History Recap / DoctorWhoS37E3Rosa

* StarstruckSpeechless: Ryan is reduced to awestruck stammering when he is introduced to Martin Luther King, Jr.... much to Rev. King's confusion, as at this point in history he's still just a relatively obscure local preacher who is organizing his activism behind the scenes.

* StarstruckSpeechless: Ryan is reduced to awestruck stammering when he is introduced Martin Luther King, Jr.... much to Rev. King's confusion, as at this point in history he's still just a relatively obscure local preacher who is organizing his activism behind the scenes.

The one where, as is the case from [[{{Pun}} time to time]], ''Doctor Who'' decides to drop a PrejudiceAesop.

** InUniverse. Krasko sounds British whenever the Doctor confronts him, but adopts a Southern accent when talking to the people of Montgomery.

* PlayingGertrude: Rosa Parks was 42 at the time the events depicted in the episode takes place, being played by the 33-year-old Vinette Robinson. Subverted in the prologue, however, which is set twelve years earlier when both actor and character would be closer in age.

After Graham gives Ryan and Yaz the all-clear, the brainstorming resumes, as the Doctor states that they need every bit of information about what happened the night of Rosa's bus ride, especially since a newspaper reveals that it's supposed to happen ''tomorrow''. And the Doctor suspects that the time traveller she met is going to do whatever he can to try and steer history off-course. After a lot of hard work, they deduce where Rosa lives, where she works, and which bus route she's going to take. Graham goes to the bar to track down the bus driver, James Blake, and Ryan goes to Rosa's house, where he serves coffee and meets Martin Luther King, Jr. The Doctor, meanwhile, confronts Krasko and tricks him into sending his suitcase of gear to the far future with his temporal displacement weapon. She further identifies him as a former inmate of the Stormcage Containment Facility with a neural implant preventing him from hurting or killing anyone, due to a history of mass murder. She tells him that his plan isn't going to work, confiscating his weapon and destroying his vortex manipulator (effectively stranding him in 1955), before leaving.

1955: The TARDIS lands in an alleyway, and the Doctor notes that this is not Sheffield. Her companions are less than impressed, as this is either the ninth or ''fourteenth'' time they've missed their destination. Before they can leave again, the TARDIS' screens inform the Doctor that there's artron energy in the vicinity, which piques her interest since there shouldn't be any. The companions are a bit iffy, but venture forth with The Doctor to see what's up.

While walking down a street, Ryan gets a first-hand introduction to the racism of '50s American South when he tries to return a dropped glove to a white woman, and gets slapped hard by her husband. The others leap to his defence, but before a scuffle can ensue, a woman steps in to defuse the situation: Rosa Parks. After she promises the man that his suit, which she's working on, will be done by tomorrow, the couple storms off. Rosa tells the four time travellers that they should be careful not to cause any trouble, and when she introduces herself, all four are thrilled to meet her, and the Doctor nearly {{squee}}s. The Doctor manages to prevent any future spoilers from being leaked, but scans Rosa as she walks off, discovering traces of artron energy around her.

The Doctor realizes they have to stay in the past longer, as she deduces that someone is likely trying to mess with history. Meanwhile, in the alley where the TARDIS is parked, a white man in a leather jacket approaches it and scans it with a gadget that definitely isn't from this time period. He then tries to shoot it with an energy weapon, but fails due to its protective forcefield — he'll have to do better than that to get in! After the Doctor and her friends, in a bar, discuss Rosa's life, they get kicked out because Ryan is black and Yaz is "Mexican". The Doctor explains that they have a duty to make sure history takes the right course.

Tracking the artron energy leads the Doctor and her friends to Montgomery's bus depot, where they find a suitcase in a locked warehouse, hidden by a PerceptionFilter, with a selection of futuristic gadgets inside. They are quickly accosted by the owner, the man in the leather jacket. After a chase, the Doctor has a chat with the man, whose name is Krasko, atop a rusted fuel tank. He asks her if her time machine is a TARDIS, claiming that they're worth a lot of money, and the Doctor scoffs at this ("Second hand, huge mileage, one careless owner."). She's taken the spare battery for his temporal displacement weapon, and he threatens her, which she's not impressed by. Krasko claims ignorance of Rosa when the Doctor mentions her name, and the Doctor and her friends walk away. When Yaz asks if they're leaving Montgomery, the Doctor responds, "Not in a million years."

** The Doctor leant a mobile phone to Music/ElvisPresley.

Tracking the artron energy leads the Doctor and her friends to Montgomery's bus depot, where they find a suitcase in a locked warehouse, hidden by a PerceptionFilter, with a selection of futuristic gadgets inside. They are quickly accosted by the owner, the man in the leather jacket. After a chase, the Doctor has a chat with the man, whose name is Krasko, atop a rusted fuel tank. He asks her if her time machine is a TARDIS, claiming that they're worth a lot of money, and the Doctor scoffs at this, claiming hers isn't. She's taken the spare battery for his temporal displacement weapon, and he threatens her, which she's not impressed by. Krasko claims ignorance of Rosa when the Doctor mentions her name, and the Doctor and her friends walk away. When Yaz asks if they're leaving Montgomery, the Doctor responds, "Not in a million years."

** As famous and inspiring as this event was, it is ''extremely'' implausible that preventing Rosa Parks from carrying out her protest would have any major impact on the history and development of civil rights- she was, at the end of the day, just one protest amongst many before and since, and even if Krasko had outright erased her from history the timeline likely wouldn't have been altered all that much as someone else would just have led the charge instead; at best his scheme would have delayed the movement by a few years, more likely mere months or weeks. It was arguably ''already'' too late since the US Supreme Court had already ruled segregated busing unconstitutional in a previous case. Which was why Rosa's made such a strong rallying point; the law she broke was morally AND legally indefensible. While his intentions are horrible, his EvilPlan is rather laughably dumb.

The one where, as is the case from [[{{Pun}} time to time]], ''Doctor Who'' decides SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped.

* GivingRadioToTheRomans: The Doctor leant a mobile phone to Music/ElvisPresley.

** Sadly, this also applies to Krasko's own ideals. White Supremacy is still around even in the 79th Century, and one only need to take a passing glance at the time this episode was made to know it's deeply embedded in Western Civilization on a systemic level.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: The Doctor's concluding InfoDump about what Rosa Parks' protest achieved gives us a non-comedic and probably accidental example: she got the buses desegregated, inspired other civil rights protests, won the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and had an asteroid named after her. The last of these superficially sounds like a great honour, but is actually comparatively mundane.

** There are conflicting accounts as to whether or not Rosa Parks planned her protest, or if it was a spontaneous event due to circumstances. The episode follows Rosa Parks' description of events.
*** Although the door is left open, since Rosa is apparently having secret meetings in her home with civil rights activists, including the then-unknown Martin Luther King Jr. What they discuss we don't see, but it's completely plausible that they were discussing Rosa's future act.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Ryan notices a white woman drop a glove within seconds of stepping around 1955. His reward for his troubles is being slapped in the face by her angry husband, for having the temerity to approach a white woman. [[RealityEnsues The episode brings up a major point that there are many periods and places in Earth's past that would be uncomfortable or even hazardous for a non-white time traveller to visit.]]

* RealityEnsues: The episode makes ''no'' attempt at sugarcoating the reality of the South in the 1950s. Rosa Parks even cites the lynching of Emmett Till when warning Ryan about approaching white women. Ryan's concerns about being in 1950s Alabama also underscore the point that there are plenty of places in Earth's history that would be far from safe for a non-white time traveller to visit. [[note]] Bill Potts voiced similar concerns when she started travelling with Twelve, as did Martha when Ten took her to Shakespearean England. [[/note]]

## Rosa Parks was determined to follow through with her protest, it wasn't circumstancial like Krasko believed. Her secret meeting with the other members of The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People implies that her violation of segregation laws was premeditated.

## Blocking the bus route wouldn't have changed much either since the bus could have driven around him, taken a different route, or the bus could have been delayed to have Krasko arrested for obstruction. It's not unusual for a bus to be late to one of its stops and the bus still has to follow its intended schedule. At best, Rosa Parks' protest would have only been delayed until she got another bus since segregation was a common occurance on the bus.

* WhiteMansBurden: Rosa Parks' impact was allowed to happen through the actions of a white lady.

## Rosa Parks was determined to follow through with her protest, it wasn't circumstancial like Krasko believed. Her secret meeting with the other members of the Civil Rights Movement implies that her protest was planned.
## While Blake was the driver on the day of Rosa's protest, the episode doesn't portray him as more racist than the average white American of his time period. By that logic, it could have been ''any'' white bus driver during Rosa Park's protest. As shown when Graham became the passenger that caused Rosa Park's protest.
## Blocking the bus route wouldn't have changed much either since the bus could have driven around him, taken a different route, or the bus could have been delayed to have Krasko arrested for obstruction. It's not unusual for a bus to be late to one of its stops and the bus still has to follow its intended schedule. At best, Rosa Parks' protest would have only been delayed until she got another bus.

## Rosa Parks was determined to follow through with her protest, it wasn't circumstancial like Krasko believed.
## While Blake was the driver on the day of Rosa's protest, the episode doesn't portray him as more racist than the average white American of his time period. By that logic, it could have been ''any'' white bus driver during Rosa Park's protest.
## Blocking the bus route wouldn't have changed much either since the bus could have driven around him, taken a different route, or the bus could have been delayed to have Krasko arrested for obstruction. It's not unusual for a bus to be late to one of its stops and the bus still has to follow its intended schedule.

* PlotIrrelevantVillain: Krasko is the villain of the episode and is among the many racists in the episode. His attempts to prevent the civil rights movement without killing Rosa Parks doesn't really make sense for a couple reasons.
## Rosa Parks was determined to follow through with her protest, it wasn't circumstancial like Krasko believed.
## While Blake was the driver on the day of Rosa's protest, the episode doesn't portray him as more racist than the average white American of his time period. By that logic, it could have been ''any'' white bus driver during Rosa Park's protest.
## Blocking the bus route wouldn't have changed much either since the bus could have driven around him, taken a different route, or the bus could have been delayed to have Krasko arrested for obstruction. It's not unusual for a bus to be late to one of its stops and the bus still has to follow its intended schedule.

* StupidEvil: Krasko's plan is crippled by the fact that he can't kill Rosa Parks, forcing him to try stopping the civil rights movement by either delaying the bus or by switching the driver. Krasko fails to understand that the civil rights movement is inevitable; even if by some miracle he took Rosa Parks out of the equation, already rather a long shot given his limitations, it's a near-certainty that some other event would push the movement forward.

## Rosa Parks was determined to follow through with her protest, it wasn't circumstancial like Krasko believed. While Rosa Parks' arrest was the catalyst that set everything in motion, she still could have influenced the civil rights movement regardless or she could have done the protest on a different day. The civil rights movement itself could have inspired someone to make a statement as well.

## Blocking the bus route wouldn't have changed much either since the bus could have driven around him, taken a different route, or the bus could have been delayed. It's not unusual for a bus to be late to one of its stops and the bus still has to follow the schedule.
## For Krasko's plan to work, he'd have to spend every day and every minute of his life stopping Rosa's protest and derailing every other civil rights protest.

* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: The Doctor continues to talk to Krasko as he grabs her by the neck and starts to choke her, and her speech isn't affected by it at all.

* AmbiguouslyBrown: InUniverse. The natives don't recognize Yaz's ethnicity and assume she's Mexican, much to her annoyance (she's really Pakistani). This causes running confusion among the modern Brits, since she gets filed as "white" and "coloured" for the purposes of local laws apparently at random.