An Hour of Who a Day: 08/23/19

August 23: "Rosa"

A present-day story, then a future story (well, an alien planet, at least), and now a story set in the past. At least some things remain the same. (Although I suppose you could argue that this has been the case since the very beginning of the series if you wanted.) And now we've headed to the United States again (in reality more of South Africa), to 1955 Alabama and the day before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus.

When Doctor Who announced that they were going to do an episode about Rosa Parks, a number of fans (myself included) were slightly worried by this. Given that the show doesn't really do pure historicals anymore, this would mean there would be an alien or time traveler somewhere mucking things up -- would this therefore mean that Rosa Parks was going to encounter an alien? Or, worse, that the Doctor would somehow be the inspiration for Rosa to refuse to give up her seat (thus taking away from the courage the real life Rosa Parks exhibited that day)? But fortunately, the subject is handled with a great deal of care and thoughtfulness, thanks to writers Malorie Blackman (Doctor Who's first non-white scriptwriter, after only 55 years) and Chris Chibnall. And while it's not a pure historical, this is about the closest the show has come in a long, long time (a distinction it shares with upcoming story "Demons of the Punjab").

Yaz, Graham, the Doctor, and Ryan outside a "Whites Only" motel.
("Rosa") ©BBC

And to their credit, "Rosa" spends a good deal of time directly confronting the issue of race and racism in 1955 Alabama. Doctor Who's track record on race isn't great, to be honest, and the tendency, particularly in recent years, has been to brush it aside when it comes up (such as in "The Shakespeare Code" or "Thin Ice"), but we get nothing so glib here. The Doctor is now traveling with two non-white companions, and the color of their skin puts them in just as much danger here (if not more) as on a hostile alien world. "Are you crazy?" Rosa demands, after Ryan gets slapped for trying to return a white woman's glove. "...Don't you read the newspapers? You know what they did to young Emmett Till." "We're from out of town," the Doctor replies. "So was Emmett Till, on vacation from the North," says Rosa. "Couple of words to a white woman in Mississippi, and the next thing, they find his body in the river. You want that to be you?" And so Ryan and (to a lesser extent, Yaz) are constantly being watched with suspicion and hatred, purely because of how they look. And, smartly, the script makes a point of making it clear that racism didn't end in the '60s, that people of color still have to deal with it today:

RYAN: I'm sick of this place already.
YASMIN: I know. But to be here just as history's taking place.
RYAN: This ain't history here, Yaz. We're hiding behind bins. I'm having to work so hard to keep my temper, every second here. I could've slapped that guy back there as soon as we arrived. Thank God me Nan taught me how to keep my temper. Never give them the excuse.
YASMIN: Yeah? My dad tells me the same.
RYAN: Yeah, see? It's not like Rosa Parks wipes out racism from the world forever. Otherwise, how come I get stopped way more by the police than my white mates?
YASMIN: Oi, not this police.
RYAN: Tell me you don't get hassle.
YASMIN: Course I do, especially on the job. I get called a Paki when I'm sorting out a domestic, or a terrorist on the way home from the mosque.
RYAN: Yeah, exactly.
YASMIN: But they don't win, those people. I can be a police officer now 'cos people like Rosa Parks fought those battles for me. For us. And in 53 years, they'll have a black President as leader. Who knows where they'll be 50 years after that? But that's proper change.

(from The Doctor Who Transcripts - Rosa)

But yes, the main storyline here isn't about inspiring Rosa Parks or anything like that; it's instead about stopping another time traveler, Krasko, from altering history such that Rosa Parks isn't in a position to refuse to give up her seat. Krasko is an ex-con from the Stormcage (where River Song was held) who's traveled back to 1955 to change history, essentially because he's a racist: "Parks won't be asked to stand, she won't protest, and your kind won't get above themselves," Krasko tells Ryan. "...Stay in your place." It's a bit sad to think that racism will still exist even in the future, but it's also depressingly plausible here in 2019, where we read about acts of hate crimes and white supremacy terrorism here in the United States with distressing frequency. But that also means that's all the motivation Krasko needs, and since he can't just kill Rosa Parks (because of a "no violence" implant in his head), he instead has to make small changes to derail history. So we're a long way from "But you can't rewrite history! Not one line!" in The Aztecs.

But in other ways this story feels a lot like a Hartnell historical, with lots of opportunities not just to show the audience what life would have been like in 1955 for black people, but also a detailed description of what Rosa Parks did and the events that led to it. They add some jokes in to help it go down (such as when Graham protests at the Doctor scribbling on the motel wall with a marker: "Pack it in. You ain't Banksy." "Or am I?" the Doctor replies, a mischievous glint in her eye), but this has a heavy educational bent to it. Of course, describing the facts of Rosa's life are one thing, but then seeing the way the police officer treats the Doctor and Graham with suspicion because they've been seen around with Ryan and Yaz, or the way everyone stares at the four of them in the restaurant, makes it a lot more clear just how openly prejudiced society was then. It's very powerfully done. (That said, I adore the way the Doctor stares somewhat disgustedly at Graham's hand after he puts it on the Doctor's shoulder, to convince the cop they're a happy married couple.) I also appreciate the confusion surrounding Yaz, where she's treated as both less-than-white but also almost white, with people calling her Mexican but also allowing her to use the bus as a white person. "The driver let me on at the front of the bus. What does that mean for where I sit?" Yaz wonders. "Obviously not a lot of Pakistani heritage around here. Does 'colored' just mean black in 1955?" It's a good way of showing how the lines ended up blurred.

Plus we also get opportunities to see Montgomery through Rosa Parks's eyes, just by how she treats those around her, and in the conversation she has with Yaz, as well as with Ryan at a little meeting at Rosa's house, where Ryan gets to meet Martin Luther King, Jr. (Vinette Robinson, playing Rosa Parks, looks an awful lot like the real Rosa Parks. Ray Sesay, playing Martin Luther King, only kind of looks like King, sad to say.) It all builds up to paint a picture of life back then, in a way that puts most of the other BBC Wales historical stories to shame. This isn't a story about aliens or time travelers; this is a story about Rosa Parks, and what she did.

And so we get a lot of running around, trying to undo all the changes that Krasko has made, which allows for some fun moments in a rather heavy story, but ultimately this story is about Rosa Parks, her struggles, and her decision to make a stand. The episode doesn't take away from that decision in any way, and it's all the better for it. "Rosa" is a standout episode not just of series 11, but of possibly the entirety of Doctor Who. This is a historical story about something that really matters, handled in a caring way, while educating the audience along the way. Would that all the adventures in history could be like this.