"Doctor Who": Rosa Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1943

The story begins in 1943, which is the year that Rosa Parks began her civil rights activism. She served as the Secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People until 1957. Parks worked closely with Edgar Nixon, who was the deacon at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church that hired Martin Luther King, Jr.

The episode begins with Parks riding a bus in 1943, and getting kicked off by a white bus driver when she attempts to sit in the "Whites" section. It then moves forward to 1955. Amazingly, the incident in 1943 really happened.

Parks earned numerous honors over the course of her life, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Medal of Freedom. When Parks died in 2005, she was the first women ever to lie in state in the US Capitol Rotunda.

Vinette Robinson, an actress from Yorkshire, played Parks. Interestingly, veteran "Doctor Who" fans may recognize her as Abi Lerner from "42" (2007) which was the very first script that Chris Chibnall wrote for "Doctor Who."

Robinson has been acting regularly in British television since 1998. Some of Robinson's more notable appearances include Sgt Sally Donovan in "Sherlock" (2010-2014) and Nicola Daniels in "The A Word" (2016-17).

Answer: Montgomery, Alabama

The episode takes place on November 31 and December 1, 1955 in Montgomery. The Doctor must prevent a meddling time traveler from derailing the US civil rights movement by stopping the arrest of Rosa Parks.

During the episode, the companions experience the general racism of Montgomery in the mid 1950s. Ryan is slapped for touching a white woman, Ryan and Yaz are kicked out of a restaurant and they must sneak into a "Whites Only" hotel.

Rosa Parks does mention the murder of Emmitt Till, which happened in Mississippi in August 1955. Till's killing was one of the sparks of the modern Civil Rights Movement.

Montgomery became the state capital of Alabama in 1846, and was briefly the capital of the Confederate States. It began the epicenter of the Civil Rights Movement due to the bus boycott of 1956, which elevated Martin Luther King, Jr to national status.

Answer: Artron energy

The Doctor talked repeatedly about "artron energy." It is energy that is left over after time technology has been used, and the time criminal was sending people back in time using a temporal displacement weapon.

"Artron energy" was on "The Sarah Jane Adventures" in "The Death of the Doctor" (2010) and shows up in "Dalek" (2005), "Doomsday" (2006) and "The Doctor's Wife" (2011).

Void stuff is background radiation from the Void, as seen in "Doomsday" (2006).

Helix energy is what helixes are made from, as seen in the Fourth Doctor adventure "The Masque of Mandragora" (1976).

Chroniton particles are part of the "Star Trek" universe, and are used in episodes where temporal displacement is part of the plot.

Answer: Krasko

His name was Krasko. The Doctor noticed that Krasko had been spent time in Stormcage detention facility (the same prison that held [sort of] River Song) based on his tattoos. Krasko was a nasty piece of work, a racist who wanted to undo the Civil Rights Movement by stopping Rosa Parks. Ryan wound up with Krasko's temporal displacement weapon and sent him back somewhere into the past. Thinking about it, is sending a psychopath who wants to sabotage the future back into the past really the best idea?

Krasko traveled through time using a vortex manipulator, favorite device of Captain Jack Harkness, and used by a variety of other characters in modern era "Doctor Who."

Krasko was played by Josh Bowman, who also played a time traveling criminal as Dr. John Stephenson (AKA Jack the Ripper) in the short lived time travel series "Time After Time" (2017).

Answer: Cleveland Avenue

This is historically accurate. The bus route that Rosa Parks took was the Cleveland Avenue Route, and it is the bus that she was arrested on. The Doctor and the companions have a brief conversation with Parks to determine her daily schedule, so they can plan for the next day. In 1965, the city of Montgomery renamed Cleveland Avenue as "Rosa Parks Avenue."

When Parks said she lived at Cleveland Court in the episode, that was historically accurate. She did live at the apartment complex for many years.

In this particular episode, Graham's background as a bus driver comes in handy. He makes contact with James Blake, the driver who had Parks arrested at a "driver" hangout. And he is able to hot wire and drive a replacement bus wken Krasko sabotages Blake's bus.

If you want to ride down the same street, it is Route 11 on the Montgomery bus system.

Answer: Ryan

Ryan followed Rosa Parks home, where she had a meeting with local civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King, Jr. King would have been 26 at the time, and was a very recent graduate of Boston University.

King is an iconic leader of the US Civil Rights Movement, winner of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to bring racial equality to the United States. King was born in 1929 and assassinated in 1968. He is widely recognized as one of the most significant figures of the 20th century; in 1986, the United States named a national holiday in King's honor.

King was played by British actor Ray Sesay. If you would like to see more of him, check out the British TV series "Endeavour" or the 2013 film "Love Freely But Pay for Sex."

Answer: Las Vegas

They tell Griffin that he has won a raffle and they are sending him on an all-expenses paid tour to Las Vegas where he will meet Frank Sinatra. Fortuntely, the Doctor was able to talk with Frank via Elvis' cell phone. The Doctor name dropped Sinatra.

Krasko, the time traveling criminal, attempted to subvert history in several ways: He tried to get James Blake to take the day off, and they smashed Blake's bus to try and stop the historic confrontation between Parks and Blake.

Answer: coat

The Doctor deliberately tears her coat and takes it to Parks, to keep her busy so that Yazmin can deliver the seamstress to the bus stop at the correct time so that history can happen.

Answer: Rise Up

"Rise Up" is from "Cheers to the Fall", Andra Day's 2015 debut album. The song has been used in "Grey's Anatomy" (2016) and was used frequently by Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign. Day was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Rise Up" but lost out to the Weeknd.

"Glory" is the Academy and Grammy winning song from the 2014 film "Selma" which was about the Civil Rights Movement.

"We Shall Overcome" was a popular song of the civil rights movement, and has been used by resistance movements around the world ever since. The song arose out of the Highlander School in Tennessee, which both Rosa Parks and King attended. Legendary folk singer Pete Seeger made the song popular.

"Key Your Eyes on the Prize" is a gospel tune that was widely used by the Civil Rights Movement.

Answer: Malorie Blackman

While Malorie Blackman hasn't written much for television, she is a quite prodigious author of books for children and young adults. Most of her writing is in the science fiction/fantasy vein, and Blackman was won numerous awards for her writing. She has been writing since 1990. Blackman's series "Noughts and Crosses" (Tic-Tac-Toe for Americans) is set in a dystopian future and explores issues of racism and violence.

Mark Tonderai directed "Rosa" (2018). This is his second episode of "Doctor Who" after "The Ghost Monument" (also 2018).

Trevor White played bus driver James Blake. White started acting in 1996, and has appeared in numerous films and television shows. He has also done lots of voice over work in video games. Some of White's earliest work was on the X-Files spinoff "Millennium" back in 1997.

Mandip Gill is one of the Doctor's new companions, Yasmin Khan. She has been acting since 2012, and started her career on the British soap opera "HollyOaks" (2012-2015), Yasmin had several good scenes in "Rosa".