While I
am enjoying the season as a whole, the historical episodes are proving to be
the lynchpins. Character-driven,
emotional, and well-plotted, this episode might take the top spot from “Rosa”
as my favorite so far this year.
Against
the Doctor’s better judgment, she agrees to Yaz’s request to see her
grandmother as a young woman in Pakistan.
Their “quick peek” soon grows complicated, though. India is at the start of Partition, in which
the country is divided and Muslims are killed by Hindus or driven into the new
country of Pakistan. When team TARDIS meets
Yaz’s grandmother Umbreen, Yaz discovers a part of her family’s history she
never knew about, one that seems incompatible with the stories that she
knows. Oh yeah, and there appear to be
alien assassins roaming the countryside.
So much for our heroes “not getting involved”!
Who stories set in the past have emphasized not changing
established events before, sometimes as a major theme – “Father’s Day,” “The
Fires of Pompeii” – sometimes more incidental.
It’s interesting to me, though, that both historical episodes of the
season so far have dealt so heavily with this topic. In “Rosa,” the Doctor and co. fight to ensure
that history happens as it’s meant to, despite outside interference, and here,
the Doctor repeatedly warns Yaz that even the slightest change to her family
history could rewrite her out of existence; insisting that they can’t have “a
universe with no Yaz” is such a sweet line.
Obviously,
this is a big episode for Yaz, and I like watching her navigate this fraught
situation. We also get some strong
moments from Graham (I’m kind of starting to love him) and the Doctor (she has
some fun sciency stuff, and I love how delighted she is at getting a henna
tattoo,) although Ryan feels a little shortchanged here.
And
really, it’s just a strong episode from a story standpoint. The one-shot characters are really well-defined,
and I especially love Umbreen. It’s also
nice to get a look at a part of history I don’t know as much about – not to
mention, while English imperialism played a role in Partition, all of the focus
here is on characters actually from the Punjab, so their perspective is the one
we get. (Side note: I can’t swear to it, but I think this might be the first Earth-based
adventure set outside of Europe or the U.S. since “The Crusade,” all the way
back in 1965!) Additionally, I really
like the alien plot and how that all shakes out, very effective storytelling
that goes to some unexpected places.
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