‘If She Can Live Here Her Whole Life, A Couple Of Hours Ain’t Gonna Kill Me. It Ain’t Gonna Kill Me, Right?’ – Ryan

If you have not seen this episode of Doctor Who, please note that this article is very spoilerific and I will give away plot points to not only this episode but the entire Series 11. If you do not want to be spoiled please do not read further or read at your own risk. Enjoy!

Sometimes television is meant to do more than entertain. It is meant to challenge or evoke emotion in one direction or another. Perhaps it is meant to make you feel uncomfortable about what is happening around you. Should it educate and if so, how far does it go? Watching a program about vile things that happened in our past tends to focus on wars or nasty dictators. What is more difficult, is to look in the mirror to be reminded about what your own country was like (and is still like) and then try to tie that in with my favourite TV show about an alien who travels through time and space.

When it became clear that an episode of Series 11 was going to feature Rosa Parks, I wasn’t sure what to think. Actually, I tell a lie, I knew exactly what I thought: anger. Normally when Doctor Who tackles any historical figure, it is either done from a far, it could be farcical or it could be flippant. Robespierre was shot in the mouth in “The Reign of Terror” but he didn’t play a part in the story, Hitler was punched in the face in “Let’s Kill Hitler” in a comedic sort of way, Shakespeare was treated with a great deal of humour by the Doctor. We also have seen incredibly moving use of historical figures such as Vincent Van Gogh in “Vincent and the Doctor”. None of these portrayals are wrong; I was very worried about how this series would treat Rosa Parks. This felt like it needed to be more delicate.

Mrs. Parks famously refused to give up her seat on the city bus on her way home in December of 1955 in Montgomery Alabama at a time when city buses (and most cities in the South) were segregated. This action lead to a boycott of the city buses and an eventual repeal of the law of segregation on the buses. She became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation.

The plot for the episode itself was simple. There is an ex-criminal with a vortex manipulator named Krasko who wants to change or rather “nudge” history. Krasko has a neural inhibitor placed in him by the prison he was in (Storm Cage) so he is unable to kill anyone including the Doctor or Rosa Parks. He just wants to stop Rosa from her history making moment on the bus. If this act does not happen by a day or so, who knows what happens but the Doctor wants to make sure history happens as planned.

This might be the first time I have watched Doctor Who go to Earth and have it feel as deadly as any alien planet. From the first scene of the episode, we see a sample of what Rosa Parks and other people of colour face in Montgomery Alabama in the 1950s. They need to get on a bus from a different door, they are treated like shit just because of their colour. Yes, none of this is new information. Yet watching it reminds me how unpleasant and uncomfortable it is. Seeing our fictional characters run into it is also unpleasant and perhaps sadly more relatable only because we have been following them for a few weeks by this point. Sadly because it shows how easy it is to forget about how people are treated when I don’t deal with bigotry in my own life.

Writing the above paragraph makes me feel like I am on a soapbox; makes me feel I am preachy. If so, I apologise. To me that is definitely what this episode could have been: preachy but it was not. To me, this is one of the finest examples of Doctor Who ever televised. This could have gone wrong in so many ways but the subject matter was handled carefully with respect to the real-life characters. I think what I found the most interesting response to everything going on around was that of the Doctor’s.

Once again, I was worried that the Doctor would feel the need to introduce herself to Rosa Parks or maybe do some name dropping. Perhaps remind us that she is the protector of the universe, etc. There is precedence for this sort of behavior but not by Jodie’s Doctor. So far, I have seen a restrained performance. In Montgomery Alabama, the Doctor does not make waves. She does not try to comment on the many instances of racism she sees in Montgomery in her short time there. She knows she has a job to do. She is not a vigilante in this vicious world but has her head down getting the work she needs to get done. The end of the episode where the master plan to ensure Rosa takes her place in history comes to fruition, the Doctor is on the bus with the rest of her friends and she is concerned and looks straight forward and let the outright racism happen. It’s chilling because that is not what the Doctor does but in this case it’s what she had to do so. I was afraid that the episode would deal with the Doctor needing to encourage Rosa Parks to refuse to move from the bus, thankfully that as not the case. In fact, Rosa knew nothing about those strange strangers she met other than they came from another place, let alone another time.

I enjoyed the slight bond that Rosa shared with Ryan. I am sure he saw some of his Gran Grace in Rosa. Grace has played an enormous role in all the episodes thus far even though she died in the first episode. It’s not an overpowering presence but one of good and shows not only how much she rubbed off on Graham but also how incredibly well she raised Ryan.

There were unpleasant bigoted moments. It was hard to watch some of these. At the “whites only” hotel room where the Doctor and her friends stayed, Ryan and Yas needed to be smuggled in. As they are in the room discussing their plan, a police officer comes to the room because it is suspected of non-whites in the room. That scene was unpleasant and the officer looking for Yas & Ryan was as tense as watching any monster search for the Doctor & companions. Even with such a heavy topic in this episode, I felt the main cast did a tremendous job of being more of a team and being at ease with each other. This includes Graham stopping Ryan from escalating a dangerous situation at the beginning of the episode. The man graphically threatens Ryan in a way never heard on Doctor Who before and it’s not fiction, it’s what really happened to men of colour back then. Of course, acts of racism still happen.

I am really starting to warm to this cast. A favourite of mine is Ryan. That being said, I just don’t want every episode to be Ryan not giving in to Graham’s desire to be acknowledged as his Grandad. That will get tedious.

I loved that all research that happens in this episode by the Doctor and her friends is conducted via conventional means. Looking up maps and writing notes on paper and in some cases walls. Remember, you can’t lose a wall! I appreciate minor plot points that explain reasons why things take place. For example, the reason why the Doctor wants to check into the motel opposed to staying at the TARDIS. The reason for Kresko and his plan was light. I am ok with this. It doesn’t need to be massive. I’ve had enough massive convoluted plans over the last 10 series that it’s nice that while the plan is low key; the message is loud and clear.

The music was outstanding. This is a nice mixture of the incidental music we have heard over the last few weeks plus some of the sweeping themes that brought emotion to this episode. I have been enjoying everything Segunn Akinola has been doing. I also am a fan of the use of “Rise Up” by Andra Day at the end of the episode and into the end credits. Unfortunately the BBC continuity announcer spoke all over it at the end of the episode on BBC One ruining the vibe.

There is much more to talk about with this episode but I think you have gotten the impression by now that I thought it was pretty special. Do I need my Doctor Who to tackle heavy thought provoking subjects every single week? No but it is nice to see that a 55 year old program can still make thought provoking drama one week and a story about spiders the next!

Next week: Arachnids in the UK