Doctor Who Series 11: 10 Big Questions We Are Asking After 'Rosa'
3. Would It Have Been Better As A Pure HIstorical?
Back in the sixties a number of Doctor Who stories contained no alien presence other than the regular TARDIS crew. Before the airing of last week’s trailer it had been rumoured that Rosa would herald a return to that long abandoned approach. The Parks story had more than enough human villains for the Doctor and Co to battle against, and there are events and characters that it would be inappropriate to fictionalise (with Hitler in Let’s Kill Hitler a good example).
Would Rosa have worked without Krasko and his racially motivated attempt to derail history? Yes, the presence of the Doctor and her companions could have been enough to unwittingly create the potential breach in the timeline and they could have been fighting to undo the damage caused by one of their own.
But that would be to miss one of the most important points about the episode. For despite all the good that came from Rosa’s protest and the subsequent bus boycott, the price was a heavy one and the struggle for equality still continues.
Krasko proves that there are no fairy tale endings and that bigotry and prejudice will never be totally eradicated. He also played an important role in given the TARDIS team someone to fight against without interfering too much in the historical event.
The most powerful scene was of Graham realising he could not leave the bus and was in effect being forced to be complicit in Rosa’s arrest. Without an alien threat there would have been a real danger of making the Doctor and her companions the inspiration for Rosa Parks, a move that would have been highly questionable.
There is also the possibility that Krasko is part of a bigger picture. His inhibitor fits into the pattern of implants we noticed last week, and Ryan’s actions in sending him back to the past, though strangely overlooked by the Doctor, may well prove to have consequences.