Spoiler: show
This episode is entirely centered around Yaz, a character who's gotten almost nothing to do in any of the previous episodes, and still manages to give 98% of the interesting material to other people. That's hilarious. Luckily, though, this episode's also pretty alright -- the first one of the season I didn't get really bored watching, anyway.
The setup is simple: Yaz's grandma gives her descendants gifts from her past because she's getting old, and Yaz -- despite being the favorite grandchild -- gets a broken watch that apparently belonged to Yaz's late grandfather. Curious about what it could mean, Yaz asks the Doctor to take her to India in the 40s, and the Doctor willfully ignores that traveling to one's family history has always gone horribly wrong with little objection. Unfortunately, they land in August of '47 on the day of the Partition of India, when half of the country was split up along religious majority lines into Pakistan by the British government to an immensely violent response; Yaz's Muslim grandma Umbreen is set to marry a Hindu man named Prem amidst the violence, and Prem is decidedly not Yaz's grandpa. Also, there's weird demon monster alien Predator knockoffs teleporting around, giving the Doctor threatening visions that look like they were thrown together with a default Photoshop filter. We're off to the races.
So this is another educational episode, like "Rosa", which I guess was the least terrible ep of Chibnall's initial writing run. Just like that one, there's the minor annoyance of the fact that nobody ever checks the importance of the date they've landed in and the Doctor only realizes it in a "dramatic" moment. But unlike that one, I didn't actually know a lot about the Partition before watching; I was never taught about it, and I've never had much impetus to learn more about it beyond the most cursory knowledge. But again unlike "Rosa", "Demons of the Punjab" isn't very interested in actually exploring the horrors of the Partition beyond angry exposition and the climactic death, while the former episode at least had some onscreen racist horror even if it still dramatically underplayed it for the sake of keeping it family-friendly. Trouble is, as I've come to understand it from post-episode research, there's really no way to do an effective family-friendly depiction of the Partition -- the Doctor's not going to encounter burning refugee trains filled with brutalized corpses, or anything.
But you know what? Still an okay episode. Okay enough that I actually felt somewhat engaged and didn't take as many notes as I have for prior episodes.
We learn very quickly that the Predator knockoffs are called the Stenz- I mean, the Fajarians. Thajarians? Vajarians? I couldn't really tell, and I couldn't be arsed to look it up, so I'll call them Jerries. The Jerries are supposedly the deadliest assassins in the entire known universe -- which, just like those stupid jobbers in "The Girl Who Died" being called the deadliest army in the universe, feels incredibly silly and stupid -- and for unknown reasons, they've killed the holy man who was going to marry Umbreen and Prem. The Doctor and friends, accompanied by Prem, investigate and find the Jerries' ship fairly quickly, whereupon the Doctor steals their Macguffin and a few vague barrier things while the Jerries accuse her of desecration. It's at this point that a lot of the plot becomes blindingly obvious, in case the setting and central mystery (gee, I wonder why this man in an inter-religious marriage during a time of tumultuous violence between India and Pakistan isn't the grandma's only husband!) didn't make it clear already.
Anywho, the Doctor uses the vague barrier things to give them protection against the Jerries for 12 hours, and also does some more of the "mad inventor" stuff I've been wanting for tragically little ultimate effect. She then decides that Umbreen and Prem getting married is their highest priority, but it isn't long before the vague barrier shits out and the Jerries spirit the Doctor back to their ship for some third-act exposition.
Yes, despite being set up as decently threatening enemies -- at least by comparison to the Stenza, Evil Blankets, Space Nazi Mac, NotTrump and his Pollution Spiders, and Putter -- the Jerries are just remorseful remnants of a dead assassin race who now go around bearing witness to people who die alone and forgotten. They just happened to be caught at the worst times standing next to the holy man's corpse (and a dead soldier in a flashback), don't alter their dress at all or use cloaking tech even though they look like sinister monsters, only communicate in a way that hurts people's brains sometimes before conveniently stopping, and acted needlessly aggressive and violent without explaining themselves because the Doctor stole their vat of dead peoples' ashes. Yeah, it's really fucking stupid and contrived and just wastes time on a sci-fi conceit that's almost entirely extraneous. It also feels like a slightly more competent version of those dumb crystal monsters from Twelve's final episode, who acted like assholes for no reason before suddenly revealing their peaceful nature.
But then, who killed the holy man, and why are the Jerries still here in '47 India? The answer to the former is forthcoming, but the latter is given immediately: they're there to witness the death of Prem, who will die hours after his wedding to Umbreen. As obvious as it is, and as much of a one-dimensional good guy Prem is, and as much as the revelation of the Jerries' mission takes the wind out of the sails to set up an entirely new threat in the eleventh hour, this is admittedly executed decently. I liked Prem well enough for a generic one-off supporting character, and it almost makes up for Umbreen -- the episode's supposed focal point -- getting next to nothing to do.
It comes time for the wedding, but not before Best Boy Graham gets some really nice character moments in the middle of an episode supposedly dedicated to Yaz. Weird how that shakes out. The wedding is quite nice, with the Doctor officiating while Umbreen and Prem share in each other's religious customs*, but Prem's brother Manish is now being a bitch about everything: he's a Hindu nationalist who's been mildly irritated about Prem marrying a Muslim throughout the episode, but now that the episode no longer has a villain, he leaps into the role with the aplomb of a wet shoe flopping onto the pavement. It turns out Manish is the one who killed the holy man to try and stop the wedding, which is revealed as he threatens the Doctor with the rifle he used to do it. Firstly, I'm so glad this scene doesn't lead to the Doctor going on another child-level anti-gun rant that manages to irritate me even though I mostly hate guns. Secondly, this episode's entire plot hinges upon no one -- including The Doctor -- not noticing that the holy man was killed via a huge gunshot wound presumably to the chest, because internal logic is for babies.
* = It amuses me to no end to see hard-left sites praise this episode and this scene in particular, when they deride this exact thing as cultural appropriation otherwise. Feh.
Manish is a bit of a confusing and two-dimensional villain, for reasons Marc already went into, but again, he's somehow better than the absolute drek the last five episodes have served up. He runs off to alert a nationalist gang who are going around killing people who "don't belong", and when he comes back, shit goes bad. Umbreen runs away to survive and completely disappears, while Prem stands in the gang's way and gets shot as the Jerries look on to censor the blast. The Doctor and companions walk away, and the emotional cut to a shocked face is bafflingly given to the Doctor rather than Yaz. This is a fine climax, albeit one that makes me wish they just went wholesale on the historical context and made Manish and the gang the villains full-time instead of wasting half of it on the Jerries. After that, the crew return to the present so Yaz can have one last scene with her grandma, and we're out.
Again: this episode was okay! I liked it, even! It was nothing special and a lot of it was wasted, but I was engaged in watching it and I didn't have any major complaints beyond the Jerries twist and some really contrived writing. Perhaps not coincidentally, this is the first episode of the season that Chibnall had nothing to do with writing, and the marked improvement in quality should be a red flag going forward. This is not a problem with the series. This is a problem with the new showrunner. Either fire him or pay him to stop writing episodes -- or at least to just make outline scripts and hand them off to people with actual talent.
Anywho, next episode is about Space Amazon, I guess. The awful but convenient corporation, not the rain forest or sexy muscular women. There's some really creepy androids, and I'm sure there's some subtle and poignant satire to go along with them. Cannot wait.
The setup is simple: Yaz's grandma gives her descendants gifts from her past because she's getting old, and Yaz -- despite being the favorite grandchild -- gets a broken watch that apparently belonged to Yaz's late grandfather. Curious about what it could mean, Yaz asks the Doctor to take her to India in the 40s, and the Doctor willfully ignores that traveling to one's family history has always gone horribly wrong with little objection. Unfortunately, they land in August of '47 on the day of the Partition of India, when half of the country was split up along religious majority lines into Pakistan by the British government to an immensely violent response; Yaz's Muslim grandma Umbreen is set to marry a Hindu man named Prem amidst the violence, and Prem is decidedly not Yaz's grandpa. Also, there's weird demon monster alien Predator knockoffs teleporting around, giving the Doctor threatening visions that look like they were thrown together with a default Photoshop filter. We're off to the races.
So this is another educational episode, like "Rosa", which I guess was the least terrible ep of Chibnall's initial writing run. Just like that one, there's the minor annoyance of the fact that nobody ever checks the importance of the date they've landed in and the Doctor only realizes it in a "dramatic" moment. But unlike that one, I didn't actually know a lot about the Partition before watching; I was never taught about it, and I've never had much impetus to learn more about it beyond the most cursory knowledge. But again unlike "Rosa", "Demons of the Punjab" isn't very interested in actually exploring the horrors of the Partition beyond angry exposition and the climactic death, while the former episode at least had some onscreen racist horror even if it still dramatically underplayed it for the sake of keeping it family-friendly. Trouble is, as I've come to understand it from post-episode research, there's really no way to do an effective family-friendly depiction of the Partition -- the Doctor's not going to encounter burning refugee trains filled with brutalized corpses, or anything.
But you know what? Still an okay episode. Okay enough that I actually felt somewhat engaged and didn't take as many notes as I have for prior episodes.
We learn very quickly that the Predator knockoffs are called the Stenz- I mean, the Fajarians. Thajarians? Vajarians? I couldn't really tell, and I couldn't be arsed to look it up, so I'll call them Jerries. The Jerries are supposedly the deadliest assassins in the entire known universe -- which, just like those stupid jobbers in "The Girl Who Died" being called the deadliest army in the universe, feels incredibly silly and stupid -- and for unknown reasons, they've killed the holy man who was going to marry Umbreen and Prem. The Doctor and friends, accompanied by Prem, investigate and find the Jerries' ship fairly quickly, whereupon the Doctor steals their Macguffin and a few vague barrier things while the Jerries accuse her of desecration. It's at this point that a lot of the plot becomes blindingly obvious, in case the setting and central mystery (gee, I wonder why this man in an inter-religious marriage during a time of tumultuous violence between India and Pakistan isn't the grandma's only husband!) didn't make it clear already.
Anywho, the Doctor uses the vague barrier things to give them protection against the Jerries for 12 hours, and also does some more of the "mad inventor" stuff I've been wanting for tragically little ultimate effect. She then decides that Umbreen and Prem getting married is their highest priority, but it isn't long before the vague barrier shits out and the Jerries spirit the Doctor back to their ship for some third-act exposition.
Yes, despite being set up as decently threatening enemies -- at least by comparison to the Stenza, Evil Blankets, Space Nazi Mac, NotTrump and his Pollution Spiders, and Putter -- the Jerries are just remorseful remnants of a dead assassin race who now go around bearing witness to people who die alone and forgotten. They just happened to be caught at the worst times standing next to the holy man's corpse (and a dead soldier in a flashback), don't alter their dress at all or use cloaking tech even though they look like sinister monsters, only communicate in a way that hurts people's brains sometimes before conveniently stopping, and acted needlessly aggressive and violent without explaining themselves because the Doctor stole their vat of dead peoples' ashes. Yeah, it's really fucking stupid and contrived and just wastes time on a sci-fi conceit that's almost entirely extraneous. It also feels like a slightly more competent version of those dumb crystal monsters from Twelve's final episode, who acted like assholes for no reason before suddenly revealing their peaceful nature.
But then, who killed the holy man, and why are the Jerries still here in '47 India? The answer to the former is forthcoming, but the latter is given immediately: they're there to witness the death of Prem, who will die hours after his wedding to Umbreen. As obvious as it is, and as much of a one-dimensional good guy Prem is, and as much as the revelation of the Jerries' mission takes the wind out of the sails to set up an entirely new threat in the eleventh hour, this is admittedly executed decently. I liked Prem well enough for a generic one-off supporting character, and it almost makes up for Umbreen -- the episode's supposed focal point -- getting next to nothing to do.
It comes time for the wedding, but not before Best Boy Graham gets some really nice character moments in the middle of an episode supposedly dedicated to Yaz. Weird how that shakes out. The wedding is quite nice, with the Doctor officiating while Umbreen and Prem share in each other's religious customs*, but Prem's brother Manish is now being a bitch about everything: he's a Hindu nationalist who's been mildly irritated about Prem marrying a Muslim throughout the episode, but now that the episode no longer has a villain, he leaps into the role with the aplomb of a wet shoe flopping onto the pavement. It turns out Manish is the one who killed the holy man to try and stop the wedding, which is revealed as he threatens the Doctor with the rifle he used to do it. Firstly, I'm so glad this scene doesn't lead to the Doctor going on another child-level anti-gun rant that manages to irritate me even though I mostly hate guns. Secondly, this episode's entire plot hinges upon no one -- including The Doctor -- not noticing that the holy man was killed via a huge gunshot wound presumably to the chest, because internal logic is for babies.
* = It amuses me to no end to see hard-left sites praise this episode and this scene in particular, when they deride this exact thing as cultural appropriation otherwise. Feh.
Manish is a bit of a confusing and two-dimensional villain, for reasons Marc already went into, but again, he's somehow better than the absolute drek the last five episodes have served up. He runs off to alert a nationalist gang who are going around killing people who "don't belong", and when he comes back, shit goes bad. Umbreen runs away to survive and completely disappears, while Prem stands in the gang's way and gets shot as the Jerries look on to censor the blast. The Doctor and companions walk away, and the emotional cut to a shocked face is bafflingly given to the Doctor rather than Yaz. This is a fine climax, albeit one that makes me wish they just went wholesale on the historical context and made Manish and the gang the villains full-time instead of wasting half of it on the Jerries. After that, the crew return to the present so Yaz can have one last scene with her grandma, and we're out.
Again: this episode was okay! I liked it, even! It was nothing special and a lot of it was wasted, but I was engaged in watching it and I didn't have any major complaints beyond the Jerries twist and some really contrived writing. Perhaps not coincidentally, this is the first episode of the season that Chibnall had nothing to do with writing, and the marked improvement in quality should be a red flag going forward. This is not a problem with the series. This is a problem with the new showrunner. Either fire him or pay him to stop writing episodes -- or at least to just make outline scripts and hand them off to people with actual talent.
Anywho, next episode is about Space Amazon, I guess. The awful but convenient corporation, not the rain forest or sexy muscular women. There's some really creepy androids, and I'm sure there's some subtle and poignant satire to go along with them. Cannot wait.