Doctor Who: Series 11, Episode 6 – “Demons of the Punjab” (2018)

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.