Doctor Who: Rosa

I liked the execution of this episode, I thought it was really well done. But I hate the underlying concept. The idea that the course of history is determined by the actions of particular "great men" (or, as in this case, women) is just dumb. If you're talking about events on a personal scale, "don't change the past" is a great rule, because something as unlikely as the existence of a specific individual would be really easy to affect. But if Rosa Parks hadn't been on that specific bus on that specific day then the whole American civil rights movement would have been derailed? Come on. I'm not buying it.

I am a bus driver and I enforce the very important bus rules!

We start out with a mean, racist bus driver kicking Rosa Parks off of his bus. But this isn't the day when the historically important thing happens, it's just providing a bit of context for the audience. For most of the episode, exposition will be provided in the form of people explaining things to Ryan because he's an idiot. It's done pretty well though so it doesn't seem too forced.

Physically looking outside is apparently the best way to figure out where and when you've landed.

Then the TARDIS shows up. The Doctor was trying to get her new friends home but apparently we're in one of those periods where she can't control it properly, so it's just kind of dumping them in seemingly random places. But in this case the scanners are picking up signs of another time traveller, so obviously they've got to investigate.

For some reason everyone seems to think Yasmin is Mexican.

They quickly run into trouble, because practically anything Ryan does in this place and time is likely to get him in trouble, but Rosa Parks shows up to help them talk their way out of it. They don't yet realise what an incredibly convenient coincidence this is though, because they haven't met the bad guy yet.

He just left his box of future stuff lying around where anyone could find it.

But that quickly changes when they track down the source of the time travel energy, and the time traveller tracks them down. But not before the Doctor sabotages his equipment. Then there's a bit of a confrontation, where the doctor's all "you'd better not try to change history" and the bad guy's all "well I'm gonna, so there!" But the Doctor's obviously not going to hurt him, and he's prevented from intentionally harming anyone by a chip in his brain from space-jail, so they kind of just have to try to plan around each other.

"Why are we standing up here and yelling at each other?" "Because it's dramatic!"

So they go to a hotel to try to figure out what they need to do to ensure that Rosa Parks is on the right bus with the right driver at the right time because if she isn't then there's absolutely no way that the civil rights movement could possibly go on. It didn't occur to me at the time, but I'm not sure why they didn't just do their planning in the TARDIS. Probably because that control room set is the worst.

The main point of this episode is clearly to teach kids historical facts. Which is fine.

A cop shows up and hassles them a bit, but Ryan and Yasmin hide and he goes away. Then they go ride buses and meet historical figures and generally faff about a bit. The pacing is still way, way better than it used to be last time I was watching, but this episode does meander a bit in the middle.

It's Martin Luther King. You'd think he'd be the one the time traveller would be going after, wouldn't you?

Eventually they come up with their plan to make sure all the events happen as they're supposed to, which includes making sure the bus driver doesn't take the day off (because the other time traveller set it up so he would) and making sure that Rosa left work at the exact right time by getting her to fix the Doctor's coat. It's all a bit Horrible Histories.

It is vital that you work on this until exactly 17:30, no earlier, no later.

They also have to get the driver a different bus because his has been sabotaged, and convince a bunch of people who are waiting for the bus, which is late, to stick around instead of just walking, because if there aren't enough people then Rosa will have a seat and won't be required to move, and then everything will be terrible forever.

Hi! I've brought you a replacement bus! Don't question it, just drive!

Finally, Ryan confronts the rogue time traveller again. His last ditch effort is to just stand in the street so the bus will have to stop for him, but Ryan shoots him with his time-travel-gun, sending him into the distant past. No one comments this, but he's either just killed him or caused even more problems by sending him back to a time where he can do even more damage to history. We're obviously not meant to think about it, it's just supposed to be a non-lethal takedown that gets him out of the way, but it's weird that it never gets addressed.

He probably could have just overpowered him. The guy can't fight back with that chip in his head.

Anyway, Rosa gets arrested, history is saved and the team head back to the TARDIS, taking a quick detour to space to see the asteroid named after her. Like I said, the execution was fine, I just don't like the underlying concept at all. I don't mind the visiting history episodes, but I prefer it when they just get caught up in events and have to extricate themselves rather than having to try to keep history on the supposedly correct path.

Bradley Walsh status: Still great.

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