BLOWN AWAY
Okay, so, on Sunday the 21st of October 2018, at 6:55pm (more or less) the BBC transmitted the third of their latest series of "DOCTOR WHO", in an episode entitled "Rosa".
As in the last couple of weeks, I'm scribbling (well, keyboard tapping) my initial responses to the episode the morning after it airs. I really didn't expect to be doing this, to be honest, but find that new thoughts and debates just keep on coming with this series, and I find that I simply want to get them written down before they get away from me, even if they are less than fully comprehensive.
One thing you can definitely say about DOCTOR WHO this year is that it's a different show than it once was. Not necessarily better (although there is an argument to be made for that) but very, very different indeed from what there has been before. Maybe it's all on the surface, because the hearts are definitely right where they always were, but the cinematography has been stunning and, in the case of "Rosa" the script writing and direction has, on the whole, been exceptional.
Because this was DOCTOR WHO as social drama, as historical document, and as hard-hitting drama, and it was the science-fiction trappings that were, on the whole, the least important thing about the episode itself.
Three broadcast episodes ago, Peter Capaldi, in the company of a rough facsimile of William Hartnell, was playing out some timey-wimey shenanigans whilst they were both trying to stave off their inevitable regenerations after battling with cloth-faced travesties of the human form, and, whilst those stories were astonishing in pushing the envelope of familiar DOCTOR WHO, now, inside one calendar year - because change can happen very fast - we get this mature telling of one of those small but significant moments in human history that is almost so recent that, for some sections of society, it is all too easily forgotten.
And history is important. We learn from it, and right at the heart of that silly old children's series when it started up way back in 1963, its producers knew this. And whilst Rosa Parks may not have even been the first person of colour to be arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus for them white folks (c.f. Claudette Colvin), in the end it was her act that was memorable enough to make a difference and bring changes to a deeply racially divided culture and, ultimately, to change the world.
The fact that it was largely filmed in South Africa is not insignificant, either. Although, with all of this location filming, I fear that they're going to have to film an episode inside a box in a couple of weeks..
A powerful prologue featuring another heinous display of racism on another bus on another day, brings us to America, 1955, and more acts of brutal racism played out on the everyday streets of Alabama, where youngsters used to a more open-minded culture of the early 21st century find themselves at odds with what was once the harsh reality of life in the 1950s for many Americans.
This is proper, grown-up telly, in a series where, once upon a time, Sophie Aldred playing Ace failed to rip up a "No Coloureds" card in the window of a B&B.
Two things we are reminded of by this episode of DOCTOR WHO:
(1) Humans are the worst monsters of all, and, whilst some of us have never forgotten this, it does no harm to have it pointed out to everyone from time to time.
(2) Using Wikipedia fact lists to help write your coda is always a bit iffy. Yeah, the "other facts about Rosa Parks" coda did feel bolted on by the show-runner, but it ought not to detract from a very well put together piece of television designed to make the viewer think.
Because, other than that last gripe, this was a very good piece of television indeed, although much of the WS Time Agent storyline did feel almost redundant, to be honest, and could have been done in a far more subtle way. The Rosa story itself would have been gripping enough (where is that big budget feature film version of this story, by the way?) to carry the episode on its own, because I found I was gripped, appalled, engaged, and moved by this simple yet brutal story of human beings in a way that very few far flashier and "adult" TV episodes manage to.
We do forget how recently this kind of segregated lifestyle existed, and I imagine it might make uncomfortable viewing in the land of the free. For me, the most unpleasant "real world" moment came with the deeply embedded racism of the elderly couple Ryan tried to help as he ran along the bus route trying to get more passengers to wait, but there you go. Once again I focus on a tiny, almost forgettable moment, although this time it did not turn me cold on the rest of a very moving, and very engaging, story being deftly handled.
Because this is one story you wouldn't want to mess up, or to attempt to tell in a rinky-dinky sci-fi way, and address it far too flippantly. And, the time is right to be retelling this story, and the time is now, and, for once, I can't imagine the classic series being able to do this story justice back in the day.
Sometimes it's just the right time to tell this type of story, and, God help us, these feel like just those times, and this story resonates and the brutal entitlement of a regime built upon hatred simply stays with you, not least because it happened right here on this planet we all share, and within the living memory of some of us today.
And sometimes, with a little education, you can change the world.
Martin A W Holmes, Oct 22 2018
No comments:
Post a Comment