Chris Chibnall makes it a hat trick, with the first three stories of his first series as showrunner making it into the Top 60 – albeit as a co-credit with the author Malorie Blackman. It’s a fascinating tale, one with a real message behind it, and one that typifies two great strengths of the Chibnall Era: diversity and historicals.
I’ve talked about the RTD Model of a Doctor Who Series™️ before, and how either the second or third story will be a historical (you do contemporary first, then forwards & backwards in time). You can also expect two historicals per season, one of them being a Celebrity Historical; i.e. it features a famous name from that time period (Charles Dickens, Queen Victoria, Shakespeare etc. etc.) Chris Chibnall raises the game here: in his first two series we have three historicals a piece, with only one of them not being a celebrity one, and I’m sure we would have had more in Series 13 if Covid hadn’t struck the production. Chibbers also takes the focus away from white men & the occasional woman, and gives us a much much broader view of history – shining the spotlight on figures who you may not know much about. You’ve all heard of Florence Nightingale, but how many of you – outside of working for the NHS or watching Horrible Histories – had heard of Mary Seacole before Flux? Or Noor Inayat Khan? Both massively influential but overlooked figures of their time. Ada Lovelace & Nikola Tesla are similarly unknown to most (unless you know where Musk got the name of his cars from),King James & Mary Shelley probably being more familiar but no less fascinating to explore.
Rosa Parks then is an excellent choice to focus his first historical on. She may be a bit more well known that the others, but she’s someone that we could – and should – all stand to know more about. Going back to Chibnall styling his first series in the mould of the 1st season, we are squarely back in inform, educate & entertain territory. Through the device of the plot we’re exposed to Rosa Parks’ life & the events of 1st December 1955 in detail. We have introductions to Martin Luther King Jr. and mention of Emmet Till – a tragic figure who has also become more well known to modern audiences thanks to the film of his life released last year. The attention to detail is on point here, with the dialogue between Parks & “Blake the Snake” at the end of the episode playing out exactly as she recalled it in 1987 – word for word.
It’s not just the life & times of Rosa Parks that we learn about, we are shown what life in 1950s Deep South was like for people of colour. Ryan & Yaz’s conversation as they are hiding from the racist sheriff, as they discuss the racism they face in their daily lives compared with what they are experiencing on this adventure, is profoundly moving. It’s not the sort of scene that you’d expect to see at 7 o’clock on a Sunday evening before “Call the MIdwife”, but one that we should be seeing. This, folks, is the true meaning of Woke: understanding the injustice others face simply for being a bit different. Likewise, the language used to illustrate the racism is a lot stronger than I’d expect, and while it would be nicer if it were made clearer for a modern – and young – audience how unacceptable that language is today, I’m glad that it pulls no punches & adds to the authenticity – while not crossing a line.
The story is a powerful bit of drama, but it’s not without its fun bits. Graham’s Steve Jobs line & Ryan being star struck at the Parks residence are all laugh out loud moments, and the plot itself – a sort of reverse Quantum Leap, where Dr Beckett has to put right what once went right also – is a really clever & engaging twist on what we’re used to in historicals. Krasko is a bit of a pantomime & forgettable villain, but he’s by no means bad – and it’s refreshing (in a way) to have a villain not driven by any mad plot or desire other than his own petty nastiness. And again, Jodie gets a good couple of confrontation scenes with him, which again makes me wonder where this idea she doesn’t confront anyone comes from?
By the end of the episode we’re back to powerful drama, as Graham realises he has to be the bad guy to let history play out as it should. We’ve had a few good references to Grace throughout this story, who’s death is still fresh, to drive home the impact & importance of this; that no one can look Rosa in the eye as the events go down also really sells the moment. The whole of our main cast step up to the plate on this one, as does Vinette Robinson as the eponymous Rosa. And the story finishing to the song “Rise Up” by Andra Day rather than the usual theme is inspired; one of the few times I enjoy popular, modern music being used in Doctor Who, it fits so well.
Malorie Blackman is the first black writer for Doctor Who. That it takes 55 years for a person of colour to write for the show is quite astounding – and while it is a touch disappointing that she has to share a writing credit with Chibnall (I suspect this may be due to the fact he’s had to provide more to the script than union rules can ignore more than anything else), the importance of having her voice heard can’t be underestimated. While RTD & Moffat made steps in race, gender & sexuality representation during their tenures, it feels like Chris Chibnall makes strides – both on and off screen. He has also brought us diversity in both age and disability – something I’m looking forward to RTD doing more of at the end of the year. I think we will look back on Chibnall’s era a lot fonder in future, and part of that will come from how progressive it is.
If I have a quibble about this episode, it’s that The Doctor makes it abundantly clear how much she hates temporal displacement weapons, but has no issue whatsoever with Ryan using one1. Despite chewing him out for shooting robots last week. It’s a similar issue I have with Arachnids in the UK, which follows this episode & breaks Chibnall’s streak of great stories.
This one, though, is great. It’s powerful, demanding, and for me one of the most important Doctor Who stories of all time. We need to hear stories like this, we need to understand the past to help us shape the future. We need to appreciate the freedoms we have & how they were won. And Doctor Who is the perfect vehicle to do this.
COMING TOMORROW: “BECAUSE I’M CLEVER….!!!!!”
- Ah. Is that where that idea comes from? ↩︎
Skies Full of Diamonds 