Father’s Day is a rather unconventional sort of Doctor Who story, not least because of the fact that the Doctor is killed off ten minutes before the end, leaving others to save the day in his wake. This, it goes without saying, rather bucks the trend of usual Doctor Who adventures, although it doesn’t buck the trend set so far this season of the Doctor being at times a rather ineffectual figure, being captured or confined and having to rely on others to carry the burden of doing the actual heroic legwork.
However, this is less of a problem in Paul Cornell’s script than it has been elsewhere, as the Doctor has so many other chances to shine. I think one of the things that’s most apparent in Cornell’s writing is how much he loves the character of the Doctor, in his traditional archetype form of the hero. Eccleston gets some truly wonderful scenes to perform here, making it hardly surprising that the actor went on record in several interviews at the start of the season to say that this was his favourite episode of the thirteen he’d shot.
The Doctor works so well because we get to see so many different aspects of his personality. There’s the anger he feels towards Rose after she’s saved the life of her father, and his threat to abandon her in 1987 and head back to the TARDIS. The fire in his performance here makes you feel that he really means it, and is a reminder of the sometimes unpredictable nature of the First Doctor as played by William Hartnell, particularly his threat to turf Ian and Barbara off the ship at the end of The Sensorites. Then there’s the more contemplative side to the character, best displayed here in the truly wonderful scene where he talks to the bride and groom at this ill-fated wedding, Sarah and Stuart. Given the attitude he’s sometimes displayed earlier on in this season, it’s heartening to see the Doctor being so nice to the ‘little people’ of the world again, the flotsam and jetsam of the human race who he happens to encounter in his travels. The sense of wonder, longing and sadness in his “I’ve never had a life like that…” moment was a superb piece of work. Finally, of course, we get to see the Doctor as a true out-and-out hero, as it should be – delivering his plans from the pulpit and sacrificing himself to save everyone else in the church as the Rose paradox allows the Reapers to enter…
Speaking of the Reapers, they are excellently realised. It’s almost a shame that they were no more than a sideshow to the episode, but that had to be the case as it was really all about the relationship between Rose and her father, and the consequence of Rose’s actions. The creatures were particularly effective in their red-drenched point-of-view shots, although it has to be said that the initial killings they inflict were somewhat less than effective – I’m not sure a spilling drinks bottle gently rolling away or a pair of hedge trimmers dropping to the ground is really particularly dramatic, somehow.
But as I said, good though The Mill’s CGI creations were, this was never really about the monsters. It’s about Rose and Pete, and Piper and guest star Shaun Dingwall really excelled in their roles, both utterly convincing, making the father-daughter relationship really rather touching. Pete’s self-sacrifice was well-played, never seeming too cheesy and definitely on the right side of believable. The final member of the Tyler trio was played as ever by Camille Coduri. Before I saw this episode I had some concerns, knowing that the same actress was going to be playing Jackie the best part of twenty years younger, but Coduri does indeed just about pull it off. I think it’s down to the hair…
It’s a shame in a way that the forty-five minute running time didn’t leave room for more scenes with the rest of the supporting cast, as they were all very good as well. The aforementioned Stuart and Sarah, in particular, are worth mentioning, as is Stuart’s father, who was in a way a nice touch of light relief and as such more poignant when he was killed off, although he was of course brought back at the end.
In a way though, such bringing back – hitting a kind of re-set switch – is my main problem with the story, although of course it always seemed fairly obvious that the story was going to have to be resolved in that kind of a way somehow. Time travel is a very complex idea to try and get your head around at the best of times, and Father’s Day certainly throws up a good few questions – were the Doctor and the others to be taken by the Reapers actually, properly dead until Pete threw himself in front of the car? Why don’t Rose and the Doctor forget the events that have taken place as everyone else does? And what happens to the ‘first’ Doctor and Rose to witness Pete’s death, as they conveniently disappear as soon as the ‘second’ Rose runs out to save him? All very confusing, and probably best not to think about too hard unless you’re a theoretical physicist. It does seem highly convenient in terms of plot, however, that the solution to all the problems – the car that runs Pete over – kept going around and around outside so temptingly.
The whole premise of the episode and the way in which it was treated – someone mucking about with time and evil forces using the breakage caused to come through and create havoc – was not so much Doctor Who as it was Sapphire & Steel. I’m not complaining about that for a second, mind – I’d love the show to be more like Sapphire & Steel from time to time. That famous ITV series most came to mind when the phones would only repeat Bell’s “Watson, come here, I need you,” message over and over again. I’m not sure that makes much sense plotwise, but it was a wonderfully effective idea that worked very well indeed, and was really quite spooky.
Production-wise, Joe Ahearne’s direction maintains the high standard he set out in Dalek, with one exception – all the times we saw it, not once was I convinced that the car which ran Pete down and killed him was doing anything more than about ten miles per hour. I suppose it might be possible to inflict fatal damage on a person at such a speed, but it’s a shame that such a vital sequence always looked so comparatively undramatic on all of the occasions upon which it appeared. Perhaps a full-on hit-and-run would be a bit too harrowing for such an early evening timeslot, but surely there was something in the middle that would have been a bit more effective?
Speaking of the timeslot, perhaps the one question about this episode is whether it’s really the sort of thing that would keep the younger part of the audience watching week in, week out, with its high quota of character based drama and low monster and adventure count. On the other hand though, you should never underestimate the intelligence and tastes of even the youngest audience members, and besides, the occasional Doctor Who episode like this is a nice change of pace. You couldn’t make Doctor Who now in 2005 like this every week, but I don’t suppose it will do the audience figures any harm to do it like this every now and then. The fact that the new television series is not only this good, but can accommodate stories as wildly different as this and last week’s The Long Game, is a real testament to that ‘infinitely variable format’ fans like to go on about so much, but which was only occasionally true of the classic series.
In short then, Father’s Day was a real gem of an episode – well-written, well-acted and well-produced, it fully deserves to stand up there with the best of them.
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