Resistance

A great story that focuses on the role Polly has in the Tardis team. With her longing to be more than just a damsel and a coffee machine. Could this finally be her time?

The Tardis lands in Nazi-occupied France, 1944. As soon as we land, the party is ambushed by the Gestapo. The Doctor and Polly manage to escape, while Ben and Jamie are captured. It is now up to the Doctor and Polly to survive their hostile surroundings and find a way to escape. But Polly might have more on her mind.

It's always interesting when Doctor Who puts the 60s companions in the second world war, because they grew up in the aftermath. They saw the consequences and are unwillingly forced back into the origins. It gives it a personal element which I can appreciate. That personal element is even stronger than usual in this story, since Polly comes across her uncle, who died in a concentration camp.

While the story paints quite a vivid picture of an occupied France, the real focus is on Polly’s internal conflict. She has an opportunity to save her uncle, but that would mean changing history. A big no-no in the Doctor’s book. At the same time, Polly is confronted with an overall feeling of uselessness. Seeing a young, female member of the resistance makes her realize that she could be doing much more to make a difference in her adventures. She wants to be more than the cleaning lady and the coffee girl.

These internal and external factors generally drive her to be more reckless in this story. She leaves the Doctor behind to jump on a train, she gets into a fight and is generally a bit more brash. This, for me, is where the problems begin, as it all feels a little aimless.

I have absolutely no problems with Polly trying to be more active. Fact of the matter is that she is often shoved aside in every medium. It’s rare for her to take action and take center stage. But it is unclear for me what the story tries to accomplish with this plot point. It’s not like she fails when she takes action, yet the story berates her for trying at the end. It makes a big deal out of it with the Doctor mentioning it is “not her time yet”. It feels aimless. Should Polly try to be more assertive or not? I feel like the story has no answer to that question.

What does work is the twist later on with Polly’s uncle. It turns out he is not really her uncle, but an impersonator who tries to undermine the resistance. While his eventual plan isn’t entirely clear, it did catch me off guard and made for a real interesting threat to Polly, quickly turning the tables on her.

However, this too undermines Polly’s agency. Since the fake uncle is a traitor, Polly no longer has a chance to save him. No reason to change history. So the big question of changing history fades away, without having a clear answer. And that feels a bit unearned. Polly didn’t learn anything from it. It didn’t make her grow as a person. Which is a shame.

Most characters so far have had an “Aztecs” moment, where they experience history at its worst and have to make a decision about changing it. This would have been the perfect moment to give Polly her version of this moment. Instead, since the uncle is twisted away, it feels a bit arbitrary. This random traitor coincidentally decided to disguise himself as Polly’s uncle, just in time for him to meet his time-travelling fake niece. It doesn’t flow particularly well.

That said, there is still a lot to like and the story is far from bad. The grim setting comes through perfectly and I don’t feel any of the characters are mischaracterized. The big twist doesn’t really pay off in the end, but in the moment, it does catch you off guard, which is something. I hope future stories keep pushing Polly a bit further, but as it stands this is far from bad.

What an amazing Polly story I loved how much we get to know about her in this one and that twist hurts me everytime