TV Review | Doctor Who: “Demons of the Punjab” by Vinay Patel

The first Doctor Who episode of 2018 not to feature showrunner Chris Chibnall’s name anywhere on the byline is Vinay Patel’s “Demons of the Punjab”, a superlative fifty minutes of telly even by this season’s usual standards.

By turns thrilling and moving, Patel’s story explores an event in history previously untouched by the show, and it does so through the most intimate of lenses. As the UK stands on the precipice of Brexit, Doctor Who whisks its viewers back in time to the partition of India, reflecting on old divisions as a young Muslim woman and Hindu prepare to wed on the very spot that their nations are to be divided. That young Muslim woman is Yaz’s grandmother. But that young Hindu man ain’t her grandfather...

In some ways reminiscent of Paul Cornell’s seminal “Father’s Day”, yet in others almost its antithesis, “Demons of the Punjab” benefits from that crushing sense of inevitability that the best historical adventures have, only here it’s turned up to eleven - Yaz’s very existence is a constant reminder of the tragedy to come. The drama is borne not out of the Doctor and her friends trying to save the world, but them trying to unravel the mysteries of it.

 

The enigma unravels very deliberately and delightfully, and as it does, it forces viewers to take a hard look at their preconceptions when it comes to aliens - in all senses of the word. In particular, I really have to applaud Patel’s imagination - and gall - when it comes to the execution of his eponymous “Demons”. Terrifying, mesmerising, perfect creations... who turn the narrative on its head when they reveal their true purpose, and mystery turns to shock and sadness. It’s another fresh angle in a season of fresh angles; another wrinkle in the reinvention that makes Doctor Who shine like new.

Mandip Gill, as you might expect, really carries this episode. The script is a gift for her character, and her performance ekes every ounce of excellence out of it. Yet this episode is perhaps more notable for Jodie Whittaker’s dazzling turn - I’m rapidly falling in love with Thirteen, and “Demons of the Punjab” is a fifty-minute visual treatise on why. I have absolutely no doubt now that she’s the same Doctor that he’s always been - here she’s incredibly forceful, arguably for the first time, yet she also gets to partake in a hen do and be - dare I say it - a little bit girly... but in what feels like an authentically ‘Doctorish’ way. It actually made me realise how little the character has changed since Matt Smith’s “just us girls...” conspiratorial interpretation. Thirteen is a vibrant force throughout whole episode - a thrilling splash of colour in a muted world of ubiquitous mustard and brown.

Inevitably, the Doctor’s male friends are relegated to supporting roles for this story, but Bradley Walsh still makes Graham’s big moments count. When he hugs Prem, knowing the young bridegroom’s fate but being powerless to change it, it’s one of the episode’s most powerful and enduring images.

A phenomenal script that’s been beautifully performed and directed, “Demons of the Punjab” instantly course-corrects after last week’s appalling offering. For me, it ranks as an instant classic: an episode that can be held up alongside “Rosa” as one of the best Doctor Who stories of the last decade.

The new series of Doctor Who airs on Sunday nights on BBC One and this episode is available to stream or download on BBC iPlayer in the UK, where the preceding 151 episodes are also currently available. A series pass is available from iTunes for £23.99.