Doctor Who Season 11: 10 Huge Questions After 'Demons Of The Punjab'
2. DId Yaz's Nan Know Her Granddaughter Was A Time Traveller?
The episode closed with Yaz back in Sheffield with her grandmother. Oddly, Umbreen shows little sign of knowing that her granddaughter and her friends were her unexpected wedding guests all those years ago. Those events would have been imprinted in her memory, and the elderly woman is clearly not suffering from any form of dementia or memory loss. Furthermore, the henna tattoo is surely a massive giveaway. She even dismisses it as badly done, just as she had done in 1947.
It is possible that we are meant to infer that the two of them are colluding in their mutual secrecy, and that in reality they both are fully aware of the truth. Perhaps the broken watch is testimony enough and nothing more needs to be said on the matter. But this is problematic in that it undermines the Vijarians quest to remember the dead. Again, with the Disney movie Coco in mind, we might have expected Prem to be rightfully acknowledged. The young Umbreen was characterised as someone unwilling to compromise or deny her love and it seems odd and out of character that Prem’s memory has been kept a secret.
Earlier in the episode, Umbreen makes it clear that Yaz is her favourite. She wouldn’t be the first grandparent to be so unsubtle about such a thing, but we never find out why this is the case. Or do we? Perhaps Yaz’s presence at her first wedding is the reason. Maybe in one of those many unscreened adventures we keep getting hints about, Umbreen got to meet the Doctor and the others in 2018. If not, then assuming that this is not the last time we will be seeing her in the series (and all the signs point towards at least some of Yaz’s family returning), we should expect a moment of recognition.