incredibly disrespectful and horrible episode where a space criminal man goes back in time to kill Rosa Parks because he’s a racist. The Doctor and her crew do time magic stuff and send him back further in time instead of just killing him. Then the crew accidentally gets on the same bus and watches Rosa Parks get arrested, so actually they saved history or something. It’s incredibly gross and weird.
You thought Rosa Parks was a fearless activist? Well actually she had a bunch of weird British space wizards who helped her. The episode ends with how Parks has an asteroid named after her. There are a million ways Doctor Who has had positive messages dealing with race, class, gender, etc, but it’s usually done through fictional scenarios or showing how the Daleks are fascists, which can be done in tactful ways. In this case they shoved British space goofballs into real world events and take the credit for saving the day. I hate it. I somehow hate that episode more than the times the show worships Winston Churchill.
I hate how the mainstream narrative about Rosa Parks is that she didn’t get up because she was tired from working all day and simply didn’t want to get up. Absolutely not, she was part of a coordinated protest movement and deliberately sat in the white section of a segregated bus, then refused to move when ordered because she was incredibly cool and fearless. I guess that’s harder to sell to Americans than this fictional image of a frail old woman being bullied (she was only 42). It’s both a great man myth and also defanging the real Rosa Parks, who was far cooler than the mainstream story goes.
