Doctor Who: Demons of the Punjab (2018) - Review

One of the many benefits of having a diverse range of writers working on Doctor Who is that each writer can bring a completely different perspective, and from that a completely new set of ideas for the show that no other writers could really contribute. This week's guest writer Vinay Patel has clearly decided to make his episode of Doctor Who with 'Demons of the Punjab', exploring a culture and history that is rarely approached in mainstream media in this country. I knew next-to-nothing about the partition of India prior to watching this episode, but Patel's script presented a wonderfully-realised look at a real historical event.

Unlike 'Rosa', which I felt took a huge topic and never quite managed to simplify it to fifty minutes of television, 'Demons of the Punjab' re-contextualises a historical event from the perspective of one family, and a small one at that. Each character brings a differing perspective on these real-life events in the episode, and that helped to humanise them and keep the story engaging. Whilst it was admittedly quite predictable (as soon as Yaz said "that's not my granddad" I immediately thought "well, he's dead"), I found that the episode kept me engaged throughout. As someone who's never been to India in the present day - let alone 1947 - I found the setting absolutely fascinating, and loved the historical aspects to the story.

Better yet, 'Demons of the Punjab' had a brilliantly-realised alien species with Almak and Kisar - originally assassins, now comforting the dead across the Universe. Initially I had feared that such a twist would be akin to Steven Moffat's horrific handling of similar concepts surrounding death in 'Dark Water' and 'Twice Upon a Time', but the idea that this species comforts those who die alone was actually quite touching. I'm not sure if they needed to dress like assassins to do it, but if they were wearing typical funeral garments I imagine it'd give the game away too early. Brilliant designs and concepts for these new alien creatures though (I wonder if they'll make an action figure?).

On the critical side of things though, I'm still finding Yaz to be the least developed of the companions this series. She's given a lot more focus in this episode than in 'Arachnids in the UK', but I felt that perhaps the former episode could have introduced a few key elements for this episode. Perhaps Yaz's nan could've been in that episode in a small role, just for a bit of narrative continuity. It meant that the episode had to slightly awkwardly introduce its premise, in a similar way to 'Father's Day' (an admittedly brilliant episode). Good to see Yaz getting more to work with, but it's worth mentioning that the other three regulars are all still stellar. Quite what those visions the Doctor kept seeing were about was left a little unclear for me though.

Overall, I thought that 'Demons of the Punjab' was a stellar episode of Doctor Who. Whilst by no means the funniest, and certainly a hard-hitting installment, Vinay Patel's episode was a wonderful experience to watch, exploring a setting no other episode has tackled before and imbuing it with a surprisingly strong supporting cast of characters, a great original alien species and an emotional center. Showrunner Chris Chibnall promised us educational episodes this series, and I think that this episode and 'Rosa' certainly fit that bill. Bravo to all involved. Special kudos to Segun Akinola for his wonderful incidental score and one-off rendition of the theme tune as well. 9/10