An Hour of Who a Day: 08/26/19

August 26: "Demons of the Punjab"

Finally, a chance to (ostensibly) bring Yaz front and center to the proceedings. "Demons of the Punjab" focuses on her family, with her wanting to know more about a broken watch her grandmother gave her that Nani Umbreen wouldn't talk about -- and since her friend has a time machine, why not look back to see what happened? And so after some warnings about not interfering with history, the TARDIS tracks the watch back in time -- not to 1950s Lahore, as Yaz expected, but instead to the Punjab on 17 August 1947: the day the borders dividing India and Pakistan were announced. And Umbreen lives right on the border, ready to marry a Hindu man who isn't Yaz's grandfather...

"Demons of the Punjab" is the second episode of Doctor Who to be written by a person of color: in this case, it's Vinay Patel (getting sole writing credit -- the first time this series), covering a piece of history that, here in the United States at least, we know almost nothing about: the Partition of India, dividing British India into current-day India and Pakistan. It was a time of intense turmoil and bloodshed as people moved between the Hindu-majority India and the Muslim-majority Pakistan, with lots of sectarian violence and large-scale displacement of people. So in some regards we're once again continuing the educational theme, shining a light on parts of history. And, somewhat surprisingly, this is the first time (televised) Doctor Who has visited India -- or really even mentioned it, other than some stuff in the future (such as in Chibnall's own "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship", or the weird Indo-Japan thing from "Sleep No More"). Except we're actually in Spain instead of India, but it looks, to my untrained eye at least, like a reasonable facsimile of the Punjab. And while there are some aliens present, they're more of a red herring: the Thijarians are initially presented as enemies, but they're shown to be strictly observers -- they're not trying to change history or conquer the planet or anything like that. So consequently, despite the aliens, this feels like the closest we're going to get to a pure historical in this day and age. (Confession time: I would absolutely love to see a pure historical again, with no aliens or time travellers beyond the TARDIS team in the episode. Come on, Chris Chibnall, make it happen!)

The main focus of the story is the tensions between the families of Umbreen and her fiancé Prem. We're only shown Umbreen's mother, who keeps worrying that their marriage is cursed, while Prem's little brother Manish is shown to be an ultra-nationalist, one who's happy to move all the Muslims to Pakistan -- even the ones like Umbreen who've lived next to him for decades, and who will soon be his in-laws. "Don't marry tomorrow," Manish tells Prem. "You can't live together here. India's not her home now." "India's a home to all of us. We didn't change when a line was drawn," Prem replies. "But we did," Manish insists. Manish's prejudices still have an unfortunate resonance today, with nationalism and its problems on the rise, and it makes the piece more effective, because it's not a problem the Doctor can solve with a sonic screwdriver. And by choosing to focus on, essentially, an ordinary couple located on the border and caught up in events, Patel makes the history come alive in a real, tragic way, with a family torn apart first by differing opinions, and then by prejudice, and ultimately by violence, with Manish leading soldiers to their land in order to deal with Prem and his new family.

It's not all dark, though; Amita Suman (as Umbreen) and Shane Zaza (as Prem) do a great job of showing their characters' affection for each other, and the interactions with the others, before it all goes sour, are quite nice as well. I also like Graham's little speech, after Yaz gets upset that her nan never told her any of this: "Yeah, but maybe she just didn't want to tell you everything, you know. The woman's allowed to have secrets, even from her granddaughter. ... And I honestly don't know whether any of us know the real truth of our own lives, 'cos we're too busy living them from the inside." Really, if there's any complaint to be had, it's that despite the focus on Yaz's family, it still feels like maybe we're getting shortchanged a touch in learning more about Yaz herself. None of this is meant as a slight against Mandip Gill, mind, who's wonderful in the role of Yaz; it's more directed at the general trend of the writing this season. I guess this is just a way of saying give us more Yaz!

Now I said earlier that the aliens were a bit of a red herring, but that's not strictly true; while it is the case that they're initially shown to be sinister before being revealed as witnesses to those who would otherwise die alone, in some ways that's the theme of the episode. The Doctor and her companions (and, through them, the audience) are present to also bear witness to these events, to put a human face on the cost of Partition. Because it's not like the Doctor or her friends have any significant bearing on events here; they can't stop Prem's death, they can't change Manish's mind... the most they can do is to observe and to remember, just as the Thijarians are doing. But sometimes that's enough. And that's the point of the episode; to remind us that these historical events that we may not even know about have a human face, that real people were caught up in history (people who may still be alive today). It's to show us or remind us that Partition had real, lasting costs, issues that are still present to this day (witness the recent events in Jammu and Kashmir, India, just north of Punjab), and it encourages us to remember the past and to learn from it. (Coincidentally, this episode went out on 11 November: Remembrance Day.) Patel provides a beautiful and thoughtful script, shot and acted with great skill. "Demons of the Punjab" is thus probably my favorite episode of series 11.

And I quite like the Punjabi-style arrangement of the theme tune that plays over the end credits.