Doctor Who 11.8 "The Witchfinders" Review

                                          
The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) ends up in medieval times or thereabouts as the TARDIS she says is sending them on unusual locations.  This time they witness a witch trial and a witch, so-called, being dunked until she drowns, thus proving she's not a witch.  What's the logic behind that anyway, you die, you're not a witch!  The Doctor reminding them not to interfere with changing history.  Though she did enjoy taking part in the apple bobbing, pulling out an apple.  Another thing she loves, of course this ep would've been more suited to Hallowe'en but never mind!  Getting back to the ducking, the Doctor dives in to save old woman Twiston, who says to her granddaughter that she will be with her through the wind, earth etc, a clue if ever there was one to what was happening, but she can't save her.  Lady Becka Savage (Siobhan Finneran) tells them she was a witch and the Doctor shows her the Psychic paper again (been using that quite a bit) to tell her she's the Witchfinder General.  In which case Becka suggests they should talk in private.  The Doctor agrees as long as there are no more deaths.

She takes them to her house and Graham (Bradley Walsh) recognizes they're in Lancashire as he sees Pendel Hill - scene of the witch trials.  He's been on the walk and he didn't see Bilehurst Cragg (apt name!) which they suspect means Becka must've done something to erase it from existence.  When they reach the Hall, Yaz (Mandip Gill) decides to check up on T but she didn't think of that before she came all this way.  When she finds her she's burying her grandmother and she gets attacked by a tendril (which reminded me of that scene in Supernatural season 13.17 The Thing ep with Dean (Jensen Ackles) and the tentacle! ha.)  Yaz beats it away with a stick.  At the Hall, they talk of what they are doing and Becka has killed 35 people by accusing them of being a witch.  They're interrupted by King James I (Alan Cumming) who was watching them out in the woods wearing a mask.  He looks at the Pyschic paper and tells her it reads Witchfinder Assistant, thus Graham must be her boss - being a man!  He says it's a flat internal structure where everyone has a job to do.  The Doctor confessing if she was a man she could just get on with the job and not have to defend herself or be seen as a useless woman. "These are hard times for women.  If we’re not being drowned, we’re being patronized to death."  James takes a shine to Ryan (Tosin Cole) who says he's in paperwork.  Which makes him like him even more!

When they get a chance they sneak out and search Becka's room, where she finds books on Satan, and plenty of hankies.  As Ryan finds an axe under her bed.  Thus there's more going on here than meets the eye.  As Yaz finds them and tells them about the tendril.  The Doctor analyzes the mud on Yaz's clothes and concludes it's just normal mud.  But she goes to see Willa (Tilly Steele) who tells her that her grandmother was a healer.  The Doctor saying she's a doctor too.  She's too frightened to face Becka as Yaz tells her a story about being bullied at school by Izzy and she just had to put up with it.  Willa can face her fears and face up to Becka or she can help them.

James shows Ryan and Graham his witch hunter box of gadgets and body parts and shows off the pricking tool which hits the mark on the witch and draws blood.  Ryan tries to talk him out of anymore killing; but they're not successful.  Though he gives Graham his former Protector's hat, who betrayed him and so he shot him, as well as giving Ryan all seeing eye to keep an eye on him.  They head out to the woods to find some more victims and as the Doctor searches in the mud which she finds is alien, she finds an alien species of some sort, Yaz and Willa point to her grandmother who has risen.  The Doctor adding it's the alien form "filling" her body, as she demands the thing she found and eats it.  More turn up.  The Doctor concluding she wants to fill her body too, but can't have it.  The others hear screams and find the Doctor.

As they follow after them, James arrests the Doctor for being a witch and being behind it.  She talks to him about seeing many things and she could tell him all about it if he gives her back her wand - the Sonic.  But he refuses, even mentioning his mother again.  As he did when he spoke to Ryan about her and how she died when he was young; being beheaded.  As well as Guy Fawkes trying to kill him, though he's not mentioned by name.  Ryan adding he lost his mother and Nan too; but they weren't killed, which makes things different.  However the Doctor tells James how he could've seen his mother if he wanted to, but he didn't. 
 "You can’t go hurting people just because you’re scared to face up to the darkness inside you, you have to be better than that."  He doesn't give in to her and the Doctor finds herself in the dunking chair.  As she tries to reason with Becka and find out what happened, she finds she can't.  Becka's eye bleeds and she doesn't have a hankie either.

The Doctor is dunked and finally Witchfinder Graham tells him to stop it.  When he does, the Doctor's vanished and comes out of the water later, saying she got some tips of getting out of chains from Houdini.  Becka tells her how she cut down the tree on the hill as it was obstructing her view and then she was afflicted by something she thought was the work of Satan.  She changes into the true alien, the Morax.  They were locked in the hill where the tree was and the tree was the lock keeping them in.  Which wasn't that hard to figure out.  They must fix the lock again to keep them in as Becka tries to revive her king.  The Doctor lights up torches from the fire which will stop them, as Willa wants to help.

The Doctor saves James from being killed and he burns "the witch" Becka as he puts it.  Thanking the Doctor for saving his life.  He wants Ryan as Protector, but Ryan replies he will be keeping his eye on him, as he returns the eye to James.  The Doctor telling James she doesn't want word of what happened here getting around and he agrees.  Explaining why there wasn't nay mention of Bilehurst Cragg.  He also sees the TARDIS along with Willa, who is going to become a healer too.

Oh what another Doctor Who baddie with a name ending in an "...ax"  Not very original! Neither was this Lady of stature actually chopping the tree down herself, otherwise she wouldn't have gotten others to do the dunking and also done that for herself too.  James preferring to travel incognito and Becka having a copy of his treatise 'Daemonologie' in her room, was willing to accept him for who he was and to undertake his work with him.  Though James was flawed in that this Lady was more acceptable to him in carrying out the killings, yet the Doctor as Witchfiner General was too serious a role for a woman to undertake.  Class differences there seeping through like the thinly veined mud aliens.  Those vampires from Doctor Who in Vampires of Venice the women being 'filled' by the Morax really weren't ha!  Siobhan Finneran of course was the dastardly O'Brien in Downton Abbey.

Supernatural 14.5 "Nightmare Logic" Comments

                                           
Not sure if some things here resonate from 2.20 ep of Supernatural What Is And What Should Never Be... since in that in the commentary to it, I alluded to Dean (Jensen Ackles) not having any wish granted and was just fodder for the Djinn to feed off in his alternate reality, there was nothing alternate about it in the longrun; but mostly what had gone before and plenty of wishful thinking on his part.
I also wrote of how everyone was forcing Dean to stay in that fantasy world of 2.20.  But Dean is the only one who can end this nightmare.  As I opted to use nightmare as opposed to another word as that's exactly what it was for him: a nightmare.  Almost never ending as he was made to relive this world where nothing was real.  Then here they used Nightmare Logic in the title.  Gosh was that my subconscious foreshadowing to season 14 (I wish! ha).  Actually what was with the title Nightmare Logic?  More logical to assume Dean is still reliving the 'nightmare' of having Michael inside his body.  That perhaps Michael is still there, or was there something more such as the Djinn trying to manipulate him into believing he saw something scary or nothing at all remotely about Dean or Michael?

The silly part of my thinking was that it was somehow some allusion to his experience in 2.20 and that somehow something that happened there will become an offshoot of this here?
I recall Jensen in one interview commenting on 2.20 where he said "...it [Djinn] basically gets its hands on me and sucks out what my innermost desires are..."  A mirror image repeat here since the Djinn did appear to do exactly that again here in 14.5 as he sees something drastic, or could it have been something else.  Something you're not quite sure about as far as Supernatural goes.

And ending with "...Dean's desire is that this life would have never happened for them, that they would have lived a normal life..." and what if this was possible.  One day, what if?  That's one question always asked and wonder if one day it may get to happen if the show ever draws to a close.
John Shiban on 2.20 remarked how this ep was  "a big twist in the whole genie idea."

Also in the previous ep to this Sam (Jared Padalecki) is on the phone talking about the knife dipped in lamb's blood and in this ep this is what they need but don't have to kill the Djinn.  Obviously it was always the nurse there was something surefire creepy about him, as well as him disappearing, conveniently when Dean was talking about Dad and his past.

Doctor Who 11.7 "Kerblam" Review

                                             
The Doctor (Jodi Whittaker) receives a parcel courtesy of a Kerblam delivery robot and inside finds a message "Help Me."  She doesn't know where the message came from, other than assuming someone from Kerblam sent it, or who it's from as she's got TARDIS problems to fix.  Inside she finds a Fez as was Doctor Eleven's (Matt Smith) fave mode of headgear!  As Ryan (Tosin Cole) looked like he wanted to burst the bubble wrap.  So millions of galaxies far away and the good ol' fashioned bubble wrap is still in use!  She takes a detour to the planet and they end up going undercover as workers there.  All having to go through the mot so rigorous process of not being interviewed or anything, just going through some personal checks as they've come in by a special ship.  As the Doctor shows Judy (Julie Hesmondhalgh) the psychic paper and she knows the First Lady in person.  Thus getting more approval for the job.

They are each assigned loops which are colour co-ordinated to show what department they will work in, with the Doctor getting the janitor's position (which she should have taken with hindsight as she could've gotten everywhere without being noticed) but doesn't realize that until the end.  She swaps with Graham (Bradley Walsh) who had the purple packaging loop as did Ryan who says he's a dab hand at this after working in a store selling trainers.  Even saying they used to end up putting all sorts of things into the trainers, though he doesn't get a chance to expand on this.  At the packing site, they meet Kira Arlo (Claudia Jessie) who is content with her job, more like overjoyed really as they can't find much work and at least 10% of the population must be employed.  The rest is run by robots and is automated.

Yaz (Mandip Gill) works with Dan (Lee Mack) as he shows her the ropes and also his poster on the wall for being best employee.  He sent it to his daughter for her to put on her wall.  She sent him a necklace with 'Dad' engraved on it.  He doesn't get to see her much; but he takes two shuttle trips a year as they're expensive and he's saving for her to go to uni and get a better life than him and not end up working here.  As they speak they are constantly interrupted by the bot telling them to save the chitchat for their social time and to get on with it.  Yaz gets an order which is an antique lamp but Dan says he'll take it over for her cos she'll get lost there, as other workers have and he'll never see her again.  Juss like them.  Yaz decides to follow and sees one of the delivery bots make him vanish and then two come for her.

Graham meets Charlie (Leo Flanagan) who shows him what sort of work to expect and during the break they all meet up, with Kira and Charlie being friendly with each other, as he has a crush on her, which Graham tells him is obvious.  The Doctor meets with the manager and tells him how to be more respective of the workers.  Later they decide to break into his office and find that he has files that are locked and has a record of the missing workers, a paper trail.  As they hid in the panel earlier, until he left.  Julie catches them and they show her his paperwork.  She is adamant it's not her behind it and she should've known of this on the system but their names aren't there. The Doctor tells Graham she needs the plans of the place and Charlie knows they have some in the museum. 

Two bots take Kira to the dispatch floor and tell her there's a gift for her.  As Yaz, Ryan and Charlie go and look for her.  Ryan taking them through the delivery chute as it's the best way to get around.  They get to Kira but it's too late as she opens the box and finds only bubble wrap inside it.  She plays with it and pops it as Charlie tries to get her to stop.  She gets blown up.  The Doctor works on the first original bot and asks it to retrieve and deliver information for her.  Finding out the message was sent by the system itself.  As they head to find the others, Graham, Julie and the Doctor find the other loops and realize the workers were 'liquidized' by the system.

The Doctor then spots all the other delivery postmen bots.  It's as though they're an army.  Which is exactly what Charlie says they are and he has activated them to all activate at the same time, which is where the power was being drained to, with the momentary power shortages.  The Doctor realizing they are carrying bombs to kill the customers.  As she uses the original bot to reprogramme them and make them open the parcels and blow themselves up.  With Charlie not wanting to leave there.  Graham tells her to get them out of there as the Doctor takes the head of the bot and uses the Sonic to transport them away.  Helen says they can work here if they want to but the Doctor says they're freelancers.  As they leave, Yaz wants the Doctor to take them to Dan's home planet so she can return the necklace to Dan's daughter.  As Ryan stops Graham from playing with the bubble wrap.

With their piercing blue eyes, the bots managed to be suitably sinister in that puppet sense of the term and reminded me of those robots in Doctor Twelve's (Peter Capaldi) ep 10.2 Smile where the expression on their faces would tell you what would happen next, i.e the robots who communicated by emoji. 

This was another humanized story which deals with robots taking over jobs from humans and of course there's Julie's constant reference to humans as 'organics' until she finally changes at the end.  However was she not a human herself.  Charlie being an anti-tech terrorist who hopes his attack will ensure the people wake up to what's happening around them.  Which backfires as firstly he loses Kira and them shows little remorse for his actions, as he's still determined to proceed with the imminent action in the killing of others.  Claudia Jessie making another appearance after her excellent turn in ITV's Vanity Fair as Amelia Sedley.

Ghost Adventures "Graveyard of the Pacific. Cape Disappointment" Review

                                             
"Ocean is more ancient than the mountains,
and freighted with the memories and the dreams of time."
                                                                           -HP Lovecraft

The last episode in the four part special and in some ways the best was saved for last.  This had a spectacular story and especially so close to Hallowe'en: that of Mary and her husband, Alexander, lighthouse caretakers who lived in the caretakers cottage.  Apparently Mary had an unfortunate death, was she killed, fell or committed suicide, at the edge of the cliff.  However they decided it was an accident as "accident" came through towards the end on the voice recorder.  Something I must admit was hard for me to agree with in lots of ways and for many reasons.  Yeah occupational hazard here.  If it was an accidental death why so much mystery, if that's the right word, surrounding it.  I mean, her letter saying her husband, "man was reading a paper in the next room..."  As if she was either setting him up for some sort of a fall, or if he really was a dark monster after all, exuding negative energy now as a spirit still haunting and subjecting others to turmoil.  Or she was giving up her meds to get better without them.  Thus perhaps she was disorientated, but why go near the cliffs?

As the psychic Wendy also felt a negative male energy stating it could be Alexander, as well as the spirits of Native Americans still haunting their lands!  Zak sent in Aaron to carry out a spirit box session to see if he could get any results and he got a female voice as soon as he entered which said "someone coming..."  As well as a male voice "you'll see."  Only heard the 'see' bit, but then that could have referred to 'sea' as opposed to the other visual see.  They went to the ship, The Columbia which was the last vessel to sail and carried out further research.  Before heading out to their lockdown.  When Billy was playing back the spirit box voices and Zak heard :" someone's coming" which to me sounded more like "I've ended it"???  Zak lost his temper and threw the Mel Meter across the room.  Before storming out.  He said that Mary's husband was channelling him and told Jay to get out cos he was questioning him and asking what happened to him.  The other voice is "I'm helpless" not "what happened!"

The sound man also saying their mics were affected by static and Zak eventually got rid of the bad spirit.  Before he headed back to Deathman's Hollow as the bodies of the ship Vandolia's crew were washed here; with Billy and Aaron.  Jay investigated the lighthouse with Aaron.  Zak thought he saw a dark shadow there but couldn't confirm it was paranormal or debunk it either way.  As well as seeing a light out at sea which could have been anything.  Inside the lighthouse Jay was using an old ship's radio from the 1950's which would have been used by ship's captains and he got a sound coming through akin to perhaps a distress signal.  Which I thought was pretty cool especially since that mysterious light seemed to have shown up at about the same time at sea.  SO could this have been a downed ship reappearing.  Or just some from of light phenomena which had nothing to do with spirits.

Aaron getting a voice as soon as he entered the Northhead Lighthouse and feeling like someone followed him up the stairs.  Male voice says "need to know."  The male voice said "the sea," not "you'll see."  Which is more about where she 'fell' and that voice sounds female, not male to me.  As Aaron is about to ask probably if that's where her life was ended.    This is deffo not 'coming', it's a 'd' sound not an 'in' or 'g' ending on the word!
Kinda spoils your enjoyment if you cling to a word or phrase the first time it comes through and then don't go back and decipher it fully even when it's been enhanced cos that does not sound like "someone's coming" at all and why say someone if everyone is saying it was her husband,

Later on the "you got it" sounded like Aaron so much that we thought it was him who actually said it and not some other male voice. The female voice in the lighthouse says "I'm back here."
Most of it doesn't make sense; it's as if something was pissing them about an distorting the real facts of what happened.

Don Carlos - Rose Theatre, Kingston

                                                 
Don Carlos by Friedrich Schiller, is set in the Spanish Court during the 16th century, but to me it seemed no different than watching, say Shakespeare's Hamlet, in a tale involving so-called incest,
deceit, misunderstandings, manipulations and lies.  A tale most will hold synonymous to society today. 
The very first production staged by Tom Burke and director Gadi Roll's  theatrical company, Ara is a monumental production in itself. 
Don Carlos (Samuel Valentine) heir to the Spanish throne has feelings for his stepmother, Elizabeth (Kelly Gough) who share similarities in their free thinking of humanity and basic rights.  Carlos's long time friend, Posa (Tom Burke) who hopes to get Carlos to focus on the happenings within the Netherlands.  He's up in arms as Elizabeth I of England takes in the Dutch people and leaving the Netherlands to its own devices. 

The ending where King Philip (Darrell D'Silva) shoots the Marquis Posa as he takes on the responsibility and fault of being the one who wrote the letters to Elizabeth and not Carlos.  Carlos being distraught over his death, that of a great man and visionary.  Then the King is counselled by the Grand inquisitor (cue Tom again) wearing dark glasses and portraying a feeble man. 
[Of course the upshot of this is you can interpret this how you want, it doesn't necessarily follow you have to think along the same lines as everyone else.  But it was rather funny and perhaps my imagination playing on overtime; but I thought the Inquisitor was actually Posa in disguise and had been playing the king for all those years.  Especially since he came across as being rather full of himself, as if he did get one over him after all.]

Until Carlos decides he's leaving and says his farewells to Elizabeth.  A shot fires out and Elizabeth is dead!!  Of Course the Inquisitor is the direct opposite of Posa and regards religion in all its esteem, did he talk the king into actually ridding what he may deem "enemies of the state" of Spain (its Inquisition) and their thoughts of freedom.

But were they really in league with each other, Posa and the king, the king and the Inquisitor in getting his own way and disposing of the Queen, his wife, so he could now be free to marry the Princess, as was the implication there were letters passed between the two and perhaps they were having an illicit affair too.  Much deceit in the form of the courtiers too and the king's subjects and direct, loyal staff.

The costumes are very modern and dark and the stage is sparse; which is fine as the object is to focus on the dialogue at hand - of which there was plenty and not really the surroundings.  Tom Burke gives his usual performance of 100% and forgoes the role of Carlos for Posa which does do him justice in how he portrays the man trying to help his friend and steer him away from trouble when he could be so good for the Spanish throne in the future.

The rest of the ensemble cast includes Alexandra Dowling (Tom's co-star in The Musketeers - where she played royalty) as Princess Eboli. Jason Morell as Domingo, Vinta Morgan as Alba.

Many people I believe found it hard to stomach as quite a number left in their droves during the interval.  The play was long at about three hours, but I really don't know what they were expecting when they bought tickets, though granted some may have had trains to catch.  Others I suspect wanted the novelty to watch Tom (aka BBC's Strike) in person and didn't expect the heaviness of the script.  Though to be honest, yes there were loud moments, but I disagree it just all involved 'shouting' on the part of the cast, as some people have said.  If you put your mind to it, there was nothing difficult to follow or understand about it, still enjoyable viewing none-the-less!
Funny moment when Tom overstepped his mark on the stage at the end during the curtain call and applause!

Ghost Adventures 17.2 "Westerfeld House" Review

                                              
Ghost Adventures still embarking upon the darker episodes in season 17.  As Zak says in this ep, they were drawn to this location of the Westerfeld House, San Francisco, California, just like some form of synchronicity, signs or clues, called upon by the spirits themselves and strange occurrences.  More than just a coincidence, yet there were some 'coincidences' which occurred here which could be termed allusions from past investigations and episodes.  Such as Goatman's Bridge - the Route 666 (2016) episodes and Raseda House of Evil (April 2016).  Particularly dark and compelling reasons for this investigation as it focused on the founder of the Church of Satan, Anton LaVey.  The number of people who came to this house to perform rituals, including Bobby Boselie, the Helter Skelter Killer, and his connections with Charles Manson.  Bobby also lived in the house and left after fighting with Kenneth Anger and then associated with Manson.

Built in 1889, the house was home to a Hippy commune, Russian Tsarists.  A Russian colonel was assassinated when the house was a Russian Consulate.  Now owned by Jimmy.  Kenneth Anger, a filmmaker, who was associated with Anton also resided here.  His films showed Satanic rituals.  Zak explained to Jimmy about his museum and then noticing the seven foot tall model of the Westerfeld House in an antique store.  Cold spots around the house, the light switching on by itself were just some of the occurrences.  Including the table moving during an interviewing Kelly, whose girlfriend has nightmares.  He didn't talk about.  Also spoke with Lee, a tenant on the second floor.  Who told him about the influence of the house on people with drug addiction, or alcohol etc.  Zak is taken to the Tower where Anton kept his pet lion in the room, still visible are the claw marks.  The rituals took place there.

Zak also interviews Kevin via Skype.  Particularly about the ritualistic markings on the floor which were there before he arrived.  He did rituals where demons were called upon and felt them at the house.  Jay mentions the Thelema by Aleister Crowley.   He believed the theories Jay used at Goatman's Bridge and suggested they should do a ritual opening the Seven Gates.  Of course it's dangerous and Zak agrees to this but only opening a few gates.  Using a Sumerian book but not revealing its name.

Aaron feels he saw Anton, as a "white glow" in the same place where they felt the cold earlier on.  Billy's camera turns off.  Aaron also hears a deep man's voice, like a growl,"rarrr" that was creepy! Zak's walkie talkie goes off by itself.  Saw that orb/light anomaly when Jay turns around. Also there's a whisper, a disembodied voice it sounds female.  It comes through as soon as Zak stops saying, "light anomaly."  What's unusual is the voice is heard after the light anomaly goes in front of Jay and after he's already turned around.  Around the 23 minute mark, give or take ads.    Bummer but their loud music on that bit makes it alittle difficult to hear, will need enhancing!! Also the voice they hear downstairs says "'ope." After Zak tells it to make a noise.  Probably as in "nope" after Zak asks if someone is down in the hallway.

The ITC device in the Tower says:
"rage."
"living."  Billy also gets a reading in front of jay showing something was in front of him.  They carry out the ceremony.
"end."
"probably."
"around."
"passed" after Aaron says he can't go past it trying to go downstairs.Also capturing a light anomaly near Aaron.

Aaron's saying it to 'say your name'; "reply is "Sebastian."  You can hear the "tian" ending.
He asks: 'like what they're doing upstairs' when Aaron asks this, the EVP says "I don't..."  Not "it's over."  There's a clear 'd' and 'n' sound there.
One voice says, "what do you want?"
Second spirit replies "you" in a deep male voice.  The camera downstairs is knocked down.
Just before the camera moves, it appears there's something white that seems to obscure the doorway, see arrow, at around 33.5 minutes, but it could just be a camera frame as it's filming.

ITC shows opened gates: "2."
Zak: "this is the place where you will see will make us sick."  Zak says this like he's in a trance, almost subcomsciously.
SLS shows this figure on Jay:

ITC "spirit."  After Aaron and Jay see it on the rafters.
How was that anomaly shapeshifting into looking like a goat, it could've been a lion, or anything really.  I can't see it resembling  goat??

Zak's EVP sounds like: "I followed you up here..."  when he captures it on the digital recorder.

Jay is unable to leave the Tower along with Aaron, where Jay feels dizzy and something pulls his hair.
They close the three gates before leaving and get nothing further.  Though they did get psychologically influenced.

NB Aleister Crowley's Law of Thelema: spiritual philosophy with its roots in Western esotericism.  "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.  Love is the law, lover underwill."  Developed in the early 1900's by Crowley - English writer, magician and mystic.  As alluded to in Constantine 1.12 Angels and Ministers of Grace.

https://mila255.blogspot.com/2016/10/ghost-adventures-route-666-halloween.html

Doctor Who 11.6 "Demons of the Punjab" Review

                                               
Yaz (Mandip Gill) reminisces with her grandmother, "Nani" (Leena Dhringa) as she hands out some of her treasured belongings to them.  Giving Yaz a watch with a smashed face and Yaz thinks the man in the photo is her grandfather.  As her grandmother speaks of being the first woman to marry in Pakistan and also the first Muslim woman to be a textile worker in Sheffield.  She refuses to talk about the watch and Yaz shows it to the Doctor (Jodi Whittaker) and asks her to take her there.  She thinks it will be difficult but perhaps telepathically she can link it to the TARDIS and they can stay for an hour only.  Graham (Bradley Walsh) replying he didn't know it was telepathic.  The Doctor asks him not to call her an "it."

They arrive in India 1947 but are unaware of the year and its significance.  As the Doctor is almost run over by a cart, driven by Prem (Shane Zaza) who tells them their Punjabi isn't bad for them being English.  The TARDIS translator working now.  He offers to give them a ride as Yaz says they're here to see Umbreen (Amita Suman) as they're friends of her family.  On the way they pass a Holy Man who says he can walk and will meet him there as that's what his legs are for.  As Yaz meets her grandmother she is amazed and surprised as she talks about getting married tomorrow and Yaz comes up with some story about Uncle Almak some villages away.  Yaz realizes she's going to marry Prem and lives on a farm.  They've worked all their time on the land.  Although she wasn't too surprised at meeting her great grandmother, Kisan (Nathalie Kuzner).

Prem's brother, Manish (Hamza Jeetooa) isn't too thrilled about the wedding and says he should marry someone Indian and without being graphic, a Hindu.  As Yaz also thinks this too.  He talks about India being divided into a Pakistan by Lord Mountbatten and all the other 'leaders' of the time including Nehru, Gandi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah and shows them the border between the two countries saying they should leave for Pakistan as India is for them, for Hindus.  Prem disagrees as it's for all Indians, regardless of religion.  As they try to get back to the farm, the Doctor is hit by a loud sound and they see some masked creatures on the hill she calls demons, as does Prem who shoots at them.  As they also find the Holy Man dead.  There are purple specks radiating from his DB and she tries to analyze them but can't.  Prem tells them he's seen them before and the Doctor tells Yaz and Graham to tell the others of his death as she, Prem and Ryan (Tosin Cole)go with her.  She finds their lair and also says they're the Vajarians: deadly assassins.  She also sees a container with the same dust and takes it as they arrive.  They give chase and Ryan and Prem become separated from the Doctor through some form of travel displacement device on the trees.  As the Doctor finds two of the devices and takes them.

Graham and Yaz break the news and Umbreen's distressed as he was to perform their ceremony.  Prem and Ryan make it back following the advice of the Doctor as she tells them to get out of the forest.  As she finally turns up herself telling them to head for the barn.  Here she plants the device as the Vajarians appear again and they vanish for a few hours.  She can't hold them off longer than 12-18 hours, long enough for them to marry so history isn't changed.  As she warns Yaz she may talk herself out of existence if she interferes.  "Tread softly, you're treading on your own history."  Prem tells them he saw those creatures when he was fighting in Singapore with his brother Kunel.  Who died there and he didn't want to leave him behind.  He saw them standing over his body.  The Doctor wants to analyze the container and asks for some varied ingredients for them to collect, including chicken poo and ox spit, which Graham says he will never collect again.  Ryan explaining the ox took a shine to him.

The Doctor gets to talk with the Vajarians as they tell her they are no longer assassins as their planet was wiped out.  They now collect the lonely when they die, meaning their souls and go throughout the universe doing this.  Telling her Prem is next, which was apparent as he wasn't the man in the photo.  They didn't kill the Holy Man but they know who did, which wasn't really a mystery as it could only have been Manish.  But anyway we don't get to know that until the end unless you hadn't already worked it out.

Throughout this time they realize they're in India during the partition where millions died and Umbreen is determined to marry.  She says the Doctor can marry them cos that's a respectable title and she paints henna on their hands.  As the men play cards.  Manish is determined they shouldn't get married.  He is changed since the little boy Prem knew when he went away to the war and Manish says Kunel would've understood what he means when he shouldn't marry and India being only for them.  Somehow he really wouldn't have and he didn't give his life just so they could be enemies.

The Doctor performs the ceremony by the 'border' and Umbreen stands on the Pakistan side as she's now married in Pakistan, the first woman.  But she undoes the rope and then she ties it around their hands, a Hindu wedding tradition.  Which Yaz point out.  But Umbreen calls it their own tradition now.  When they return to the farm, they talk of not leaving here and Umbreen tells Manish how he fought for the land and helped them farm it. He's her brother now too but he denies any family ties with her.  Prem gives Umbreen his watch a symbol of a Muslim wedding and calls it her Mahal.  The watch falls and cracks, as Yaz has it now.  The Doctor talks of the men coming and goes after Manish but she comes back to warn them.  They gather their belongings to leave and Yaz notices the map of England with Sheffield marked on it.  Umbreen's father brought it back and she picked a point and said that's where she would end up.

Prem tells them to head for the border, as he tries to reason with Manish.  Who tells him Prem and Kunel fought for India, however Prem tells him he didn't fight for India to turn out like this, but for everyone.  Of course it was for freedom and for all.  He even recognizes one of the men on the horse and they fought together in Siam but he doesn't care.  Finally the man pulls the trigger and they hear the gunshot as they return to the TARDIS.

Yaz speaks with her grandmother and she doesn't want to talk about the watch and lets her save that for another time.  But she was happy in her marriage and now decides Yaz may be ready to hear the story.  Oh and Umbreen had a far more perfect English accent in India than she did in present day Sheffield, which may have seemed odd but probably cos of the TARDIS translation doing the same for her as it did for them, as pointed out by Prem and his speaking perfect Punjabi remark.  Though not everyone in India spoke Punjabi, they also had Hindi.

Another historic episode for the show and this time focusing on Yaz and the past.  But how different was it really to present day.  All the talk of borders and still having and keeping them to obsession.  Not just Brexit but also in the US with, "build the wall" and all that hysteria.  The same hysteria demonstrated in India where really no one needed to die.  The Radcliffe Line is where Umbreen got married and the radio broadcasts used were real.  This episode also being screened on one hundred years of Armistice Day.  No coincidence.  However very little was mentioned regarding British practice and action during this time of partition.

Some great moments with Yaz and Graham as they haven't had any alone time together where he tells her to go with it.  "I don't think any of us know the real truth about our own lives because we're too busy living it from the inside."

NB I didn't go into Partition here as seen through my family's history and experience. My mother was only a young girl then and her uncle brought them through to Pakistan safely.  Through all the turmoil and senseless killing that occurred.  Something that wouldn't have occurred if there was no British rule and colonization.  There were no divisions between the people of all religions and was something used as a form of rule: divide and conquer.  Which may appear all black and white to some and one-sided.
It was my great uncle, the same one who served in the army during World War II.
There is much to explore here including why Partition actually took place, it's true picture and heartbreaking losses.  As Prem said, "there's nothing worse than when normal people lose their minds.  We've lived together for decades..."