Doctor Who Series 11: 4 Ups & 2 Downs From 'Demons Of The Punjab'

2. The Villain's Heel Turn

So the main antagonists of this episode are these ‘demons.’ We’re led to believe they killed the holy man, Sadhu, and they keep appearing in people’s minds. We don’t know why they’re here, but Prem saw them before, stood over the body of his brother during the war. Obviously, they killed him. At this point, I started to see parallels to that guy from episode one who waited for Tim Shaw to return to confront him after he killed his sister, but thankfully, that wasn’t the case.

Instead, it turns out these ‘demons’ are officially known as the ‘Assassins of the Thijar.’ A race of, well, assassins. It all fits now, sure. Well, their homeworld is gone. These two now ‘honour the lost.’ The central hub of their ship-thing is a canister containing DNA of every lost soul the demons honour, including some of their own race, the specks left after the destruction of their planet.

This heel turn was a genuinely moving moment. We’ve seen villains lead on our heroes before to some ‘oh I’m actually good’ nonsense, but in this case, it was genuinely believable. It was done in such a way not to entirely negate the threat, but to move the threat onto something else. As for what, we weren’t sure yet. That was until these demons revealed why they were still here. They honoured Sadhu, but someone else was going. It’s Prem. That’s why there was such a mystery revolving around Yaz’s grandfather, and why future Umbreen was never wanting to talk about it. I loved all of this. Also, can we take a moment to appreciate just how cool the demons looked? There’s that budget again. Also, honouring the unknown dead. Do you think they knew this would be airing on the centenary of the armistice? ON Remembrance Day? I don’t know, but it worked.