Rosa

Chapter The 116th, a race against time in a time that's very much against a race.

Plot: 
The Doctor is trying to get Yaz, Ryan and Graham back to present day Sheffield, but the TARDIS has other ideas; it materialises in 1955 Alabama , after detecting evidence of another leaper, sorry, time traveller. This time and place is not very hospitable to anyone who's not white; before long, Ryan's been punched by a local meathead just for talking to said meathead's wife. A woman steps in to diffuse this situation, and she turns out to be Rosa Parks. The team's investigations reveal that a white supremacist ex-con from the future, Krasko, has travelled back in time to prevent Rosa's historic protest - refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus - which is due to happen the next day, thereby derailing the civil rights movement and white-washing future history. Hampered by Krasko's efforts and the hostile environment (in a Theresa May way, rather than a Terry Nation way), the Doctor and friends manage to get Rosa and bus driver James Blake into their correct positions at the correct moment. But they cannot get off the bus, as that will mean there is enough space for all the passengers, and Rosa won't be asked to give up her seat. So, they have to watch, and not help, as Rosa makes history.

Context:

Another week, another box set. I haven't quite finished the Peter Davison Season 19 Blu-rays - I still have the commentaries and info text to consume - and already another two releases have arrived: the complete series 11, and a separate disc for Resolution, Jodie Whittaker's New Year's special. Soon, the bumper back of Tom Baker's last run, and then an animated The Macra Terror, are going to be dropping through my letterbox. The release rate hasn't been this frantic since the early 1990s. Anyway, as always with a new set, I rolled a die to decide which story to blog. There are ten stories in the series, so I rolled a ten-sided die. If a '1' had come up, I'd not have blogged anything at all at this time (having already covered the first story of the series when it was broadcast). I rolled a '3', and so Rosa it was. Good choice, Fate.

Regular readers of the blog (Hi Mum!) will know that my youngest (girl of 6) stopped watching any and all new series episodes at the precise moment that Tim Shaw bared his teeth in episode 1. Rosa, having no monsters, and no creeping round dark corridors or the like, seemed like a good one to tempt her back. After much persuasion, she agreed. Accompanying her, as well as myself, were her brothers (boys of 12 and 6). Afterwards, I asked her what she thought of the new female Doctor. She held up a completely flat hand, which when I pressed her she clarified to mean that she thought she was "good, but not her favourite". Since then, she has watched and enjoyed the Pting one too (the Pting is cute, after all), so the curse might just be lifted. I won't be trying her on any giant arachnids any time soon, though.

First-time round:

Watched live on its BBC1 transmission last October, with the Better Half and all the children (my daughter was facing away from the screen watching something else on her tablet with headphones, but wanted to be in the same room as the rest of us). It was only when checking comments online after the broadcast that I twigged Rosa's similarity to an episode Quantum Leap. Throughout, I'd instead been reminded of a different example of early 1990s genre fare: the Star Trek TNG two-parter, Time's Arrow (time travel back to an American city searching for another, and nastier, time interloper, a historical celebrity heavily involved, etc.).

Reaction

When Doctor Who started in 1963, it alternated between science and history-based educational adventures, with the occasional short detour sideways into the bizarre. Remind you of anything? There was even a regular TARDIS team consisting of four people in those days. Series 11 is very much Doctor Who 'back to basics'. A similar attempt to recreate the format of the very earliest years of Who took place in 1982, again with four regulars and coincidentally it also happened at the point the show moved from a regular Saturday slot with a new Doctor in charge. This time it has been much more successful, in my opinion, as it's a more whole-hearted effort. Back then, they tried to have their cake and eat it: the history wasn't that educational, and the science non-existent, it was all so much window dressing, and the show was still all about the monsters. Likely, this was to avoid alienating the alien-loving section of the fanbase. In 2018, that section of the fanbase were indeed vocal in some quarters about their displeasure at a similar change.

Rosa was broadcast while the Whittaker / Chibnall era was still in its honeymoon period, so the critics didn't cut through so much, though I'm sure they were there. Just a few weeks later, when Demons of the Punjab was shown, they were much more voluble. The complaints were about the show being too PC, or pushing an agenda, but at heart it was a cry of "Where are the monsters!", and - if one were to give less benefit of the doubt - "I'm scared of history that isn't about white people". That second point is of course indefensible, mainly because the history being less well-known was the main and best part of this story. I'm a Guardian leftie tree-hugging stereotype, and - while I know who Rosa Parks was and the headline about what she did - I didn't know the details. And I should have done; so, consider me educated. The first point might be a bit more valid. Demons of the Punjab had a couple of token monsters, but Rosa eschews all of that. Krasko's not even that much of a villain: there's good scripting reasons why he can't be violent, and he can't be too nasty either, or risk overshadowing the true historical injustices.

Does it matter, though? I'd have been happy if it was just some random quirk of the space-time continuum knocking history off track for the Doctor and friends to put right; then, Rosa would have been the closest to a "pure" historical there's been since the 1960s, i.e. an exploration of a particular moment in history with no SF distractions. Perhaps, though, that might have made it too flat. It's a trade off between interesting subject matter and thrills. Rosa doesn't ever really excite, though there's a great moment of dread towards the end when the TARDIS team realise they have become part of this moment of history, and must keep their seats and not intervene. This cleverly allows for an ending where our heroes still act as protagonists but without robbing Rosa Parks of agency.

Instead of thrills, Rosa leavens the serious history plot with some good humour and character moments. The Doctor teasing that she's Banksy, Graham and Ryan's scene fishing with James Blake. Ryan serving coffee at a meeting of his heroes. The absurdity of racism highlighted in Yaz's "Mexican" status, and her wondering where that means she should sit on a segregated bus. More seriously, there is the conversation between Yaz and Ryan about the racism they still face daily in the present day. And all this is wrapped up in exemplary production values: the use of some great South African locations, blending seamlessly with studio and Cardiff-shot material, creates 1950s America perfectly. Segun Akinola's tremendous score with the repeated motif of a lone brass reveille also invokes the feel of the era. I wasn't so sure about Andra Day's Rise Up being the end credits music. It's stirring and all, but it does seem odd to use it to celebrate a protest, the point of which was to stay seated and not rise up at all. Maybe I'm the only person crazy enough to worry about these sort of things. Obviously script intentions and production values would be worth nothing if the central performance of Rosa Parks were not good, but Vinette Robinson is excellent throughout, displaying dignity, hope and steely resolve at different points in the narrative, without ever looking like she's performing. Exquisite, quite exquisite.

Connectivity: 

Two stories in a row that feature a Doctor accompanied by three companions travelling back into twentieth-century history; neither story features a monster (except those in human form).

Deeper Thoughts:
The Doctor Who / Star Trek non-synchronisation. In the early years of this century, back when I was screenwriting, I wrote a pilot for an odd couple flat-share sitcom about a Doctor Who fan and a Star Trek fan and their comic adventures trying to live with one another, attempting to hold down jobs and relationships, etc. It's fair to say that my experience of both fan groups is that they are tribal, and sometimes antagonistic. But a lot of people must like both shows; their similarities outweigh their differences, which was the ultimately heart-warming message of my scripts (nobody paid me to develop this idea, needless to say, but it wasn't that niche - Big Bang Theory, anyone? grumble, grumble). Recently, with the first two series of Star Trek Discovery and the most recent two series of Doctor Who, both franchises have been on TV and firing on all cylinders, simultaneously. Prior to that, though, it was as if they were two out of phase waveforms - when one was peaking, the other was usually troughing.

Although it started in 1966 in the US, Star Trek was not shown in the UK for another three years: the black-and-white era of Doctor Who was therefore untroubled by this rival. It was only after the end of The War Games, when Who took it's longest break ever, that Star Trek stepped into the breach (in  full colour before our favourite TV Time Lord managed it, too). After that, for the best part of two decades, original series Star Trek was repeated, usually when Doctor Who was off air. But no new series was being made; in fact, the show had already been cancelled in the US before that first ever UK transmission). Doctor Who reigned supreme for most of the 1970s, with Tom Baker in his magnificent rock-star pomp. But Bill Shatner had the upper hand again starting in 1979, when Star Trek hit the big time and the big screen. While Doctor Who's popularity waned as the 1980s continued, the Star Trek movies endured. Perhaps the best illustration of this was in the Autumn of 1986, when The Voyage Home, the fourth Star Trek film, was a massive crossover hit, grossing the most of any Star Trek film to date (a record that it still holds). Meanwhile, Who's Trial of a Time Lord season was struggling to find an audience.

Again, when Doctor Who went off the air in 1989, a new Star Trek series  - having started a few years earlier in the States - was there to fill the UK's tele-fantasy gap: The Next Generation had arrived. Star Trek ruled the roost in the 1990s, and this time it was Doctor Who that had no series in production. By 2005, though, the different series and movie runs of Star Trek had run out of steam, and - like the one-in, one-out figures on an Alpine Weather House - a new, successful and confident version of Doctor Who took over. When Who took a mini-break in 2009 with only a few special episodes being shown - wouldn't you know it - Star Trek got going again with a rebooted movie franchise. Now, both series seem to have found their groove. I think current series Star Trek Discovery is the freshest and best take on the franchise for some considerable time: it's the Trek I've been waiting for. Finally, too, its existence doesn't seem to mean Doctor Who needs to wither or disappear - which is nice. And with a plot like Rosa's, which could easily have been covered in one of Star Trek's rare time-travelling outings, the two shows are aligning on subject matter too. Is there a lesson here for the wider situation in the UK? Put aside tribalism, and meet in the centre ground, for the greater good of all? Anyone? No? Oh well...
 
In Summary:
Worthy, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun.