kaliha | Thoughts on Father's Day

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.