*CONTAINS SPOILERS*
Partition of India, Family, New Monsters
We are back to another educational Doctor Who episode again for the second time this series. In this episode we get to meet new monsters, who at first appear to be bad and causing chaos in this episode yet in the end we find out that the supposed 'baddies' are actually good monsters/aliens. The history these aliens is that they are considered the deadliest assassins in the universe, but we find out that they have turned from bad to good and now live out their lives to be witnesses to anyone who dies without a witness. This is due to the fact that their home world was destroyed and everyone part from two were killed and there for were no witnesses to this destruction. As a result, the final two now have become witnesses to anyone who doesn’t have a witness to watch them pass. The Vajarian are fast and can teleport and have psychic powers which made them seem threatening and powerful to begin with yet now they use their powers for good. These aliens are yet another one of a recurring theme of this new series which is the aliens don’t turn out to be bad; this isn't a bad thing, but I do find myself missing the episodes when an alien was the baddie.
This episode is similar to episode 3 'Rosa'; it is another historical episode, but it revolves around the partition of India and the riots and thousands of deaths it caused. This is another classic Doctor Who episode as it is educational as it is about the issues caused by the partition of India; in this episode is showed that it caused families to split and the riots it caused which resulted in hundreds of innocent people dying.
This is an emotional episode, as we watch how the most important thing is love. Love between a family and a couple who want to get married. Unfortualty, the couple do get married but the groom gets killed on his wedding day as now he's wife is considered an outsider after one day (when the partition was declared). What's even worse is we grow to have sympathy for Prem (the groom) as he went through war, saw his older brother’s dead body and came home and his younger brother has gone against home and all he wants to do is marry the woman he loves; in the end he dies to protect his wife but wants his brother back. He dies yet the Doctor doesn’t do anything about it as she can't; this is similar to the episode 'Pompeii' where the Doctor and Donna didn't intervene much as it was a fixed point.
Yaz, she should be the main character in this episode as it is about her family and her ancestors, yet it feels like she still does nothing and isn't needed in this episode again. We learn quite a bit about Yaz's family, yet I don't feel like we still actually know much about Yaz. There has been very little character development and she's very boring. She is supposed to be a police officer yet never takes control or investigate, she just stands back and does nothing. It feels like if she wasn’t there, the episode wouldn’t change as it feels like she has no real effect in any episode.
You do feel bad for the Doctor this week as she wants to help but she knows she can't, as somethings can't be changed. There is a moment near the end when Prem tells the Doctor that he has to face his demons alone and the Doctor Who looks heartbroken. The end is quite bittersweet as we watch the Doctor and her friends walk away as we hear the gun shot but we know that Prem doesn't die alone as the Vajarian are with in and make sure he is taken care of.
This episode is emotional as it deals with quite big issues like death and the partition of India which can be seen as controversial, but it shows what happened and the consequences for some people. This episode was centred around Yaz's family, yet we still don’t know or understand her any better and at times you forget she’s even here. Also, at times she acts like a child because she doesn’t understand that her Nan has secrets from her for a reason. Yaz is still a mystery and for me not very thought out and still in the background. Along with this, this episode is similar to Rosa as it deals with a big historical issue and goes back to traditional Doctor Who which is that it is educational as we learn about the effects of the partition of India.
