The Doctor: Jodie Whittaker
Companions
Bradley Walsh (Graham O'Brien)
Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair)
Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan)
Others
Leena Dhingra – Nani Umbreen
Amita Suman – Umbreen
Shane Zaza – Prem
Hamza Jeetooa – Manish
Shaheen Khan – Hasna
Shobna Gulati – Najia
Ravin J. Ganatra – Hakim
Bhavnisha Parmar – Sonya
Emma Fielding – Voice of Kisar
Nathalie Curzner – Performance of Kisar
Isobel Middleton – Voice of Almak
Barbara Fadden – Performance of Almak
Production
Directed by Jamie Childs
Written by Vinay Patel
Script editor Fiona McAllister
Produced by Alex Mercer
Executive producer(s): Chris Chibnall, Matt Strevens, Sam Hoyle
Incidental music composer: Segun Akinola
Length 50 minutes
First broadcast 11 November 2018
While celebrating the birthday of her grandmother Umbreen, Yasmin receives a broken watch from her. Curious over its origins, Yasmin convinces a hesitant Doctor to take her and the others to the Punjab in August 1947 where the watch was broken. Upon arriving, Yasmin learns that the watch's previous owner was a Hindu man named Prem, whom a younger Umbreen intends to marry despite Yasmin's family having Muslim roots. The Doctor notes that the group have arrived on 14 August, the day before the partition of India. She advises her friends to rush to the wedding ceremony to ensure that they and the family are not caught in the partitioning. But matters become complicated when the group see two aliens, that the Doctor had visions of during brief head pains, over the body of the wedding's overseer sadhu Bhakti.
The group are joined by Prem, who saw the aliens around the time of his older brother's death during his military service in World War II, as the Doctor assumed the aliens killed Bhakti and eventually recognises them as members of the Thijarian, a race of assassins, while finding their ship and stealing a capsule from them. But the Doctor learns that the Thijarians are actually the last of their kind, the capsule holding what remained of their destroyed planet, and have dedicated themselves to commemorate those who die alone. After revealing that Prem will become a casualty of the partition they intend to witness, the Thijarians agree to show the Doctor a recording of Bhakti's death. The footage reveals Bhakti was murdered by Prem's younger brother Manish, who opposes the wedding.
Returning to the others and convinced by Yasmin to see the event through, the Doctor oversees the marriage ceremony with the group witnessing the watch being accidently broken as Umbreen cherishes its significance. When the Doctor later accosts Manish for Bhakti's murder, he reveals to have contacted a small group of armed Hindu nationalists to attack the wedding reception. As Umbreen and her mother escape with the Doctor's group, Prem remains behind to reason with Manish and dies when the nationalists shoot him while the Thijarians observe. Back in the present, Yasmin's grandmother comments on her granddaughter's new henna.
Demons of the Punjab