Demons of the Punjab was a fascinating episode.
Once again, this season's new attitude subverts the aliens. We've had aliens and monsters in every episode, but they're not the usual monsters. They're not out for world domination, or to kill the Doctor. In Punjab, they turn out to be reformed aliens on a benevolent mission. In the last episode, the alien was just hungry. The episode before that, the monsters were mutated spiders, non-sentient and scared animals. We got a baddie in Rosa Parks, but he was human. And even the baddie in the pilot episode, who racked up the biggest body count of the season so far, was basically just a Predator ripoff who had a weird honorable streak that prevented him from killing non-approved targets.
Instead, in the last three episodes, the real enemy is Mankind. Our own inner demons are what we must face, win or lose. Is Tsuranga, it was fear of failure and self doubt that was the enemy. In Arachnids, it was greed and lust that was the enemy. In Punjab, set during the partition of India, prejudice was the enemy.
The Doctor and Co., in maintaining their Hartnell-era style, are pretty much forced to simply stand by. They want to intervene. They try to do so. They behave as NuWho characters should and try to save the world... But, in what feels like a wave of brilliance in the tarnished NuWho era, they can't. They're forced to become observers. They're forced to walk away as the main guest star is brutally executed. Even when they try to NuWho the timeline, it's impossible.
The Doctor has lost this season. Not in a dramatic, rain-tower, moody stare into the middle distance way. The Doctor's known that it's coming each time. Her priority, as with Classic Who, is just to get out of the situation she's in. That occasionally involves changing things and saving the day (the Tsuranga would have surely been destroyed without her interference, and Rosa Parks was in danger, though she didn't ever know it), but, for the most part, she's had to walk away (Arachnids and Punjab).
Best of all: The companions remain normal and human. There's no angst-filled "The Doctor has ruined my life" stuff. No "You're forever changed when you travel with the lonely god" bullshit. The companions understand the stakes, and they adapt and roll with them. In their ordinary-ness, they're the bets companions I've seen in NuWho. They enjoy the adventure, and the outcome of this latest episode was heavy and sad, but... It's history. They were familiar with it already. It happened. By seeing it actually happening, they're given a slightly deeper layer when it comes to their lives back home. These companions, instead of being ruined by the "lonely god," are instead becoming better because of her. A very, very welcome change (as is the lack of romance).
In the field, the companions are the voice of reason for the Doctor. Ryan remains the avatar for the audience, but Bradley Walsh behaves more like the old Doctor than the Doctor herself. He's the calming voice, the defuser of bad situations, and the heart and soul that the Doctor, perhaps, is lacking (or, at least, forgets about when she gets wrapped up in an adventure).
So far, these have been some of the best episodes of Doctor Who in the entire series, old and new. This season is what I've always wanted the reboot to be.
