Bearing witness.

Yaz is home celebrating her Nani Umbreen’s birthday. Each of the women gets an heirloom gift – Najia gets a stack of handwritten letters, Sonya gets a photo of her grandfather and a pressed flower, and Yaz gets a broken watch that must never be repaired – and Yaz has a burning desire to travel back in time to learn more about her grandmother.

The Doctor is skeptical about taking personal trips, but Graham quips that this team is no stranger to risk. The Doctor apologizes for that run-in with the Death-Eye Turtle Army before setting course for Pakistan, 1947. Shortly after arriving, the Doctor gets a telepathic shock before meeting a man named Prem and his ox-cart. The Doctor is shaken but accepts a ride to escape the troubles on the road ahead. As the cart pulls away, they are watched by an armored being.

The team arrives at a small home where they meet Umbreen as a young woman. Yaz stumbles over herself as they learn about Umbreen’s upcoming wedding to Prem, but Yaz is confused because Prem is not her grandfather. They also note that Prem is wearing the watch that Yaz was given in the future.

Against the Doctor’s better judgment, the team decides to stay. They learn that they are watching the Partition of India in action. The Muslims are forced into Pakistan, the Hindus get India, and tensions rise across the region because of how the British handled the situation. Additionally, Umbreen is Muslim and Prem is Hindu. The tense moment is exacerbated as two supposed demons appear, sparking another telepathic shock for the Doctor as they lead everyone to a dead Hindu holy man named Bhakti. They warn the Doctor not to interfere before Prem shoots at them. Prem explains that he’s seen the demons before and questions the Doctor’s team about their true intentions.

They watch as a purple powder vanishes from the corpse. The Doctor scans the area while Yaz and Graham lay the body to rest. The Doctor, Ryan, and Prem find a transmat doorway in the forest and are teleported into an underground ship. The Doctor determines that the demons are Thijarians, an ancient species that evolved into the deadliest assassins in the universe. Prem last saw them in the midst of World War II when his older brother Kunal was killed. The trio is forced to leave the hive ship when the Thijarians return, and Ryan and Prem are separated from the Doctor because of miniature transmat devices scattered through the forest. The Doctor confiscates the devices and a canister of the purple powder as she runs.

Back at the family farm, Umbreen continues to argue in favor of her upcoming marriage despite the family’s insistence that it be canceled. Yaz struggles with the history she’s seeing because it doesn’t align with the reality she knows. Graham consoles her and asks that she live in this moment and watch as history gets sorted out. As the Doctor, Ryan, and Prem return, everyone is gathered in the barn. The Thijarians follow and threaten everyone with death, but the Doctor uses the transmat devices to lock them out so she can formulate a plan. The Doctor asks for oil, tree bark, saucepans, nine containers, ox spit, a biscuit, and chicken poo to create a “demon repellent” to analyze the powder. She also tries to scan the powder but the substance overloads the sonic screwdriver.

The women and men are separated for pre-nuptial rituals. Umbreen asks the Doctor – a woman with a respectable title – to officiate the ceremony. The men play cards as Prem argues with Manish, a Partition sympathizer. Later on, the Doctor discovers that the powder is a dense amalgam of genetic material before the Thijarians break the transmat lock and take the Doctor back to their ship.

The Thijarians explain that they are no longer assassins. Their world was destroyed – the remnants are left in the powder jar – and they have become witnesses to honor the living in their moments of death. The millions who will die in the wake of Partition will be forgotten in history, and they have come to bear witness to their sacrifices. They reveal that Prem will die next and there’s nothing they can do to stop it. They also explain what happened to Bhakti.

The Doctor returns to the barn and reveals what happens to Prem on the day of his wedding. Despite the coming pain, Yaz and the team decide to stay and celebrate with her family. As Ryan and Graham see to Prem’s final preparations, Prem mourns for those around him who have lost their minds – Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs who lived in harmony are now divided in a frenzy – and Graham comforts him with the knowledge that the best they can be is good men.

The ceremony takes place on the new border, making Umbreen the first woman married in Pakistan. The Doctor uses her sonic screwdriver to drop the rope border, speaking of the certainty Prem and Umbreen have in each other despite the uncertainty in the world around them. The certainty of love and hope. Umbreen uses the border rope to bind her hands to Prem’s, formalizing the ceremony.

Later on, Umbreen offers Manish reconciliation, but Manish rejects it. Prem offers Umbreen his watch but it falls to the ground, which Umbreen declares as their moment in time. The Doctor follows Manish as he grabs a rifle, asking if it was what he used to kill the holy man to stop him from marrying Umbreen and Prem. It is interrupted as men arrive on horseback to take the land by force. The Doctor warns the newlyweds to run and Prem asks Umbreen to gather some essentials. Yaz discovers a map of the world with Sheffield marked as a place where Umbreen wants to visit.

Prem offers to stay behind and distract the raiders while Umbreen and her mother escape. As the Doctor and the companions watch from the distance, Prem stands in defense of the land and confronts his brother Manish. A fellow soldier named Kanon draws a rifle on Prem as the Thijarians arrive to watch over the proceedings. A shot rings out as the travelers walk back to the TARDIS.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor confirms that Umbreen survived and reached Sheffield. When she returns home, Yaz and Umbreen talk about family history. Umbreen is happy about her life and where it has taken her, and she offers to talk about the watch. Yaz asks her to tell the story another time.

This powerful historical story is centered on the hidden and forgotten parts of our individual histories. I love the stories where the “bad guys” aren’t what they seem, and just like in Twice Upon a Time, the mistaken identity of those who honor the fallen and forgotten is beautiful. The episode also puts the audience in the same position as the Thijarians. We cannot interfere, but instead, we can only watch as this family goes through the turmoil.

It’s also really nice to see a British television series pay tribute to a time when the Empire really screwed up the geopolitical landscape with arbitrary lines on a map. This story takes place in 1947, and even now – 76 years later – the politics of the region are still a source of contention (to say the least). Leave it to a show about compassion and being the best of humanity to show the personal devastation associated with the Partition.

It’s touching that the episode premiered on Remembrance Sunday (November 11) and the centenary of the armistice that ended World War I.

I really liked the end credits version of the Doctor Who theme. This version was inspired by Indian music and performed by Shahid Abbas Khan, who was also featured throughout this episode’s soundtrack.

We get another nod here to adventures not seen on the television screen. The name Death-Eye Turtle Army alone makes me want to know what happened there.

Rating: 5/5 – “Fantastic!”

UP NEXT – Doctor Who: Kerblam!

The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.

Stitch, Roy Kent, and a safe sacrifice.

Our heroes are hanging out in a junk galaxy. On Seffilun 27, one of the planets in this refuse-filled wasteland, the travelers are hunting for spare parts to patch up the TARDIS. As they dig, the Doctor uncovers an active sonic mine. When it detonates, everyone is knocked out and awakens in a hospital. The nurse, Astos, mentions that scavenger bots brought them to Tsuranga, which sets the Doctor off and motivates her to find the TARDIS.

As they search for the exit, the travelers meet Eve Cicero – over whom the Doctor fangirls – her brother Durkas, and her android consort Ronan. Eve is a fan of the Doctor, recognizing her name in the Book of Celebrants. The travelers move on and find a pregnant man named Yoss Inkl – a Giftan, a species of which both genders can give birth, but only to their own gender – before the Doctor succumbs to her injuries and collapses.

Also, the Tsuranga isn’t a building. It’s a rescue starship.

The Doctor picks herself up and tries to find the control room. Unfortunately, the ship is completely automated, crewed by nurses Astos and Mabli. Overriding the automatic systems would be seen as an act of hostility, and the Doctor finally relents when she realizes that she’s in the wrong.

Astos reveals that the ship is in an asteroid field close to Constant Division, a disputed territory, and both of them are startled by an alarm warning of a fast-approaching object and a subsequent hull breach. They track something moving around inside the shields, and Astos provides the Doctor with a communication unit as they investigate. Meanwhile, Ronan asks Mabli for some adrenaline blockers while Durkas attempts to hack into Eve’s medical records. Graham finds Durkas and they discuss how loved ones can sometimes hide bad news, which Graham attributes to keeping people from pain. Durkas says that Eve is being treated for Corden Fever, but her distance makes him think there’s more to the story than an easily treated disease.

As Astos and the Doctor track the disturbance, they find that the port escape pod has been jettisoned. Astos investigates the starboard escape pod but is trapped inside when it engages. He says a cryptic farewell to Mabli over the comms before the pod explodes. When the Doctor arrives at the pod door, she finds a small, angry creature snacking on various metal components. As Mabli, Yaz, Ryan, and Graham join the party, the Doctor tries to scan the creature but it bites the sonic screwdriver, spits it out, and dives into a nearby hole.

Everyone regroups in the ship’s control hub. Mabli mourns Astos’s death as she digs into the computer databanks. They soon find out that the creature is a Pting, a highly dangerous, toxic-to-touch, very hard-to-kill eating machine.

Fun.

The Doctor tasks her companions with gathering everyone in the assessment area while she and Mabli develop an attack plan. Ryan and Yaz have a touching discussion with Yoss that stirs up childhood memories for Ryan, including how he found his mother dead from a heart attack when he was thirteen. Meanwhile, the ship detects the Pting and activates a sequence to prevent the creature from reaching Resus One, the Tsuranga‘s home port. The Doctor can postpone the sequence three times, but after that, the ship will self-destruct to save the station.

The Doctor briefs everyone in the assessment area on the situation. The ship’s main power goes out, leaving them on backups as heat and oxygen become premiums. Ryan and Graham end up acting as Yoss’s doulas as he goes into labor, and Mabli suggests that the Doctor scan Eve for more information on her condition. Eve has experience with a Pting – it decimated an entire fleet – and coordinates with the Doctor, Durka, and Ronan as they work on the antimatter drive. Yaz and Ronan stand guard duty over the drive as the Doctor, Eve, and Durka work on the computer.

The Doctor discovers that Eve has Pilot’s Heart, a condition among neuro-pilots that causes heart failure when adrenaline spikes. Durkas finds out as he tells the women that he’s rigged a primitive holographic interface to pilot the ship, and Eve decides that she will be the one to use it.

The Pting breaks through to the drive room. Ronan stuns it and Yaz wraps it in a medical blanket and punts it down the corridor. Meanwhile, as Eve is hooked up to the interface, the Doctor realizes that the Pting is hungry for energy, not for killing people, and races for Yaz and Ronan after postponing the ship’s autodestruct for the last time.

The Doctor’s sonic screwdriver reboots in time to help find the bomb built into the antimatter drive. She extracts the bomb and leaves Ronan to stand guard over the drive. Yaz accompanies the Doctor to the airlock and lures the Pting to them by speeding up the timer. The Pting takes the bait and the Doctor ejects it into space as the bomb explodes. The creature absorbs the entire blast and contently drifts into the asteroid field.

Eve pilots the ship out of danger and expresses her love for Durkas before she dies. Durkas takes control of the ship and pilots it to Resus One.

During all of this, Ryan and Graham bond over Yoss’s labor and delivery. Ryan channels his anger and grief into counseling for Yoss. Yoss doesn’t have to be perfect… he just has to be there for his new son. Yoss names his son Avocado after the legendary Earth hero Avocado Pear, which is a humorous misreading of Earth history.

When all is said and done, Mabli has arranged for the Doctor and her team to be taken back to the TARDIS. The collected survivors are buoyed by hope and their shared grief, and they all say farewell to Eve in a traditional ceremony.

This episode presents another case of interesting ideas being bogged down by questionable writing. The idea of the Pting is the typical no-win scenario trope found throughout science fiction, especially when coupled with a medical emergency that would drive urgency in a typical by-the-numbers script. But the urgency isn’t present because the medical expertise exists to deliver a baby without fancy technology. Humans have been doing it successfully for 200,000 years or so, and one can assume that Gifftans have done so as well.

So, instead of a medical emergency driving the urgency, we get an automated system that inexplicably allows three chances to override it. Instead of transmitting the data to the station and permitting the on-board medical attendants to explain the situation, a system is used to wipe out the problem without context. It becomes a sterile logic problem: A threat exists, eliminate the threat. Black and white, ignoring shades of gray.

I can get on board with this, but this time it comes with a major problem. We’ve seen systems like this before in Doctor Who, but we also take the time to discuss them and paint the allegorical picture for audiences to explain why they don’t work. There’s none of that here. The questionable writing is evident in a lack of follow-through. The plot ideas are seeded but are then promptly forgotten, which is a problem that plagues Chris Chibnall’s work on this show.

It also shows with the Doctor’s injuries, which nearly crippled her at the beginning of the story. They are virtually non-existent once the Pting arrives except for a bit of lip service paid in one or two exchanges, but she’s miraculously cured when the credits roll.

That said, we have a lot of excellent character development for Ryan and Graham as they grow closer. The rift isn’t quite sealed yet, but it’s getting there. The treatment of anti-matter is also well-researched.

It’s hard to not draw a connection between this story and Flesh and Stone, which also traps the Doctor, the companions, and the dangerous creatures in the same dramatic bottle. In that story, the energy was used to defeat the Weeping Angels, but here it merely gives the Pting a snack as it is removed from the ship to go kill bother someone else.

It’s also not hard to draw the connection between Pting and Disney’s Stitch. Cute, small, and dangerous? This is the second time that I have seen the episode and I can’t not make the comparison.

Finally, there’s the Ted Lasso connection. The show about footballers wasn’t around in 2018, but I nearly leaped off my seat this time when Roy (F’in) Kent appeared as a nurse. It was quite the surprise and was nice to see him in a somewhat more lighthearted role.

To sum up, this episode is merely okay. The drama of the threat fails because the hand is tipped well before the final round. Eve and Astos have to die because the story demands heroic sacrifices, but everyone else is safe and happy in the end.

That’s exactly what this story is. It’s just safe science fiction.

Rating: 3/5 – “Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow.”

UP NEXT – Doctor Who: Demons of the Punjab

The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.

An unhappy ending for an unfocused story.

In an empty hotel on a golf resort, American businessman Jack Robertson is upset with his personal assistant, Frankie Ellish. Robertson wants to throw money at the problem, especially in light of his potential political run in 2020, but Ellish says the problem is too complex. He fires a woman who stumbles upon their conversation, then gives Ellish one hour to solve the problem.

Meanwhile, the TARDIS navigates through the temporal vortex and arrives in Sheffield a mere half-hour after the fam originally departed. The Doctor is prepared to say goodbye to the team, but Yaz invites everyone to her place for tea. Graham has something else to take care of, so he passes on the offer. On the way up, the Doctor spots a woman in need of help, but the woman tells her that everything is fine.

The group meets Yaz’s family and the Doctor tries to figure out small talk. She engages Yaz’s father about the garbage that he’s collecting, eager to learn more about the conspiracy. Yaz gets a call from her mother, the woman whom Robertson fired, and goes to pick her up. After Yaz leaves, the Doctor offers to deliver a parcel meant for the next-door neighbor who hasn’t been seen for days.

The Doctor and Ryan enter the neighbor’s flat with the woman from before. The place is without power and filled with spider webs. They find the flat’s occupant Anna wrapped in spiderwebs like a trapped insect, and they find the spider responsible hiding under the bed. They trap it in the bedroom and the Doctor finds vinegar and garlic to keep it away. The spider goes around via the ceiling, and the Doctor asks it to stay in the apartment until she can solve the mystery.

Graham returns home. The place seems empty, but he imagines Grace standing with him as he thinks about everything he wants to tell her. He sits with one of her coats until he hears a noise from upstairs. He investigates and finds a shed spider carapace. He returns to the Doctor and tells the team what he found.

The woman, Jade, tells the group that these aren’t the first incidents. Something is happening to the spiders in the city. They follow Jade to her lab where she works as a zoologist specializing in arachnids.

At the hotel, Ellish descends into the lower levels while recording a statement for the authorities. She’s soon consumed by the spiders living there. Yaz arrives moments later to retrieve her mother, Najia, and Robertson confronts the women as trespassers and his bodyguard Kevin holds them at gunpoint. Robertson cites the room conditions as the reason for firing her.

Jade explains that her work is about extending spider lifespans. Apparently, spiders can keep growing throughout their lives. The spider population has exploded in Sheffield lately. The Doctor sees a pattern in the data and points them toward the golf resort.

Robertson shows the Khan women a guest room filled with spiderwebs. He leaves for a scheduled bathroom break and the Khan’s listen to a crawling sound in the walls. The Doctor calls and asks if they can let her in.

Robertson, meanwhile, is attacked in the bathroom by a giant spider that breaks through a bathtub. Kevin tries to defend his boss, but Robertson locks him in the bathroom. The ensuing gunshots bring everyone to the guest room as the spider drags Kevin away. Everyone but the Doctor and the Khans are a bit starstruck, and they investigate the carnage. The Doctor takes a look below the tub and comes face to face with the spider. They all run to the lobby but find the entrance blocked by a literal wall of webbing, so they retreat to the kitchen.

Robertson is beside himself that the Doctor doesn’t recognize him. When she asks if he’s Ed Sheeran, Robertson goes off her while flaunting his portfolio. He’s also running for President of the United States in 2020 because he hates Trump (and hates the name even more). The Doctor hatches a plan that involves catching a spider, sending Ryan and Graham to execute it. The plan, not the spider. They trap one before running away from an entire group of them.

The Khans discuss how Yaz knows the Doctor as the Time Lord digs into the hotel’s history. It seems that the resort was built on an abandoned coal mine. Against Robertson’s wishes, the team goes into the depths, finds Kevin and Ellish wrapped in webbing cocoons, and uncovers the blustering businessman’s secret: His waste disposal company used the mine to store massive amounts of toxic waste. With nowhere to go, the waste is being concentrated and has affected the spider population, including the dead spiders from Jade’s lab.

While Graham and Ryan search for another spider specimen, they discuss the letter that Ryan’s father wrote to him. Ryan’s father wants to be his “proper” family, but Ryan’s not interested. They find a massive spider in the ballroom and trap it before returning to the others. The Doctor concludes that the large spider is the mother and the others are returning home. She remembers that Robertson has a panic room and asks for a tour. Robertson wants to shoot them all, but the Doctor decides to trap them in the panic room for a humane death.

That doesn’t sit right.

Ryan lures the entire population to the panic room with “Know Me From” by Stormzy. With the spiders locked away, the Doctor develops a plan to herd the mother outside, but Jade notices that it has grown too large and is literally suffocating under its own mass. Robertson storms into the ballroom and shoots the mother spider, claiming it as a mercy killing that will secure his place in the White House. The Doctor is angry but can do nothing as Robertson leaves the room.

Later, the companions make their way back to the TARDIS, deciding that life with the Doctor is better than what they have in their homes. Graham needs to heal his grief, Ryan doesn’t want to go back to the warehouse, and Yaz wants more than the insanity that her family offers. They want to travel with the Doctor.

The Doctor warns them of the dangers. When they’re sure, this new Team TARDIS pulls the lever together and embarks on a new adventure.

This story had a lot of potential, but it was squandered with a meandering and unfocused plot. As such, the ending is way too quick and doesn’t resolve anything. The toxic waste problem remains, Jack Robertson doesn’t face any consequences, and the spiders are left behind to die of starvation in a panic room.

I’m not a fan of spiders, but the fate of these spiders really bothers me. The Eleventh Doctor once remarked that in 900 years of time and space, he had never met anyone who wasn’t important. Leaving the spiders to die a long and painful death for something that they didn’t have any influence on seems out of character. I wonder what a better writer could have done in consideration of Planet of the Spiders and Metebilius III.

Jack Robertson’s character also bothers me as an example of the “ugly American” stereotype, though it’s understandable given the time in which this episode was made. I recall watching this one when it first premiered and rolling my eyes at the stereotype. This time around, it makes me wonder if Chris Chibnall even knew what he wanted from the character since Robertson embodies the very man that he despises so much. Chris Noth reinforced this by loosely basing his portrayal on the real-life reality star. The character isn’t very clear-cut, and that further confuses an already muddy story.

I did like meeting Yaz’s family and adding more depth to her character. I was also impressed with the reimagined temporal vortex. But this story overall? Not a keeper.

Rating: 2/5 – “Mm? What’s that, my boy?”

UP NEXT – Doctor Who: The Tsuranga Conundrum

The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.

A powerful historical story.

Montgomery, Alabama – 1943: A seamstress named Rosa Parks boards a bus on her way home from work. She pays the fee and heads to the back where “colored people” are forced to sit. The driver tells her that she must disembark and enter the bus through the back door. When she tries to reason with the driver, he forcibly removes her. In the process, she drops her purse and briefly sits in the “whites” section to retrieve it. The driver is furious, prompting Rosa to tell him not to hit her. She leaves the bus and heads for the back door, but the driver maliciously drives away, leaving Rosa stranded in the middle of the street.

Montgomery, Alabama – 1955: The Doctor and her companions land in an alleyway. She’s dismayed that they didn’t land in Sheffield, and she chastizes the TARDIS for failing to take the humans home for the ninth time. Graham remarks that it was the fourteenth attempt, but he’s interested in meeting Elvis Presley. The Doctor discovers high amounts of artron energy in the area, which might be why the TARDIS chose this time and place, so they decide to investigate.

As they walk, Ryan notices that a woman has dropped her glove. When he tries to return it, the woman’s husband rewards him with a slap to the face. As the TARDIS team tries to work through the assault, Rosa Parks steps in to smooth things over. When the white couple walks away, Rosa turns on the team and lectures them on the Emmett Till situation before introducing herself. The team is starstruck, and the Doctor finds traces of artron energy all around Rosa.

Meanwhile, a mysterious man in a leather jacket finds the TARDIS. He tries to break in with an energy weapon but the capsule’s shields deflect it.

The Doctor and her companions convene at Slim’s Bar. Ryan and Yaz discuss their lessons about Rosa Parks from school, awed by the fact that she refused to give up her seat on a bus on December 1, 1955. The event (and her subsequent arrest) led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the end of racial segregation on public buses in America. That event will happen tomorrow.

Graham notes how quiet the bar has become. A waitress confronts them, stating that they don’t serve “negroes” or Mexicans (in reference to Yaz), and forces them to leave. Ryan is disgusted that he has traveled to the one time and place where he is hated most. The team decides to track down the artron energy and follows the readings to a nearby warehouse with copious padlocks.

Elsewhere, the mysterious man creeps on Rosa Parks. He returns to the warehouse where the team has discovered a suitcase hidden by a perception filter. The suitcase is filled with worn futuristic tech, including a charger. The mystery man fires on them, pushing the team into the yard outside. The Doctor confronts him, recognizing his weapon as a temporal displacement device that sends things to other times. She also notes that he’s carrying a vortex manipulator. He threatens to kill the team. She tells him not to threaten her. She takes a scan of his tech before the team leaves.

Their next stop is whites-only Sahara Springs Motel. The Doctor and Graham secure a room and sneak Ryan and Yaz in through a back window. They brainstorm about their situation and use a wall as a markerboard until a police officer knocks at the door. The Doctor erases the writing with her sonic screwdriver before answering the door, admitting the officer who searches the room. Luckily, Yaz and Ryan have escaped through the bathroom window and hidden behind a nearby dumpster. The officer departs with a warning that the Doctor and Graham should leave town soon.

Yaz and Ryan discuss their situation, irritated that things haven’t truly evolved between 1955 and their home time. Ryan relates how he is stopped while driving more often than his white friends, and Yaz explains how she’s seen as a “Paki” and a terrorist for going to a mosque. They return to the room and continue to work.

The team collects bus schedules and (thanks to Grace) narrows down their target to a bus driven by James Blake. They take a ride on the bus, disgusted by the seating situation, and end up at Rosa’s workplace. They eventually find Rosa on the bus and ask her about her riding habits, but she prompts the Doctor to move to maintain the racial status quo. Ryan volunteers to follow Rosa home while the rest of the team makes plans.

Rosa confronts Ryan for following her, but Ryan offers to help her with the fight. She eventually invites him to join her Youth Council, consisting of her husband, Fred Gray, and Martin Luther King. Ryan explains that his grandmother loved King and makes coffee for the meeting. He talks with Rosa later and shares his hopes that things will get better in the future.

The Doctor confronts the mysterious time traveler, tricking him into sending his own equipment to the 79th century. She identifies him as a prisoner of Stormcage, the same location where River Song was imprisoned. His name is Krasko, and he was imprisoned for murdering 2000 people, but he can’t kill the Doctor or Rosa due to a neural restrictor. The Doctor tests this by destroying his vortex manipulator and stranding him in time. Krasko wants to change history starting with the point where everything started to go wrong, and the Doctor warns him to go somewhere else. Krasko refuses.

Meanwhile, Yaz and Graham continue their research. Graham returns to Slim’s Bar and finds James Blake, but Graham is surprised to hear that Blake is taking a day off (orchestrated by Krasko). Graham returns to the motel room where the team is surprised by the news, prompting them to get James Blake back on duty.

Yaz and the Doctor pose as raffle officials, congratulating Elias Griffin Jr. on winning an all-expenses paid trip to Las Vegas to meet Frank Sinatra. The catch is that he has to leave now so he’ll have to miss his shift. Graham and Ryan find James Blake fishing on Mill Creek and convince him that a group of Black passengers are planning a sit-in protest across all of the bus routes. Furious, Blake packs up his gear and goes back to work.

Finally, the Doctor deliberately tears her coat and contracts Rosa to fix it as soon as possible. Yaz offers to wait for it.

Blake finds that his bus has been wrecked. A disguised Krasko tells him to head home, so the Doctor sends Ryan to game the bus system while Graham finds a replacement bus for Blake to drive. As Blake starts his route, Yaz talks to Rosa about their lives. Rosa is surprised that Yaz is a police officer. Rosa finishes the coat in time to catch the bus.

Ryan discovers that Krasko has blocked the road. After a confrontation about Ryan’s “kind” staying “in their place”, Ryan sends Krasko back in time as far as the time traveler’s gadget will allow. He makes it back to the bus just in time, placing all of the key players in the right spots.

As events play out, Graham ends up being the fulcrum that forces Rosa to occupy a white seat. When Blake demands that she move, she refuses, even if means being arrested. Blake calls for the police, and as Rosa is taken away she nods to the travelers. It’s obvious that she won’t forget them.

The team returns to the TARDIS and the Doctor explains how history plays out. The boycotts occur, and segregation on buses ends on December 21, 1956. Life was still hard, but Rosa was recognized for her brave fight in June 1999 by President Bill Clinton when she received the Congressional Gold Medal.

She was also remembered well into the future. The Doctor opens the TARDIS doors to reveal Asteroid 284996. It is named Rosaparks.

This was a hard episode to watch. It is also a necessary one in the mission of science fiction.

As someone who has lived in Georgia for over a decade and has spent most of his professional life in the American South, I have studied a lot about the history of the places I’ve called home. Cases like the murder of Emmett Till – a 14-year-old boy who was abducted, tortured, and lynched on the mere accusation of offending a white woman – are heartbreaking and woven throughout the fabric of society.

The details are sometimes lost to time as the system whitewashes them (leading to the importance of educational places like the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park, both in Atlanta, Georgia) and sometimes they are celebrated by those who support oppression (after an all-white jury found the perpetrators not guilty of Till’s murder and thus immune to double jeopardy, they sold the story of how they tortured and murdered Till to a popular magazine for the world to see).

In the nearly 250-year-long history of the United States, racial segregation has only been illegal for about 60 years. Even though it was banned by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, segregation remained for many years as jurisdictions dragged their feet toward compliance and enforcement.

Even with that considered, racism and discrimination aren’t dead, leading to the importance of this particular episode in the science fiction genre. One of my favorite quotes about the genre comes from Stargate SG-1‘s episode “200”, in which a character addresses the camera and states:

Science fiction is an existential metaphor that allows us to tell stories about the human condition. Isaac Asimov once said, “Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinded critics and philosophers of today, but the core of science fiction, its essence, has become crucial to our salvation, if we are to be saved at all.”

Science fiction is a mirror to reflect upon ourselves. The messages are timeless, but in the moment it has the power to show a receptive audience where their society stands. As such, it has the power to enlighten and offend, and the response says a lot about the viewer and how the message resonates.

The hope is that the audience takes the opportunity for self-reflection and self-improvement.

The writing takes some creative liberties, but the message delivered by this story, sadly, is still relevant today.

It also breaks some important ground in the history of Doctor Who since it was co-written by Malorie Blackman, the first woman of color to write for the series. She joins Vinay Patel, who penned the upcoming Demons of the Punjab, as the first writers of color to work on Doctor Who. They follow in Noel Clarke’s footsteps after he wrote Combat for Torchwood.

Further, the episode was directed by Mark Tonderai, the first Black director for Doctor Who. We previously saw his work on The Ghost Monument, and he follows in the footsteps of Waris Hussein, the first person of color to direct for the series. Hussein, of course, directed An Unearthly Child and the majority of Marco Polo.

The episode joins an elite pair by not featuring the series theme over the end credits. Here, the episode ends with “Rise Up” by Andra Day. It joins the finale of Earthshock, though that story ended with silence.

The racial tensions mirror concerns shared by Martha and Bill, though the tensions are brought fully into the spotlight here by the necessity of the story. I will say that the character of Krasko was written with a heavy hand, and his demise continues a (perhaps inadvertent) bloodthirsty trend of dispatching villains in this run.

I liked seeing a nod to The Chase as our heroes watch historical events on the Time-Space Visualizer (or something similar). Krasko’s meddling is reminiscent of the Meddling Monk‘s schemes, and I also found Graham’s constant use of the name “Doc” amusing. Apparently, the Thirteenth Doctor doesn’t share the First, Sixth, and Tenth Doctor’s dislike of the nickname.

Finally, we once again see the Doctor and companions becoming part of history – Donna and the Tenth Doctor were part of the events at Pompeii – and it makes me wonder if they were always there, thus creating another bootstrap paradox.

Rating: 5/5 – “Fantastic!”

UP NEXT – Doctor Who: Arachnids in the UK

The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.

A new family looking for an old friend.

Floating in the vacuum of deep space, the terror sets in as Ryan loses consciousness. A spacecraft arrives and the next thing that he knows is waking up in a pod with Graham watching over him. The spacecraft is being piloted by a woman named Angstrom who is suspicious of the two men. Despite the mutual misgivings, Angstrom drives the ship toward the “final” planet, which wasn’t where it was supposed to be.

Yaz and the Doctor are on a different ship, this one piloted by a man named Epzo. The “final” planet is named Desolation, and Epzo’s ship – which is falling apart around the trio – is crashing toward it. The Doctor recommends ejecting the back half of the ship, and while Epzo doesn’t like the idea, he has no choice.

Ryan, Graham, and Angstrom land on Desolation. The pilot scans the area while the two men revel in the fact that they’re on an alien planet. That joy soon evaporates as Epzo’s ship burns into the atmosphere above them and crashes pretty much on top of them.

The bright spot on the planet with three suns: The fam is back together.

The group makes their way across the desert as the pilots talk about their statuses as the last participants. An alarm echoing across the sands draws them to a large tent. Inside that tent, they find a man named Ilin and the lavish ephemera related to the final Rally of the Twelve Galaxies. The Doctor immediately recognizes all of it as a holographic projection.

The pilots have to survive the dangers of the planet without sabotage, injuries, or murder as they find a site called the Ghost Monument. The winner will receive 3.2 trillion Krin – is that a lot? – and will be taken off-planet, but the loser will be left to rot in desolation. Angstrom and Epzo are the last two participants in a field of 4000 who signed up for the ultimate test of survival and stamina.

The pilots are sent on their way, and the Doctor is treated to a holographic view of the Ghost Monument, which was named by the planet’s ancient settlers because it appears in the same place every 1000 rotations.

The Ghost Monument is the TARDIS. Its engines are stuck in a loop, leaving it to phase in and out on the planet. The Doctor and her crew set out after the pilots to get her ship back. They catch up to Angstrom and Epzo as the pilots fight over a single boat to cross a lake. Epzo threatens Angstom with a gun and the Doctor disarms him with Venusian Aikido. Ryan and Graham take a look at the broken engine while the Doctor and Yaz discover that the water is infested with flesh-eating microbes.

Graham tries to talk to Ryan about Grace, but Ryan shows him the cold shoulder. They do have a breakthrough about the engine, which is actually a solar battery. Meanwhile, Yaz and Angstrom bond for a short time until the boat is fixed.

The Doctor is puzzled by the empty planet, and Epzo shares a story about how his mother taught him a lesson about trust when she failed to catch him as he fell from a tree. Later, Angstrom explains the rally and how she entered to return home and bring her family back together again. Eventually, the travelers get some sleep while the Doctor watches over them.

When the boat lands, the group makes their way to some nearby ruins. Epzo and Angstrom split up while the Doctor and her companions enter the ruins. Epzo trips a sensor and activates a batch of sniper robots, and when he shoots at one, it shoots back. Both are struck, but the entire murderous group is activated. The Doctor’s group takes refuge in a shooting range, but when Ryan opts to fight back, the Doctor chastises him. Ryan goes all Call of Duty but returns when he can’t reload, bringing the snipers with him. The Doctor uses a fallen robot to rig an EMP, but this only gives them a short window to escape.

The Doctor’s group finds Angstrom and Epzo. After hacking into Angstrom’s tracker, the Doctor finds a hatch leading to an underground tunnel. They all take refuge in a large laboratory, taking heed of Ilin’s warning to not travel at night. Of course, Epzo wanders off to take a nap while everyone else explores the lab.

After syncing Angstrom’s tracker to the facility’s computer, they find a map of the tunnel system and a direct route to the Ghost Monument. Yaz and Ryan realize that the robots have found the hatch while the Doctor finds writing from the scientists who ran the facility. They were forced to work on weapons of mass destruction, and they opted to destroy the planet rather than let the weaponry fall into the hands of the Stenza. Angstrom reveals that the Stenza destroyed her planet and murdered millions, forcing her family into hiding.

Meanwhile, remnants of the scientists’ experiments attack Enzo, presenting as semi-sentient cloth strips. The group runs into the tunnels as the sniperbots shut down the life support systems. The group has no choice but to leave the tunnels, emerging into a field of acetylene. The Doctor takes a moment to praise Ryan for his courage as he climbs the ladder, and Ryan remembers that acetylene is lighter than air. The group digs into the sands as the cloth creatures whisper to them, even piquing the Doctor’s interest with something known as the Timeless Child. The Doctor and Graham use one of Enzo’s auto-igniting cigars to set the fields ablaze, destroying the cloth creatures.

As the suns rise, the group arrives at the tent marking the finish line. As Epzo and Angstrom debate who should win, the Doctor suggests that they enter the tent at the same time. Ilin is displeased but concedes the victory. He refuses, however, to take the Doctor and her fam off-world.

The Doctor is despondent and apologizes for failing to save her companions. The companions buoy her up as the sounds of the TARDIS echo around them. The Doctor uses her sonic screwdriver to summon and stabilize the TARDIS, and she is overjoyed when the time capsule materializes.

The ship has had a minor makeover on the outside, and it even opens the door for her. The inside has also been redecorated, and while it is a much darker control room, it does reflect the Doctor’s trip thus far with an orange crystal motif. The companions are astounded to see that the police box is bigger on the inside, and the Doctor is pleased to see that the console dispenses custard creams.

The Doctor works the controls and the TARDIS vanishes from Desolation.

The TARDIS has redecorated… and it’s okay. I’m not a fan of the dark and limited console room, but the designs on the walls and the eccentric console intrigue me. The crystal motif doesn’t pique my interest one way or the other, but it only makes sense when tying back into the Doctor’s homemade sonic screwdriver. The exterior is a nice callback to the Tom Baker era with the “pull to open” sign flipping the colors to white text on black.

The one choice that I really like is making the main entrance reflect the exterior design of the police box. It’s almost as if the Doctor and the companions have to step through the box to enter the extra-dimensional space.

I also like how Chris Chibnall paid attention to translation, specifically how the TARDIS’s translation field wouldn’t play into this story since the ship was missing. Enter the universal translators implanted by the medical pods as a nice touch.

I’m not a fan of the sonic screwdriver being used as a magic wand here. It’s a standard trope in the revival era, but there’s no reason why the team couldn’t spin the handwheel and open the hatch on their own. It was unnecessary to sonic it open.

I do like the new title sequence and the new theme. They take a creative spin on the usual while defining this era as its own.

The story itself is a standard quest line as our heroes get from point A to point B with some encounters along the way. That said, that bog-standard story is buoyed up by the characters as they get to know each other and the alien that they’re traveling with. The Doctor herself doesn’t present as some kind of superpowered deus ex machina, instead allowing the companions to solve the puzzles while encouraging them along the way. That helps to elevate an otherwise average adventure.

Rating: 4/5 – “Would you care for a jelly baby?”

UP NEXT – Doctor Who: Rosa

The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.