Doctor Who Series 11: 3 Ups & 2 Downs From 'Rosa'
Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King join Jodie Whittaker's new Doctor in the 1950s...
Given this brave new era of Doctor Who, you might have been forgiven for wondering just how old school Chibbers and his creative team were going to go. The latest episode - Rosa - proved that consideration perfectly. The Doctor took us back to 1955, and this episode took Doctor Who right back to 1963, back to Sydney Newman’s office and right back to where Doctor Who all began.
The episode was thoughtful, important and very powerful and it is very justifiably earning plaudits across the board. This was a change of pace for the series after the first two episodes and the beginnings of change in Jodie Whittaker's wonderful new doctor, as the material warranted. And while it was a great episode, there is balance in this conversation and it's worth exploring what it could perhaps also have done a little better alongside the praise.
First, the negatives...
Downs
2. The Story's Reasoning Lacked Punch
Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff is what got The Doctor into the mess at the start of this episode in the first place. That's how she, Ryan, Yaz, and Graham ended up chasing after Rosa Parks in the 1950’s where we were introduced to Krasko, the main villain of this episode (though you could call society at that time the villain of the week), who deserves some attention.
He recognised a TARDIS, he knew of Time Lords and he was wearing a vortex manipulator. It seems that he’s trying to throw history off-course, nudging the past to change the outcome of the future. But why? Who is he?
Could he be a Time Agent, like Captain Jack Harkness? When Ryan confronts him, he says ‘your kind,' which could either mean people of colour, or humans.Presumably, he’s not human, since we got some backstory about him and his time in space prison...
And then, suddenly, poof, off he went, zapped into the past. He was the reason The Doctor was dragged here in the first place, as this setting needed a concise reason why she and her companions would be here. Surely The Doctor, knowing her companions, wouldn’t willingly bring them to this backward time within American society?
But with Krasko and the energy readings, there was a reason. Sadly, the execution means it was a little thin on the ground as reasoning goes.