Father's Day

Rose has begun thinking about the possibilities of time travel, perhaps sparked by Adams attempt in 'The Long Game'. Maybe, she thinks i can see my father, being too young to remember him she asks the doctor to take her to see him, to be there for him on the day of his death.

Not being able to face him after witnessing his death for the first time, Rose tries again under strict instructions by the Doctor to wait until their previous selves have left the scene.

Unable to stand by and watch her father die for a second time Rose rushes out across the road pushing her dad to safety. All seems well and they head together to a friends wedding which her Dad had been out buying a present for.

Things aren't going to well at the church though as very few people have arrived and outside in the streets people are disappearing in a most peculiar way.

I must admit part of me was looking forward to a eighties episode purely for nostalgia's sake and given more time to the story nostalgic padding could have been added for all the twenty-thirty something Who fans watching. This would only have been padding though as the story was far more important than the setting.

Having Rose see the death of her father twice justified her emotions getting the better of her the second time. The emotions experienced will still be fresh in her mind as she prepares to have that final moment with him. Who else wouldn't take the opportunity as she did.

The subjective POV attacks early on are a nice nod to early serials such as The Avengers, The Prisoner and Doctor Who itself where often the monster didn't always live up to expectation. The red filtered kaliedoscopic effect was particulary reminiscent of the Doctor Who's of the eighties which tied in with the setting nicely.

Again the shorter running time of just under 45 minutes is problematic as tension does not seem to have enough time to escalate sufficiently, and the program has appeared to have fallen into the famous 'five minutes finale solution' favoured by Star Trek, Buffy and other American format science fiction serials.

Unlike its contempories the new series of Doctor Who does not appear to have the overlying story arcs that make american dramas serials stand on their own whilst simultaneously being part of a larger story. The Time War is the closest thing the series has to a continuing arc, and that has already happened (at least as far as the Doctor's timeline is concerned). As for the Big Bad Wolf reference this is often contrived and at the moment seems to have little or no bearing on the individual episodes. In fact this reference often appears to have no other bearing than it has been shoehorned into every episode with little or no explanation or effect.

More successfully than in previous episodes the domestic side of of the series (as experienced through Rose's interaction with family and friends) works particularly well. The pathos between her and her father throughout adds an extra dimension that was not fullt addressed or was just not evident before, even in 'Aliens of London' after she had returned home after an unexplained absence of 12 months, although i don't think it was neccessary to have the young Mickey appearing and latching on to her. Showing a connection between her and Mickey makes her leaving him to travel in the TARDIS much less believable.

Back to this weeks big bad...the reapers...wonderfully realised, the dark flow of their leathery wings and the brutality of their assault, terrifies complete with a searing screech reminiscent of the Nazgul (ask a fan boy for the reference). Fitting in to the background of reality far better than other CGI creations, fading in and out of time instead of exploding on the screen with tedious regularity.

The only other gripe was that it was a bit predictable...the denouement being painfully highlighted so that the audience had worked it out seemingly before the Doctor had. This again ties up with the short running time of these self contained episodes. The runtime is even made shorter by the inclusion of a trail for next weeks episode now firmly in place of the famous Doctor Who cliffhangers which kept people tuning in week by week. Fair enough people have many other things to do than watch television these days, but you still have to get people to watch week after week. That is the point of episodic television and without the aforementioned inclusion of a concrete story arc, people are not neccessarily going to rush back each week to see how characters are getting on after they have escaped from danger.

Without getting onto a detailed deconstruction of the failings and/or successes of the new series, 'Father's Day' was an enjoyable and moving episode of the continuing adventures of an incredibly appealing character. Long may the show go on.