Doctor Who: How Rosa dealt with racism in a big way for the series

Rosa was in many ways a key episode for Doctor Who. Not only did it avoid shying away from its subject matter, but equally importantly, it also showed the effect of it on the companions, too.

Rosa was a pretty major episode in Doctor Who. It wasn’t simply the fact that it dealt with a significant part of history, and looked at it in a full-on way. It wasn’t even because it dealt with racism.

It’s the fact that it focused on racism from the perspectives of two POC companions. It didn’t shy away from it for their benefit, or try to work some way around it. Instead, it dealt with this ugly side of history in a big way, and the episode made sure to show how even the companions were affected by this.

Contrast this to Martha Jones. Freema Agyeman’s casting was a big deal back in 2007. After nearly four and a half decades, Doctor Who had its first full-time POC companion on TV. Naturally, this was quite a major step for the show.

But how well was this fact handled within the series? A lot of episodes in the third series simply avoided it. Understandable for stories in the modern day or in the future. But there were a few historical episodes that shied away from the obvious.

The one exception to this was the excellent Human Nature/The Family of Blood by Paul Cornell. Originally a Seventh Doctor novel, Cornell brilliantly ensured that the story not only suited David Tennant’s Doctor more, but more importantly, ensured that the TV episodes were written for Martha, rather than Bernice Summerfield as before.

This meant that, in 1913 England, Martha faced a lot of prejudice and racism. Not just from the schoolboys, but also even from the Doctor, or at least the human version of him, John Smith. It was quite a bold thing to do, but it was handled in the story really well.

Rosa wasn’t afraid to show how the Doctor’s companions were affected by the racism they experienced. And not just in the past, either…

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC. Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

A bolder look

However, while Cornell brilliantly handled the subject with his own scripts, even that wasn’t quite as bold as what we got with Rosa. The moment we saw Ryan physically assaulted by a white man, we knew that this episode wasn’t going to mess around. It wasn’t going to have the POC companions quietly ignored or somehow have them escape the effect of systemic racism in this time period.

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Even more surprising is how the episode acknowledged that they’ve both faced racism back home. They don’t live in an idealized modern era where it simply doesn’t happen. Ryan talks about how regularly he gets stopped by the police. Yasmin makes it clear that she still gets called racist slurs when she’s doing her job.

This was the most surprising aspect to Rosa. It didn’t just show how much things had improved. It also acknowledged that some things still need to change, too. Today, things might not be as bad as they were in Montgomery, Alabama, 1955. But that certainly doesn’t mean that it’s all perfect for people like Ryan and Yas.

This isn’t the kind of story that Doctor Who should tell every week, especially with so many trips to the future that the companions need to take. But at the same time, it’s fantastic that the series is not only acknowledging the more difficult side of history, but also shows how it affects the major characters, too.

Doctor Who took a major step in the right direction with Rosa, and fans will remember it for a long time to come.

Next. Doctor Who explores racism and major history in Rosa. dark

Do you think Rosa was an important episode for Doctor Who, particularly with how it explored the effect of racism and the companions’ reactions to it? Do you think we’ll continue to see it acknowledged during the Doctor’s travels to history? Let us know in the comments below.

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