Doctor Who Season 11: 10 Huge Questions After 'Demons Of The Punjab'
All the major talking points after Doctor Who Series 11 Episode 6.
Demons of the Punjab might be the first story of 2018 to have been solely credited to another writer (Vinay Patel), but it may turn out to be the best example of Chris Chibnall’s fresh approach to Doctor Who. It ticks all the boxes as far as the key messages of the series go: the focus on families of all shapes and sizes, redemption, inclusivity, working together as equals, and the breaking down of the barriers that divide us as people.
It fits into a now recognisable house style - something that in all his tinkering, Steven Moffat never quite managed to achieve. Chibnall is respectful of the rich heritage of the show, but willing to change the unwritten rules for dramatic impact, such as the haunting variation on the closing theme tune.
It also sets Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor apart from her predecessors more clearly than any of the episodes that have preceded it.
The ingredients were all there to weave some classic Doctor Who magic on the complex and unsettling story of how one family’s world was changed forever by the partition of India and Pakistan, and it left a number of questions behind.
10. How Accurate Were The Historical References?
For the second time this series, Doctor Who tackled a historical event that goes to the heart of what unites and divides the human race. Rosa highlighted the importance of taking an active stand against racism by recreating one of the landmark events that helped to bring an end to segregation. The episode told of the triumph of the marginalised, and of the individual over societal evil. It was a tale of hope prevailing over injustice. But sometimes hope is not enough, and with history unable to be fixed by the Doctor, as symbolised by the broken watch, love is all that is left in the face of the worse kind of evil. The evil carried out by otherwise decent, ordinary people.
Demons of the Punjab took as its starting point the ratification of the border between India and Pakistan, a decision that would have devastating consequences that still reverberate today. The independence of India from the British Empire was fast-tracked by Lord Mountbatten because of both Britain’s economic poverty in the wake of the Second World War and the conflict between India’s Hindu and Muslim communities. Partition only served to increase those hostilities, leading to a huge loss of life. The estimated casualty figure is still open to debate, ranging from 200,000 to 2 million. The Doctor puts it at 1 million which, whilst hard to imagine, is indeed a believable figure.
Although many Muslims in India fled to Pakistan, and many Hindus in Pakistan made the opposite journey, others refused to leave their communities, preferring to live together just as they had always done, Hindus and Muslims side by side with other faiths too. Some 35 million Muslims stayed in India after partition. The episode tackles with great sensitivity the impact of partition on the day the borders were made a reality, and the way in which fear makes one blind to reality and can tear families apart.