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.

What can be said about this episode? 10/10? 5 stars out of 5? The Greatest Story Ever Told?

Try all three!

Emotion, power, monsters, humour - it had the lot. I can honestly say this is the only story to ever make me cry, apart from Earthshock (I was a lot younger then, okay?).

A simple premise - Rose wanting to visit the father she never knew, so whilst considering that, let's ask the question 'Is this her plan all along?' To be honest, I think not. To see her dad - perhaps. To save him - no. If she'd wanted to save him, she would have done so the first time she saw him get out of the car. There may be those who say the Doctor had a crafty hold of her hand to stop her, and so she couldn't risk him snatching her back and thus failing in her objective, so having proved herself she persuaded him to go back, leaving the way open for the save at the second time of asking. I don't think so - is Rose really that devious, cunning and clever? How could she be sure that the Doctor would agree to go back a second time? No, Rose never had a plan to save her dad at either the first or second opportunity. However, having seen his death for the first time, it simply became too much to watch it once more and, unable to stop herself, she did the deed.

Which, of course, allows us to get to know her dad, Pete, who, all in all, seems a decent enough kind of guy. A wheeler dealer, true, but an honest one. There is no hint of any shady dealings on his part, just a wish to earn the family crust. A marvellous performance here, as Pete slowly realizes just who Rose is, why she was there and what, ultimately, he has to do.

The scenes between Rose and her dad are, without doubt, the most emotional in the history of the series, and Rose's tearful ' My Daddy' as they hug in the church set me off for the rest of the story!! I'm just an old softy, but, as anyone who has lost a parent will agree, this situation is a tear-jerker, particularly when you know that there can only be one ending to the story.

I have to admit to being a little stumped by some of the negative comments made about this story, particularly on two points. Firstly, the acting of Eccleston and the use of the Doctor. Sure, there are times when Eccleston doesn't seem to be doing a lot in the acting stakes, but doesn't that fit in with this Doctor? This incarnation can be incredibly laid back one moment, and absolutely hyper the next. Eccleston's acting is merely reflecting that. Don't get me wrong - there are times when I could gleefully ram that stupid grin down his throat (strange how Tom never had the same effect!). However, I find his acting convincing and watchable. As for the 'under use' of the Doctor, again, does this not fit in with the character we are getting to know? There are times when he takes time to get involved, as if, occasionally, there is a reluctance - almost as with the character of the other 'ninth' Doctor from 'Scream of the Shelka'. If you think of the stories, they have mostly started from the traditional 'accidental' stumbling on to the scene of the TARDIS crew. TEOTW was supposed to be a trip to watch the destruction of Earth. TUD a trip to Victorian England to see Christmas. Even AOL/WW3 was just a trip home!! The Doctor's actions in the stories have not been the 'gung-ho' and straight in style of his earlier selves. He has tended to watch, but not get immediately involved unless he has had to or someone has been in danger. Perhaps the destruction of Gallifrey has had more of an effect on the Doctor than we currently know, and more will become clear later on...........

My second 'gripe at the gripes' is about the 'altering Time' problem and all that comes with it. Who are the Reapers? Where do they come from? Why do they leave at the end when Time has still been altered? What happens to the TARDIS? Why does the key glow hot? Why does the car keep re-appearing?

IT DOESN'T MATTER AND I DON'T CARE!!!!!!!

The story as it stands is more than good enough, you don't have to have every little thing explained like a 5 year old. It must be like watching an episode with a kid in the room for the familes of some reviewers! 'Why has that happened?' 'What does that mean?' 'Where did it go?' Try to use a little imagination of your own for once - good stories get you thinking and making up your own ideas, which is exactly what this does. Blimey, if people wanted answers straight away to everything in Star Wars Episode Four they'd never have had to make the other five!!! (and I'm still waiting to see if the new one explains why Obi-wan doesn't know who R2D2 and C3P0 are in Episode 4, and why they themselves can't tell everyone what's been going on! And why did Darth Vader never say 'Yes, C3P0, I am the Maker you keep thanking'?). Writers should not be expected to explain every little thing (particularly in 45 minutes!) and this is nothing new. It can be done for various reasons, not least to stop stupid questions of a different kind. As another example, in 'The Lord of the Rings', Frodo and Sam are rescued at the end by Gandalf and the Giant Eagles. Does this not beg the question 'If you can get Giant Eagles to fly there to rescue Frodo and Sam, why couldn't they have taken them in the first place and cut out most of the three books we've had to read through?'

But, if you really need to know, the Reapers are creatures from the Vortex - we have heard of enough over the years! - and they help to heal wounds in Time. WE KNOW THAT BECAUSE THE DOCTOR TELLS US! They leave at the end because Time is healed - the injury was Pete still being alive. Yes there were other smaller changes still around, but that is normal with any injury - you slash a great big cut in your arm and tell me that it's just the same as it was before when it's healed. Nothing is the same once healed, not even Time, but it can be made almost the same as it was before. The inside of the TARDIS disappeared because Time was, if you like, anaesthetised, whilst being healed. Although time was passing, Time was not - if you see what I mean. With no Time, there's no time machine. Simple. The key was with the Doctor, the oldest thing around, and so was kept safe from the effect. Once charged up, it was able to draw the TARDIS back to it. Simple. The car, if you like, was the immune system of the body of Time, going around and around looking for the infection to destroy - the infection being Pete, the one thing that should not have been there. Simple.

Well, that's what my imagination tells me - you can think up your own explanation if you want! That's the beauty of it - you decide!

I thought the Reapers were convincing and not obviously CGI, but I did think they were a little dark and that you could not see as much detail as you could have done.

All in all, the best of the series so far, and quite possibly the best ever - but will it still hold that title by episode 13?

It's fair to say Father's Day is very different to any (broadcast) Doctor Who story that’s gone before, and probably because of this when I first saw it I took a dislike to it. I thought it was silly, too soapy and had a predictable resolution which broke the golden rule that the Doctor must save the day. Having watched it again I have realised I made a big mistake, and it is an excellent story, well written and well acted.

Indeed what I first thought were its flaws actually help to make it so good. At seems odd that the Doctor would take Rose back to watch her father die, and even odder that he was surprised by her reaction, but this is to judge him as a human. His actions are perfectly in character with the slightly insensitive alien Doctor as played by Tom Baker, who Eccleston is reminding me of more and more each week. On the other hand the Doctor shows he is capable of emotion when he talks about the loss of his planet. Similarly the soapy elements – Rose’s interaction with her parents – gives the series the reality it needs to keep the casual viewer interested. Also the fact that the Doctor fails, shows he is fallible, something that is needed to keep the series interesting, and also gives Pete the chance to redeem himself. Even if it is obvious after about twenty minutes how the situation will be resolved, this only enhances the tragedy of the situation.

On the acting front A+ grades to Shaun Dingwall, whom I hope turns up again in the future, and Billie Piper who gives her best performance to date. Eccleston also comes across well, but is somewhat of a background figure, as he needs to be for the episode to work. Most of the supporting cast is superb too.

Thus all in all this is a very good story, although it is quite heavy and needs a couple of viewings to be appreciated. Its a pity Paul Cornell is not writing for the series next year, but hopefully a third series will entice him back.

Its been a long time coming, but finally, a series about time-travel has covered the consequences of time-travelling.

Back in the old days, we had the cautionary tale of Barbara interfering with the Aztecs, the Meddling Monk, the Time Warrior, and of course Day of the Daleks. But the actual exploration of the concept was a little lightweight.

Then along comes Father's Day. This episode, above all the others, really explores the depth of the Doctor/Rose relationship - although the Doctor is suspicious of Rose's motives for joining him, ultimately he is able to forgive her.

We also explore the mother's willingness to protect the daughter from the truth about her father, so that she can see him as a hero. And although that particular bubble is burst as soon as Rose meets her dad, in the end he becomes the hero he never was in real time.

The Reapers are a little too comic-book to be truly frightening, but they are exceedingly intricate monsters.

The costumes and make up really bring out the eighties setting, and the incidental music is never too distracting.

All in all, another highlight for the new show, avoiding the obvious trap of being too angst-ridden.

Doubtless, the "rent in time" storyline is going to feed the minds of the continuity freaks for years to come, but when it all comes down to it, Dr Who is not about continuity, its about a damn good story!

I have found in the past, during disappointing seasons of Dr Who (or imposter programmes which are broadcast under that banner), that there usually comes a pivotal story which bangs the nail in said season's coffin. For example, Silver Nemesis part one was the episode of season 25 which made me finally accept that nothing good was going to happen that year, and I basically gave up expecting it.

Watching Father's Day last Saturday evening was the moment that I gave up on the new show. Or at least gave up on this first season of it - maybe David Tenant's Doctor and the new batch of scripts will turn things around. Reading some of the other reviews that have published on Outpost Gallifrey, I'm at a loss to know where people are coming from with Paul Cornell's episode. The whole idea of the Doctor and his dramatic funcion in the show has now been as comprehensively undermined as it was in the McCoy era. Personally I'd rather have McCoy's all-seeing superhuman incarnation than the increasingly pathetic, ineffectual, unstable, nasty adolescent we now have pilotting the TARDIS.

I'm not going to bang on about what happened in the episode, we all saw it. I'd just ask everyone to step back for a moment, and imagine the best stories Dr Who has ever given us, but with their respective Doctors replaced by Eccleston's incarnation. The Doctor winds up trapped in the cottage in part four of the Seeds of Doom. "Sorry, I don't have a plan" he tells everyone, throws a big strop when Scorby comes on to Sarah, then gets eaten by the Krynoid. The Doctor gets dragged off to Androzani Major by Stotz in Caves of Androzani part three. "Wow, I can't believe it's going to end like this" he says, sitting back in his restraints and seething about the fact that Jek is now going to have his wicked way with luscious young Peri. "I really fancied her" he admits to himself, lost in his own impotence and despondant self-pity. The Doctor arrives on the Nerva space station in Ark In Space, calls Noah a stupid ape for allowing himself to become infected by the Wirrin, gets trapped in the control area, tells everyone he has no plan then gets eaten by a load of bubblewrap.

Come ON people!! The Doctor ALWAYS has a plan - he's the effing Doctor!! The whole joy, the whole blessed point of Doctor Who is that it is a programme about profoundly nasty people and creatures with profoundly nasty intentions, all of whom and all of which get thwarted by the brilliance of the Doctor. A Doctor who is never cruel or cowardly, who is always non-violent, who always uses his brain and who never, ever EVER despairs or stops fighting. Rob him of these qualities, tamper with his essential character and you are messing with the guts of the show. Any other considerations - quality of direction, guest performances, music, lighting - pale into utter insignifiance.

Bring back Doctor Who! The new show needs him.

Father's Day was probably my favorite episode of this new series of Doctor Who thus far. Billie Piper continues to be a joy to watch on screen and as the new series evolves we get a companion that is allowed more depth and substance than anything that we have had before. This is the way Doctor Who should be written. Any story with a premise that showcases a non-human protagonist must take care not to reveal too much about that character. It has been my experience that the more that is revealed about such an alien the less interesting and 'alien' the character becomes.

The Doctor needs to remain an enigma. He needs to remain alien. This series seems to understand that. It gives us stories where the Doctor is the means, but not the ends. This is a series about the companion... about Rose, about you, or me, or any other human person who steps foot inside the TARDIS. The humans tell the story. They don't need to stay hidden. We can put them under the microscope and see exactly who they are. Never has Doctor Who allowed us to examine a companion so closely. Never has it given us such beautiful human drama.

My thanks to Russell T. Davies for this wonderfully insightful new direction. One that begins with the opening moments of the very first episode and never turns loose. I compare it to the popular American Television series, "Lost". Where a group of ordinary people find themselves stranded on a very dangerous and very mysterious island. The stories are human stories and each week we learn more about the characters on the island, their lives, their loves, their history. And sometimes we are given the tiniest clue about the island. The Doctor is the island and Rose is the lost, struggling to survive and learn just a little bit more about the mystery that surrounds her.

I don't feel I need to reiterate the quality of story or production of this week's episode. I have been reading the reviews of "Father's Day" that are here on "Outpost Gallifrey" and see that these things have been well addressed. I do want to express my opinion regarding one of the running themes that has been permeating the reviews of late, however.

The scripts for this new series ("Father's Day" included) that were not penned by Russell T. Davies have been by-and-large received as superior. While this may be true, it has bred a lot of anti-RTD sentiment here that is undeserved. Each and every one of Mr. Davies' scripts has contained powerful and engaging scenes of human drama as good as what we got here last Saturday with "Father's Day." That's not to say each of these scripts did not also contain stumbling blocks. I was quite unhappy with much of "Aliens of London" and offered a review that voiced serious concerns about that episode. But I now feel a need to jump to the man's defense.

Let's assume that each of the writers for Doctor Who had X number of months to work on their scripts. Each of the writers in question produced one single script in that time. One script to polish and perfect and mold into the very finest gem of which they were capable. RTD on the other hand has had to produce 8 different scripts to their 1. Eight! Russell T. Davies is responsible for the lion's share of our Doctor Who story content, because this is his vision. He is responsible for the continuity, the atmosphere, the life, and breath of this new Doctor Who series. Russell T. Davies provides the foundation upon which these other writers are able to present their master pieces. "Father's Day" would not have been possible without that foundation.

I am sure if RTD had possessed 8 times the amount of time to polish and perfect each of his scripts that they might have been very different indeed. As it stands, his offerings so far have each provided us with a fair share of good enjoyable Doctor Who. Please don't belittle his efforts and suggest that he should relinquish his writing responsibilities for the series. His is the direction, the vision, and the heart that gives this new Doctor Who life. Praise him for that. Look at the big picture... at his efforts on the whole. They are Fantastic!