Father's Day

Sunday, 15 May 2005 - Reviewed by Katy Salter

Again another brilliant episode of Doctor Who! Both Eccleston's and Piper's perfromances were amazing, especially Eccleston.

The story line is also faultless because it all follows on from each other, in an easy to follow maze.

This episode will make everyone cry (it did with all my friends), whether to do with the Doctor's untimely end or the emotional turmoil of Rose as her father realises what he has to do.

There are very little glitches in the actual story, except the Reapers are hard to work out, because their appearance seems odd and out of order.

I especially enjoyed the Doctor in this episode, because he proved that he wasn't as alien as he seemed. He has a lot of puns, but he also shows remorse and regret. I think that he also has a lot of good lines in this episode, because he shows the harder, easier to hurt side. The line "I've never had a life that." Shows that he has a weaker side, a side that is not seen very often. The argument between Rose and the Doctor is quite unexpected: they seemed like quite a harmonious couple.

I enjoyed the episode because it seemed like an emotional episode ore than a dangerous one, except for the fact that the Doctor was unfortunately killed at the end.

In fact, that was probably the worst bit, because he proved his love for Rose, by going forward and sacrificing himself, not just to save Rose, but also to try to stop her father from having to die too. This was quite a touching gesture for the Doctor, who is normally quite reserved. Obviously, at that rash moment, he didn’t know that the Tardis was about to be destroyed. The question is; would the Doctor have returned if the Tardis had been returned, and saved everyone. Because if the whole earth had been ‘consumed’ by these Reapers, then there would not have been much of a world left in the future. We have to remember that this is in the past. But considering this, why did the Doctor bring Rose back in the first place? If he knew that if something went wrong, then that would change history and the world afterward.

It was also quite a revealing episode. From facts that I have learnt from other people, apparently the Doctor had suffered at the hands of his people, so why was he so intent on going back and saving them? In ‘Dalek’ as well, that was also the case.

Overall, this was a brilliant episode, in my ratings top of the leader board, beating the Dalek episode too, which I thought could not be bettered.

Congratulations to the whole cast and crew!

FILTER: - Series 1/27 - Ninth Doctor - Television

Father's Day

Sunday, 15 May 2005 - Reviewed by Calum Corral

I have really enjoyed the intro scenes before the theme tune starts, and thought that this was one of the best yet, as the Dr almost takes the role of a genie "Your wish is my command!" but warns Rose to be careful what you wish for.

Well, I think this is THE story all the fans have hoping for since the new programme was annouced, and it was scintillating from start to finish. "Father's Day" is a real emotional rollercoaster ride for the viewer and with excellent performances from the lead cast, this is classy Who and is up there with the best episodes so far in the new series.

Tackling an issue which is of course always brought up with time travel, why can you not go back and save a loved one from dying, the episode certainly pulled on the heartstrings a great deal and this made it all the more watchable. The rising tension in the episode between the Doctor and Rose as things begin to go wrong is dramatic and enticing. Rose's Mum and Dad were excellent, and the dawn of realisation of Rose's father when he realises that Rose is indeed his daughter is one of the most emotionally gripping scenes of the show so far.

Billie Piper deserves immense credit too for her performance which was of an exemplary standard throughout. While the Doctor got huffy with her, I think the viewer had great sympathy for Rose's plight. When Russell T.Davies made the comment that he always envisaged himself as preferring to have been the Dr's assistant than the Doctor himself, I was a bit surprised. But I can understand that comment now following Father's Day because I think many people watching the episode would have acted as Rose did in attempting to save her father.

Christopher Eccleston also puts in one of his best performances as the Doctor as he loses control of the situation for the first time and walks out on Rose ... something I did not ever see happening. But like the Doctor falling out with Jamie in Evil of the Daleks, it had a real dramatic impact and Rose looked to have blown her chances with the Doctor.

One of my favourite scenes of the episode was the Dr walking towards the Tardis only to open the doors and find out that time was already in the process of changing as he looked at an empty shell. Very point blank and to the point. This was a good touch that the writer Paul Cornell brought to the episode. I liked how the Tardis had an important impact on the story with the Tardis key playing a significant part.

I also thought the realisation at the end of what Rose's father was to do to save time at the end was an incredible conclusion. A tear-jerker in every sense of the word, this was Doctor Who with real emotional intensity and impact. I thought the reaper monsters were impressive special fx too and probably pretty scary for young children. When they grabbed the Dr, it was very dramatic, and I was completely befuddled as to how the episode would be resolved after the Dr had gone. It was a fantastic climax and a real gem of an episode. Changing the course of time has never been so frightening and thrilling.

I notice there were a few little nods and winks to Back to the Future too in some of the script. The 1980s music in the background was an interesting choice. After Tainted Love in End of the World, we were treated to Rick Astley!

So brilliant performances all round from the cast, great storytelling, and drama, tears and sci-fi horror. A terrific combination. Paul Cornell has delivered a script of the highest quality. Hard-hitting and full of emotions, Father's Day will live long in the memory as one of the finest ever episodes of the programme.

FILTER: - Series 1/27 - Ninth Doctor - Television

Father's Day

Sunday, 15 May 2005 - Reviewed by Neil Micklewright

Hopes have been high throughout this new series really...Chris Ecclestone has exceeded many of our expectations for the lead, Billie Piper has surprised everyone really I think, production values great (yeah yeah snoozing...) but the real issue which will surely define the future of this programme - beyond being a slightly kitschy revival of an old family favourite - is this: does it stand up not as family entertainment or serious sci- fi, but whether or not it really holds water as serious drama?

Well the evidence so far suggests yes yes and yes another 5 times (at least!). "Father's Day" moves over some fairly old ground about the premise of time travel - so what if we change the course of history if the things that get changed are actually for the better? Well the truth is that events in our lives, and those that shape the way of the world we know do matter, however much we would love to remove the tragedy and pain it might cause us. Everything matters it would seem.

It's important that we saw this from Rose's point I suppose. It answers a few more questions about her, and by placing this in a wholly human context - after all is'nt the role of the Dr. Who companion primarily to present these things empathetically to the audience?

The acting as ever was through the roof in terms of quality, and the script tight and well presented. But as much as I felt for Rose, her family and the awful moral dilemma that her interference would present (and indeed did present once she did get involved), I could'nt help but feel is this series really all about Rose?

So many of these scripts have given Billie Piper the majority of real work,and fair play she has done a cracker so far. But with only 5 episodes to go, we still know virtually nothing about the ninth Doctor. Indeed I feel I know him as well as I didi the eighth Doctor after the 1996 TV movie. The difference being that Paul McGann had about 75 minutes in which to establish himself. Christopher Ecclestone has had 360 minutes so far, and he still seems like a supporting character. Is it too much to ask to have him do a little more?

But I accept this is as much about Rose as the Doctor, even though the script has yet to really show things from his point of view. Both "The Unquiet Dead" and "Dalek" have come close to giving us more of the Ninth Doctor, but while I remain one of the whiners abou this (am I really alone in thinking that Rose should'nt be clogging up this much of the scripts?), I just can't rubbish "Father's Day". It was TV drama at its very very best, and it's laughable that Celebrity Wrestling was thought to be an even close competitor.

Scripts of this high calibre will not only secure this season's place in history as the most ground breaking of all, but also maybe we'll also smile wrly in 10 or 20 years time, that no-marks like me were even concerned with who got the lion's share of script action is this beautiful, fantastic, life altering programme.

Cheers Paul.

FILTER: - Series 1/27 - Ninth Doctor - Television

Father's Day

Sunday, 15 May 2005 - Reviewed by Andrew Blundell

Rose has begun thinking about the possibilities of time travel, perhaps sparked by Adams attempt in 'The Long Game'. Maybe, she thinks i can see my father, being too young to remember him she asks the doctor to take her to see him, to be there for him on the day of his death.

Not being able to face him after witnessing his death for the first time, Rose tries again under strict instructions by the Doctor to wait until their previous selves have left the scene.

Unable to stand by and watch her father die for a second time Rose rushes out across the road pushing her dad to safety. All seems well and they head together to a friends wedding which her Dad had been out buying a present for.

Things aren't going to well at the church though as very few people have arrived and outside in the streets people are disappearing in a most peculiar way.

I must admit part of me was looking forward to a eighties episode purely for nostalgia's sake and given more time to the story nostalgic padding could have been added for all the twenty-thirty something Who fans watching. This would only have been padding though as the story was far more important than the setting.

Having Rose see the death of her father twice justified her emotions getting the better of her the second time. The emotions experienced will still be fresh in her mind as she prepares to have that final moment with him. Who else wouldn't take the opportunity as she did.

The subjective POV attacks early on are a nice nod to early serials such as The Avengers, The Prisoner and Doctor Who itself where often the monster didn't always live up to expectation. The red filtered kaliedoscopic effect was particulary reminiscent of the Doctor Who's of the eighties which tied in with the setting nicely.

Again the shorter running time of just under 45 minutes is problematic as tension does not seem to have enough time to escalate sufficiently, and the program has appeared to have fallen into the famous 'five minutes finale solution' favoured by Star Trek, Buffy and other American format science fiction serials.

Unlike its contempories the new series of Doctor Who does not appear to have the overlying story arcs that make american dramas serials stand on their own whilst simultaneously being part of a larger story. The Time War is the closest thing the series has to a continuing arc, and that has already happened (at least as far as the Doctor's timeline is concerned). As for the Big Bad Wolf reference this is often contrived and at the moment seems to have little or no bearing on the individual episodes. In fact this reference often appears to have no other bearing than it has been shoehorned into every episode with little or no explanation or effect.

More successfully than in previous episodes the domestic side of of the series (as experienced through Rose's interaction with family and friends) works particularly well. The pathos between her and her father throughout adds an extra dimension that was not fullt addressed or was just not evident before, even in 'Aliens of London' after she had returned home after an unexplained absence of 12 months, although i don't think it was neccessary to have the young Mickey appearing and latching on to her. Showing a connection between her and Mickey makes her leaving him to travel in the TARDIS much less believable.

Back to this weeks big bad...the reapers...wonderfully realised, the dark flow of their leathery wings and the brutality of their assault, terrifies complete with a searing screech reminiscent of the Nazgul (ask a fan boy for the reference). Fitting in to the background of reality far better than other CGI creations, fading in and out of time instead of exploding on the screen with tedious regularity.

The only other gripe was that it was a bit predictable...the denouement being painfully highlighted so that the audience had worked it out seemingly before the Doctor had. This again ties up with the short running time of these self contained episodes. The runtime is even made shorter by the inclusion of a trail for next weeks episode now firmly in place of the famous Doctor Who cliffhangers which kept people tuning in week by week. Fair enough people have many other things to do than watch television these days, but you still have to get people to watch week after week. That is the point of episodic television and without the aforementioned inclusion of a concrete story arc, people are not neccessarily going to rush back each week to see how characters are getting on after they have escaped from danger.

Without getting onto a detailed deconstruction of the failings and/or successes of the new series, 'Father's Day' was an enjoyable and moving episode of the continuing adventures of an incredibly appealing character. Long may the show go on.

FILTER: - Series 1/27 - Ninth Doctor - Television

Father's Day

Sunday, 15 May 2005 - Reviewed by James Mclean

And "Father's Day" is very much a rollercoaster. The drama starts off light and simple and then twists and turns through a variety of emotional loops, each getting more and more intense.

This episode offers a very simple premise: What if you could stop a tragedy in your personal history? It's a simple idea, and surprisingly, for something so obvious to time travel, not one that Doctor Who has really dealt with before. It's certainly not a premise that has been taken to it's full emotional potential. Here we see Rose taking a course of action that is so utterly wrong yet so utterly understandable for anyone in her situation; Rose saves her dead father and the Doctor didn't see it coming.

Father's Day works on many levels thanks to its strong character progressions. First and most obvious is Rose, who quite frankly, hasn't had the spotlight I expected her to have throughout the season. The story intelligently takes her through an emotional drama, which, despite it's highly theoretical scenario, feels real. Considering the extent of unearthly circumstances her father has to comprehend in no more than 45 minutes, his character's introduction and evolution works very well.

This is where the story scores so well. It leaves the time techno babble largely to the side and allows the script to deal with the effects of temporal damage has on the main characters. There's a lot to cover if the writing is to convince the viewer that the characters are acting realistically in such a bizarre circumstance, and Paul Cornell really does pull it off.

Shaun Dingwell does a great job as Rose's father, Pete. He breathes the humanity and realism into the character. If Pete had been miscast, the whole scenario would have fallen apart. Piper gets to show off her own emotional skills and does a fine job as always. Eccleston also delivers a solid role; however the events of the episode do somewhat weaken his strength in the lead role as the Doctor.

The Doctor is changing, and that amount is clear. One of the more subtle storylines in this episode is his isolation from humanity. It doesn't seem to occur to him that Rose might try and save her father and this seems surprisingly naive for the character. His isolation is something that Rose has noticed, and in one of her less endearing moments (but certainly one of the most realistic portrayals of a teenager on TV) she makes it clear she knows he'll never leave her and he'll be back like a lost puppy. He needs the emotional human contact she gives him, envies that gift of humanity which he never had with his people and even what he did have is now gone. In someway, it's a very touching perspective, but it does weaken both his character and mystery. Somehow it feels wrong for a 19 year old to have such power over him.

Perhaps that's one of the biggest mistakes of the new series. The creators seem insistent that Rose and the Doctor are equal. Some say that she is more than the Doctor, and that doesn't really come across. Certainly she's not so world weary, but that comes from 900 years of experience, but she doesn't quite seem the gem of humanity the writers and the Doctor see. She comes across as a teenager. Strangely, that's a compliment as there are few dramas that can write a teenager well, however there is a little that makes her seem much more than the average teenager. I don't feel that comes across in the stories as being so special - regardless of Ms Piper's constantly solid acting. She certainly has tough competition to prove her worth too. Ian Chesterton, Sarah Jane Smith, Jamie McCrimmon, Jo Grant, Barbara Wright to name a few.

Overall "Father's Day" is a very good episode. Some small niggles get in the way. There is the occasional cringe worthy time clichй. For instance when kid Mickey, Rose's future boyfriend, is focused upon; there are some remarks about how much he'll cling to his future girlfriend. There is the old "I'm sure I know you from somewhere" line between father and future daughter. These are small, superfluous script gags that were acceptable twenty, thirty years ago, but now actually bring down dialogue quality.

The music is a little over indulgent. The haunting melody that accompanies every sad moment in the episode has no subtlety in its choice of instrumentation or how it's actioned. You can almost punctuate to the second when it's about to pop in and when it does, it just feels overtly artificial.

Aside from some dubious CG and a rather predictable resolution, this episode is very good. After all, the effects, the plot and the music are backseat to the emotional drama. The drama is lead performer in this story and it performs immensely well.

It's wonderful to see this series try so many different styles of drama and pretty much hit each style bang on. Great stuff. Now, go watch it again.

FILTER: - Series 1/27 - Ninth Doctor - Television

Father's Day

Sunday, 15 May 2005 - Reviewed by John Byatt

I suppose I could be described as a lifelong fan of Doctor Who, having watched it since William Hartnell first stepped out of the Tardis in 1963.

However, I did lapse during the Peter Davison/Colin Baker/Sylvester McCoy years, only watching occasionally, but never really losing the bug. Then when I heard that Doctor Who was coming back, I must admit I was sceptical at first, thinking that it would probably be "Americanised" or in some other way spoiled beyond recognition. When I heard who would play the Doctor and his companion, I sank further into gloom, thinking that neither would be right for the roles.

Then came Episode One, and I was blown away.

From the second that Rose got out of bed for what seemed like another ordinary day at work, I was glued. From the second the Doctor held Rose's hand and said "Run", I was bitten. "Lots of planets have a north" will go down in history as one of the finest one liners. Since then, I have marvelled at the total believability of Chris Eccleston's Doctor, and been totally amazed by Rose's character, and the chemistry between them is magic. If this isn't already a superb platform for Billie Piper's acting ability, then it soon will be, and I expect her to be in greater things in the future, because she is one of the best young actresses this country has, and we should be proud of her - and she is beautiful into the bargain.

As each episode has been aired, the characters have gone from strength to strength. I have not seen a bad episode yet, but there has been one slightly weak one, that being "The Long Game". The secondary characters in this episode were not allowed to develop into knowable people as they have in other episodes, in particular the Editor and Cathica. However, "Dalek" was absolutely and utterly awesome, and more, and I thought it could not be bettered.

Then came Episode Eight, and I could contain myself no more.

This to me, is classic Doctor Who brought alive for todays audience, and I have to say I did not expect to see such brilliance. Shaun Dingwall has been great in other things, and is a much underrated actor, but as Pete Tyler he was a revelation. The scene where he recognises Rose for who she actually is produced one of the finest facial expressions yet - only equalled when Rose first entered the Tardis - and there have been plenty of these moments in the series so far, with each one being magic and completely believable. Rose's look of horror when the reaper devoured the Doctor on the church floor really made me feel her grief for a heart thumping moment, and was another massive piece of the jigsaw which is the relationship between the Doctor and Rose. This goes deeper each episode, reminding me somewhat of the wonderful chemistry between Mulder and Scully in The X Files, it really is quality stuff.

The continually reappearing car that eventually kills Pete Tyler created just the right level of uneasy frustration that time was somehow on hold, waiting for the event to happen, thus putting things right once more. One could really feel for him as he ran headlong, knowing he had to die for his daughter, and everyone else to survive.

Also, what's all this about Camille Coduri only being an average actress? I suggest her critics watch her episodes again. Jackie Tyler is the perfect lovable rogue who seems as if she has not so much grown up, but been dragged up, and is now trying her best to make life as comfortable as possible in the face of all these things that keep happening to her since Rose met the Doctor. Camille Coduri plays the part to a T.

Altogether "Father's Day" was as great as "Dalek", and that took some doing. It had all the things we expect from Doctor Who; an ordinary day turned bad, well portrayed secondary characters, a seemingly unsolvable problem, scary monsters, humour, dark moments, and the moving emotional scenes which are fast becoming a staple of the new Doctor Who. All these will keep me watching, but I am sorry there are only five episodes left of Chris Eccleston's Doctor, who is probably the best one in 900 years.

FILTER: - Series 1/27 - Ninth Doctor - Television

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