Thoughts on Father's Day

[kaliha]

I was quite looking forward to this episode, partly because it filled in a bit of Rose's back story and partly because Eccles reckoned it was his favourite episode. And considering how critical he is of his own work it must be rather good. The Doctor might not " do domestics", but he’s getting himself a lot more involved in the domestic side of Rose’s life.

Loved all the little 80's touches; the big hair that wouldn't move even in a hurricane; all the classic Fords; the massive mobile phone (my uncle had one very similar around then, it came with a briefcase sized battery pack.)

On the subject of mobile phones Adam did give Rose her phone back. It must have been cut from The Long Game for time/forgotten about in the script.

Doctor: "Another stupid ape!"
Well of course Rose is going to get it wrong if you don’t tell her the rules of Time Travel. You’ve been travelling together or weeks now. Surely it would have come up in conversation.

You’d think they would have sat down together and going over the basic rules of Time Travel:

1. The first rule of time travel is not to talk about time travel
2. The second rule of time travel is not to talk about time travel to mad-evil genius types who will tie me up and blast me with x-rays
3. The third rule of time travel is that you can’t change the past. This is bad mmmmmkay.
4. The fourth rule of time travel is that we are there as observers. Don’t Change Anything!
5. The fifth rule of time travel is not to touch your past/future self. This leads to badness, flying dragons and general death and destruction.
Any questions?

It would save a lot of trouble, really. Admittedly it would make for less interesting stories…

Although we’ve seen that the Doctor has a rather cavalier attitude to Time Travel as it is. But I don’t know how much of that was just railing against the other Time Lords. I don’t know if he feels that as the last Time Lord he can do whatever he wants now there’s not someone there to tell him don’t.

I'm not defending Rose though. She doesn't come out of this as pure as the driven snow. Surely after Adam put a sunroof in his head and was dumped back in his own time she'd have though "ooh, maybe I shouldn't change things." She must have been too busy doing her hair. *sigh*

And what sort of man/alien/hybrid takes a girl out to see her father getting run over? Not the classiest thing to do. "Yes I'll take you back in time to see your dead dad, which it of history would you like to go to?" He's too soft on that girl. Let's her get away with murder. (Not literally though, probably).

The little scene where he was telling Baby!Rose that she's not to destroy the world was really sweet.

Rose: "I can't do anything right, can I?"
Doctor: "Since you ask, no, so, don't touch the baby!"
See, fifth rule of time travel. He should stick it on the back of the TARDIS door so Rose can see it every time she walks out of the door.

Rose: "I'm not stupid!"
Doctor: "You could have fooled me! "
I did like the whole 'you only came with me for my magnificent time machine' scene. Poor Doctor, all sad and hurt, thinking that Rose was using him and then putting her in the same theoretical camp as Adam which would mean dumping her back in her own time and heading off into the stars alone.

Doctor: "I wasn't really gonna leave you on your own."
Rose: "I know."
Which is probably a good thing. God knows how much trouble Rose could have caused by being in the wrong time. I wondering if he would have left her there for two or three weeks to cool off or if he'd just go and brood in the TARDIS for half an hour then come back and apologise/force her to apologise.

Rose: "If I'd realised –"
Doctor: "Just...tell me you're sorry."
Rose: "I am. I'm sorry."
And all around the country a million shippers sighed.

Other things:

I do not like the green jumper.

Baby!Mickey. I guessed it was Mickey when he was on the swings. I always thought he was around Rose's age though not 3 or 4 years older. The scene with the children disappearing and his mum vanishing was excellent (and a little bit scary too)

Loved the Reapers. The should get Dragon-like creatures in all TV shows. I really like the Scythe-tail design. Cute.

Is there a factory somewhere where they breed cute little children with *huge* soulful eyes?

Didn't like the science. How does the Reapers eating everyone correct the time line? Unless it makes this part of the timeline cease to exist and a new timeline is formed instead/is copy and pasted from a parallel universe.

Rose telling her dad "not to go there". Very reminiscent of Buffy

Simon Pegg as Rose’s dad?
Apparently so. According to his SFX interview he was offered the role but it clashed with the filming of Land of the Dead. He bloody would have had to have been 12 when she was born though. Not detracting from what Shaun Dingwall did (because he was great) it would have been interesting to see what Pegg could have done with the role. He’s not played a daddy before.

Bad Wolf Watch:
On the poster at the start of the episode.

I’m starting to believe more and more that these little touches are just to generate fanwank and speculation. Every week it appears in an episode, it turns up on the spoof-websites (and even apparently in the new books). Does it have further reaching consequences or is it a British version of the Cheese Man?

Another Earth-set story. I'm guessing every single episode this year is going to be connected with earth. Hopefully we'll see some more alien worlds next year.

Hands up who had a little tear in their eye/was crying like a baby by the end of the episode?

Overall I'd give the episode 8.5/10 putting it into second place between Dalek and The Unquiet Dead.

Comments

[wtfbrain.livejournal.com]

I was crying like a baby on the second viewing. The first one I was clutching my pillow/plushie Cthulhu to my chest, whimpering slightly.

I think the Reapers "sterilizing the wound in time" would mean that this particular day/bit of history was excised from the timeline and everyone was eliminated so that when the timeline was eventually put back together, there wouldn't be any doubles.

I'm kind of starting to suspect that the Bad Wolf thing isn't as significant as we think it is.

As for the Earth-set story, RTD has said that all the eps this season are going to be set on Earth. I can't remember the exact quote, but it's something about making it easier for people to identify or something.

[mandrake91.livejournal.com]

Bad Wolf is extremely significant, as you will see. Bear in mind that the bbc have bought the domain name of www.badwolf.co.uk, also episode 12 is titled 'Bad Wolf.'

[wtfbrain.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know about both of those. But any significance it will have may still be completely unrelated to what the fan speculations are. The important thing, as with everything Doctor Who, is to keep an open mind.

[ad-kay.livejournal.com]

Love your icon! Did you make that?

[wtfbrain.livejournal.com]

Yup. Took a while to sort out all the caps (it refused to fit in the size limits for LJ) from all these caps (http://www.chaotic-creative.com/gallery/morguehands) (frame-by frame grab of the scene). :)

[ad-kay.livejournal.com]

You did a great job. I'm a HUGE fan of the hand porn. (Which, for me, is more pornarific than "real" porn, if that makes sense.)

[campion7.livejournal.com]

As for the Earth-set story, RTD has said that all the eps this season are going to be set on Earth.

I don't believe they were going to be set on Earth specifically, but they were going to each have a connection to Earth, ie. Earth's past, Earth's future, Earth colony, etc, etc.

[starbrow.livejournal.com]

Apparently episode 12 is titled "Bad Wolf" though, so there's probably more to it than that.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

I suspect that Rose's paradox meant that the entirety of Earth's history would be erased.

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

But would the world go in a big boom or a little 'blip'?

[abby-i.livejournal.com]

British version of the Cheese Man
You know, I hadn't thought of that, but I wouldn't put it past them to, after all, how many hours did we all spend on trying to figure the Cheese Man out. lol

[artela.livejournal.com]

The Cheese Man?

[abby-i.livejournal.com]

From Buffy's season four finale, which was set in a dream like world. All throughout there was this guy popping up, holding a couple of slices of cheese. People thought it was of Joss hidden meaning things, but he later said that it was just stuck in there to remind everyone it was a dream, as dreams often have random things of no importance in.

Or something like that. :)

[artela.livejournal.com]

I obviously didn't pay it much attention when I was watching it... it was a dream after all :-)

[aniiksa.livejournal.com]

Oh! The 'I wear the cheese, the cheese does not wear me' guy?

I obviously don't think about these things too much ... he made me laugh uproariously, but that was all ... *feels a bit silly* it never even occurred to me that he might be something more than that ... even if he wasn't!

[taperoo2k.livejournal.com]

Bad Wolf may just be an extremely good wind up on Russel T Davies part.
I liked the episode. I think the Doctor is teaching Rose about the laws of Time Travel, letting her screw up so she can learn. No point in telling her the rules of time travel and not letting her see what happens when you break them. The Doctor bends the laws of Time when he as a very good reason to do so. The act of traveling through time actually breaks the laws of time. You step out of thr Tardis and you've immediatly had an impact on the time line.
I loved the Doctor talking to the Baby Rose and then telling the adult Rose "Don't touch the baby". Rose is teaching the Doctor how to feel again. Whatever did transpire during the time war, has obviously screwed the Doctor up bigtime. I'd never thought i'd see the Doctor with a gun trying to kill a Dalek :-)
http://www.gallifreyone.com/ An excellent resource for all things Dr Who.

[ladyvivien.livejournal.com]

The scenes with Doctor and Baby!Rose were adorable. And I was surprised to like younger Jackie so much.

[snellios.livejournal.com]

Doctor should have told Rose not to change anything, and only to observe. After all she is a plebe. And he should have known something like that would have happened. After all, how old is he?

I was thinking that episode was gonna be really lame from the previews, but it was fucking brill. It was less about flying monsters than we were led to believe, and more about Rose. And that's good.

[taperoo2k.livejournal.com]

If given the chance to travel back in time, would you be able to just stand around and watch as someone you care about dies ? The Doctor's been so wrapped up in his own pain, that he wasn't really thinking straight about what Rose might do in that situation (though it was an ideal time to show the Doctor's knowledge of the time laws).

I get the feeling Rose is going to be left all on her own in the Tardis come the end of the series.

[snellios.livejournal.com]

would you be able to just stand around and watch as someone you care about dies
lmao, that's not what I said, is it?

And for someone who takes pleasure in denouncing the "stupid apes" he sure seems to have certain simialrities. And of course, this is the point.

[taperoo2k.livejournal.com]

If the Doctor had told her not to touch anything, i doubt Rose would have listened anyway. The Doctor is ever so slighty unhinged at the moment. I don't think he's got all his marbles. Besides he has a soft spot for Rose.
I think he said to Rose about taking Adam along "On your own head be it" or something along those lines. It appears to me at least that the Doctor is teaching Rose about time travel. We don't know how long the Doctor had gone for in the first episode. He could have just shifted the Tardis position or gone back in time and saw that he needs Rose etc. Fanwankery is great sometimes. Must stay out of Doctor Who forums.........

[ad-kay.livejournal.com]

If the Doctor had told her not to touch anything, i doubt Rose would have listened anyway.
Also, if someone just suddenly hands you a baby, you're just gonna reflexively react and take it. What else are you going to do? Let the little thing drop on the floor?

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

Or she could have done what I do and back away really quickly. (I have a fear of dropping them - so if I don't hold them at all it decreases the chances of me dropping them).

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

Fanwankery is great sometimes. Must stay out of Doctor Who forums.........

But it's so much fun angering some of the older, less-adaptive fans.

[taperoo2k.livejournal.com]

Well they can't see that it's still Doctor Who, minus all the elements that made the show go off air the in the first place. Russel should be congratulated, he came up with the Last of the Time Lords concept, well for this incarnation of the tv series. He said somebodys bound to reverse it once he leaves Doctor Who, eventually.

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

They probably will, but it's good to only have one left. it makes him more responsible for his actions and there's all the internal conflict with him going back and changing his own timeline/going back to Genesis of the Daleks and this time wiping out the Daleks.

[triestine.livejournal.com]

I would like Bad Wolf touches to be like pebbles in the Hansel & Gretel story, like keywords or pointers to something that the Doc is using or navigating by.

[trav28.livejournal.com]

Bad Wolf could be RTD's swipe at the McCoy era of "Ragnarock" and "Who is the Dr?" continuity/arc thing. He knows that it winds the fans up something rotten, ROFLMAO!

[stephenbooth-uk.livejournal.com]

And what sort of man/alien/hybrid takes a girl out to see her father getting run over? Not the classiest thing to do.

This was addressed in "Doctor Who: Confidential" on BBC3 after the broadcast on BBC1. They pointed out that he's an alien who is 900+ years old. Basically you can't assume that he'll think the same way as a human would, what's obvious to us won't necessarily be obvious to him.

[padmez.livejournal.com]

I love the jumper!
And what a fantastic episode - my favourite so far I think!
(Got the link from time_and_chips)

[awehla.livejournal.com]

Yeh I was feeling a bit tearful.

Lisa
x

[cedara]

Doctor: "I wasn't really gonna leave you on your own."
Rose: "I know."

Now I have to rewatch and find that quote. *g*

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

It's slightly paraphrased but that's basically how it went.

[llieno.livejournal.com]

Overall I'd give the episode 8.5/10 putting it into second place between Dalek and The Unquiet Dead.

In other words, those not penned by RTD?

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

Rose is at Number four. I really didn't like the two parter though.

[bromley001.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about the fact that Simon Pegg had been offered the role of Pete. Being a fan of Simon, I'm sooo glad he turned it down - I just can't see him as Rose's dad - much better as the Editor.

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

Nor could I. It's just a shame we probably won't see him again. ideally I would have preferred him as a recurring character. But I'm greedy.

[bromley001.livejournal.com]

7/10 for me, bottom of the pile. Sorry.

The Unquiet Dead top.

[jfboyd.livejournal.com]

Oh boy, we are so totally reversed on our lists.

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

It's great that everyone really loves different epsiodes. Unquiet Dead is my husband's favourite too.

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

Out of interest where'd you put Aliens of London and World War III?

[bromley001.livejournal.com]

The story so far...

1. The Unquiet Dead
2. Dalek
3. Rose
4. World War Three
5. The Long Game
6. Aliens Of London
7. The End Of The World
8. Father's Day

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

ooh, how very interesting.