It was only upon some serious reflection did I realise that, despite the TARDIS being able to visit any moment in the universe’s history, we have mostly visited the greats of English Literature, and our historical episodes are mostly nice set-pieces that give us some novel backdrop for alien shenanigans. That’s why, when I learned Doctor Who was going to focus an episode on the partition of India and Pakistan, I was shocked… and nervous. However, I was presented with an interesting and engaging hour of television, but also an episode that highlights my worries for the future of Doctor Who. In an effort to keep this ‘Demons of the Punjab’ review from crumbling into the ramblings of a madwoman, I am going to review it two ways—as an hour of television, and as a Doctor Who episode.
The Grand Narrative
I cannot say that I am, by any means, an expert on the history of the partition of India. With ‘Rosa’, I had a semester of modern history and a lot of cultural exposure to the key events surrounding the Civil Rights movement so, even though it was a moving episode, the events that occurred didn’t have the ability to really shock me. This episode succeeds where ‘Rosa’ did not; I watched this episode with eyes wide, learning more and more about a part of history that had, for the most part, eluded me. The show dpes not shy away from mentioning the issues of British Colonialism surrounding the decision to create religious borders, and we are presented with a subtle, nuanced portrayal of a dark corner of history.
The episode boasts a well-constructed narrative with some interesting side characters, ideas, and execution. We are not presented with a shoe-horned moral of this tale; instead, we are shown an unadulterated portrayal of the flawed nature of man. As an hour of television, it’s a powerful, moving, and interesting way to spend tea-time.
The Doctor Who Problem
While I thoroughly enjoyed this episode, its place in Series 11 as a whole is, well, worrying. There are a lot of things done really well in this episode, but the issues we have had with previous instalments of the series are still present. This week, our villains are not really villains at all, and we’re running out of room for any iconic monsters to come to the fore as a new big-bad for the series. Three companions is beginning to feel like too many, with Ryan relegated to the margins this week, speaking dialogue that sounded like it was written by auto-complete.
The reliance on single-story episodes, and the fact we know there will not be any two-part, grander narratives, makes a lot of episodes this series feel a little small-scale. This week, 1947 India was represented through a shed, a flower-laced field, and a forest. Again, as an episode in its own right, this would be fine—but this has been every episode so far in Whittaker’s run.
If ‘Demons of the Punjab’ was released in week 2 or 3, I would have given it a stellar review. However, we are over halfway through this series now, and I can’t help but feel we are constantly being confronted by the same issues and plot-threads. Doctor Who relies heavily on variety and risk—a bad episode one week doesn’t mean there isn’t a phenomenal one waiting in the ‘up next’ preview after the credits. This season, however, has not had any of these extremes—just a string of ‘okay’, ‘good’, and ‘very good’ episodes that hardly vary in their shading.
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