Doctor Who Review: Demons of the Punjab (Season 11 Episode 6)

Once again, Doctor Who is taking us back in time, this time with a personal connection to a historic moment. Doctor Who Season 11 Episode 6, “Demons of the Punjab,” fleshes out Yaz’s storyline a bit as she searched for answers to her grandmother’s past.

One of the strong points of Doctor Who Season 11 Episode 4, “ Arachnid’s in the UK,” was the way it introduced us to Yaz’s family.  While I would still like to have more character moments focused around Yaz herself, her relationship with her grandmother is a compelling narrative that

I love about time travel shows for the way they often layer historical–although not always accurately. I don’t know anything about the Partition of India, and this episode served to highlight a blind spot in my historical education.

Vinay Patel wrote a beautiful episode, and the way the narrative shines a light on this historical moment is moving and has definitely piqued my interest in that period of history. The story speaks to themes of the past and heritage which are universal and poignant. 

However, the thing about this season of Doctor Who is that while the season is focusing on family it’s not focusing on the central characters themselves. When it comes to Doctor Who, we are always traveling with The Doctor and her companions and it hasn’t felt like we’ve really seen them working as a team.

I really like the idea of the doctor traveling with a chosen family instead of a singular companion, but I am starting to wonder if the stories are getting muddled with the side characters.

The story of Umbreen and Prem in this episode is beautiful, sad, and has all the notes of a good Doctor Who episode, and while it’s connected to Yaz and her family, the main cast still feels a bit like continuity pillars that serve to link the episode together.

Still, as a standalone episode  “Demons of the Punjab” does give us an exciting narrative that makes history personal, in the same way it did with Doctor Who Season 11 Episode 3, “Rosa.”

At its very core though, this episode is all about misunderstandings and divides, and the search for understanding and answers. Finding out that the Vajarians are not really assassins is an example of what decades or centuries of misunderstandings can do to two cultures.

Finding out that the Vajarians aren’t there to assassinate, but to bear witness was an interesting twist that paralleled well with the divides between the Prem and Umbreen’s family.  

“Demons of the Punjab” is a great episode on its own, but since we still barely know the companions The Doctor is traveling with, I think we need a few more stories where there are problems they can actively solve as a team.

Stray Thoughts:

• “Oi! The alien assassin started it!” is such a mood.
• The Doctor getting henna tattoos for the wedding and commenting about how she never did this when she was a man is the first real acknowledgment we have of her gender regeneration.
• Did anyone else tear up when the hologram of Prem floated up into the field of other holographic heads?
• The moment when Graham was talking to Yaz about how her Nan wasn’t her Nan yet put such a fine point on some of the intricacies of time travel, and he breaks it down so sweetly.
• Did anyone else notice the moment when the Doctor lists what she needs for her still and ends it with a biscuit because she likes biscuits? Kind of reminds me of the moment when Eleven says, “…twelve jammy dodgers and a fez!” while sitting in the oval office.
• Can The Doctor stop telling us about all the beautiful adventures she’s taken her companions on? I want to see the death-eyed turtle army, please! Seriously, history is great but I also love a good romp of a giant turtle-army! 

What did you think of this episode of Doctor Who? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Doctor Who airs Sundays at 8/7c on BBC America.

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