Review "Rosa"

We are onto the 3rd episode of this season and we get our first historical episode from Jodie's Doctor, which features Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott.  Now when Doctor Who does a historical episode, it tries to blend historical facts with an element of science fiction that is trying to cause the historical moment not to occur. It's a pretty simple formula to follow, but somehow this episode messed up the science fiction part.

The historical part of this episode was magically done. It had great acting, especially Vinette Robinson who played Rosa Parks, great sets and great drama. If they would have just stopped at that, we would have had a great episode, maybe not a great Dr Who episode, but a great TV episode nonetheless. In order to make it a Dr Who episode, they needed to add some form of science fiction to it and here's where they dropped the ball. Enter Krasko, who is a rehabilitated murderer who can't kill anyone because of his neural implant. For some reason, Krasko blames Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement on all of his troubles in the far, far future. This futuristic criminal really blames the Civil Right Movement on all of his troubles?

 Then the Doctor and her companions have to thwart Kraso from his non-violent attempts to stop Rosa from giving up her seat on the bus. Really? This is the best science fiction portion of the story they could come up with? Krasko is a dumb horrible character. The Doctor finds his suitcase with all his futuristic equipment and he is able to scare the Doctor and her companions away from it. What does he do next? Maybe hide the suitcase somewhere else? Nooo, I'll just leave it the same exact place for the Doctor to destroy it later on. I've seen smarter criminals on the show "World's Dumbest Criminals".


I found some reviews online that talk about this episode bringing Dr Who back to its educational roots. When did Dr Who leave it's educational roots? Pretty much every season since the series has come back has had at least one educational episode. Or are they referring to the original purpose of the show back in 1963, which was a disaster? Non-Dr Who fans writing reviews about Dr Who drives me insane.


"Rosa" gets a 2 out of 5 Tardises. The Historical part of the episode was brilliant and would have rated a lot higher, but unfortunately the Sci-Fi part of this episode dragged it down. Can someone tell me, why naming an asteroid after "Rosa Parks" an honor? Won't it eventually crash into something and destroy it? I'm all ready for the 4th episode, oh wait spiders. Spiders! The Doctor has not had a good track record with spiders.