Father's Day

Before we get into this, I know from reading others' reviews that this is one episode that has had a lot of emotional resonance with viewers. Many have commented they were reduced to tears after watching it, one in particular that I saw (and I'm sure it can't be the ONLY one like it) saying it reminded him/her of his/her upbringing, where his/her father had died before s/he was born. So out of no disrespect whatsoever to anyone who felt the way they did, but...

I really, REALLY don't like stories that try to manipulate your emotions. There is a difference between stories that generate an emotional response through the course of the story, and one that tries to pull your heartstrings without a hint of subtlety about it. And that's precisely how "Father's Day" felt to me.

And what gets me, is that the set-up to the whole episode requires the Doctor to be an absolute schmuck. "Let's see, we JUST ditched a traveller who was trying to influence history in such a way to alter the past, I think for an encore I'll take Rose to see the exact moment her father died. There'd be no personal meaning there, oh no, what could POSSIBLY go wrong?!" Uh...yeah. Which is why I don't think the Doctor's anger at Rose over it was very warranted -- HE took her back there, TWICE even.

I did like the Reapers. I did like the TARDIS funkiness once history went a bit bizarro (Although come ON, Paul, how many times are you going to use the "Object From TARDIS Makes Lost TARDIS Appear" trick??). And I did like the car repeatedly appearing and disappearing.

But I really just didn't like all the NOT VERY SUBTLE AT ALL emotional ticks. Too many generated "Awwww" moments. Oh look, it's little Mickey, hugging Rose in the church. Awwww. Hey, Pete Tyler realizes he needs to sacrifice himself in order to stop all this craziness. Awwww.

Despite some nice ideas regarding the nature of an altering history, it was Paul Cornell by numbers. And unfortunately, it was the Paul Cornell who wrote Shadows of Avalon instead of the one who wrote Human Nature that showed up. In the latter, we truly FELT for the Doctor, and for "Dr. John Smith," and his human lover. It was a genuine heartbreak. Whereas with the former, we were signposted and bludgeoned with why we should feel for Lethbridge-Stewart, or Compassion, or...

Show, don't tell.

And again, if you felt a personal connection with this story, I don't hate I congratulate. But it didn't do it for me. In fact, it went pretty much the opposite. To me it felt phony, but perhaps, perhaps, it's a situation where you had to be there.