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Rosa takes us back to 1955, Montgomery, Alabama, where Rosa Parks (Vinette Robinson) took a stand and boarded a bus by the entrance designated for white people, but this episode doesn’t quite start out that way, and with the Doctor telling Rose that she’s a big fan of hers before she’s taken that stand – on the day before she does so – and similarly, when I first saw the trailer for this, it made me think of a particular Quantum Leap episode, and less a Doctor Who episode.
That QL episode was The Colour of Truth, when Sam Beckett leapt into the body of a black chauffeur, and all the racial prejudices he faced.
In Who, though, the Doctor’s concerned about artron energy – the same thing as used to power the TARDIS – being spread all around the area in which some cockney idiot has arrived, and especially, around Mrs Parks.
Despite the strong subject matter, there were some amusing quotes in this episode, which I’ll hide behind a spoiler heading in case you don’t want to chance across them and haven’t watched this episode yet.
This episode wasn’t available for preview, which usually means it’ll be a stinker. It wasn’t, but it was a bit too daft and featured an overly-easy ‘dispatching of the baddie’. When the timeline of that date had been changed by influences outside their control, the talk was about trying to steer things back in the right direction, so that certainly showed it felt more like the basics from Quantum Leap and Back To The Future, without worrying about any potential paradoxes.
Earlier, between Ryan and Yasmin, we were given a 60-second potted history of racism in the present day, which felt like it was crammed in to make a point.
Also, Yasmin was given the task of detailing the timeline for everything Rosa Parks did on December 1st, 1955, but I immediately thought – without the internet, and anything physical on which to make notes, how would she do it? Somehow, she did.
As an episode, Rosa passed 50 minutes, but it pretty much just recounted history rather than felt like any great tribute to a welcome, and long overdue, change in attitudes.
Sadly, if you enjoyed the Andra Day song, Rise Up, which continued over the end credits, then as soon as they began, the fucktarded shouty “continuity announcer” started blabbering on about how the episode was “So good” (before I muted the idiot). If it’s so good, then how about shutting the fuck up! (Yes, they do get me a tad miffed!)
You can hear the song in full below. It’s been misunderstood as being a song by Sia, but apparently her song comes later in the series.
Next time: The gang are back home but something’s going awry with the spiders in the city, and Chris Noth (Big in Sex and the City) was seen screaming, so he’ll have a hand in the proceedings…. maybe it was his hand that caused the scream. It certainly seemed rather painful.
Rosa is available on the BBC iPlayer for a month.
You can also pre-order it on Blu-ray, Blu-ray Limited Edition Steelbook and DVD.
Individual episodes can be bought in HD and SD here.
Score: 5/10
Director: Mark Tonderai
Producer: Nikki Wilson
Writers: Malorie Blackman, Chris Chibnall
Executive Producers: Chris Chibnall, Matt Strevens
Music: Segun Akinola
Cast:
The Doctor: Jodie Whittaker
Graham O’Brien: Bradley Walsh
Ryan Sinclair: Tosin Cole
Yasmin Khan: Mandip Gill
Krasko: Joshua Bowman
James Blake: Trevor White
Mr Steele: Richard Lothian
Waitress: Jessica Claire Preddy
Police Officer Mason: Gareth Marks
Raymond Parks: David Rubin
Martin Luther King: Ray Sesay
Fred Gray: Aki Omoshaybi
Elias Griffin Jr: David Dukas
Arthur: Morgan Deare
Rosa is the third episode of Doctor Who Series 11.
Montgomery, Alabama. 1955. The Doctor and her friends find themselves in the Deep South of America. As they encounter a seamstress by the name of Rosa Parks, they begin to wonder whether someone is attempting to change history.
This episode’s cast:
Rosa Parks: Vinette Robinson
Krasko: Joshua Bowman
James Blake: Trevor White
Mr Steele: Richard Lothian
Waitress: Jessica Claire Preddy
Police Officer Mason: Gareth Marks
Raymond Parks: David Rubin
Martin Luther King: Ray Sesay
Fred Gray: Aki Omoshaybi
Elias Griffin Jr: David Dukas
Arthur: Morgan Deare
The episode is broadcast at 6.55pm on BBC1 next Sunday.
Read our review for The Ghost Monument.
Check out the brand new trailer below along with a look at the brand new TARDIS with the Production Designer, Arwel Wyn Jones.
Director: Mark Tonderai
Writer: Malorie Blackman, Chris Chibnall
Main stars: Tosin Cole, Ian Gelder, Mandip Gill, Art Malik, Bradley Walsh
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.