It's the "Historical With Famous Person" episode. And, because it's New Doctor Who, of course it can't be a straight historical anymore.
Okay, let's start with the point I was worried about... yes, they didn't have the Doctor or companions put Rosa up to it! They even avoided the moment after Rosa said "I haven't done anything." Instead, they address the moment head on, and have the Doctor make sure it happens... and have her front and centre (well, screen right) when it does. Yes, I like that. I'll take that.
However... while yes, the city/area was racist AF, you can hear the dial squeaking as they turn up the stereotypes. Angry white man? Check. Angry white man cop? Check. Angry while man bus driver? Check. Angry racist time travelling greaser? Check. Although he was a weird one. Couldn't kill people and yet didn't have a problem zapping things to the future? So why not zap Rosa? And then they have a clunky scene where the Doctor tells Ryan how to use it and...
Which brings me to the biggest problem I have with this episode, which is a presentational one. The TARDIS crew just stand around expositing with no reaction from those around them. Particularly when on busses. Yaz talks about being treated as Mexican. They chat with Rosa about how things work. They openly discuss their plan while executing it. And then, at the end, Ryan gets on the bus with a weird gadget, says he got rid of someone and the driver merely tells him "use the back entrance"??
And speaking of Ryan, again this could easily have been a Doctor/Ryan episode. Replace Graham with the Doctor for the fishing scene, and Yaz with the Doctor in the "racism isn't over" bit. And... I'm not really feeling the Doctor really did anything in this episode. Imagine Capaldi letting any of the racists get away without a good telling to.
As an episode about Rosa Parks, it was good. As an episode of Doctor Who... less good.
Next time: A Yaz episode? IDBI! (as Steven would say)
[END]
Monday 29 October 2018
Doctor Who 11.03
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1 comment:
What I really wanted was for the Greaser character to want to stop the bus incident not because he was a racist but because he was a very distant descendant of the bus driver and his life was crap because his family had been vilified in the future over this and he thought this was the solution.
I just thought it would have been an interesting twist rather than another "racism bad" reinforcement, which this episode had an abundance of.
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