Doctor Who review: A change is gonna come

Doctor Who takes a journey to the past and introduces Team TARDIS to a civil rights icon in the slightly saccharine but utterly satisfying “Rosa.”

Doctor Who takes Thirteen and her companions on their first proper trip to the past in “Rosa,” an episode that occasionally toes the line between stirring and saccharine, but nevertheless feels like a triumph in the end. Episodes in which the Doctor meets real historical figures are fairly common – from Shakespeare to Churchill to Charles Dickens to Vincent Van Gogh. Less so, are those installments that take a historical story and try to use it to really educate the show’s audience about a particular topic. “Rosa” does that and then some by introducing Team TARDIS to Rosa Parks, the iconic civil rights leader whose arrest kicked off a boycott of Alabama’s segregated transportation system.

For all that this is an episode about the past and this is (usually) a show about time traveling hijinks, Doctor Who doesn’t stray far from the historical facts of this particular story, instead using Thirteen and her friends to make sure that events stay the way they’re supposed to be. This has the added benefit of showing viewers a fairly cohesive summation of how things really happened in 1955, from Parks’ initial bus troubles in 1943 to her refusal to give up her seat for a group of boarding white riders. Someone here really did their homework, and the show should be applauded for that fact.

"The Doctor: It’s easy for me here. It’s more dangerous for you. You can walk away from this.Ryan: Rosa Parks can’t.Yaz: Rosa Parks doesn’t."

To be fair, many viewers were likely concerned about whether Doctor Who was particularly equipped to discuss such a fraught, complicated issue as race in the American Deep South. Happily, that concern is largely unwarranted, as the show doesn’t shy away from portraying the horrific reality of segregation. Writer Malorie Blackman – Doctor Who’s first ever black screenwriter – thoughtfully uses the fact that Thirteen is currently traveling with two companions of color to bring the reality of the conditions in 1955 Alabama home for viewers. Seeing Ryan get slapped for touching a white woman and hearing Yaz constantly referred to as Mexican conveys the reality of the situation in a way that reciting historical facts simply can’t manage. It’s distinctly uncomfortable to watch in some places, and the story is all the more compelling for that discomfort.

Sherlock’s Vinette Robinson guest stars as Parks, and plays the Civil Rights leader with appealing, quiet steel. Though she’s clearly presented as a burgeoning civil rights activist, she’s also largely unremarkable, a regular person trying to navigate a dark and difficult world. Part of the reason she’s such a compelling figure here is that she’s so quietly normal – calm and dignified, yes, but also just a regular woman who works in a dress shop. When she stands up – or, rather, refuses to do so – she’s an ordinary person choosing to do something extraordinary. And we all know that’s how you change the world. (Or the universe, as the case may be.)

"Yaz: They don’t win, those people. I can be a police officer now cause 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 fifty years after that?"

The gist of the story in “Rosa” is that Thirteen and friends arrive in 1955 because the TARDIS detects some rogue energy. The Doctor’s concerned about making sure that time doesn’t get rewritten (for once), particularly once she learns that a rogue former criminal is looking to get his kicks by changing the history that helped bring about increasing racial equality. To be fair, this is a particularly weak sort of villain of the week, who is given little motivation other than just being…generally terrible. We learn that due to his previous crimes, he’s sporting an implant that means he can no longer kill or physically harm any living creature. So instead he decides to….change history to make the universe more racist?

On some level, this almost works, as generally unrepentantly racist people don’t need much of a reason to try and make the world worse for the people they hate. But “Rosa” doesn’t even give this particular villain the “surprise, he’s a white nationalist” character crutch until the episode’s end, leaving us to spend most of the story wondering what on earth this guy is doing and why.

“Rosa” is emotionally satisfying enough to look the other way over when it comes to this particular weakness, generally. But that doesn’t mean it’s not there.

"Ryan: It took so long though. Her whole life.The Doctor: Yes it did. But she changed the world."

The Doctor takes something of a backseat to her companions this week – save for her commanding face-off with the disgusting Cranzo – and the episode is stronger for it. Watching Ryan, Yaz and Graham experience the reality of 1950s Alabama firsthand is compelling television, as their reactions run the gamut of excitement at getting to meet legends such as Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. for themselves to horror as they’re repeatedly asked to leave restaurants or forced to sneak into “whites only” hotels. The scene in which Yaz and Ryan discuss the slow grind of progress while hiding from a white sheriff behind a dumpster particularly captured the unique tensions at work in this episode.

Team TARDIS engages in plenty of entertaining antics to make sure that the events of December 1, 1955, play out as they should. (The part where Graham uses the existence of his black grandson to purposefully trigger notorious racist bus driver James Blake is both painful and kind of hilarious.) But the episode is very obviously building to Rosa’s historic moment, so it’s a relief that Doctor Who nails the proverbial money shot so thoroughly. Robinson’s performance is all unflinching courage and deliberate movement.  Combined with a truly great soundtrack choice (Andra Day’s “Rise Up”) and some heart-wrenching reaction shots from Thirteen and her companion as they realize the gravity of the moment they’re watching, and whew. It’s a lot. What must that be like, to sit through something horrible and not speak out, because you know it will lead to something better? Even if what’s happening is wrong?

(Spoiler alert: I cried and I regret nothing.)

“Rosa” is a bit more of a lesson-oriented episode than Doctor Who usually offers, but when dealing with such heavy historical subject matter, the more factual tone in the final scenes feels necessary. And, hey, the show did use to be intended as an educational program, so there’s precedent for this kind of thing. Maybe some history is too important to not play it straight.

Doctor Who season 11 continues next Sunday at 8 p.m. EST on BBC America.