10 Tragically Romantic Doctor Who Episodes

This episode sees the Doctor doing something rather risky – going back into a companion’s history – as she takes Yaz to see her grandmother Umbreen when she was young. When they end up at Umbreen’s home in the Punjab in 1947, it is revealed that the man her grandmother is about to marry isn’t her grandfather, a man called Prem.

Unlike some of the other episodes on this list, the romance in Demons of the Punjab really is the heart of the story. It also personalises the historical events and creates big emotional and personal stakes for Yaz. As an audience you can sense the tragedy coming, as you realise something has either gone wrong with time, or something awful is going to happen to Prem – and of course it does, he gets shot.

This story really does have a different emotional impact. It is a story of two normal people in love, who are ripped apart by the real political events, rather than the fictional monsters. The episode is far more grounded, and more like a historical drama in this sense, but that’s what makes it so good.