Father's Day

Purely Historical. Purely Sci-Fi. Pseudo-Historical. On May 14th 2005, DOCTOR WHO just created a new genre. The Purely Emotional Story.

Being able to relate to the human element was always one of WHO’s strengths - I’m thinking that first episode between Ian & Barbara, Jon Pertwee bidding Jo Grant adieu before driving off into the sunset... Then The Doctor turned into a brooding alien and it seemed a good excuse to fall into line with STAR TREK and not bother with that side of things. Of course, JNT made big moves to make the companions real people with real families. Who can forget Auntie Vanessa’s demise in LOGOPOLIS? But with no hope of The Doctor staying on Earth for any length of time, due to the wishes of BBC executives and producers, it would take until 2005 for the ties-that-bind element to become a permanent state of affairs again. Now, with an emotional core being a market-driven necessity, it’ll be almost impossible for a future companion not to have a fully-fleshed out family that we dip into and out of periodically.

The isolated Church set-up brought it home to me just how much WHO is set on Earth again, like in the Pertwee years and I for one am chuffed. I think Russell T was bang on the money when he says setting more than 50 of the cent stories elsewhere causes the viewers’ interest to wane. It was always wrong to minimise “on Earth” from the late 70s on, but delighted that it’s back.

The 80s set-up was convincingly brought to life. The make-up, costumes and the posters: one (which again has resonance for 2005) hoping “No Third Term For Thatcher” in vain, being supplanted by the coming of acid-house music. A necessary escape. It’s ironic too that a great original story has been made of a year that saw the original series at it’s worst. When we think of 1987 now, will we think of Iceworld, or Rose’s Dad?

This series is very good at creating memories through visual set-ups. The Doctor and Rose watching The Doctor and Rose watching what we already know: that Rose’s Dad is going to get knocked down by a car. Only this time, he isn’t...

It’s been said The Doctor was naive to let Rose have a second look. But it’s more an indication how she’s got to him on an emotional level than perhaps any other companion. Eccleston was great when he scowled at her in her Dad’s flat.

What a turn-up for the books when The Doctor opened the TARDIS to find a cubby-hole inside!

Cue the Reapers: gargoyle type vultures with red eyes. They were genuinely chilling.

Not for the first time this series, post Time War, The Doctor looked impotent against the worse-case scenario. But he hadn’t reckoned on Rose’s Dad, who kept seeing the car that should have killed him keep appearing and disappearing and decided he would be the hero Rose always thought he was.