Doctor Who: Demons of the Punjab will be a very personal episode for Yaz
By James Aggas
In the next episode of Doctor Who, Yaz discovers some of her family history in Demons of the Punjab. But what else will the TARDIS team discover?
We’ve had some major ups and downs in the current series of Doctor Who. Some of them have been ones we can all agree on over at Doctor Who Watch, such as the brilliance of Rosa. While others have been more divisive – for example, last week’s episode The Tsuranga Conundrum, while none of us greatly enjoyed it, some of us definitely loathed it more than others. It’s been an interesting experience just reacting to this series, I must admit.
However, Sunday’s episode Demons of the Punjab looks set to be an incredibly interesting one. Not only will this be the first episode where Chris Chibnall isn’t either writing or, in Rosa‘s case, co-writing it. But it also looks set to explore a place that the TARDIS has never been to before, at least not on screen: India.
The official synopsis sounds intriguing, and sounds like a different kind of Doctor Who adventure than what we’ve had so far this series. Particularly how it looks set to explore Yaz’s own family history.
"India, 1947. The Doctor and her friends arrive in the Punjab, as India is being torn apart. While Yaz attempts to discover her grandmother’s hidden history, the Doctor discovers demons haunting the land. Who are they, and what do they want?"
A personal adventure for Yaz
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Yaz meeting her grandmother when she was much younger is a brilliant idea, but one that’s rarely been explored in Doctor Who. The closest we’ve had to this is Father’s Day, where Rose got to meet her father on the day he died.
But of course, with the episode taking place during something as major to history as the Partition of India, it’s already clear that this will be a very different story. Will Yaz’s grandmother find out who Yaz really is, and if so, what will she make of her family’s future?
I’m also really excited that this is Vinay Patel’s debut episode for Doctor Who. It’s great to get a fresh voice working for the show, especially when he’s exploring something as personal to him as Indian history. So Demons of the Punjab looks set to be a very promising episode.
Demons of the Punjab broadcasts on BBC One in the UK on Sunday 11th November, at 7pm. It will then be broadcast in the US on BBC America at 8pm ET.
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Are you looking forward to watching Demons of the Punjab? Excited at someone new writing for Doctor Who? Do you think it’ll be refreshing after the first five episodes with Chibnall’s heavy involvement? Let us know in the comments below.