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Monday 15 May 2017

Spapitalism

Capitalism in space.

"Oxygen" by Jamie Mathieson, directed by Charles Palmer. Spoilers after the cut.

This wasn't my favourite episode of Series Ten so far but to be fair this year it's actually got some competition, and running around corridors on a spaceship/submarine is a Doctor Who sub-genre I've never much liked either in the original series or the new one. Still, I like the fact that either side of King Charles III being shown on TV we had links to it on Doctor Who - last week in a Mike Bartlett script, this week in an appearance by Katie Brayben. And hey, in both shows she played the walking dead! Kieran Bew and Justin Salinger add to the London theatre regulars popping up in this episode.

After last week's housing crisis metaphor, my favourite thing about "Oxygen" is Jamie Mathieson's utter lack of subtlety in attacking uncontrolled capitalism. Well, if the BBC are going to give airtime to the far right in all their news and political shows, it's only fair they should give the left a chance in their kids' shows - the next couple of generations may be fucked but maybe the ones growing up on this show might have got the message of giving a shit about someone else. I do love the show blatantly baiting the D*ily M*il - I can see them desperately wanting to have a go at the Beeb for pushing loony leftie ideas, but getting stuck on how exactly to object to the idea that charging people to breathe, and killing your entire staff as soon as they become unprofitable, might not be A Good Thing.

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