You are right. A lot of the micro aggressions I put down to the Finetimers just being naive, and wanting to live in their safety bubble, but all of your points made me feel uneasy at the time, and it makes sense that they were all related to racism.

Miscellaneous thoughts:

The social media society is a trope that has been done before, and I don’t feel like this episode did anything interesting with it. The character of Pepper-Bean did not have an arc, she began as a vapid mole, and ended as a vapid mole who killed a guy. Not engaging, and felt like a bit of a waste of an episode.

I did not feel any of the tension they seemed to have intended, because the characters were so insufferable that their death would have been a relief.

Ruby and the Doctor needed Pepper-Bean to turn off her Dot because they could not see into the Dome. How then did they switch to an external camera to have a chat with the pop star towards the end?

Feels like an episode written by a Boomer just to take the same old digs at the younger generations. “Kids these days can’t find their way without a gps”, “Gen Z literally can’t see past their phone screens”.

I don’t know if it was intended, but the conclusion felt like a commentary on racism, considering that a majority of the finetime characters that got screen time were white, and talked about their “God given duty” to “maintain standards”. And calling The TARDIS “voodoo”. I dunno, it could definitely just be more commentary on vapid millennials, but it felt more pointed, especially considering the Doctors reaction.

I had problems with 73 Yards, but at least it was an engaging watch and felt like it was trying to do… something?

When the episodes stop being self contained, let me know. We are going to get a reveal at the end of the series, no doubt, but at this point the episodes are only connected by vague references or shoehorned in scenes with Ruby making it snow. It’s no more connected than Bad Wolf or Vote Saxon. I do not expect this episode to get an explanation before the end of the season.

I think it’s not that she “says” anything, it’s that standing next to an old her, and looking at present her “breaks their brains” due to fairy magic and perception filter being crammed together. They likely still just see the blur, but subconsciously the paradox ducks with them. Like how when multi doctor episodes happen, the younger versions forget it.

Everything weird is because of the intersection of magic and time travel fields… Someone getting thrown back into time isn’t that off the wall. Especially if viewing her life and the fairy circle as two never ending loops.

When the fans have to make up explanations for an episode with no textual evidence, that’s good storytelling. I’ve had people tell me that the woman stays at 73 Yards because that’s the range of the TARDIS’ perception filter, but if that has ever been mentioned on the show, I’ve missed that little tidbit. Do people notice the TARDIS at the end of their street, then un-notice it halfway down the road?

It’s Dr Who mate… Unbelievable things happen every episode, but will likely eventually be explained by really advanced tech

It’s Doctor Who mate… even the most mysterious entities have a motive and rules. The Midnight monster is never explained, but we understand how it works, and what it wants. In Listen, it is never confirmed if the creature exists but that is tied into the story of the episode, and we still understand the concept behind the monster. In this episode things happen because they look creepy, and then it ends with what amounts to an “it was all a dream” twist.

But by the conclusion we know who the woman is. We never learnt anything that she might know that would make people hate Ruby.

The more I think about it, the more annoyed I am. The very specific 73 yards. The ability to teleport. The repeated gestures. The inability to see her face. Her power of suggestion. Even the clothes she was wearing. It was all set up to create a creepy and mysterious stalker. But in the end none of it was paid off.

I honestly did not peg the reveal on this one, only because it felt too obvious at the top of the episode, and made less sense as the story went on. Why was the old woman causing people to abandon Ruby? There was no hint I could figure as to why that might be happening. The ending felt almost like an “it was all a dream” twist, and didn’t feel satisfying.

I will think about this episode a lot, it had a lot of interesting ideas, and I always love a doctor-lite episode, but it did not stick the landing.

And nothing of value was lost

I think the show is great and presents complex stories in simple ways. Assuming the creators of the show have a big hand in writing for the game, then I’d have confidence in this game.

I understand that the 3DS and Vita are older handhelds, but it still doesn’t feel right to refer to them as ‘retro’ yet. Especially I’m the case of the 3DS, it was essentially the latest platform before the Switch.

I’m not staring down the barrel of my own aging mortality. YOU ARE!