Nick Kaufmann

International Bon Vivant and Raconteur (nick_kaufmann)

@ 2008-06-06 23:09:00

Doctor Who: "The Doctor's Daughter"

Not a bad episode at all. In fact, I'm tempted to call it the highlight of season 4 so far. Sure, the fishmen were silly, and one of them suffered a death so ridiculously gratuitous it makes you wonder if it was done for some mysterious budgetary reason (how exactly do fishmen drown? Wouldn't it have been so much more effective storytelling to have him help out at the climax?). But then it wouldn't be Doctor Who without someone dying a needless yet heroic death.

But even if the fishmen were silly, Jenny was great. The Doctor's paternal relationship with her was wonderful, and her line "What are you going to do, tell my dad?" was priceless. I really hope she shows up again.

And now for some of my trademark Doctor Who neepery:

I got a kick out of the Doctor talking about having had children before. We've met his granddaughter Susan, of course. She was his first companion, along with her Earth schoolteachers Ian and Barbara, who secretly followed her into the TARDIS in the very first episode back in 1963, "An Unearthly Child." Though Susan is ostensibly still on Earth in the 22nd Century, where the Doctor left her at the end of the 1964 serial "The Dalek Invasion of Earth," the rest of the Doctor's family is presumed dead, either in the Time War or from some other, undisclosed event. In 1967's "The Tomb of the Cybermen," the Doctor says his family "sleeps in his mind," which sounds very death-like, and in 1989's "The Curse of Fenric," when asked if he has any family, the Doctor says he doesn't know. (Me, I'm guessing Susan went back to fight in the Time War too. Otherwise I imagine the Doctor would be visiting her quite often these days.)

Also, Georgia Moffett, who plays Jenny, really is the Doctor's daughter. Well, a Doctor's, anyway. Her father is Peter Davison, who was the fifth actor to play the Doctor (and my second favourite from the classic series after Tom Baker). Georgia's mom, by the way, is Sandra Dickinson, who also has experience playing a space traveller. She played Trillian in the 1981 BBC-TV version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Lastly, was it just me or did the fishmen masks look like an aborted attempt at recreating the Silurians? I'm just saying.

Bah, enough neepery. Next time, the Doctor meets Agatha Christie!

Original review here.