Doctor Who pairs a big historical moment with a personal story of loss and perseverance to give us the best episode of the season in “Demons of the Punjab”.
Six episodes into Doctor Who season 11 and one thing seems clear: If you’re still holding out hope for big twisty, complicated arcs like the Steven Moffat stories of yesteryear, it’s maybe time to let that go. The Chris Chibnall era is most assuredly here, and it privileges character above all else, favoring quiet stories with simple monsters — that may or may not even turn out to be monsters, in the end — rather than timey wimey arcs and climactic battles.
And you know what? Doctor Who is better for it.
Not that big sweeping, season-long stories like the Pandorica or the Impossible Astronaut were bad. Far from it. But after five seasons of stories like that, it’s about time for something new. Something quieter. A season that primarily leans on a simple story, well told, rather than a surprise twist or fake-out ending.
This is the sort of episode that “Demons of the Punjab” is — and it’s the best installment of the season.
There’s an emotional story, some compelling secondary characters, a strong connection to a member of our existing TARDIS team and an unexpectedly fascinating monster of the week. Plus, Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteen continues to shine, a ferocious beacon of hope and care that we should all strive to be a bit more like.
Picture Shows: Yaz (MANDIP GILL). Photo: Ben Blackall/BBC America
The basic beats of the episode are simple enough. Yaz wants to learn more about her grandmother, who dislikes talking about her past. This leads to the TARDIS crew journeying to 1940s India on the literal eve of the Partition, an event that literally split the country into two: Hindu-controlled India and Muslim-controlled Pakistan. And upon arriving, they discover that Yaz’s gran — known here as just Umbreen — is about to get married, but to someone that isn’t her grandfather.
What unspools afterward is a romantic and temporal tragedy, as the ensuing violence in the wake of the publishing of the Radcliffe line ultimately claims the life of Umbreen’s new husband, leading to the life Yaz knows. (And, thankfully, her own existence.) Yet, Prem is a charming, sweet man — his name literally means love in Sanskrit (thanks for that info Twitter) and it’s hard not to hope that some sort of magical “Fires of Pompeii” solution can be found, which can spare his life in some way. It can’t, though, because as we saw earlier this season in “Rosa”, some things must happen because it is time for them to happen. And Prem’s death must happen, in order to give Umbreen the life Yaz knows, which is one she appears to have ultimately loved very much, despite her early heartbreak.
One of the sweetest and subtlest messages of “Demons of the Punjab” is that we all contain multitudes within our own stories. Even those people we love the most — our families, our spouses, our dearest friends — carry stories that we are not privy to with them, that have imprinted on their hearts in ways we’ll never see, but that have made them into the people we do know now. It’s hard sometimes, to conceptualize our parents and grandparents as independent people apart from us, who had lives and loves and desires before we existed in them. (But they did, and we should ask them about them, since most of us don’t have a time machine to check it out for ourselves. Just saying.)
Picture Shows: The Doctor (JODIE WHITTAKER). Photo: Ben Blackall/BBC America
The monsters of the week are a reformed assassin species called the Thijarians who now atone for all the murdering , and the loss of their entire civilization, by bearing witness alongside those who must die alone. (They also sport a truly fantastic ritualized look and demeanor; if that’s something you’re into.) This isn’t the first time this season that a purported enemy is not what it seems. The Pting from “The Tsuranga Conundrum” wasn’t actually looking to eat anyone, and the giant spiders roaming Sheffield in “Arachnids in the U.K.” weren’t actual enemies in the strictest sense.
The Thijarians are terrifying, visually, and clearly their booming voices that dig into people’s brains need some volume modulation, but what they’re actually doing is being kind. Not all aliens have to be monsters or dangerous or things to be afraid of. These creatures responded to an unimaginable loss by trying to ease the suffering of others. If that’s not a lesson there, I don’t know what is.
This is, honestly, what makes “Demons of the Punjab” feel bittersweet, rather than soul crushing. The Thijarians are a balm on a terrible moment, both for a character we didn’t know well but had come to care about, and the faceless thousands still to come, as people were displaced and killed during the chaos that followed the Partition. None of this makes the horror of it all go away, obviously. But it helps. A bit.
Love, like hope, abides. And it is, after all, a kind of love.
Umbreen’s story didn’t end in that field near the Radcliffe line. She survived, and made it to not-so-exotic Sheffield and carved out a new life for herself after a horrible tragedy. Perhaps she’s too close to her own situation to see what an accomplishment that is. But Yaz can. And that makes all the difference.
Doctor Who season 11 continues next Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on BBC America.