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Doctor Who 11.3 Review – ‘Rosa’

October 21, 2018 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
Doctor Who - Rosa
7.5
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Doctor Who 11.3 Review – ‘Rosa’  

[Warning: spoilers abound for those who have not seen Sunday’s episode of Doctor Who.]

True confession time, Whovians: Doctor Who’s historical episodes have always made me a little antsy. While the series is great at depicting time periods both past and future, it doesn’t always have a great record with grounded representations of historical figures. Sure, Queen Victoria: Werewolf Hunter was great. And William Shakespeare in Unquiet Dead was fun. But with rare exceptions (such as Tony Curran’s Van Gogh), the show has often had difficulty fitting down-to-earth renditions of real-life figures into the show.

Thus, it was with a certain amount of dread that I prepared to watch “Rosa.” Chris Chibnall has done a solid job so far in his first two episodes. But tackling a racial and feminist icon like Rosa Parks is something you must be very careful with. And I hadn’t yet been convinced that he could pull that off. The good news is, some dodgy accents aside, “Rosa” delivers a timely (if on the nose) story that provides a bit more insight into the Companions. It also gives us an okay antagonist, one whom I wouldn’t be surprised if we see again.

Doctor Who Companions

It’s difficult to effectively discuss much about this episode without addressing the more change in demographics among the regular cast this season. To be clear: I don’t take any issue with any of the Doctor/Companion matchups. I think they all worked out quite well, and it is what it is. That said, you can only really effectively tell an episode like “Rosa” with a TARDIS crew like this one. Twelve and Clara could have fit in this story, sure. So could Ten and Donna, or Eleven and Amy/Rory. But the episode loses a ton of impact if you don’t have someone like Ryan and Yaz in here. (Or Martha, obviously. I haven’t forgotten her.)

“Rosa” allows Doctor Who to explore something timely, something that can be difficult when you’re geared in part to kids, but in a way that unfolds naturally and not too subtly to fly. The setup is simple: the Doctor and her crew find themselves drawn to Alabama by the TARDIS because, as it turns out, someone’s about to bugger up history. And it’s up to them to make sure things stay unbuggered.

Doctor Who Yaz

The storyline gives Chibnall a chance to humanize Yaz and Ryan a bit more, particularly the former. That’s fortunate, because as I discussed last week Yaz has been the most generic of the Companions. “Rosa” doesn’t completely fix that, but it does help. We learn about her experiences with racism, something we could probably guess at but shouldn’t have to.

Anyway, it’s not that she’s encountered prejudice. She’s a Pakistani Muslim woman. Everyone can assume that. It’s how she deals with it. Experience can shape our outlooks, but they don’t necessarily define us. Yaz gives us a greater understanding about her through her discussion with Ryan because we understand not that she experienced something, but what she did with that. And Ryan’s different reactions tell us more about him as well. The primary stage of character development is adding layers of nuance, and now that he’s properly established the Doctor, it’s about time Chibnall did some more of that.

The episode is somewhat less effective in doing the same for Graham. Graham is mostly defined by his relationships to Ryan and Grace. That’s fine, but he does need to start developing character traits other than “husband/widow” and “trying to be the granddad.” Pairing him with the Doctor for much of this episode was a nice touch, but I’m not sure that we learned much about him. That’s not to say I dislike him. He’s an amiable, likeable sort who is a good ally in multiple sense of the word. And it is fun to watch him torment James Blake to ensure he gets on the bus. But again here, his role in the show is mostly to be the voice of Grace and the guy who sticks up for his grandson.

Doctor Who Doctor Krasko

The episode is a bit lighter on The Doctor’s development, but it doesn’t lack for giving her plenty to do. For the first time this season, The Doctor goes up against a formidable adversary. Krasko is set up effectively early in the episode; he knows what a TARDIS is and has some dangerous and fancy future-tech. We learn he’s a criminal responsible for many deaths, and early his scenes opposite the Doctor find her appropriately wary.

That said, he’s also handicapped by a parole-ordered neural chip that prevents him from hurting people. (I appreciate that as an explanation for him being a terrible shot when he had the drop on the crew.) This nicely sets up a chess game of sorts between Team TARDIS and Krasko, as they try to respectively safeguard and manipulate history. It plays to the Doctor’s strengths and gives her the chance to shine here while not short-changing Krasko’s resourcefulness.

Even better, the way the conflict is set up doesn’t do something that time travel plots (including, sometimes, Who) does that irritates me. There is a tendency sometimes to make the heroes responsible for great moments in history. Quantum Leap was the biggest example of this, when Sam would push and prod things so that they happened as they should. It would occasionally have the unfortunate side effect of blunting the pivotal figure’s importance to history in favor of the hero’s. Sure, that’s an understandable decision. But it’s one I’ve never liked.

Doctor Who Rosa Parks

Fortunately, that’s not what happens here. The Doctor isn’t the person who made Rosa Parks stay seated. She simply makes sure that she can make that choice herself. There are no great speeches convincing her to do it, nothing that minimizes her courage. While the Doctor often plays fast and loose with time, I love it when she’s the protector of time. It seems like a better role for her. And here, it feels authentic and right.

It’s authentic because, in no small part, “Rosa” stays surprisingly accurate to the true story. You know, except for the aliens, time travel and sonic screwdrivers. While it sometimes seems like Who showrunners did a Cliff Notes read for research, the facts fit here. That helps ground the episode, which makes its impact more significant.

Not everything is great here. In addition to Graham feeling a bit lost, Krasko’s motivations are a little too broad to fit in what the show was going for. When asked about it, the murderer drops some vague, boilerplate-style lines about black people needing to learn their place. I’m by no means opposed to Doctor Who having racist villains. But I do cock an eyebrow when they’re racist strictly because the episode needs a racist to appear. If you took two the two lines of dialogue in question out, virtually nothing about him would have changed and the plot would have lost nothing. That’s the sign of an unnecessary character thread. It’s a relatively minor thing and certainly not an episode-ruiner. It just puts a slight tinge of clumsiness into an otherwise well-done hour of television.

Ryan Martin Luther King Jr

Some Final Thoughts:

• For real though, those accents were pretty terrible.

• For those who thought Krasko looked familiar: welcome, fellow former Revenge watchers! Joshua Bowman played Daniel on the ABC drama.

• Also, you’re not crazy, folks: the prison of Stormcage has been heard before. A particular spouse of our lead character did time there for…well, trying to kill her future husband.

• “You’re not Banksy!” “Or am I?”

• I’m glad they’re finding ways to keep Grace’s name coming up in episodes, as they’ve been able to consistently add to the story when they do so.

• “Steve Jobs would never disrespect a Montgomery police officer.” I know a fair amount about Steve Jobs, and I’m not so sure that’s the case. In fact, I strongly suspect the opposite.

• Next week: spiders! Sorry, arachnaphobes.

7.5
The final score: review Good
The 411
"Rosa" is a good episode that trips a little over some lack of characterization, but generally delivers. The grounded approach to Rosa Parks plays well, and we learn more about Yaz and Ryan while giving the Doctor a more significant adversary than the last two episodes. It's not the best episode of the season by far, but so far Doctor Who is still sailing fairly smoothly through its early episodes of the season.
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