Demons of the Punjab is a story often held in high esteem, even by those who have criticisms of the Thirteenth Doctor’s era. Some even consider it one of the best stories of the revival. However, I see several flaws in the story that make it a letdown for me.

On the positive side, the historical setting in South Asia is impressive, and I appreciate the focus on Yaz’s family history, a character who is often underutilised in the show.

The story effectively depicts the partition and doesn’t shy away from showing how it tore families apart. The fact that the antagonist is another human rather than an alien foe (space racist), is a refreshing change.

The production values are also impressive, with stunning directing, prosthetics, and CGI. The supporting cast, costumes, location filming, and overall production are all top-notch.

However, I have several issues with the writing, the moral of the story, and Yaz’s sidelining in her own narrative.

Let’s delve in:

Yaz’s Nan

Yaz’s Nan is having a birthday and, feeling old, decides to give away some of her treasured belongings “before it is too late.” She gives Yaz a broken wristwatch, which clearly holds sentimental value. However, when Yaz asks to explain its significance, Nan simply says, “When you’re older, maybe.”

I couldn’t help but wonder if Nan was worried she would die before she could tell Yaz the story behind the watch. What’s the point of bestowing upon someone an item of sentimental value and then instructing them never to fix it without also sharing the story of its meaning to her?

In my opinion, this entire scene doesn’t make logical sense and is simply there to set up a mystery for Yaz to solve.

Yaz immediately goes to her “mate with a Time Machine” and decides to betray her Nan’s wishes, opting to go back in time herself rather than waiting for her Nan to tell her the story in her own time before she dies.

Yaz’s Nan is clearly conflicted about giving the answer, but she is still alive. Wouldn’t it have been better to have this story take place after her Nan’s funeral? A saddened Yaz would have been disappointed that she never got to find out the story of the wristwatch, and she would have begged the Doctor for help to fill in these gaps and get closer to her Nan and her heritage. This would have given the Doctor a more powerful reason to go against her instincts and meddle with time, despite the potentially disastrous consequences (has she forgotten about the events of Father’s Day?).

At the end of the story, with Yaz fully understanding what happened and the sad meaning behind the watch, she speaks to her Nan. Yaz’s Nan starts to open up and offers to tell the story behind the watch to Yaz, but Yaz simply says “no.”

I thought that showed a really disrespectful side of Yaz. She was nosey and went against her Nan’s wishes, and then instead of using her new knowledge to have a deep and meaningful connection to her Nan, she didn’t even want to discuss it. It shows that she didn’t want to learn because of a love for her Nan, but because it was a puzzle box she needed to solve.

It’s probably supposed to show that Yaz has learned not to pry into her Nan’s private life and that there are things she doesn’t need to know (which is exactly what Graham told her, very on the nose). She should be willing to sacrifice her own curiosity for the sake of her Nan’s wishes, but that’s not what happens here.

Yaz is sacrificing nothing because she already knows exactly what happened. Her Nan actually wants to tell her now, but she is just shutting her down. If this is one of the morals of the story, it is very muddled.

The Thajarians and prejudice

Doctor Who (and many other sci-fi shows) often have a problematic trope that is actually just a storytelling shortcut but comes across as really prejudiced: the idea that an alien species is evil, and that every individual in that species is the same.

So, the idea that the Doctor is wrong about the Thajarians, that they aren’t all evil, and that maybe the Doctor jumps to a very wrong conclusion about them based only on the way they look, could be an incredibly powerful teaching moment for the Doctor and the audience.

But that’s absolutely not what we got here.

First of all, this isn’t a splinter group of Thajarians who decided to stop being assassins and try to repent for what they have done. The entire species has simply changed its mind about being assassins!

Instead of the message that judging a group of people by a stereotype is wrong, we learn that the Doctor was simply using an outdated stereotype to judge them by, and that people of the same species or race actually do think the same and should be judged the same.

The Doctor is not presented as having her prejudice challenged and being wrong about something; she is just shown as not having updated information about her prejudice.

The Thajarians mishandle this completely

When you have a story that aims to subvert expectations, one of the clearest and most interesting things it can do is improve itself upon rewatch because you notice all the subtle hints along the way, and information you are given from an unreliable source can now be reviewed and cleared up.

So, does that mean if you rewatch this story, you are given hints that the Thajarians mean no harm and are actually only there to mourn? No.

We are meant to mistakenly believe that the Thajarians killed the Holy Man, when in reality, he was shot with a gun. Why, when examining the body, did no one find a gunshot wound or any blood? There were no clues to help us understand how the incident actually occurred.

Then, when we first encounter the Thajarians, what did they say? How can we now assess their peaceful intentions, given our newfound knowledge?

ALIEN: You disrupt our work.
DOCTOR: Good. Now, who are you here for?
ALIEN: We don’t answer to you. You must leave or we will stand over your corpses.

This is a threat. There is no way to interpret it as peaceful behaviour. Sure, it may “make sense” upon rewatch, in a roundabout way if you think about it, but this is not how people talk!!

The Thajarians are aware that the Doctor has a mistaken perception of them. They must know that they once had a reputation for being assassins, and that unless they disclose their new mission, they will face opposition. However, they refuse to answer her questions and instead escalate the threatening behaviour. This is infuriating.

Prem asks, “Are you here to kill me?” Instead of responding with, “No, that is not how we do things anymore,” they just do not answer at all!

Later, when the story decides to reveal their true intentions, they have a PowerPoint presentation ready and are willing to clear up any misunderstandings. If they did that before, there would be no story here - but it shows that this is badly written.

A better way to handle this would have been to never have the early confrontations where the Thajarians speak. There is simply no way to make it work and make them seem threatening, but actually they are peaceful. Have them an ever-present threat, in the distance, out of the corner of your eye, until they are ready to explain themselves. I think that would improve the optics of this.

There are also several inconsistencies in the basics of the story. For instance, the Thajarians can teleport, yet the Doctor manages to outrun them?! They have technology to prevent people from accessing their ship, yet it fails on the first attempt when the fam enters. Additionally, the Doctor can approach the teleporters and pick them up without being teleported away.

These minor details could have been resolved with a slight rewrite, such as the Doctor using the sonic screwdriver to add her DNA to the whitelist first.

Yaz’s character

This is supposed to be Yaz’s story, but during it, she has very little to do and we don’t learn anything meaningful about her. She doesn’t have any reaction to the situation; she just acknowledges it over and over. Most of her lines are just talking about the mystery and reminding people of what is happening in the episode.

Ryan

He’s just there, isn’t he? We learn nothing about him in this episode; he doesn’t use any of his experience or character; he is just there to say the lines that anyone could have said. He could have been replaced with K9, and the story would be exactly the same. (But this comment could be placed on almost any story).

Conclusion

Whilst this story has a lot to love, I don’t think it can be held on a pedestal as one of the greatest stories of the revival; it has too many flaws.

It’s trying to be progressive and talk about prejudice, except it completely fails at saying anything meaningful about it and actually doubles down on the idea that “an entire species has a mission; they are all the same”.

It tries to show some character for Yaz, but she comes across as impatient, nosy, and disrespectful to her Nan, and at the end, she doesn’t learn a lesson.

And it completely fails to add any depth to the Thirteenth Doctor, who is consistently shown in her series to always be 100% correct, never making mistakes, and she should never be questioned. It’s clear she does not learn her lesson because in Spyfall, when she meets another hostile alien, she immediately assumes the entire species is evil again!