ricky’s real last name is Coombes, so he must die first, alphabetically. The dot turns around and kills Ricky while Lindy escapes.

Lindy makes it to the river, where she meets up with one of her best friends, Hoochy Pie (Niamh Lynch). The Doctor and Ruby are there too and while Lindy tries to ignore them, they approach her and ask about Ricky. She lies and says he stayed behind to save others. Another person, Brewster Cavendish (Jamie Barnard), approaches them and tells her the truth about the home world. He says they will go into the Wild Wood to make a new home, like their pioneer ancestors.

The Doctor offers to take them all somewhere safe inside his ship, which is bigger on the inside. Lindy and her friends seem offended at the idea of them – a bunch of white people, like everyone else in Finetime – traveling with him, a Black man. Hoochy Pie accuses his ship of being “voodoo.” The Doctor tries to be magnanimous, saying he’ll look past their way of thinking to save their lives, and warns them that they’ll die out there. Brewster pulls them away, warning that they’ll be contaminated.

The Doctor screams in anguish. He watches, tearfully, as their boat heads down the river before returning with Ruby to the TARDIS.