Last Updated:

22/1/2007

     Last Addition:

11/6/2006

  Submitted By:

  Shawn Lunn

  Review Submitted:

  11/6/2006

Within the first half of the debut season we’ve encountered plenty of monsters of the week scenarios and with the exception of “Dalek”; we haven’t really had a personal mission as such. The drawback of being a 900 year old Time Lord and having only human assistants is often being dragged into their own personal baggage and as much I love Rose, she’s no exception to the rule.

The episode opens up with a nice if rather overly sentimental narration from Rose praising her father and a flashback of Jackie telling a young Rose about Pete Tyler’s death. In the present day inside the TARDIS, Rose asks The Doctor if she can visit her father on the day he died so she can sit with him so he wouldn’t die alone. Oddly enough, The Doctor actually agrees to this request twice, opening up the predicted can of worms and our jeopardy of the week in the process.

If I had been in Rose’s predicament, watching her father about to die by a passing car, I’d want to save him too, despite whether or not it would have an effect on time. How could The Doctor not realise that Rose’s judgement would be clouded on seeing this particular event?

If I look at it from Rose’s perspective, it’s easy to see why she saved Pete’s life. He’s her father, she’s never had a relationship with the man and in her mind she was given an opportunity to reverse history and do some good, even if it’s rooted in a selfish desire. She rationed with The Doctor that her Dad wasn’t going to start World War Three or make world peace, both being believable arguments but you knew he wasn’t going to see it like that. The Doctor and Rose have had a few disagreements before but this was the first time in which things did get a little heated, he even took back her TARDIS key, he was that pissed off with her. Although both of them raised vital points about the other, the ensuing confrontation came across as a little silly.

As for the man in question, who Rose risked her relationship with The Doctor for, I found myself liking Pete Tyler, even more than I’ve come to like Jackie and a lot more than I liked Jackie in our 1987 trip here. Expertly played by Shaun Dingwall, Pete isn’t quite the successful businessman Rose was brought up to believe he was. Instead he’s a bit of chancer with daft money making schemes and according to an overly permed Jackie, something of a ladies man too. In other words, the guy is the kind of geezer you’d expect on EastEnders. Normally this kind of character would make me cringe and despite some incredibly clichéd dialogue, Pete remained a likeable presence throughout the episode.

Watching him and Rose slowly develop a bond over the hour was intense. We had some rather naff double entendres, Rose learning that her parents weren’t shy of public rows and Jackie realising slowly who she really was. Pete is supposed to be the one who’s dense but Jackie beats him to it. Some of these scenes were quite superb but others sort of missed the mark but for the most part, things were believable and we got some neat foreshadowing for future events.

Whether it was a young Mickey clinging onto an older Rose in the church or Jackie having The Doctor look after baby Rose. I laughed at Jackie’s comments of pitying the poor girl who ends up with Mickey when he’s older or even The Doctor being trusted by Jackie. Mostly though I liked the perceptiveness of Pete and how he realised that being alive had caused the world to alter, even though The Doctor didn’t tell him that.

Now onto the drawback of the episode. As a result of Rose saving her father, all the parishioners at Stuart and Sarah’s wedding (Jackie is a bridesmaid), some ghoulish creatures appropriately titled the Reapers start attacking the place, forcing The Doctor to barricade everyone in the church. It seems the more time is disrupted with, the stronger they get. So thanks to Pete giving our Rose herself as a baby to hold, the Reapers manage to get inside and devour The Doctor and the TARDIS. I gasped at the moment and as baddies went, the Reapers are one of the more successful ones to date. Rose went through a gamut of guilt and although it was her fault, it was easy to still sympathise with her.

The highlight of the hour though was the last five minutes, culminating in Pete’s death.  The guy escaped death and although if he had lived, he might have actually bettered himself as a person, he knew he had to die for things to be right in the world. Billie Piper and Shaun Dingwall worked wonderfully in that scene together as Rose had to watch her father die again without saving him. The episode ended as it began with another narration from Rose on her father and a new version of her flashback with Jackie before our present day Rose and The Doctor headed back into the TARDIS, seemingly patching up their differences.

Also in “Father’s Day”...

Pete Tyler was born on the 15th of September 1954, making him a Virgo and dying on the 7th of November 1987. He died when he was 33. His middle name was Alan and Jackie’s full name is Jacqueline Andrea Suzette Prentice.

Rose: “It’s just an ordinary day”.

The Doctor: “The past is another country. 1987’s just the Isle of White”.

Rose: “That car was gonna kill you”.

Pete: “Well, give me some credit, I could see it coming”.

Pete had a lot of Trophies, were they all for bowling? Most of the products he tried to flog looked naff though, especially the Vitex.

Pete: “So that wouldn’t be a mixed signal then at all?

Rose: “Absolutely not”.

I don’t think we actually got any “Bad Wolf” indicators in this episode, even though Rose caused this week’s chaos. We didn’t see it scrolled anyway and I don’t think any of the Reaper creatures made sounds indicating “Bad Wolf” either.

Stuart: “You seem to know what’s going on”.

The Doctor: “I give that impression”.

Was The Doctor lying when he said to Rose he had no idea of what to do with the Reapers or was he hoping both Rose and Pete would figure it out for themselves?

Jackie (to Pete): “The world’s about to end and what do you do? Cling to the youngest blonde”.

Rose: “Can’t do anything right, can I?”.

The Doctor: “As you ask, no. So don’t touch the baby”.

I noticed there was a looping kind of effect with the car that killed Pete several times in the episode and how cool was the idea of using the very first phone call by Alexander Graham Bell in this episode?

Pete: “Who am I, love?”.

Rose: “My Daddy”.

Standout music: We got both Rick Astley and The Streets. Not really a fan of both acts but I’m sure they are plenty of viewers who enjoyed the past/present contrast though.

While Dreamwatch had given “Father’s Day” a rather scathing review, I’ll admit they were right about some stuff. Although an interesting idea, like last week things are spoiled but instead of sloppy pacing, it’s too much sentimentality worthy of EastEnders that detracts an overall pleasant enough outing. It’s better than “The Long Game” but it could’ve been better itself.

Rating:  

» Review by Shawn Lunn, Copyright 2006.

  Submitted By:

  Miles Northcott

  Review Submitted:

  5/6/2005

Well, I thought it was brilliant! (I was tempted to make that my review, but upon reflection, came up with the following):

A pertinent question which I guess a lot of fans have been asking themselves after viewing Father's Day is: Was that Doctor Who? From what I can gather so far, opinions on the episode are far & wide. Some people don't like it, some thought it was ok, but a bit "soapy", whilst other, myself included, thought it was some of the best Doctor Who they had ever seen. I expect they will give their reasons for why they DIDN'T like it, so here are mine as to why I DID.

Firstly, it's a time paradox story & I have always been particularly partial to those, indeed my favourite Doctor Who story of them all is City of Death. I like the idea of not being able to change what has already happened, as in The Visitation with the Great Fire of London, & Rose's meddling here brings its own dire consequences. A question we have all postulated at some time or another is "What would I do differently in my life if I could go back & change things?" & the reality of the situation is
that you can't change what has passed, you just have to live with it. Rose's intentions may have been pure when she suggested returning to the scene of her father's death, so he didn't have to die alone, but I challenge anybody to stand by & do nothing in such a scenario. Clearly by this stage in their friendship (I still balk at the idea of referring to it as a relationship!) the Doctor's trust in Rose is very high, as he certainly would not have taken her to such a volatile time had he suspected that she would act as she did. The fact that the first time Rose stood impotently as her father's life ebbed away should have shown him how unprepared she was for the reality of
seeing him die. The subsequent scene reminded me of the Day of the Daleks when there are briefly 2 copies of Jo & the Doctor, although that time it was merely an accident, this time it is at Rose's bequest. As she & the Doctor hide around the corner (right in front of the poster with Bad Wolf graffitied on it, nice touch boys!) watching themselves watching her father get out of his car, it is all too obvious what Rose will do & the look of astonishment on the first Rose & Doctor's face as the second Rose rushes past them is a treat in itself. Of course, once that happens, their timeline alters & they simply vanish, but in their place comes something far, far worse.

The next nice touch is the whole "the memory cheats/people always speak better of the dead" scenario. For some reason human behaviour seems destined to make us say nice things about people who have recently died, whereas we may never have thought of them, or even actively disliked them whilst they were alive. This is obviously slightly different in the case of a widowed mother building up the image of a perfect father to the orphaned daughter, but the principle still holds true. Of course, Jackie's talks with young Rose may have been inspired by her rose-coloured (pun intended!) memories of the time she spent with her husband, but either way, when Rose discovers that the man she idolized is not the man she expected the confusion is written on her face in bold block capitals. As the story unfolds, however,
she sees that although he may not have been exactly what she originally believed him to be, he is still a man with his heart in the right place &, ultimately, a hero, even if only she & the Doctor will ever know it.

This season has, if you look at things in context, carried on the good work started in Season 25 & cranked up a few gears in Season 26. Then, more time was given to Ace & the journey she was on. More time was spent building the back-history of Ace as a companion & the relationship she shared with the Doctor. Back then; the Doctor saw fit to challenge Ace's beliefs in the omnipotent way that the Seventh Doctor gradually did things. He took her to Gabriel Chase, the scene of her worst nightmare, to make her confront her past & things nearly went pear-shaped then. You really would have thought he'd've learned from that, but no, back to a critical time in Rose's past they go & she messes up like she was always going to & before long the whole of humanity is threatened by the wonderful Reapers. These are a spectacular creation from the visual effects guys & thankfully the original idea of having them be a far more traditional idea of the Grim Reaper was abandoned in favour of these frightening creatures. Part fish, part bat, part devil they swoop around the church trying to batter their way in, they absorb anyone they embrace & they leave terrific CGI scuffs on the grass as well. They are not evil per se; they merely exist to correct mistakes in time, or rather, the OUTCOME of mistakes in time. They cannot be killed & they are relentless. Only time being put back on its proper track can make them go away, so from not very far into the story it is fairly obvious what the
eventual solution will be.

So the story itself is good enough, the monsters are superb & the Doctor will save the day, right? No, he won't. Not this time. In fact, he dies! Jaw dropping stuff. We have seen the Doctor die before, only not really! In Caves of Androzani, The Android Invasion & The Chase, the Doctor was killed, but then turned out to be an android or robot. In The Leisure Hive he was seen being pulled apart, literally, but that turned out to be an image. In The Invisible Enemy he actually died, except that was a clone &, of course, his double, Salamander died in The Enemy of the World, but as that wasn't actually him either, we can't count that. I suppose you could count the 7 regenerations we've actually seen (will we ever get a McGann/Eccleston regeneration sequence???) as the Doctor's body died, but this was the first time there was no question. Had the timeline gone on with no sacrifice from Peter then the Doctor was a goner, for sure, no question. As a result, the last ten minutes happen without him even being alive! Which leaves the final solution to everybody's problem being for Rose's useless but caring Dad to step up to the plate & chuck himself under a Vauxhall Chevette, & in doing so break that stupid vase he bought as a wedding present!  So, great story, wicked monsters, time travel, paradoxes, the Doctor dies & good characterization. Do we need more? Oh yes. We need emotion & Father's Day delivers it in droves. It tugs at the heartstrings in a similar way to Dalek, only this time it is for Rose & her family we cry. And we do cry too. A lot. Paul Cornell has penned a cracking script which relies heavily on the emotional involvement of the audience & it is for this reason the episode is regarded by some as like a soap opera or a bit slow. A lot of time is taken up exploring Rose's relationship with her father, her relationship with the Doctor & the relationship between Jackie & Pete. Peter's character is at first a bit of a wide boy, then he becomes a gigolo, then a loser, then a nice guy & finally a hero, showing us that there is some greatness in everyone if you know where to look. Jackie's character hasn't changed a lot since 1987. She has mellowed a fraction & she certainly had a lot of stress back then, with Pete's behaviour to take into account. However, she still loved him & wanted things to work & when she finally realizes that Rose is her tiny daughter all grown up we get a rare family moment of pure schlop. Great!

OK. Story, monsters, time travel, paradox, dead Doctor, characterization & emotion. That's it now, surely? Nope! Because we also get some exceptional dialogue. To break it down into basics: Rose thinking her father would be taller; the Doctor's "The past is another country. 1987's just the Isle of Wight!" line; the Doctor's chastising of Rose after she has saved Peter - magnificent as in all the scenes where Eccleston is required to play any scene with gravitas; Rose's "Don't even go there!" speech; the whole scene with Rose, Jackie & Peter outside the church; the Doctor's first confrontation with Jackie in the church, the great delight he gets ordering her about & the way she meekly falls into place; the scene where Pete realizes who Rose is & the way she grabs his hand & puts it back on her face then hugs him which, of course, she had never been able to do; Rose's terrified inability to answer any of Pete's questions about what he's like in the future; Jackie's throwaway line about young Mickey & his potential future girlfriend, who just happens to be stood right in front of her; the Doctor calmly telling baby Rose NOT to bring about the end of the world; the entire scene with Rose & the Doctor & baby Rose where they make up after their big fight (Don't Touch the Baby!!!!!! - so what's the one thing you know, without doubt, that Rose will do later in the story????!!!!); Pete's comment that 1987 wasn't anything special (he clearly wasn't at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone that year!!!); Rose's desperate attempts to persuade Pete that he had been a good Dad, & in doing so just convincing him that he was supposed to have died when Rose saved him; Jackie overhearing Pete telling Rose that he's her Dad & the subsequent confusion that causes; Pete's farewell scene with Rose & Jackie's dawning realization that Rose IS her daughter; the subtle changes in Jackie's story to young Rose after Pete has saved the day.no longer a hit & run, at least he didn't die alone. On top of this some lovely little touches: Pete's half smile before he dies; the way the Doctor touches Rose's face after they make up the same way that Pete did; the way Mickey goes straight to Rose when he gets scared; the Doctor running into the pulpit to tell the wedding guests NOT to touch the TARDIS key; the Reaper scratching at the wall; the silhouette of the Reaper behind the stained glass window; Rose's acceptance that Pete has to sacrifice himself in the same sort of way that the Doctor did a few moments earlier.

All brilliant individual moments which help to make this story an absolute belter. And at the end, as they walk back to the TARDIS in one of the series' more legitimate hand-in-hand moments, you feel that Rose now understands a bit better how the Doctor must be feeling at the demise of the as yet unnamed Gallifrey. Because she has had to watch her father die (twice, as if once wasn't bad enough!). Because she now knows why he can't just go back in time & save his people. And on top of this masterpiece, almost unnoticed because it fits in so seamlessly, is some of the season's finest incidental music - understated mostly, but at times haunting & ominous. In particular, the pieces where the music almost seems to slow down as the tension mounts & a threat approaches are awesome.   So there you have it. A bit soap-like in places, yes, but I'll warrant even Dynasty never came close to a storyline like this. You can't explore the backgrounds of characters in a modern-day setting on Earth without coming across as a bit of a soap. Anyway, what difference does it make?

There is enough in Father's Day to keep you coming back for more, time after time. Just don't try to change anything.  Or the Reapers will come.

» Review by Miles Northcott, Copyright 2005.

  Submitted By:

  Treacle

  Review Submitted:

  16/5/2005

This is a very emotionally driven episode, especially for Rose as she goes back to 1987 to see her dad die, when at the time she was really a tot. But when she goes back again, she saves him, and that's when everything changes, and the Doctor is powerless to help, apart from a glimmer of hope.

The idea is, that things have to happen in the past in order to for things to be as they are now, and Rose's dad realises this as he continually sees the car that was supposed to run him over, and knows that it was his time to go.

Although Rose finds in many ways that he is a loser and a bit dodgy, he is also meaning well, and is a hero after all. Not surprisingly the Doctor is disappointed in rose meddling with time, but also shows some compassion. It's a slower episode, but the Reapers, bat-like dragon creatures appear simply because Rose saves her Father, and simply cause chaos and menace thereafter, as they pick off people, and surround the church. The scariest part was when the reapers destroy everyone in the playground, except one small boy who runs into the church, straight to Rose, was that Mickey?

The Doctor looks hassled at the whole mess Rose has caused, and seems very annoyed by the whole thing, as much as he feels for her, as meddling with events in time is a no-go zone for Timelords, even if he is the last! "Don't touch the baby, we don't want a paradox", he tells Rose as she meets herself in a baby carrier. Its aspects of the new series like this that I like most, that it's still Sci-fi, but its also very human and deals with the "what if's" in a very down to earth way.

Aliens and time travel not only muck everything up for the world but also make us ask how it would affect our everyday lives. On the other hand, its humans that muck everything up for aliens, so the Doctor seems to like that about us, especially when only seek to dominate and destroy. Rose's mum, Jackie is excellent and, although she doesn't understand, she questions everything, because it affects everything else in her life. We see where Rose gets it from.

Doctor Who is escapism, but its believeable now, too. Dramatic and fun.

» Review by Treacle, Copyright 2005.

  Submitted By:

  Steve Chemer

  Review Submitted:

  16/5/2005

We start with Rose's Mother showing a younger rose the photographic album of her Dad.  Telling her all stories about what a great man he was.  Showing a picture of her Father Pete.  How could we not fail to be moved by this???

I have 2 friends both very different who have both lost their Fathers.  I have encouraged them to watch this episode.  Because one hates her Father and the way he treated her and the other one idiolises the ground he walked on.  Both very different but both could benefit from this episode.

It appears to me that This Doctor doesn't care what he does anymore.  Gone are the days when The Time Lords could stop him from changing history.  He is the last of the Time Lords.  He makes the rules now. 

I do not think he realised what he was doing confronting Rose with such an amazing dilema.  If we had a chance to save someone who we loved and saw die, would we not???  Could we go back and just watch it happen.  No Rose may have gone against the Doctors wishes, but she is Human.  We now see an Alien side to The Doctor.  The side that can't understand why Rose would get upset over a father she never really knew.  But we know why. 

Again we see references to BAD WOLF what I think means  B A Doctors Was Only Last Foe.  As you can see I do not know the first two letters.  But that is just speculation on my part.

The Scene in the flat show that her Father was not a great business man as Rose's Mother Portrayed.  But rather a Dell Boy trying to make ends meet and a bit of a womaniser.  This again shattered what she knew about her Father.  We all at times paint a rosey picture of someone who has died.  It is only human.  Nobody wants to remember the bad times.  Indeed Rose only had her Mothers stories of her Dad to compare him to. 

Eccleston's command of stillness acting is brilliant. He has that moment in The End of the World where Jabe tells him she knows about the destruction of Gallifrey, and for a moment CE is motionless and we feel The Doctor's pain, and in this scene and the preceeding one, for a painfully long time, he does nothing and says nothing but just broadcasts his anger and disapproval with fantastic effectiveness, while Rose remains blissfully oblivious she's done anything wrong.

The Doctor's reaction to Rose and what she'd done was well worth the price of admission by itself. I loved the scene in the flat just after she saves her Dad (Pete) where she's all upbeat and looking around the flat at the "Delboy" bits & bobs, and the Doctor just looks at her with not a hint of good humour in his face because he knows that something's going to happen because of this.

Rose comes into her own in this Episode.  I love the way that she just stares at her Mother, eventually remarking on her hair.  Then she sees both of them row.  Finally she gets to hear what her Dad really was.  Just a Dell Boy with womanising ways who cheated on her Mother.  Not the brilliant Father she had respected all those years.

It is not long before we meet the reapers.  The Reapers are like Bacteria taking advantage of the wound in Time, the Doc says, so I suppose we can surmise that the wound in time has allowed them to appear, but that their appearance is not a certain outcome of the wounding - like not every time you cut yourself peeling the spuds will you get scepticaemia, but it's a possibility.

I loved the fact that the couple getting married ask him for his help.  He asks how they met.  So Human and yet so touching.  Amazing because he really wants to know how they met.  They try and tell him that they are not important.  He looks at them and says BUT YOU ARE.  I have seen things that you can only dream of.  But getting in a Taxi at 2 am I have never done that.  It appears this Doctor really is jealous of people having normal lives.  Free of Aliens, Monsters etc.  Just a normal life with normal rules.

The Doctor gave his life in this episode.  He knew that the way to end it all was for her Father to die and restore the time line.  But he loved Rose more than the entire world.  So he tried to find another way. This is in contrast to Doctors in the past that would put the many over the needs of a few even his companions. 

Eventually Pete worked it out and he walked in front of the Car and restored the Time Line.  Bringing everyone back, including the Doctor.

This also proves to Rose that her Father was not all bad and that he gave up his life for something other than the real time line when he just got a cheap vase and get knocked down.  Now she can remember him how she wanted to.

I would put this episode on par with Dalek.  The acting was amazing.  I really felt I was in eighties again.  It worked very well.

» Review by Steve Chemer, Copyright 2005.