Father's Day (2005) Review

This is gonna be the best April Fools Prank ever... 

Father's Day may be narratively nonsensical(particularly after the following seasons would iron out the current rules of time travel in the show), but retains a strong emotional core, largely thanks to Shaun Dingwall's heartfelt performance.

WRITTEN BY

Paul Cornell, longtime Doctor Who author. Notably the writer responsible for Scream Of The Shalka, which I rather liked.

PLOT

Hoping to see her deceased father, Rose persuades the Doctor to take the TARDIS back to 1987, when he died in a car accident. Unable to stop herself, Rose saves her father, resulting in Earth coming under attack by creatures from another dimension, who have arrived to sterilise the anomaly.

ANALYSIS

The first thing we have to get out of the way is that the Reapers and everything connected to them has essentially been retconned. Given how infrequently the classic series employed the "timey-wimey", it's hard to blame Cornell for writing a story that restricts the writers in that aspect, but it's something that one just has to accept. By the late RTD era already, this episode is impossible.

But for me, the real problem is that the Reapers just don't make that much sense, even on their own. These creatures supposedly go to whereever history has been changed. Well, there's your first issue - as Rose points out, the Doctor's very existence should invite them.
I mean, the Doctor argues that this situation's different because they rewrote the original timeline(the part where they somehow made the other Doctor and Rose disappear), but then shouldn't the paradox be focused on them? No, it's clearly about Pete.

Secondly, the reaction these creatures have is to
1) Disconnect the TARDIS interior from the box. How???
2) "Sterilize" the planet by randomly killing people in 1987. Wouldn't that create a billion more wounds in time? Or are the Reapers like maggots, sneaking through and then causing more damage? That's not how the Doctor described them, though.

And all of this can only be fixed either if Pete mans up and finally lets himself die, which... what? How would that fix anything by this point? Why does this all hinge on Pete living or dying in general?

OR, the Doctor's alternative, which is to somehow try and get back into the TARDIS... and then what? What was his plan?

So yeah, just about none of the plot points in the episode hold water for me. But that's not really why people enjoy Father's Day I think.
What makes the episode work regardless of its many flaws is the Tyler family. Whilst the RTD era has received a lot of criticism for its "soap opera" approach, you can't deny that it paid off in stories like this one, where what happens around them almost doesn't even matter, because the people and how they react to what's happening feels so real.

Pete, Jackie and Rose are an immensely believable underdog family and you can't help, but care an awful lot for Pete as he assumes responsibility over the adult Rose and the events that have happened, and accepts his destiny. He's just "some guy" without any significance at all, but with a massive heart underneath it, and balls too. I bloody love Pete.

So yeah, for me Father's Day is kind of proof that it doesn't always need to make sense so long as you've got a good story to tell, and Cornell most certainly does.

CHARACTERS

The Doctor gets killed! That's a new one. Maybe it's the McCoy fan in me, but I found it really hard to believe the Doctor would allow Pete to remain alive after all the damage it's caused. I'm guessing we can chalk it up to him still feeling remorseful after the Time War and not wanting Rose to be dad-less, but it's a far cry from the "different morality, get used to it or go home!" approach he had only a few episodes ago.
That being said, Eccleston's still wonderful in the episode and has some lovely character moments, like when he listens a newly-wed pair describe how they first met.

I'm not sure if Cornell wanted us to believe Rose was this naive about her dad, but it feels odd, considering how streetwise she is in other episodes. That being said, Piper herself perfectly sells the character's inner struggle between the joy of seeing her father and the massive guilt she has over causing the invasion.

Shaun Dingwall is the star of the episode. As Pete Tyler, he's likable in a quirky way, you feel for his marriage woes and of course one can't help, but cheer for his courage as he faces the car at the end. Dingwall and Piper had a brilliant chemistry, and given the actors' age difference, they really were a believable family.


NOTES

*I know Jackie wants little Rose to know about her father and all, but that's a pretty miserable infodump at that age, no?

*Julia Joyce(who played little Rose in the flashbacks) is 21 now, same age as me. Which is cool.

*When Rose complains over the supposed hypocrisy of the Doctor saving people in history and being angry at her for doing the same, and he shuts her down by pointing out he knows what he's doing, that is something that I could yell at Clara Oswald a thousand times and still not be satisfied.

*It really is funny how the Doctor's so frightened of a regular person being alive, when compared to the "fixed points" attitude of the later episodes. I think Cornell's approach is more realistic, but obviously not good for TV.

*I feel like Rose's reactions to Pete were a bit unsubtly written, especially her freak-out when Pete merely implies the idea of him dating her.

*Pete at one point mumbles that he feels like he's met Rose before. Which is just kind of daft, since... how could he recognise a grown woman as his baby just like that?

*Why does the Doctor yell Rose's name when he notices the TARDIS interior's been removed? I mean... she's in a flat far away? Was that just Eccleston being poorly directed?

*"I thought you'd be a bit useless with my useless genes." Well, gee, thanks for the vote of confidence there, Pete.

*It's been explained to me before, but I still don't get Rose not wanting Pete to tell Jackie the truth, because... she doesn't know how to work the timer on the video recorder??

*Apparently, Jackie left baby Rose for the Doctor to look after, which is just absurd on so many levels.

*Why would the Reapers attack the Doctor if he's the oldest thing there? He explained earlier that the church walls hold them back because they're old. So wouldn't him being the oldest make him the least tasty morsel? Why don't they go after baby Rose?

*The first appearance of Rose's iconic cry: "But you can't...!!!"

*How and why does the Doctor recall all these events? Because he's a Time Lord? And how did Pete, Rose and him end up back on the original street when Pete was hit near the church? That still happened, because Rose being seen by others(including Jackie, who apparently didn't notice her husband got hit) was recorded in history.

*Why would the driver stick around in the new timeline? What changed for him?

CONTINUITY ADVISOR

1) The young version of Mickey becomes briefly attached to the adult Rose, foreshadowing their relationship(Anakin and Padme style).

2) The Doctor comments that the Time Lords would be able to prevent the Reapers from sterilizing Earth, but are no longer around to interfere.

BEST QUOTE

"Your wish is my command, but be careful what you wish for." Kind of sums up Doctor Who, really.

CONCLUSION

Gripping and heartwrenching, if you get past the fact that it makes no sense whatsoever.