MacGyverising

I guess the real Demons of the Punjab were the friends we made along the way.

"Demons of the Punjab" by Vinay Patel, directed by Jamie Childs. Spoilers after the cut.

It's only a couple of months since I saw Vinay Patel's An Adventure, so his Doctor Who debut feels a bit familiar - obviously not in plot, but in the suspicion that, like the heroine of his play, Yasmin's grandmother Umbreen - who we also see both as a young and old woman - might be based on Patel's own grandmother. She too is someone who knows her own mind about who she wants to marry, and sticks with her decision even as her country is literally being torn apart around her.

There's no question that "Demons of the Punjab" is a marked improvement, especially taken on its own merits. It's got emotional depth, with a really nice reveal of what the broken watch means and why it's important that it never get mended. Mandip Gill finally gets something to do as Yas - the second story to revolve around her family but the first where she actually feels like a proper character - while Ryan and Graham continue to have their own low-key bonding moments. Look, I know everyone seems to have forgiven Bradley Walsh for being in this but he just hasn't done a Catherine Tate as far as I'm concerned. Anyway I'm telling you, he's going to get Adriced out at the end of the series and Ryan will call him "Grandad" and it'll be all sad and moving and it'll still be a bit weird that he gives a shit about that actually. Also in this episode you can kind of tell how buff Tosin Cole is, which was only really apparent when I saw ear for eye the other week and it's a bit wrong that the show hasn't been showcasing this.

Anyway also very important is that Thirteen gets to be the MacGyver Doctor again (she's also namedropping all over the place again but you can't have everything) and whether it's welding again or demanding a random list of supplies to save the day with this is really where Jodie Whittaker feels like she's making the character her own.

The episode's downsides aren't really Patel's fault, they're only irritating in the context of the rest of the series so far: A lot of people have complained about the lack of a decent alien threat in the Chibbers era, and where the "demons" actually turning out to be respectful good guys isn't a problem in itself, it does feel yet again like a monster that gets dispatched all too easily. With, once again, The Real Monster Being Man this is as close as the modern series gets to the "Pure Historical." And you can talk about Doctor Who going back to its educational roots all you like but the pure historical wasn't something that the 2005-onwards version did without, it was one of the first things the series ditched in the '60s, and one of the reasons it evolved into something that could run for over 50 years: An educational element is laudable, as long as nobody actually notices they're getting educated.

Still, a strong episode that, in the middle of one of RTD or Moff's runs, would have probably felt like a memorable standout, but in the middle of this one is a bit of a reminder that a sense of fun isn't much of a priority in Doctor Who just now.