Doctor Who: Series 11, Episode 3 – “Rosa” (2018)

A pretty strong historical, a new setting for the show, and the most in-depth look at race that the series has ever done.  I was a little wary going into this episode, but overall, I think they did a good job with it.

The Doctor’s promise to take Ryan, Yas, and Graham right home – surprise, surprise – doesn’t go as planned.  Instead, the TARDIS is very insistent on taking them to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, and when the Doctor detects the presence of another time traveler, she realizes they need to investigate.  It’s the day before Rosa Parks’s arrest kicks off the Montgomery bus boycott, and with the time-travel traces converging on Rosa, all signs point in one direction:  someone’s trying to change history.

Typically, the series has only made brief nods to race, but here, in the heart of the Jim-Crow-era South with a Black companion and a South Asian companion and looking at the story of Rosa Parks, it would be downright dishonest to take a light touch.  We’re so used to companions having to dodge laser blasts and run from monsters, but it’s brutal to see what Ryan and Yas are put through here.  Whether it’s Ryan being struck across the face for trying to help someone, both of them hiding behind a dumpster from a police officer, or Yas not knowing which segregated rules she’s supposed to be following as a Pakistani woman (although everyone in Montgomery thinks she’s Mexican,) it’s terrible to see, but it’s truthful.

For more grim truthfulness, the show also recognizes that racism isn’t something confined to the past, as both Ryan and Yas swap stories of the bigotry they’ve encountered back in present-day Sheffield.  And I think Rosa Parks’s story is depicted well.  The episode includes some of the more nuanced details from the event, and while the Doctor and co. work to counteract the villain trying to change history, Rosa herself is still the hero (she’s played by Vinette Robinson, who was Sally Donovan on Sherlock, where she was evidently wasted – she’s great here.)  If I have a complaint, it’s that the show doesn’t fully convey that Rosa’s refusal to give up her seat is a deliberate plan on the part of the Civil Rights Movement – while our heroes would probably want to preserve history either way, they do make it seem like, if it doesn’t happen on this particular night in the exact way it should, it might not happen at all.

Although it’s understandably a big episode for Ryan and Yas, it’s a good episode for everyone.  Of the season so far, this episode does the best job of balancing the Doctor and her companions, giving everyone something meaningful to contribute.  What historical knowledge they have is well-founded, they divide and conquer to attack the problem (but really, given the dynamics of the city and the fact that two of the companions are people of color, this seems like it would’ve been a good time to institute a buddy system,) and everyone brings their own skill set to the table.  Pllus, the Doctor has multiple chances to show off how steely she can be in the face of evil, going toe-to-toe with both the villain of the episode and some of the racists the group encounters – I love her interactions with the cop who comes inquiring about the company she’s been keeping.