Dept. of Awesome Thirteen

[kaffy_r]

"Rosa"

I approached this one with a certain amount of trepidation. It's U.S. history, about America's particular, and particularly virulent, racism (which is not to suggest that there isn't virulent racism of various flavors damned near everywhere, but yes, this is in my wheelhouse, so I was worried that it could have been mishandled.) It's written by Brits. The story could have gone very wrong. It didn't, in my opinion. Comments that follow are both Doylist and Watsonian and are under the cut because, while I tried to keep them fairly spoiler-free and I think I was successful, I don't want to take that for granted.

1. The tension level was right, both dramatically and in terms of real history. It was the tension of Every Little Thing Can Get You Killed; the tension of always smiling, in order not to get killed; the tension of pleasant, sunny days, doing ordinary things like working or getting on a bus, and knowing that the person whose suit you tailor, or who takes your fare despises you.
2. The level of reality was not what I'd been afraid it might be. It was far better than I expected, and that was great. It showcased all the tension I mentioned, plus the weary cynicism of knowing, as a black woman, that even the "good" white people have no bloody idea of what you're living with every single day. It knew, and admitted, that victories don't come at the end of a television show's episode, and that even the most complete victories are always going to be partial. The story didn't play fast and loose with actual history. 
3. The actress who played Rosa Parks played her exceedingly well, without histrionics, and with nuance.
4. The American accents, if they were done by non-Americans, didn't pull me away from the story.
5. The Doctor has become a lot smarter about race than she was when she airily told Martha that it didn't matter. I'm so glad about that. Actually, I'm glad about this Doctor, period, full stop. She is great; she is kind, curious (even more curious than previous iterations), brave, quick-thinking, and beautifully suited to working with a team.
6. One continued regret, that Yaz hasn't yet been highlighted the way she should be.

Comments

[st_aurafina]

I'm glad to hear from someone in the US that it was handled all right - I was worried. I really enjoyed the episode - the Doctor's face as history unfolded right behind her, so wrapt and amazed. I loved it.

Yaz definitely needs some more to do! She's great.

[beccadg]

6. One continued regret, that Yaz hasn't yet been highlighted the way she should be.

Yeah, I thought the bigots thinking she was Mexican rather than even recognizing what part of the world her heritage is from put how she hasn't been properly highlighted in a nutshell.

Course on a personal level I was excited to see a Vortex Manipulator. I'd wondered with the show putting both Jack Harkness and River Song behind it whether Chibnall would do anything involving a VM. I got a quick answer to that.

[elisi]

5. The Doctor has become a lot smarter about race than she was when she airily told Martha that it didn't matter. I'm so glad about that
The only ameliorating factor is that Elizabethan London was a lot less racist than the South in the 50s... However, that does not excuse Ten from telling his companion that she'll be fine because he is.

[liadt]

I would have liked the Baddie of the week to have a firm reason for trying to stop Rosa or maybe that was the point?

I think Yaz hasn't been highlighted much but maybe that's because there is a female Dr so the female companion isn't seen as important?

[kaffy_r]

It was a pleasure for me to watch, because I was worried at how Chibnall might play it. I'm glad he had a co-writer, Malorie Blackman, who is a POC.

And I think we're going to get more from Yaz next week, judging by what's being said about the episode. At least I think we're going to get to meet her mother. That's worth putting up with damned spiders.

ETA: Here's a good (albeit not well edited) piece on Ms Blackman.

[kaffy_r]

The mistake by a 1950s southerner that someone of Indian sub-continental ancestry as "a Mexican" is pretty close to realistic, which is really sad. Well, actually, too many people today assume that someone who isn't pasty-white is whatever group they don't like - and that's even more sad.

I, too, was excited to see the vortex manipulator!

[kaffy_r]

The only ameliorating factor is that Elizabethan London was a lot less racist than the South in the 50s

Yeah, I thought about mentioning that in my post, but decided that what was upsetting about the Doctor's comments to Martha was his attitude, since yes, London was a lot less pasty-white than white racists and apologists (and our dominant white culture, unfortunately) would have us all believe.

[kaffy_r]

or maybe that was the point?

I think you're exactly right. I think the point is that racism is always incoherent, and many times inchoate as well - people, when pressed for the logical, objective reasons they hate "the other," can't do it. When their original "reasons" are shown to be false, as they always are, they refuse to believe the truth and often double down on the hate. I actually like the fact that a) the villain couldn't delineate the source of his hate, for exactly that reason, and b) that this episode's baddie was shown to be something little and venal, and not the Grand Fight Against Miscegenation/Islam/Choose Your Xenophobic Poison that bigots like to portray it as.

[sir_guinglain]

I watched the episode in Oxford with a group who were mainly students aged between 18-23 with some academic or quasi-academic outliers (like me). From the reaction, I could tell that what I'd read was true - Malorie Blackman is a major figure for the student age group here nowadays, as they grew up with her writing, especially Noughts and Crosses. She's shaped how many young people today learned about colour prejudice.

[sir_guinglain]

There's Elizabeth I's infamous law expelling 'blackamoors', of course, though it's difficult to know whether it was or could ever have been carried out. But no, definitely not and never a pasty-white country - there was a good article somewhere arguing that some people with the surname 'Moore' might actually be descended from medieval immigrants to England from North Africa and the Middle East, for example, and not from people who lived on moorland.

[promethia_tenk]

I am with you about the tension. I thought it was the most standout thing about the episode. The sense of constant menace was expertly done.

Give us more Yaz already!

[elisi]

Yes exactly. Rather than say 'Don't worry, London is quite multi-cultural at this point in time' he says 'Just pretend your a white man' which is just... massively unhelpful & tone deaf. :(

[liadt]

I did wonder if they were trying to show some hate for no reason, as it wouldn't have taken any time to come up with a motivation, not that a reason would legitimize his actions though!

[kaffy_r]

I hadn't heard of Blackman until this (at 63, I'm not in the demographic that she is aimed at) but based on what I saw in this episode, and because I know that YA writing can be really good, I'd be interested in reading her Noughts and Crosses series. It's called something else here. but it's probably available at one of our local libraries.

I'd be interested in what the group you watched the episode with thought of it.

[kaffy_r]

people with the surname 'Moore' might actually be descended from medieval immigrants to England from North Africa and the Middle East, for example, and not from people who lived on moorland.

Now that's something I'd not heard before. Fascinating.

[kaffy_r]

It wouldn't be the first time the Doctor was tone-deaf, but in our real world, it went over like a lead balloon.

[kaffy_r]

I thought the actor was able to really radiate hate, even when (or perhaps especially when) he smiled. And ultimately, it's the hate, and not any assumed "reason" for it, that is important to deal with.

In real life, we may need to know the context of hate. That's a completely different thing, of course.

[kaffy_r]

I'm so glad that you caught that, too. It just Never. Let. Up. And even though I knew our team was going to pull through, that wasn't the point. The point was that no one should have to live with that kind of tension as their default.

[sir_guinglain]

Here's a review by one of them - https://tidesoftime.wordpress.com/2018/10/23/doctor-who-11-3-rosa/ .

I'd like to read Noughts and Crosses, too. I only learned recently that Malorie Blackman has earlier television experience as she wrote for the children's television drama Byker Grove (set in Newcastle, where I grew up in north-east England) in the 1990s. I was in my twenties by then and didn't follow it, so can't comment beyond that Byker Grove was a hit and very influential in its time.

[kaffy_r]

Thanks for the link to the review. It's definitely a university student's review, but it's clear the writer actually cares about Who.