I don't mind Doctor Who eps carrying educational messages, as it was the original intention of the show way back when it started with the First Doctor (initially to teach children history, then they included science). But yeah, some of the recent episodes have been a bit on the nose with the messages.

'Rosa' is an example of what I consider a "moralistic" episode done well. It obviously carries the message of racism and tolerance, but it's not quite as in-your-face as some of the eps that we've seen of late. The most powerful moment in 'Rosa' was the scene where Parks is removed from the bus and arrested because she refused to surrender her seat for a White man. The moment begins with no music; only sparse dialogue and diegetic sounds. Then all the sounds from the scene becomes mute as the song "I Will Rise Up" starts playing. From this point on the scene relies more predominantly on the visual narrative. Close up shots of Parks' face as she defiantly waits for the police to come and arrest her, as well as the faces of the Doctor and her companions as they can do nothing but sit back and watch in silent helplessness and sorrow. We then shift back to the Tardis (as the song pauses) to see the Doctor explain the consequences and legacy of Parks' actions - both on the world and on her own life, as well as showing her companions the asteroid that astronomers named in Parks' honour. The song resumes and continues into the end credits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUn7mU7OUqU
I thought that this was done well. They gave the audience enough information to know what's going on but relied more on visuals and music to bring home the bacon rather than going on some moralistic rant about freedom and equality. It's more factual - here's what Parks did, and here are the consequences of her action. And I did like how they commented about just how long Parks' fight was. It wasn't just that one moment on the bus, but rather she fought for her entire life.

Having said that... that episode was about a past/historical event, whereas the environmental message is more on current and future events. Still, I think that it could've been handled better without it being too in-your-face. And in all fairness, this isn't a new thing to Whittaker's Doctor either; there have been past episodes with past Doctors that were also a bit too in-your-face such as...
* The Tenth Doctor raving on about how Shakespeare was the "best writer evah." Which isn't even true as Shakespeare copied much of his works from other writers.
* The Eleventh Doctor going on about how Vincent Van Gogh was the "best artist evah." Get a zero room.
Yeah, the Thirteenth Doctor did fangirl over Nikola Tesla, but she wasn't like, "best inventor evah!" And to be fair, Tesla was pretty impressive (I'd like to see the Doctor meet Alan Turing, John Snow or Mary Anning).

Maybe the environmental messages are a bit heavy because a lot of people just aren't listening!


When War Machine got hold of the Infinity Stones