Rosa (TV story)

Set just prior to Rosa Parks' arrest for refusing to surrender her seat for white passengers, this story dealt with heavy themes and blatant depictions of racism, mainly directed at the Doctor's companions Ryan and Yasmin.

Synopsis

Attempting to return home to Sheffield, the TARDIS instead drops the Thirteenth Doctor and friends in 1955 Alabama, where somebody is planning on meddling with time. Meeting seamstress Rosa Parks, the Doctor and her friends must work together to correct the flow of time and keep events in order before things go horribly wrong.

Plot

It is 1943, Alabama in America. Rosa Parks is boarding a bus on her way home from work. She pays the fee but the bus driver demands she go around and get on the bus by the side entrance, given "coloured" people are forced to sit at the back while whites sit at the front. She refuses, leading the bus driver to force her from the bus and drive off without her.

By 1955, the Doctor lands her TARDIS in Alabama, remarking to Graham, Ryan and Yaz that their location is not Sheffield as planned for the ninth time. Graham corrects her it was the fourteenth attempt.

Cast

Crew

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References

People

The Doctor teases herself as the identity of Banksy.
Yaz is revealed to be of Pakistani descent. The waitress at Slim's Bar thinks she’s Mexican.
The body of Emmett Till was found in a river in Mississippi.
Graham identifies himself under the false name of Steve Jobs to a policeman.

History

Yaz states that 53 years in the future, America will have a black leader as president.
The Doctor and friends arrive on Wednesday, 30 December 1955, one day before Rosa Parks made history. On Thursday, 1 December, she refuses to give up her seat, and Rosa is arrested for sitting in a "whites only" section of the bus.
The boycotts begin on the following Monday, 5 December 1955.
On 21 December 1966, the racial segregation of buses in Montgomery ends.

Derogatory terms

Yaz has previously been called a "Paki" and a "terrorist".
Black people are often referred to, in 1955 Alabama, as "negroes" or "coloureds".

Locations

The Doctor takes her companions to see Asteroid 284996, also named Rosaparks.
The stop where Rosa is arrested is by the Empire Theatre.
The TARDIS lands in an alley next to Jefferson Drug Store.
The Doctor, Yaz, Graham and Ryan visit Slim's Bar, part of Kimberley Hotel.
The group stay at Sahara Springs Motel.
The cover of a Montgomery City Lines Inc. bus timetable shows stops Bainbridge St. and Cleveland Ave..
An August 1954 telephone directory lists phone numbers for parts of Montgomery, including the areas of Young Place, Greenacres, Ridgefield and Hillwood.
A map of Montgomery shows that it is located on the Alabama River.

Businesses

Goods advertised outside Slim's Bar include Pressburg, RPW Motor Oils, and Sampson Liquors.

Story notes

This episode came with a warning on iPlayer subtitles that "In this episode, there are familiar prejudices to face for the Doctor's friends."
This was the first televised story since The Day of the Doctor in 2013 to feature a real world historical figure.
The episode didn't feature the Doctor Who theme over the ending credits, replacing it instead with "Rise Up" by Andra Day, the same song used in the sequence of Rosa's arrest.

Ratings

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Filming locations

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Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

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Continuity

Krasko has a vortex manipulator. (TV: Utopia) The Doctor comments that it is "cheap and nasty time travel", resembling her eleventh incarnation's view of the device. (TV: The Big Bang) Missy also referred to it as such. (TV: The Magician's Apprentice)
Krasko was imprisoned in the Stormcage Containment Facility. River Song was also imprisoned there. (TV: Flesh and Stone/The Time of Angels, The Pandorica Opens, The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon, A Good Man Goes to War)
Ryan recalls his grandmother, Grace O'Brien's, death. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
Yaz remarks on how dangerous it is for her and Ryan to walk around Alabama given their racial ethnicity. Martha Jones held similar reservations in Elizabethan England, (TV: The Shakespeare Code) as did Bill Potts in the Regency era. (TV: Thin Ice)
The Doctor mentions how the TARDIS feeds on artron energy. (TV: The Doctor's Wife)
The Doctor remarks how she intended to return Graham, Ryan and Yaz to Sheffield. (TV: The Ghost Monument)
The TARDIS shows events from history in a similar way to the Time-Space Visualiser. (TV: The Chase)
The Doctor is still not used to being addressed as a woman. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, The Ghost Monument)
Yaz remarks on how years later there's a black president. (TV: The End of Time)
Graham discovers he was a part of the original history of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, similar to how Donna Noble and the Tenth Doctor became part of events when causing the volcanic eruption at Pompeii. (TV: The Fires of Pompeii)

Home video releases

DVD releases

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Blu-ray releases

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Digital releases

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External links

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