#yaz is the doctor's mirror and that includes her flaws
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sometimes i feel sorry for Thirteen for getting the rep in the thasmin ship that she's the only emotionally closed off one and the one unwilling to share herself with the other, bc okay, 13's life is more of a disaster and no she doesn't ever want to talk about it, but Yaz knows more about Thirteen than Thirteen knows about Yaz, and she could have done a little opening up as well with the deep dark secrets.
They share the Same fatal flaw. They're the same person symbolically. They are both equally guilty here, it's just Yaz is less ostentatious and the doctor doesn't question her.
They are the same, Yaz is just better at it. Arguably this isn't a competition that you want to win, but had 13's life not been such an unmitigated traumatic disaster then I assume she'd have been able to hide this all better to avoid questioning on a lot of things, so maybe Yaz is just lucky that nothing pushed her to utter breaking point.
They're mirrors though, Yaz did not offer an exchange, and i'm not saying her doing so would have worked (i doubt it would have) but... She didn't exactly consider it, either, did she? It was even 13 who approached her about their relationship, and if the Doctor is being more forward, direct and honest about That then this says something about the other person.
#dw shit#yaz is the doctor's mirror and that includes her flaws#she doesn't Talk about trauma either#note in CYHM? yaz does not#like 13#ever open up and actually talk about it#like the rest of the characters all do#(and if you find the idea of asking Yaz to open up about it all invasive? why does 13 not deserve that same right to privacy?)
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i have a lot of thoughts about chibnall’s era thus far so i needed an outlet to voice them because none of my friends watch doctor who lol (note: this could come across as rant-y although it’s not all complaints, but if you see no flaws in the chibnall/thirteen era you might want to avoid this post)
disclaimer: i haven’t seen anything chibnall has written besides doctor who, and the only acting role i’ve seen jodie in besides the doctor is the episode of black mirror that she did. they could be wonderful writers/showrunners/actors, but i’m solely basing this off of what i’ve seen on doctor who
1. chibnall does so much telling, and not much showing. the easiest example of this for me is thirteen’s relationship with her companions. within the second (maybe even first!) episode of thirteen’s era, she referred to ryan, yaz, and graham as her fam. (side note, i’m so sick of hearing that word, i’m sorry). the most on-par comparison for this is eleven’s relationship with the ponds. they are undoubtedly his family, but you saw his relationship with all of them grow into a familial relationship and he didn’t call them his family after knowing them for less than a week. we’re not shown the relationship thirteen has with her companions growing and becoming something that can be considered a family, instead we’re told right off the bat that they’re her family. we’re now two series down and i do not see them as her family at all. she’s the doctor, they’re her companions. that’s about as deep as their connection goes for me as a viewer. i don’t know if it’s because there’s so many of them immediately so that already reduces the time for us to see their relationships deepening.
2. thirteen doesn’t seem to have many dimensions to her character. i made a post about this already but deleted it. i don’t know if it’s jodie’s acting, or if it’s because thirteen is so rambunctious and bubbly that when she’s serious it falls flat for me, but it does. i LOVE that thirteen is fun and goofy (eleven is my favorite doctor, i’m not opposed to humor and child-like behavior) but i feel like whenever thirteen attempts to be serious (most of the timeless children, for example) i have a hard time with it. i could be wrong but i feel like she hasn’t really had a Doctor Monologue™️ either. if you’re a fan of the show you know what i’m talking about, the speeches the doctor gives that could only be said by the doctor. and if she has, they haven’t been memorable which is why i can’t recall her having one.
3. i legitimately don’t know what it is, but something’s missing. in s11 i said that there were a lot of time travel (rosa, demons of the punjab, the witchfinders) that i felt like chibnall forgot this was also a scifi show. however, in s12, that improved. orphan 55 felt like something out of black mirror, fugitive of the judoon was fun!, praxeus was a fun way to incorporate some real life issues into the show, can you hear me was very scifi. so that has improved tremendously already from s11, but it still feels like something’s missing. it doesn’t feel like the doctor is taking us upon their tardis and bringing us on a grand adventure anymore. so maybe what’s missing is fun. maybe these things feel more like duties than fun for the viewer, or at least for me.
4. please read this entire paragraph before you make assumptions about what i mean by this, but the wokeness. i love that doctor who has become more inclusive, i love that there’s more representation, i love that the new tagline is “space for all”. i am so happy that the doctor is played by a woman now. but some real life subject matter that they throw into the show now just feels... unnecessary and borderline performative. i already said praxeus was a good episode, and it was! i thoroughly enjoyed it. but it feels like chibnall just throws things into the show like climate change and it almost reminds me of the “my job here is done” “but you didn’t do anything” meme. whether intentional or not, it feels like a way for him to pat himself on the back. i desperately hope that’s not the case, and like i’ve said, i know nothing about the man other than the fact that he’s the showrunner for doctor who. i don’t know what his previous work is like, i don’t know how he is as a person, i am solely judging him on his work on doctor who. (also in the same vein, if s13 includes any comments about the doctor being a woman, my eyes will roll so hard they’ll fall out of my head. three series in and it’s now established in canon that the doctor is the timeless child who we saw regenerate into multiple genders. enough.)
5. i’m already craving change. and i feel terrible for it. i’m craving a regeneration, or a companion/all the companions to leave so we can get a new one. purely just to spice things up!!!! i don’t dislike any of the characters at the moment, they just aren’t doing it for me. and this is undoubtedly the writers’ fault. i don’t remember a time where i was just over the companions being there. and i think this has to go back to the point i made earlier where they were all there together immediately. i feel like i would like any of the three of them so much more if they had one-on-one time with the doctor. and i don’t mean a five minute scene, i mean they were the sole traveler. maybe it should have just been yaz. or ryan could have been the first and then his grandpa tagged along.
6. i still deeply, deeply love this show. and that’s the only reason i’m criticizing it. doctor who has been my favorite show since 2013, the longest a show has held my attention and my admiration. i’m not dumping all of these complaints out into the air and continuing to watch just for the sake of collecting complaints to add to a list. i’m complaining because i’ve watched this show for years, with five different doctors, multiple companions, two different show runners, and i know how good it can be. so it makes me sad that it’s not living up to its potential. i gave chibnall series 11 to get his bearings on what the series entailed, i chalked up me disliking that series to the fact that he was a first-year showrunner. and there were improvements with series 12, i like far more episodes in s12 than i do in s11. but it still had a lull period which i find incredible given the fact that there’s three less episodes than previous series had. i just want things to be better.
(also this is the most minuscule complaint out of all of them but pls bring back the christmas specials.)
anyway. i’ve said my piece. just wanted to let that all out. if you agree or disagree with me please let me know, i just want to hear everyone else’s thoughts. thanks!
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Doctor Who Series 11 Review Part 6/10: Demons of the Punjab
Air date: 11 November 2018
This episode wasn’t as hard-hitting as Rosa, but it’s reminded me of more things than it has in the last two episodes. No, I’m not Indian or Pakistani, I’m talking about tokusatsu references (like that’s the most important thing right now).
This episode was broadcast on Remembrance Day in Commonwealth countries (including Great Britain and Australia), but it might be known as Veterans Day depending on the country you live in. This makes the war references (and even tokusatsu references, dare I say) so much more compelling.
Here’s my spoiler-free thought for this episode: “Micchy did nothing wrong even though he clearly did one wrong thing and he should have done a second”. You’ll understand when you get to that section.
The spoilers will begin after the break.
Focus character of the week: Yaz
After having half of the series focused on Ryan and Graham, it’s Yasmin’s turn this week for character development, though it was more like a deeper look at her family.
Yaz and her family are celebrating Umbreen’s birthday at their flat. Yaz hears Umbreen mention about how she was the first woman married in Pakistan and is given a broken watch that she specifically asks that it not be fixed. Umbreen knows the history behind the watch and why she does not want it fixed, but she is not willing to tell anyone, claiming that they wouldn’t understand.
Yaz shows the watch to the Doctor and after a bit of doubt and hesitation, takes the TARDIS to Pakistan, but when they arrive, they find that Umbreen is not marrying Yaz’s grandfather, but rather Prem, the man who the Doctor and the others first meet on arrival, and they have landed right on the day of the Partition of India. It is revealed that the watch that Yasmin was given was actually Prem’s, which raises more questions for her.
Don’t say no, just live more!
The last two episodes were nearly devoid of tokusatsu references (it took a bit of time and stretching just to find some), so for some reason, I was glad to find more of them in this episode.
Let’s take a look at our (misunderstood) monsters of the week, the Thijarians. When I saw parts of them while they were hidden in the shadows or mentally torturing everyone with their telepathic speech, they reminded me of Hyakuyappa/Steeleto, a monster-of-the-week from Samurai Sentai Shinkenger/Power Rangers Samurai, though when I got a look at their full forms, they reminded me of the Questers from GoGo Sentai Boukenger. Looking closer at their faces, however, I saw that their design was more complicated than I thought.
This episode takes some cues straight out of Kamen Rider Gaim; we’ve got a mysterious thing in a forest, monsters that are really just interjecting observers to a human conflict (unless provoked) and the story of two brothers who have opposing values. Prem, being the more compassionate and conservative of the two, mirrors Takatora Kureshima, while Manish, the radical and progressive of the two, mirrors Mitsuzane Kureshima (Micchy), though without his sense of remorse. It should be noted that the relationship between the Kureshima brothers is based on the relationship between Hideyuki Kagawa and Satoru Tojo from Kamen Rider Ryuki, which I wouldn’t have recalled until I did my research.
When I got towards the end of the story, I found a flaw in Prem and Manish’s confrontation scene. We know Manish killed the holy man (Bhakti) with his brother’s rifle, but why did he let the other guy (who fought with Prem in Siam) shoot him? In spite of familial bonds, I think it would have been better if Manish was the one who shot his brother because it would have made my comparison to the Kureshima brothers more grounded - it didn’t stop Mitsuzane from doing what he did. Because of that, I’m probably going have to start entertaining the “Micchy did nothing wrong” meme for Manish even though he did one wrong thing and I think that he should have done a second.
Additionally, this reference also comes as a coincidence since Kamen Rider Zi-O’s tribute to Kamen Rider Gaim will be airing in the next two weeks.
Misunderstood villain #2/3: The Thijarians
Following on from the spiders of Episode 4 (and possibly the Pting of Episode 5), we have another misunderstood villain, the Thijarians. Prem believed them to be demons when he saw them in Singapore during the Second World War, but the Doctor recognised them as assassins. After an initial confrontation, the Thijarians tell the Doctor that their planet, Thejar, was destroyed (carrying the remains of it and their people inside their hive/ship) and as a result, they decided to abandon their old ways and honour those across time and space who died alone. Of course, the Doctor didn’t know about them until now.
No mention is made of how Thejar was destroyed, but if we later learn that Tim Shaw and the Stenza had something to do with it, I swear I’m going to ragequit.
I forgot to mention this in my mid-series review last week, but speaking of which, we haven’t heard anything about the Stenza or “the Timeless Child” since Episode 2. I’m still holding onto hope that the Stenza will return in the series finale, but then I remembered that executive producer Matt Strevens stated that there would be no story arc for this series.
Other general thoughts
The TARDIS translation circuits are alluded to at the start of the episode when Prem mentions that their “Punjabi’s not bad for foreigners”. Evidently, the circuits can affect accents as well as language.
Later on, during the “Henna party” (kind of a pun on “hen party”), the Doctor briefly recalls being a man, but she is prompted by Yaz to laugh it off when Umbreen and her mother, Hasna, appear confused.
This is the second episode in a row that the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver malfunctions, having overloaded it after initially trying to analyse the material from the Thijarian hive. Evidently, having to make the screwdriver yourself from Earth materials and a crystal from a Stenza pod does make it a bit ineffective, but still effective nonetheless.
A quick little thing I missed from last week - the Doctor’s been keeping score for her friends! Last week, she gave Yaz 10 points for correctly guessing the self-detonating bomb on the Tsuranga. This week, Ryan gets a gold star for correctly guessing that they are going demon hunting, only for the Doctor to realise that she was awarding points. I might keep a loose track of the points as well, so for now, unless stated otherwise, let’s just presume that a gold star is 10 points, therefore Ryan gets 10 points.
Let’s not forget about the similarity to the Ninth Doctor episode Father’s Day in that the Doctor and her companions originally promised not to meddle in the pasts of their own families, but later had to because of things that happened.
Summary and verdict
There were other things I was going to talk about, such as the Partition of India, but a few things got in the way this week, so I won’t bother. Admittedly, my main focus for these reviews are the tokusatsu references and SJW red flags - speaking of which, I haven’t really managed to find any at first glance.
This was a good episode, though it could have done with the improvement I stated earlier regarding Manish. It was a nice and brief insight to Hindu and Muslim wedding culture along with India and Pakistan around the time of Partition.
Rating: 8/10
Stay tuned next week as I review the seventh episode, Kerblam!
#doctor who#doctor who series 11#thirteenth doctor#doctor who series 11 review#thirteenth doctor review
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