It was enjoyable even if I felt like I was watching an episode of Quantum Leap at times.

And yes, it’s a worthwhile story to bring to people’s attention, but it was all a bit hamfisted, with the one-dimensionally racist white Alabamans and the appalled modern sensibilities hitting each other head on with no hint of nuance, or any real attempt to explain context,

Lest we forget, it’s a kids entertainment show, not a documentary series.

The ex-con was sent back in time. Given he had intentions to nudge history, he could be instrumental in changing lots of things. However, Chibnall has said that all episodes in this series will be stand-alone (even though the Stenza got a mention in Ep2…..).

 it’s a kids entertainment show

I do wish people would stop saying this. It’s a family show. There is a difference.

My kids (who both watched it) had already learnt a lot more at school about Rosa Parks than I ever did. Kids old enough to appreciate Doctor Who are able to handle the history of the civil rights movement with a lot more sophistication than the “white people bad, black people downtrodden” narrative that they gave us last night, and it would have been nice if they had. What we got was no more than the simplest “oh those ignorant olden times people” line with the contrast to our oh-so-enlightened modern (can I say “woke” without being laughed out of town”) perspectives. It’s the laziest of angles on history that reveals nothing more than the writer’s ignorance and laziness in setting up “us” as the apotheosis of goodness and enlightenment in contrast.

There was so much scope to play against the one-dimensional and boringly predictable caricatures – probably wise not to mess with Parks and King personally, but it would have made a stronger story for me if there had been at least one white character who recognised the injustice, but we saw them struggle against the expectations of their role in society, or maybe a black character who accepted the white narrative and accepted their allotted, subjugated role in society as God’s will and thought those who fought the fight were causing trouble. Just something, every character they met was so one dimensional..

Lest we forget, it’s a kids entertainment show, not a documentary series.

It was originally intended to be educational when launched in the 60s. Hence a large amount of purely historical episodes back in those days. They stopped doing those after a while. This episode is possibly one of the closest to that kind of episode we’ve had since then.

It was enjoyable even if I felt like I was watching an episode of Quantum Leap at times.

Yeah, I was thinking that too. Waiting for Ziggy to get them out of there.

I guess the bad guy was basically the anti-Sam…

I watched it in the wee small hours and found it a strange contrast of happy/sad documentary and the Doctor doing the relentless having fun thing. The sadness of being forced to stay on the bus to ensure Rosa’s arrest was a nice touch.

And if the “Mexican girl” knew all about Rosa Parks from school we didn’t really need the full story of Rosa’s subsequent life spelled out. A good enough one and I’m very impressed by Bradley Walsh not distracting from the story in the way that other celebrity sidekicks have – I’m looking at you Catherine Tate!

I thought at one point that Bradley was going to have to step in as the racist bus driver, which would have put an interesting spin on the dynamic between him and his Grandson.

Yeah, I thought that’s where they were going too.  The driver’s gone missing and, oh look, Graham’s a bus driver.  I’m glad they didn’t.

(can I say “woke” without being laughed out of town”)

Get out of town.

There was so much scope to play against the one-dimensional and boringly predictable caricatures – probably wise not to mess with Parks and King personally, but it would have made a stronger story for me if there had been at least one white character who recognised the injustice, but we saw them struggle against the expectations of their role in society, or maybe a black character who accepted the white narrative and accepted their allotted, subjugated role in society as God’s will and thought those who fought the fight were causing trouble.

While I agree with you to some extent – it is a lot to ask to squeeze in those kind of characters in a sub 1 hour TV drama where we’re still getting to know the main characters  – that said they could’ve fleshed out the baddie a little more.Was slightly disappointed that Ryan is still shooting first…

I thought it was clunky.

Woohoo, huge, scary spiders and an egotistical hotel owner running for President!

That was good. My kids screamed at least half a dozen times!

Was that episode a side swipe at the donald?

Tacky hotel, your fired, narcissistic personality etc.

Liked that one.

Definitely a different “vibe” to this series possibly being post Steven Moffat

Was that episode a side swipe at the donald?

Almost certainly not!! Why would anyone do such a thing, even down to the hand washing….

Good and fun, some good misunderstood monsters though I wish they had met some more peace loving and progressive looking spiders to balance the plot out a little.

A general thought from me is although nothing is meant to be part of a bigger plot and no big story arcs we are being teased with some might return characters – bad guy auditions 🙂

Also spotted a Daily Hate headline in a newsfeed that “some” people are upset that it’s got a bit too inclusive, you know a bit too white dude and pretty girl fix problems.

Also spotted a Daily Hate headline in a newsfeed that “some” people are upset that it’s got a bit too inclusive, you know a bit too white dude and pretty girl fix problems.

What, you mean they’ve got over the bit about the Doctor is now female, and are snivelling about something else already?

Regarding story arcs, returning monsters, I’m sure I read somewhere that the writers have made a conscious decision to stay away from all of the classic protagonists this season, so no Daleks, Cybermen, Ice Warriors, etc. Which I welcome, it’s good to have a new Doctor who has to deal with a whole bunch of completely new situations, which in turn makes things more interesting for us viewers, not knowing what’s coming at all.

That was good. My kids screamed at least half a dozen times!

My g/f absolutely refused to watch it, she was laying on the couch by my side with a blanket over her head, and in the end told me to turn it off! Fortunately I was recording it at the same time, just in case. 😱 😬

What, you mean they’ve got over the bit about the Doctor is now female, and are snivelling about something else already?

Yaz is clearly gay for the Doctor and door’s open for lesbian Doctor. That’s enough for a melt down at the Heil.

And then they go mock Trump 😁

So, racism and Trump over the last two weeks. What’s next week? Brexit?

So are we meant to infer that locking them away to die a slow death from starvation is apparently fine while quickly ending the life of one that was dieing a slow death from suffocation is not OK?  Questionable moral stance there?

And was really hoping for an Aliens moment where the bodyguard was still alive in his coccoon, but that’s probably not Sunday evening viewing…

What’s next week? Brexit?

I hope so. Our Reptilian Overlords to be un masked. Farage to be outed as a toxic Space Turd.

Won’t link the bloody rag, but DM headline – “Doctor Who: Fans rejoice as they claim Yaz is bisexual and in LOVE with the Time Lord after cryptic scene as they praise the PC series”

Weakest episode of the new series yet – all filler no killer.

More like last weeks please.

My main thought was this was the exact same plot as The Green Death from 3rd Doctors days. Toxic waste ending up in a mine causing bugs to mutate and grow to a huge size – though it was spiders this time not maggots.

And also locking the spiders in a room to die slowly was pretty grim.

Liked the spider special effects but not my favourite episode.

Who would have guessed the LEAST annoying thing about the new series would be Bradley Walsh?

I want to like it (mostly for nostalgia), but going to have to accept it is no longer worth watching (and hasn’t been for a while).  I don’t mind the PC thing if it doesn’t get in the way of good stories, but the stories aren’t good.  It’s not easy to cater for both 8 year olds and adults.

Felt more like a traditional Doctor Who. A lot of reaction is it put a lot of kids (and some adults) back behind the sofa, so that’s more like it should be 😀 . Though it’s a bit naff plot wise but that’s fairly normal for Who.

Wish they’d actually made Mr Business Guy, Trump, orange hair and all. Oddly he was everything Trump including the hotel (immediately though, that’s Trump’s golf place in Scotland isn’t it?), but then comes out saying he hates Trump.

Anyway, Green Death is miles better, and has Pertwee in drag!

Yep, top marks for Bradley just doing what the role needs.

And also locking the spiders in a room to die slowly was pretty grim.

Yeah, I thought that was a strange choice for a person of the doctors high morals. As was the discussion about the giant spider in the ballroom being suffocated but it’s own weight. Thought The Donald’s approach to dispatching of it quickly was bob on. Not that one bullet from a handgun would have done it quite so rapidly!

Agreed ^^

They’ve set the bar pretty high this season but that was a weak one.

I haven’t checked, has the bottom half of the Internet exploded yet?

I quite enjoyed the episode as a whole, good situation and nice build up of threat, etc.

Until they revealed the fearsome creature itself. A Pokemon.

I did let out an audible sigh.

Made me laugh. Lighten up.

Yeah I did laugh trough it, so many tough and successful women through, who is at home looking after the kids!!

It’s getting better., slowly but definitely…..but Pikachu???

Aside from the ludicrous name, I thought the Pting was brilliant.

so many tough and successful women through

The guy in charge of the ship was, er, a guy. That should be enough to keep those “men who exclusively love only other men” happy, no? And the shit hot engineer was a man as well. More meat for the men who only like man meat.

Last week’s was good but the way the spiders were dispatched was a bit odd. This week’s was terrible though 🙁 Did they get back to the TARDIS? We switched it over after the Pting ate the bomb and couldn’t take any more of Ryan banging on about being a dad.

Did nobody else think of this when they heard last nights character was called Pting?

This one & last weeks were very meh episodes.

Yaz seems a bit pointless, which is a shame. It started well, but it’s going downhill, will keep watching & hope for improvement.

Still waiting for a Doctor moment & the script where she keeps comparing things to pop culture or current tech (the iphone of cern generators) doesn’t feel very Doctory, if one of the companions said it then it’d sit better…