{"id":2183,"date":"2018-11-14T15:41:38","date_gmt":"2018-11-14T15:41:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2183"},"modified":"2018-11-14T15:41:38","modified_gmt":"2018-11-14T15:41:38","slug":"so-what-did-i-think-of-demons-of-the-punjab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2018\/11\/14\/so-what-did-i-think-of-demons-of-the-punjab\/","title":{"rendered":"So… what did I think of Demons of the Punjab?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here it is. Six episodes in and the first episode without Chris Chibnall\u2019s name attached as writer. We also welcome Doctor Who\u2019s second non-white author (unbelievable that it took this long!). I\u2019m grateful that the subject of the Punjab is being tackled by a writer with some personal connection to the region, but slightly apprehensive that the black British writer gets to tell the black people story and the writer with an Indian heritage gets to tell the Indian story. A bit like the Sylvester McCoy years when we got four stories in a single season all featuring a black performer \u2013 hurrah! Except they are all men, and they were the descendent of a cane-cutter, a blues musician, a jazz musician and a rapper.<\/p>\n

Early on, the dialogue is a bit exposition-clunky, and the trip to Yaz\u2019s past replays the first act of Father\u2019s Day<\/em> but with much less care and gravity. Once we arrive in the Punjab however, things take a definite turn for the better. The relationships between the guest cast are strong, well-played and clearly defined (not the regulars, don\u2019t be ridiculous) and the alien menace is genuinely scary.<\/p>\n

Jodie Whittaker continues to play this uniquely apologetic, uncertain and clumsy Doctor with enough vim and vigour that much of the time, we don\u2019t notice how apologetic, uncertain and clumsy she is. Stealing the alien teleport devices and using them to make a barrier to keep her friends safe is one of the most Doctor-ish things she\u2019s done since building herself a new sonic screwdriver out of Sheffield steel.<\/p>\n

What happens next is disappointing, but not all of that disappointment is this story’s fault.<\/p>\n

The alien menace turns out to be entirely benign. That\u2019s clearly far less interesting than everybody\u2019s lives being threatened, but to tell this kind of story occasionally is a nice idea. The huge problem with the Thijarians is that they are almost identical carbon-copies of Steven Moffat\u2019s glass avatars from Twice Upon a Time<\/em>. Even the visual presentation is the same. So, we have a less exciting version of the aliens than we were promised, we have to deal with the fact that no only has our hero got it wrong (again), she has apparently jumped to negative conclusions based only on appearances, and the true state of affairs is familiar from six stories ago.<\/p>\n

This leaves the Doctor with no wrong to right, and no reason to be there. She simply has to walk away, taking Yaz with her, as they cannot interfere in the awful events about to unfold. Again, this is powerful stuff \u2013 but overfamiliar from only three stories ago. Overall, this story is better told than Rosa<\/em> but to replay a weaker version of the climax of that story at the end of this one is a huge let-down after the excellent build up.<\/p>\n

This, then, is okay. Better probably than anything this year except Arachnids<\/em>, which in any other year would have been the all right, nothing special, mid-season filler story, but this year is the \u201cthank goodness for actual Doctor Who at last\u201d story. Vinay Patel is to be congratulated for his careful and detailed work creating the family relationships in 1947. Handed three very thinly-drawn regular cast members, he opts to basically forget they are there. Even Yaz, who should have some kind of stake in the narrative, doesn\u2019t really do anything and Ryan is reduced to just repeating whatever the last person said.<\/p>\n

Again, this looks spectacular, but again we have a villain that just fizzles out, a supporting cast with nothing to do and a Doctor who seems a shadow of her former self.<\/p>\n

It may also say something about how I\u2019m feeling about the series so far, that I actually forgot this was on until two hours after it had finished.<\/p>\n\"3.5\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here it is. Six episodes in and the first episode without Chris Chibnall\u2019s name attached as writer. We also welcome Doctor Who\u2019s second non-white author (unbelievable that it took this long!). I\u2019m grateful that the subject of the Punjab is being tackled by a writer with some personal connection to the region, but slightly apprehensive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[18,19,520],"class_list":["post-2183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","tag-doctor-who","tag-reviews","tag-series-11"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5JY5l-zd","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2183"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2187,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183\/revisions\/2187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}