Written by Vinay Patel
Directed by Jamie Childs
The Doctor (to Umbreen/Prem): "Something I believe in in my faith, love, in all it's forms is the most powerful weapon we have. Because love is a form of hope and like hope, love abides in the face of everything."
One of the biggest complaints about this series surrounding the new companions was that Yasmin has been the least focused on out of the three and it's been a valid enough argument. This episode then is something of a focal shift for the young police officer as we get to have a delve into her grandmother's past during a rather volatile time in India's history.
When Nani Umbreen (Leena Dhingra) seemed cagey about revealing the story of a broken watch on her birthday to her family, Yasmin implored the Doctor to take a trip down memory. You'd think after Father's Day, this would be the last thing any Doctor would with a companion but apparently the lesson from that episode was forgotten as the gang materialise in the Punjab in late 1940's where Yasmin gets some history lessons.
First of all, she gets to meet a younger version of her grandmother (Amita Suman) on the eve of the latter's wedding to former soldier Prem (Shane Zaza), which freaks Yasmin out as Prem isn't actually her grandfather so she's not too pleased that her nana was previously married to another. The other vital bit of history is that the TARDIS crew had landed in India during the Partition and that by the end of this episode we would see one hell of a family falling out between Prem and his younger brother, Manish (Hamza Jeetooa) as the latter disapproved of Umbreen for being Muslim while Manish and Prem were Hindu themselves.
I'm not going to lie - prior to this episode at all, I had very little knowledge of the Partition and I thought it was not only handy of writer Vinay Patel to give us one of many stories alluding to the event itself but also to post out some helpful links as well. I think the show deserves praise for exploring a part of history not touched on often in other media, something about this episode just didn't come together as it could've done.
Once again, like Rosa a few weeks ago, this was a part of history with a certain situation unfolding (the divide between India and Pakistan and of course, Prem and Manish, resulting in the former being shot by the latter) where the Doctor and the companions couldn't influence or change anything but even the monsters of the week themselves, the Thijarian were absolutely useless here.
This has been a growing problem with this series now and it's becoming a massive source of irritation at this point. I wouldn't have minded the Thijarian abandoning their assassin ways to become chief mourners if this series hadn't been riddled with absolutely toothless new monsters, which is ironic considering that one of them collected teeth. It's all well and good for Chibnall to rest classic foes but when he isn't coming up with new compelling baddies himself (and he hasn't if we're being honest here), then you realise the show has a major problem on it's hands.
The main cast as usual are great though. I do love this Doctor and I've grown to really care for Graham, Yasmin and Ryan and the series has had some beautiful character bits but the lack of jeopardy, excitement and compelling monsters is increasingly becoming a hindrance to the show at this rate. I'm really hoping the remaining four episodes will inject some menace into proceedings now.
- Anyone else starting to get the feeling that Graham's cancer has returned? I thought it two weeks ago when he saw Grace but something about his conversation with Yasmin has convinced me he's not making it out of this series alive.
- The Doctor made another reference to being a man as well as officiating Prem and Umbreen's big day. We had the Hindu tradition of hands being tied together.
- The timing of this episode was fairly appropriate as it aired on Remembrance Sunday.
- Shane Zaza who played Prem technically has been in the Doctor Who universe before, having played a character named Atif in the TARDISODES series. The Partition also was previous explored in the 10th Doctor/Donna book, Ghosts Of India.
- Segun Akinola's music really was a high point for this episode as well. He's been a worthy successor to Murray Gold so far.
- Chronology: August 17th and 18th, 1947 and present day 2018 in Sheffield.
Demons Of The Punjab is something of a strange episode. It's undeniably a step up from the misfire of the previous week and I commend it tackling a piece of history not often discussed but for some reason, it just didn't really land for me. I really wanted to love this episode and there's a lot to recommend but between the ineffective monsters and some of the guest cast lacking a little, it was a little disappointing.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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