Father's Day

The hardest part about reviewing "Father's Day" is knowing where to start. Normally, episodes of "Doctor Who" have something about them that didn't quite work and act as a sort of hand-hold to start a review from, not so much to complain about the thing that was wrong as to provide better contrast with the things that were right. With "Father's Day," everything seemed right to me... and so I'm unsure where to begin!

I'll begin at the beginning then, with where this all started, which was Paul Cornell's excellent, excellent script. This felt like he took only the best things about the NAs and the Charley arc in the Big Finish audios and rolled them into the consummate human interest time travel s.f. drama, with some good old-fashioned TV narrative flashback tricks thrown in for good measure (by this I mean the bits of narration from Rose on the picture of her dad, or Jackie telling little Rose all about him). The neat thing is that I knew this was coming... that something telling something very like this story in this style and manner was on its way from Paul... and still I found it extremely moving and touching and sad and life-affirming all at the same time (and alternative times ). The only explanation for my reaction that I can think of is that the story itself, so basic, so pure, and so right, is too strong for my cynicism. Of course Rose would want to see her dead father before he died. Of course she'd want to stop that death from happening. So of course she goes to that time and place and tries to stop it, though she hasn't quite admitted to herself or to the Doctor yet that that's why she's there. And of course she can't quite bring herself to do it the first time around... it seems too unreal even now she's been in the TARDIS for more than half a season. And so of course she tries again and does save him. And of course, disaster ensues, and the only way to put it right is for Peter to let that car hit him after all. This is "Doctor Who" being truly honest and complete with human emotions in relation to the possibilities that a time machine affords people in a way the original TV series rarely was, and that's why this new season so totally rules.

The way we get there is entertaining in itself too, with all sorts of Paul Cornell trademark dialog flourishes. He was writing Joss Whedon dialog before Joss Whedon was, and Rose's little "don't go there... you don't know where there is... and you're so very far away from there... etc" speech was the best example of this when Jack's starting to compliment her on her looks. The "don't touch the baby" scene was also very good. I also love the little details of the people other than her beloved dad that she meets while she's trying to cope with him, like Jackie (and her 80s hair) and most especially the child version of Mickey. He was so cute!

I also love the way Peter was portrayed. He came across to me as a man who's a "loser" mainly because of where society has put him and because Jackie defines him that way. He's actually very capable of thinking very creatively and imaginatively for himself and doing the right thing as he ably proves at the end when he lets the car run him over as it should have, having largely worked out the whole time puzzle for himself. And this makes perfect sense for his character, because these are the same traits inherent in Rose herself and aren't there in Jackie, so she must have got them from him. When he tells Rose that he wouldn't have been the best father in the world like she thought he would've been, I don't really believe him. He would've been an ordinary one who made mistakes, sure, but his love for Rose was pure, and that's what would've made him the "perfect" father. In fact, nevermind the "would've." He was already.

And then there's the Doctor. And I didn't really believe him either when he flew off the handle and called Rose a stupid ape and threatened to leave her there. And neither did Rose, so again she's proving she's got him pegged. And he didn't really believe himself either... he's not honest with himself until that moment in the church where he tells Rose that he wasn't really going to leave her. The open question is why he did this in the first place... took her to see this day, and I don't really swallow the idea that "oh, he's alien, he didn't guess that she'd do this" that some have suggested. I think part of him knew she'd do it and maybe wanted to see just what would happen... if the Reapers really would come and start cauterizing the planet or if they could maybe somehow get away with doing this like he'd done in the old days when the Time Lords were still around. He tells Rose himself that he'd thought of doing this very same thing to save his own people and family but hadn't for fear of this happening. Was Rose's situation some sort of guinea pig experiment for him, just to make sure the Reapers really would turn up? I think he's letting himself think he's being high and mighty and Time Lordish about the interference in time just to give his emotions an excuse not to try this for himself. Now, of course, he's got his proof, and I wouldn't expect him to really give it a go. But I think a piece of him wondered... and _that's_ the alien part of him... not ignorance of emotion, but rather the more selfish, darker emotion he's had ever since he picked up that rock to bash in Za's skull in "The Forest of Fear." I keep saying he's damaged, and his actions here, especially when he gives himself up to the invading Reaper in the church, prove the idea that he's got a death wish.

Ah yes, the Reapers... I think they're the best-looking monsters the series has given us since.... um.... gosh I've got to go quite a way back here.... er, the Zygons? There we go. I mean, wow... they looked amazing, cool, and very photo-realistic. They were flawless in design and execution and very scary to watch in action. They're certainly the fastest monsters we've ever had in "Doctor Who" (though that's not saying much). In conception, well, they're Vortisaurs by another not-previously-owned name really, serving much the same time-eating function as they and other time-eating creatures we've heard of before, and they can get into time from the vortex thanks to the weaknesses that Peter's living has created (in the same way that the never-people in "Neverland" were able to do through Charley in the second McGann audio season). I've seen some ask "why didn't they go for Peter then... he was the paradox," to which I would answer, "duh... he's their way in... kill him and the buffet table is closed." I adore these things, and I wouldn't mind seeing them again someday... especially if one turns out to be named Ramsay. (hang on... they're never actually called Reapers in the dialog... maybe they really are vortisaurs after all... hehe)

And what of the time paradox? And the Blinovitch Limitation Effect? And so on? Did the temporal science fiction all work? Well, yes, it did. It's easier to work it all out after a second viewing, but even on a first nothing felt wrong to me. The only possible "cheat" in it all was the hit-and-run car reappearing so that Pete could go get himself run over by it, but even that has a sort of symmetry to it... Pete and that driver's fates were intertwined, and it makes sense to me that Pete's going on into the future when he shouldn't have might have caused the car and driver to sort of get stuck when they were in time... and always in Pete's vicinity. As for the connecting of all the causality dots, I'm not going to do that here... suffice to say I thought about it all, and everything seems kosher to me. I will say that I did like that the BLE "don't touch youself" paradox from "Mawdryn Undead" was acknowledged here (if not named), though the effect was slightly different. Paul sort of glossed over this back in his audio "Seasons of Fear," and I was afraid he might do the same here... afraid because I really like the idea and think it makes more sense than nothing happening at all when people meet themselves.

The direction was faultless again... and for a story set largely in a church-under-siege, Joe Ahearne managed to keep it very visually dynamic... a Reaper-POV shot here... a cool lighting effect on Rose there... and the location shooting helped open things up a great deal too after the claustrophobic feel of the last two episodes. It looked really nice, and I loved all the little attention to 80s detail such as Rick Astley on the radio and the hairstyles and the giant-sized cell phone, etc. Great stuff.

I even have good things to say about Murray Gold's incidental music for once. Well, almost... he didn't really get anything wrong this week I thought, and some of it was quite good. I can still think of some others who could do better, but this was easily his best "Who" score to date, and it did not detract or distract me from the story for once.

One final thought on the season story arc... that of the damaged Doctor who seems to have a bit of a death wish and this "Bad Wolf" that keeps following him around and leaving its name everywhere he goes. I know it won't turn out this way, but this really does have the trademarks of Fenric about it, doesn't it? And never moreso than _this_ week, where we visit _1987_ and some massive time storms get whipped up... sound familiar? This is just when Ace was before Fenric took her to Iceworld. If it wasn't so fanwanky, I'd think that Fenric survived "The Curse of Fenric" after all and maybe was the thing that arranged the Time War and this time beat the Doctor. It's more likely these are Fenric red herrings designed to get fans like me thinking the wrong way when it'll be something completely new we've never heard of before. It's fun to speculate, whatever it is though.

10 out of 10 for "Father's Day." If anything gets any better than this, it'll have deserved to have broken the scale.

Addendum: - It just occurred to me that I wrote that whole review without praising Billie Piper and Christopher Eccleston on their performances (especially Billie). I just talked about Rose and the Doctor as though they were real people... and that's how good Piper and Eccleston were and are... they weren't there at all. They got out of the way and let the Doctor and Rose go through it all completely and honestly, and the only way you'll know it was acting is when you see the artists on an award show picking up their well-deserved statues or whatever it is you get for a BAFTA. They were so good I forgot they had to work at this. Sorry!