I loved this episode ! I'm not usually a fan of the historical settings - they tend to be inserting random monsters or aliens for no particular reason. It's kinda fun to see such things in a different environment, I guess, but there's not usually any strong motivation to set it in the past. This is one of the exceptions, where the historical setting is integral to the plot. I wasn't sure if Doctor Who should tackle a subject like this, but I thought it did it extremely well. It doesn't have Rosa Parks turn out to be an alien or anything daft like that. Rather the connection to the far future is sensitively and carefully done and fully consistent with the main theme. Though I will say that the very end vision of the future is, it must be said, too brief and uninformative and feels tacked on for the sake of it. Fortunately this is unimportant to the story.
Whittaker is starting to get into her stride now. Still polite and helpful, but there's a definite edge and intensity in some scenes that wasn't there before. It's a strong contrast to the previous episodes : minimal effects work, very understated and with lots of tension. I'm very pleased with how this is developing.
I'd never heard of Rosa Parks before, because the Civil Rights movement is not much of a thing in British high school education.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCAn2lUEcg4
I thought it was an excellent episode. It did seem a bit off to me that they knew so much about Rosa Parks (being British), but that's a minor quibble.
ReplyDeleteJodi Kaplan that threw me a bit too. I'm from Alabama so I knew all about it, but I didn't really expect the British characters to know who Rosa Parks was - much less James Blake.
ReplyDeleteStill it was a very enjoyable episode.
John Bowdre I didn't know who James Blake was!
ReplyDeleteJodi Kaplan I didn't remember his name off the top of my head but remembered knowing it as soon as it was mentioned in the show.
ReplyDeleteWell, maybe there was a behind the scenes quick check of the TARDIS's memory banks or something.
ReplyDeleteIt was a really good episode. Some action and tension sprinkled in helped prevent what could have been an unengaging lecture episode.
ReplyDeleteI must admit, in the beginning I was afraid they were going to make the Back to the Future mistake (by having a white person "inspire" the start of black consciousness). I was grimacing, cringing a bit, waiting . . . and when it didn't happen it was a huge relief 😅
I should learn to trust Doctor Who writers more. They have been great over the years.