Doctor Who recap: series 37, episode 3 – Rosa | Television and radio

SPOILER ALERT: this weekly blog is for those who let's look at the new Doctor Who series. Do not read before if you have not seen episode three, Rosa.

"I recommend going out of Alabama before you find yourself in a difficult situation."

The more things change, the more they stay the same. In a year when almost everything from Doctor Who is different, a formula is not made to tremble. We had the opening adventure Earthbound and the journey into outer space for episode two – now for the "historical celebrity". In the past, we met Charles Dickens, Winston Churchill, Agatha Christie and Madame de Pompadour, as well as Queens Victoria, Elizabeth I and Nefertiti.

This time it was Rosa Parks 'turn, which we met during the civil rights struggle in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. Of course, Parks' refusal to give up its seat in an isolated bus opened the door. way to bigger changes. This story of a small but significant action of an ordinary woman is significant in itself. Martin Luther King has some ideas, but it's the portrayal of Parks as warm and fragile as Vinette Robinson, who steals the show without a story. The time it took for Parks to be recognized is the story lesson of this story and its false emotion.

It is shameful that this is the first episode of Doctor Who taken from the pen of a color writer. It was only the eighth of a writer, that of Malorie Blackman, former winner of the children. Rosa has sometimes felt a little racism, that is wrong 101, but it would also be a naive optimist who would not have felt that this message was still needed. The scene between Ryan and Yaz, reduced to hiding behind a garbage shop, was quite something.

Vinay Patel, the other author of the series, wrote the sixth episode, Demons of the Punjab. Is it an honorable effort to get writers to represent a unique cultural perspective, or does it compel these people to write only from the point of view of their ethnicity?

Life aboard the Tardis

The old girl may be turning green, but she still has her own head, stubbornly refusing to bring the team back to the 21st century Sheffield for something they miss more. Meanwhile, Graham's in-situ arrangement with Ryan continues to dominate. Tosin Cole has again obtained the best material, as a young man who, having struggled to find his place in the world, must now navigate in all its aspects. But Yaz still does not have enough to do. Aside from some wise words with Ryan on the racial struggle, the character is still waiting for his own journey.

Now, if only someone was lighting a bloody light in this ship.

Fear factor

The direction and design of the production here were as exquisite as we expected, but the old monster budget is shrinking. After the show on Stenza in the foreground of the series, we encountered demonic sheets last week. Now, terror is more conceptual – racism. The only mission of Team Tardis is to avoid the aversion of history, which is not necessarily to reduce it. The threat here is the kind of world in which we would live if small acts of heroism, such as that of Parks, never happened.

Mysteries, questions and continuity

When it appeared that Cranzo had his own vortex manipulator, fiddled with Artron's energy and was a Stormcage inmate, a small part of me wanted to see him emerge as a river exchanged between the sexes. That was until he was revealed as a little more than a terrible racist. That was the end of it all.

No mention of Stenza this week, which at this stage may or may not mean something.

Further in the vortex

• Chibnall seems to have abandoned the traditional sequence of pre-credits. This is a pretty important gesture because these bites always served as the first big cliffhanger for the episode.

• The second episode left no place in the ranking, with The Ghost Monument recording a night rating of 7.1 million.

• Meanwhile, Jodie Whittaker's Doctor Thirteen will have her own waxing experience and her "immersive Tardis experience", available at Madame Tussauds Blackpool from this weekend.

• You may have already seen Robinson (who was playing Rosa) in Sherlock, Black Mirror or Doctor Who himself, in episode 42 of 2007.

• Pop's accidental crossover of this week has resulted in a potential case of misidentification between Jobsworth's racist bus driver and modern British electro-soul artist, James Blake.

• In musical news, the soundtrack at the end was Rise Up by Californian singer-songwriter Andra Day.

Next week

Returning to the formula, episode 4 sees us returning to Earth, with what ultimately promises to place Yaz at the center of the scene: the arachnids in the UK. Strong punning, at the very least.