Doctor Who Discovers Racists

Doctor Who
Rosa
Series Eleven, Episode Three

Duck and cover, everyone.  This could go wrong.

Mind you, it’s not like an episode about race is a bad idea – if anything, where the hell has it been all these years?  When Martha raised some pretty sensible concerns about visiting Elizabethan England, the (extremely white) Doctor told her to strut around like she owned the place, since it works so well for him.  (Facepalm.)  We got a bit more tension later when she had to be a maid in the early 20^th century, and even more recently when Bill bumped into a Regency racist, whom the Doctor obligingly clocked.  It’s a sad thing to have to staple onto your whimsical sci-fi show, but staple you should: if you’re a non-white character travelling through time, you’re going to encounter some twats.  It’s refreshing to meet that head on for once.

But like… really head on.  With snarling 1950s racists slapping one of the companions, and Rosa Parks doing her bit for history, and a Martin Luther King cameo.  Rosa ain’t half-arsing it on the race front.  Little kids watching may be unpleasantly surprised, but they might learn a wee bit of history.  Didn’t that used to be the point of Doctor Who?

This is an area I rather expected them to balls up.  It’s easy to insert Doctor Who into history, but to justify it there always has to be some alien threat.  It’s just as easy to insult the history you’re telling us about by saying that the whole thing only happened because of Alien X or Robot Y, or because the Doctor’s so flipping wonderful.  To my surprise, it isn’t like that this week.

For one thing, she doesn't give up her seat on buses. Rude!

Rosa only has the teeniest bit of sci-fi going on.  A guy from the future is trying to nudge history off course: stop Rosa taking her fateful seat on the bus, set back progress by who knows how many years.  The Doctor and co. promptly set about keeping history on the rails, and that’s it.  They work as a team to get the right people in the right place.  There’s no exploding spaceship or alien menace sending the whole thing up, just a very determined git who wants to make things happen differently.  (The Time Meddler told a similar story 50+ years ago, but the villain in that was far less clear cut than this one, and hence loads better.  We’ll get to the crap one in a minute.)

Most deliciously of all, the Doctor is keeping history on track because that’s how it should be, it’s progress, it’s right.  And not, tediously, because the universe will go floop and everything will explode into time glorbicles if she doesn’t.  I don’t exactly love Series 11’s determination to keep things simple – the Doctor explains at least three damn times that a certain number of people need to be on the bus in order for the Rosa thing to happen, we get it folks – but in this instance, the heart is totally in the right place.

It’s definitely a good day for Jodie Whittaker.  The Doctor doesn’t have any apologising to do this week, and she faces off against the quietly bastardly Krasko without a care.  She even gets a few little idiosyncrasies in there, like the way she sneaks back and scans Krasko with the sonic, and her cheery snipe at Graham about killing the vibe.  Probably best of all is the difficult decision to stay on the bus and contribute to the problem in order to make Rosa decide – for once, helping in an unconventional and even painful way.  You don’t expect that kind of choice from a character whose considered response to most things is “I really like it!” or “Brilliant!”  She also makes it clear – as, tiresomely, this Doctor makes everything clear – that Rosa’s stand has not solved racism, or even guaranteed Rosa an immediately better life.  It’s all a little more thoughtful than we’ve seen so far.  Definitely my favourite turn from Whittaker yet, and the most Doctorly.

It helps that the script is pulling its weight a bit more this week.  I can’t help it: you spotted the second author’s name at the start, right?  It would be foolish to guess which bits Chris Chibnall was responsible for and which bits Malorie Blackman wrote, because you never know, but it sure is noteworthy that this week’s is better written than Chibnall solo.  It’s still playing in the Chibnall Era sandbox, of course, with companions standing around and asking what’s going on, and plans needing to be spelled out ad infinitum.  But they all get something to do this time, and there are enough character moments to go around.  Ryan’s dorky enthusiasm about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King is well played when he says their names a little too reverently; Yaz brings up the rear again, but gets to bond with Rosa a little.  Graham has some beautifully acted moments as he confronts the worst version of how people might have reacted to him and Grace.  Bradley Walsh is understated throughout, playing a simple man who really doesn’t want to stay on the bus and make things worse.  It’s everyone’s best episode so far.

I like the way none of the regulars dignify a cruel comment with an agreement – “I don’t know anyone who fits that description” – and the Doctor actually makes a few deductions for once about Krasko.  Hooray, she’s possibly smarter than the audience!  The Banksy joke was funny, and can you believe the one about Elvis’s mobile phone came back, and it served the plot?  Saints preserve us.

So… why was I worried it would suck?  Well, context helps.  Doctor Who isn’t something you’d want a Very Special Episode from at the best of times.  Also this subject is virtually impossible to do with subtlety, because, well, it’s not a subtle subject.  Look at Quantum Leap: an adorable, but sometimes rather pious show about making things better, there were a couple of episodes about race that went from gently upsetting Driving Miss Daisy reference to full-on violent horror show you wouldn’t watch twice.  (It also had a hilariously silly arc about “Evil Leapers” that go around ruining everything, which come to think of it is the plot this week… hmm.  Moving on.)  Rosa splits the difference by being gently fun but also having people behave abominably towards Ryan and Yaz, as well as the other two when it’s obvious they get along, or god forbid, are related.  But there are also some worthy, obvious bits.

Ryan and Yaz’s conversation behind the bins is going to trigger eye-rolls just from the PSA tone, let alone the ridiculous notion that Ryan doesn’t think Yaz has ever taken any shit from people on the street.  And then there’s the ending, where the Doctor cutely lectures her mates with a reminder that things turned out all right in the end, with a black President and everything!  (Except hold on, who followed him?)  Yeah, they’re over-egging it.  And if anyone can explain to me how naming an asteroid after Rosa Parks helps, or even references racial equality then thanks in advance for the otherwise random ending.  (She’s undoubtedly cooler than you or me for having an asteroid named after her, and she deserves to be remembered.  But what, specifically, does this have to do with what she achieved?)

Sorry, I stopped listening.  Too distracted by the
what were they thinking TARDIS design.

The message is mixed a little further by the villain of the week.  Krasko is interesting in that he only wants to distort history a little bit – he can’t physically hurt anyone, so he has to use other means.  All good so far, and Josh Bowman smoothly underplays every scene.  The wheels threaten to come off when you consider that the Doctor and co. are dumbly running around putting out his fires instead of doing something about him; Ryan has to use Krasko’s time-displacement gun to do away with the bugger (until next time, Gadget!), which the Doctor then doesn’t really pick up on.  But then there’s the real problem – his reason for all this.

He’s doing it because… he’s a racist!  A proper, 1950s-style, old-timey racist.  And he’s from the 79^th century, which farts in the face of the Doctor’s “Yay, progress!” speech.  (Guess what, Ryan and Yaz: there are twats now, there were twats then, and what doth appear on the horizon?  Why, tis future twats!)  In any other episode, Krasko’s motivation would be laughably lazy.  Here it’s incredibly on-the-nose for the story they’re telling, and it muddles the ending.  They should have just left it up in the air.

But hey, think positive.  I’m still grateful that they kept the McGuffins to a minimum, and let history be the important bit.  It’s almost a pure historical – hip hip bleedin’ hooray!  Vinette Robinson is excellent as Rosa, though Segun Akinola leans worryingly close to Murray Gold territory with her theme: it sounds like she’s going to safely get our boys back from the moon.  If on-the-nose music choices aren’t your thing, the song at the end might be a problem.  I didn’t hate it, since the Doctor Who theme would have been a marginally weirder choice after all that.  But yeah, it’s a pretty obvious way to go with that ending.

There are bum notes, certainly, but the story is small enough to let its good moments stand out.  Besides, I think there’s a certain bluntness that comes with telling this kind of story, however you do it.  Doctor Who should still be allowed to try.

NB: If I’m honest, they had me at “the TARDIS doesn’t work properly”.  Hartnell Era FTW.