Your spoiler-filled thread for Doctor Who: "Rosa"

Tonight Doctor Who returns in 1955 for a long and hard look at the struggles of Rosa Parks in the middle of the 20th century in Alabama. Tell us what you thought of his passage at a crucial moment in the history of our weekly chat room, very pleasant.

"Rosa" is a very special episode of Doctor Who, in that it addresses a very serious subject – one that the series has tackled many times before – in a surprisingly absent way from the usual artifice of the series. Allegory is one of Doctor WhoThe greatest friends in the world, offering us underground monsters as a pretext for climate change, cyborg zombies as a commentary on spare parts surgery and fascist pepper pots as … substitutes for pepperless fascists. So during Doctor Who has already addressed the issue of racism before, seeing it without its usual level of allegory intact was surprising (and welcome) in its outspokenness.

And that is very blunted, to the point that her approach is not only approaching what Rosa has gone through, but the difficulties Yaz and Ryan still face – and the struggles that will continue to overtake them – thus, could be a little as well a lot sometimes for some. But it's easy to forget that even with a subject like racism, Doctor Who is always a sight to watch for families. The desire to educate the broadest possible audience – as brutally as possible in this case – on social issues may seem cumbersome (like, for example, using the powerful emotional motor of Andra Day "Rise Up" on the point of view of the show on the moment of Rosa's challenge on board bus), but sometimes, such heaviness is necessary.

Whether it's 1955, 2018 or any other distant future of Krasko, this week's villain was a nasty racist, he's sometimes a racist jerk, because It's a racist jerk and not because of a monster, a trip back in time or anything else. And a problem as systemic as racism can not be solved with a trip into the TARDIS or a wave of sonic screwdriver – it's a problem that must always be resisted over and over again. The fact that Doctor Who Addressing a theme in such a striking way, whether subtle or not, is a powerful statement about the mandate and the message of the series, all these years from the beginning.

We will have more to say in our recap tomorrow, but for now, let us know what you thought of "Rosa" in the comments below.