From: notemmanuel@mail.fr   
      
   What are your opinions about this episode?   
      
   My understanding this was originally intended to be a Matt Smith and   
   Karen Gillan episode, set during season 6, and it was later adapted for   
   the Disney reboot.  That means that the original plot twist would have   
   involved not racism, but xenophobia/tribalism.   
      
   It's clear the Doctor was more pushy and condescending, while his   
   companion took a softer approach.  This explains why Lindy reacted   
   differently to them.  Plus, the Doctor committed the horrible "crime" of   
   bumping Ricky September off her feed during her morning routine.   
      
   Of course, in the Gatwa version, the conventional wisdom is that the   
   audience is supposed to *infer* that all the Finetimers are horribly   
   racist people and every interaction between them and the Doctor was   
   "racist".  However, this is never made explicit in the episode itself.   
   All of the dialogue would still work just as functionally if they were   
   rejecting the Doctor for the same reasons they would have in the Smith   
   script (he's an Outsider, he's older, he's not human).   
      
   Putting the tacked on racism angle aside, it's ironic that RTD chose to   
   parody and lampoon an entire age demographic as being vapid and shallow,   
   especially when the show was supposedly trying to appeal to that   
   demographic.   
      
   That said, the episode raises some interesting questions which are   
   possibly beyond the intellect of the specific audience that it was   
   pandering to.  Particularly, did Lindey become "irredeemable" when she   
   directed the phantasm ball to kill Ricky instead of her?  It's easy for   
   those who've never actually been in a life-or-death situation to condemn   
   her, but how many people can honestly say they know for 100% sure they   
   wouldn't have reacted the same way in a split second while in full Fight   
   or Flight mode?   
      
   How much of her behavior at the end of the episode was informed by her   
   shock/PTSD/denial/guilt over what had just happened to her?   
      
   In almost every review I've read, people seem to be cheering on the idea   
   that all of the young people in this episode died horrible deaths.  It's   
   very strange that a Doctor Who story would intend to provoke this type   
   of reaction in its audience.  The episode itself does not endorse this   
   view, but it was left open ended as to what actually happened to them   
   (although the Doctor says/believes they'll die, but the audience was   
   never shown why he's so confident of that).   
      
   I have a theory that the overrideing reason why many viewers wished   
   horrible deaths upon the Finetimers is because they saw a lot of   
   themselves in them, and it hit too close to home.   
      
   In retrospect, this felt like it was a "setup" episode, to be followed   
   up later with a possible twist of Lindey either being redeemed or   
   becoming a new recurring villain.  There was also still the loose end of   
   how Brewster survived, even though his name was towards the beginning of   
   the list.  What little we saw of him reminded me of Conrad.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)