Doctor Who (2005) 11-06: Demons of the Punjab (Quick Review)

Episode:

846

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Serial:

282

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Writer:

Vinay Patel

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Air Date:

11-Nov-2018

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, the first episode of Doctor Who's 11th series not written by Chris Chibnall! Well I'm sure he did a lot of rewriting work on it, as that's his job, but he's not gotten a 'written by' credit this time.

Vinay Patel is brand new to Doctor Who, and to me, but director Jamie Childs is on his second episode now... kind of. Doctor Who directors work on two episodes in a row for whatever reason, and he directed the season premiere The Woman Who Fell to Earth, so I figured that must make this the second episode filmed. But nope, it was actually the ninth episode to be produced, so that second episode is still out there somewhere, waiting to confuse us with how the actors seem very slightly less comfortable in their roles.

There will be SPOILERS beyond this point for this story and maybe earlier ones too. I will not be spoiling anything about series 1 episode Father's Day though, mostly because I haven't seen it yet.

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First, I want to mention how much I like the design of this room, with all of its lights and curvy sides. Sure there doesn't seem to be any doors into it, which is usually a deal breaker when it comes to rooms, but when you can just teleport anywhere that's less of a problem. Though I was a bit disappointed that a giant boulder didn't fall down when the Doctor swiped their sacred relic as it seemed to be going that way for a moment.

The room is apparently part of a Thijarian hive, which is cleverly protected by teleporter devices all over the forest that beam you into it. Lots of teleporting in this episode, and lots of apparently accidental telepathic assaults too. For a group that have been sneaking around throughout history to watch over the dying in secret the Thijarians sure suck at keeping a low profile.

Speaking of them watching over the dying, death in the Doctor Who universe keeps getting more and more complicated with every new season. If no one's around to mourn you then you get visited by these guys, then Testimony (from Twice Upon a Time) freezes time and copies your memory into its database, then Missy uploads your mind into the Nethersphere, after which you're resurrected as a Cyberman and then blown up (revealed in Death in Heaven). Plus there's also a chance that the Time Lords are going to pull you from your timeline moments before death for whatever reason (like in Hell Bent). Though this all presumes that you didn't read the four symbols scratched into a wall in Under the Lake, in which case you become an electromagnetic ghost instead. I think the Doctor had the right idea in just skipping the whole complicated mess and regenerating instead.

Their side of the episode's a lot like Twice Upon a Time in general really, with the doomed war veteran and the misunderstood aliens who've come to file him away in their holographic archive. I can usually forgive Doctor Who for repeating itself, because it's been around for 55 years and 846 episodes, but c'mon Twice Upon a Time was just six episodes ago!

I remember thinking that the pair of deadly assassins looked kind of goofy in action, but now I've got a screencap to study it's clearly not a flaw in the makeup. Those are a fantastic looking pair of rubber masks they've got there. I think part of the problem is that the designer neglected to give them a mouth, or any other way to express themselves with their face, so they never really look alive. Plus the more I look at that awkward tusk arrangement the more I feel sorry for them, as they have to live with two out of focus teeth right up in front of their eyes the whole time.

They're both voiced and acted by women by the way, so there's a pointless bit of trivia for you. I wouldn't have guessed until I saw the end credits. Here's another fun fact that the episode didn't trust us to work out for ourselves: the Thijarian's aren't the demons mentioned in the title. The demons are these guys that showed up at the end:

Or they're being driven by their demons at least. They're just normal people rising up against their neighbours and their brothers as their country is literally torn apart and it's the hate and intolerance against people with a different faith that's the real villain of this story. Or even against those who love someone of a different faith in this case. The episode's an old school Hartnell style world history lesson but it's frustratingly relevant right now.

I have to admit, I knew less about the partition of India going into this story than I did about Rosa Parks, and after watching the episode I still know very little. But like Rosa, I came away from it feeling like I watched a reasonably realistic slice of history designed to make me want to find out more instead of looking up what they got wrong, and I much prefer that to fun adventures in the land of historical bullshit like we had before. I mean if they could bring some of the fun and adventure back that'd be great, but I feel like the series should be as honest about the past as it is imaginative about the future.

I've noticed people online whining about how preachy the series has become, but I think what those people have failed to notice is that the Doctor didn't preach to Prem about using a gun at all in the episode! Though I suppose there was a bit of a subtle anti-gun message in there anyway, seeing as he gets murdered by one at the end. Once again this season the Doctor was helpless against history and the villains got away with it; what happened to her being the person who brings fairy tale endings to a cruel universe?

On a happier note, man this episode looked pretty! It made a much better use of Spain than The Two Doctors did back in the day. The series has come a long long way since those old multi-camera serials.

Though hang on, is that a second camera creeping into the frame on the top right? It's like they forgot that they were shooting in a wider aspect ratio for a moment.

I was a bit surprised when Umbreen mentioned that she was the first woman to get married in Pakistan, but I thought they handled it pretty well when I learned the context. Turns out that she doesn't actually know if she was the first, but she was definitely one of the earliest. Plus her and Prem standing on either side of the border and using the rope meant to divide them to literally bind themselves together was clever I thought. It definitely made their opinions about the whole thing obvious. Shame that she'll never know that she was married by the legendary Doctor.

It was a little surprising to me to see the Doctor get so into the wedding as well, but then she's been doing that kind of thing all season. She's all about ceremonies in this incarnation, especially if it means she gets to have things drawn on her palms. I loved her line there by the way: "My references to body and gender regeneration are all in jest." Jodie Whittaker is good at saying things.

I liked how friendly the characters were in general (Manish aside), despite the British currently being unpopular for lighting the fuse of this particular powder keg, as it made a contrast to the tension and hate Team Tardis experienced when they visited the 50s in Rosa. There was less menace, just a sense of inevitable tragedy that came from them knowing from the start that Prem wasn't married to Umbreen for long. There was the possibility at first that they might need some Back to the Future shenanigans to keep Umbreen from getting married, but they had no idea what actually happened so all they could do was investigate the deadly assassins until they revealed that yeah, Prem was screwed. (Incidentally, it was a bit weird that the Doctor just took assassins at their word, turned her back on them and let Prem die. For all she knows they were the ones who killed him.)

The Doctor being helpless to change a historical event is nothing new, but her going back in time to a specific point purely to see what happened is a pretty unique concept for an episode. There's no threat to history here, Team Tardis doesn't save someone who should've died or even work to get themselves out of trouble, they just learn Umbreen's story and then leave when they find themselves in danger.

Though the Doctor did get a chance to do some science when her sonic proved to be unable to analyse a jar of ashes. I was expecting this to be another one of those 'let's teach the kids about acetylene' moments but nah all we learn is that the Doctor likes biscuits and we knew that already.

I feel like the assassin plot was fairly irrelevant to the story, but I suppose without it the characters would've just been hanging out at a wedding being sad about the inevitable doom for the entire episode, and that's not ideal for Doctor Who. I figured Yaz would at least get some choices to make and that she'd drive some of the action but after kicking off the action with her request to go visit her gran she was fairly passive all episode again. No points for her this week. Plus I'm starting to worry about the actors as I feel that Bradley Walsh may be draining them of their charm and emotion to power himself up; if the scenes were a contest he'd be winning. I especially liked his line about how people are allowed to have some secrets, and his line about how nobody knows the truths of their own lives, and his line about how Yaz should try to enjoy where they are and the amazing things they're doing instead of dwelling on the sad part. Though I feel bad for poor Graham having to stand by at the end and do nothing to help someone making a sacrifice again.

Also it was a nice surprise to see Yaz's entire family show up again, but less nice to see the companions back home again so soon. Arachnids in the UK gave me the impression that they were taking a exciting road trip across time and space, and that when Yaz finally came back with the bread she'd be a changed person. Nope, they're apparently doing the Clara thing again, where the Tardis picks them up for adventures on the weekends or whatever.

Speaking of the Tardis, we got another top down view of the console showing off the intricate design of the floor. I guess they're free to show off angles like this now that the time rotor isn't connected to the ceiling anymore. Though maybe it'd be better not to draw attention to how they apparently forgot to put controls on the console. Needs more buttons and switches in my opinion, maybe even a dial or two.

But one thing they've been really good at concealing so far is that the tips of the crystal spider legs move up and down along with the time rotor! It must have been a real pain in the ass building that mechanism into the set and getting them going for every take, but it's taken until episode six before I finally spotted one moving and it really wasn't obvious. I don't blame them really; if I'd been directing it I would've kept them well out of frame as well.

The rest of the episode was fairly good though I thought. Well, it was alright. I liked it a little more than The Tsuranga Conundrum and a little worse than The Ghost Monument, mostly because it had a bit of mystery to it that kept me interested. But I can't say that giving someone other than Chris Chibnall a turn to write has led to a dramatic shift in quality in this case. In fact it fits right in with this season, as it's a story about family and humans being crap to each other, and it ended with the Doctor being unable to get a satisfying win. It does have more closure than usual though, which I appreciated, and it appears that getting a writer with an interest and a closer perspective on a subject seems to actually help make it more authentic and compelling, shockingly. So the shift to include more diversity behind the scenes is paying off at least.

I don't like the diversity in ending music though. Doctor Who has had different music playing over its end credits twice in its entire history: first Rosa and now this. And they both had it playing it over the next time trailer too, which is like spilling gravy all over your ice cream. I like that they're experimenting with new ideas but I don't think this experiment's working out. Though in this case it is actually the Doctor Who theme playing, it's just cunningly disguised in a different arrangement.

In conclusion: they've got the heart and they've got the history, but they really need to dial up the wit, audacity, imagination and smart-ass super genius heroism already.

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COMING SOON

Doctor Who will return with Kerblam! Seriously, that's the title they're going with.

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