Doctor Who Retrospective #7 of 10 “Father’s Day”
Wow, just realised that I wanted to finish this retrospective series of reviews before Series Three debuts and suddenly the day is here and I still have the final four reviews left to do. Ah well, I may save the remainder for another time (or even squeeze ‘em in via a blitz of watching and reviewing today… we’ll see how the Other Viewer feels about that). Father’s Day was the eighth episode of the first series and it introduced an extremely significant character into Rose’s life, her father, Pete.
Written by the lovely Paul Cornell (who got a name-check on Richard and Judy yesterday afternoon because this is their favourite episode), the story sees Rose ask the Doctor to go back to see her father on the day of his wedding to Jackie. “I can do anything” boasted the Ninth Doc before he set the TARDIS on course. It was a telling sentiment and part of the development of the Time Lord’s character that led him to then agree to the frankly ludicrous suggestion to allow Rose to then go forward a little bit and witness her dad’s death in a traffic accident. If there was ever a request that was almost guaranteed to lead to problems for a time traveller this was surely it and Rose, “another stupid ape” delivered problems in spades as she changed history to save Pete from the onrushing car. The Doctor’s regret at allowing himself to be used was apparent in the huge argument between him and his companion and, later, when he reflected that “his people” could have stopped the situation.
As long as you can get your head around time paradoxes, Father’s Day had so much great stuff to enjoy. There was very clever use of the music from Murray Gold who included discordant notes in the themes to reflect the fact that something was wrong on screen, the eighties setting with hairstyles and outfits (Pete’s suit!) of the time was subtle but effective (“The past is a different country. 1987 is just the Isle of Wight”) and we even got one of the monster’s point-of-view shots as the Reapers began their attacks. It was the melancholy nature of the episode that really struck a chord as it was an emotion rarely explored in previous stories that were delivered at breakneck speed. Here there was time for reflection and the episode was topped and tailed by two lovely little moments where Jackie was talking to Rose as a young girl about the day her daddy died.
Most of the story then takes place in a church but there were no religious overtones to the tale despite the opportunity brought about by the impending doom and sense of loss. Indeed the local vicar was an early victim of the Reaper, which primarily served to allow Eccleston’s Doctor to become the authority figure in the situation but may also have been a little dig at the religious establishment. Doctor Who only rarely addresses issues of faith in a deity but that particluar discussion is probably more suited to the Satan Pit of Series Two. In the end it is Pete that saves the day by sacrificing himself under the wheels of the car and putting eveything, temporal anonoly-wise, back in place. Mention should be made of Shaun Dingwall, who was amazingly good in the role of Pete Tyler and I am so glad that the production team found such a great way to resurrect him later on. It wasn’t only me that found the episode so enjoyable, it got a Hugo nomination too.
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