Father's Day

As I read about the premise to this story in various press articles that were previewing it, the first thing I thought to myself was: "Ah no, another lame time paradox story." This particular sci-fi concept of going back in time to save someone you loved who has died has already been so overdone that I was less-than-thrilled to hear it was going to be the central theme of a story this season. I had always loved the way the old series had taken some of those overdone sci-fi plotlines and rather than make them a central idea, would use them as just subplots instead. For example "Mawdryn Undead" explores that whole "what would happen if you travelled back in time and met yourself" premise quite nicely but also has several other important plots going on at the same time. In such contexts, I had no problem with using one of those overdone ideas. But putting it to the center of a storyline could only be a bad move as far as I was concerned.

There was only one thing that had me believing this might still have a chance to be a good story. And that was the fact that Paul Cornell was writing it.

Paul wrote all the best Doctor Who novels when the show was off the air. Even his weaker material was still so amazingly good. I'll even admit, when I heard the series was coming back, one of the first things I wanted to know was if Cornell had been commissioned to write any stories for the new season. So, even though I was a bit disenchanted by the premise of the whole story - I knew that if anyone could handle it well, it would be Paul.

And I was right. He did.

"Father's Day" is, of course, deeply sentimental. And it's meant to be. It's Paul showing us that our favourite series can explore more things than just the boundaries of time and space. It can be a story about people and relationships. The new series is doing this a lot in all kinds of different ways, but it did it best in this story.

But even with all the "mushiness" going on, the plot is well-executed. Paul makes sure that beyond the sentimentality, there's a genuine story there too. And one of the neat underlying ideas that the plot explores is how troubles with time are handled now that the Time Lords are gone from the universe. It was even neat to see how different the Doctor is now regarding such situations. In the old days, he would have never brought a companion to such an event - knowing it would be a risky thing to do that could get him in trouble with his own people. But, his own people are gone now. Which means he really can do whatever he damned well pleases. Including actually allowing time to be re-set by letting Rose's Dad live. It made me really see just how different the universe was without Gallifrey in it.

Of course, replacing the Time Lords are these nasty Reaper creatures. Who I quite liked and definitely want to see more of. I think we should definitely get another story some time where the Doctor actually gets to talk to them a bit (he is still, a Time Lord, after all - that should get them to actually acknowledge him on some level besides being "something to eat when time goes wrong"!). They are a very interesting species that were scary and nasty and nicely underexplored so that we would want to see more of them again in the future. I'm almost thinking it might be a neat premise if the Doctor purposely engineered a time paradox sometime because his back was against the wall and he saw no other way to defeat the bad guys except to "sick the reapers on them". Just an idea...

Anyway, now that we've tackled the plotline - let's explore the real "meat" of "Father's Day". I think, first and foremost, it's about the idealisations we make of other people. Particularly how children see their parents. Even though she never met him, Rose has such a huge pre-conception of her father. It doesn't help, of course, that this great social more of "always speaking well of the dead" has coloured her perception even more by the stories her mother has told her. But certainly one of the central themes of this story is watching poor Rose see all these illusions get stripped away and discovering that her Dad really wasn't the best of fellows. That he might even be a bit of a loser.

How nice then, for Paul's "triumph of human spirit" theme to ring through and have Rose's Dad overcome his own defects. Not only does the "loser" end up doing the right thing in the end, but he's also clever enough to figure out what's going on all on his own and then take those necessary steps. Once more illustrating that beautiful idea that Paul loves to bring out in his characters. That there's always "more to people than meets the eye" and that we all have the potential to exceed the limitations we put ourselves under. It's the fact that these ideas are woven into the very sad storyline of Rose having to experience the genuine grief of losing her father that finally gets my eyes to water a bit at the end. If this had just been a one-dimensional "sob story" it would have fallen flat. But because it had such beautiful undertones about courage and responsibility, when Dad does finally go out and get hit and the vase breaks once and for all, I actually found myself getting misty-eyed. Something I thought Doctor Who would never be able to legitimately achieve. Even if it came close once or twice with companions dieing or neat supporting characters like "Tommy" in "Planet of Spiders".

Even my Mum - who, by no stretch of the imagination enjoys sci-fi, just happened to be watching the show that night and now watches it every week because the superior writing of the series has won her over. That, to me, is the ultimate testament of a good story. When even people who dislike the genre will start tuning in regularly!

Anyway, I know I'm going on quite a bit about just the script but it goes without saying that performance and direction were in good shape here too. And though I hear some folks complaining that this is another story where the Doctor "doesn't seem to do much of anything" you hardcore fans need to clue in to the idea that this is not a new concept to the series. Pertwee and Tom Baker were always saving the day all by themselves but if you look at any other era of the show - there are plenty of stories where the Doctor is busy just running around and trying to keep himself alive and that he serves as only a minor catalyst to the resolution of the central conflict. A good example of this would be what many folks consider the best Who story ever "The Caves of Androzani". So let's all settle down here and enjoy the fact that our new series doesn't want to be too formulaic by having the Doctor be the "be all and end all of everything". Let's allow the ole Doc to be a bit ineffectual now and again, it's neat to see him so vulnerable. And to see companions and supporting characters be so useful too!

So, in the final analysis, even though it has to fight against other really fantastic stories like "Unquiet Dead", "Dalek", "The Long Game" and "Empty Child/The Doctor Dances", "Father's Day" does just seem to beat them in terms of "best story of the season." Mind you, at the time of writing this, I have still not seen the final two episodes of said season. So that opinion may change. But, given my deep adoration of Cornell's writing skills, it's going to be quite the challenge!