Doctor Who Review: Father’s Day

My relationship with this episode is complicated. Very complicated.

On the one hand, it’s a hugely emotional episode, one where Billie Piper puts in an utterly fantastic performance, one where we get to explore some of the dangers inherent in time travel (namely paradoxes), one full of great little moments that bring a tear to my eye.

On the other hand, the first twenty minutes or so make me want to go and hide under a pillow, because they are excessively embarrassing.

It’s not embarrassing in that over the top, cheesy way that I’ve talked about before. Rather, it’s embarrassing for… god, I don’t know, a bunch of reasons. Once again I am railing against a character for not watching Back to the Future (I mean, basically). Did you never listen to Doc Brown when you were young, Rose?? YOU COULD HAVE DESTROYED THE SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM. And I know it’s silly for me to do, but every time I’ve seen this episode, the moment Rose runs in to save her dad, the one thing I immediately want to do is find something to bury my face in. The first time I watched this episode, I literally ran over to my bed and buried my face in the covers, as though that would make the poor decisions go away. I do appreciate that Rose eventually understands the enormous honking mistake she made; the scene where she and the Doctor apologize to each other is wonderful. It’s just wretchedly awful for me to watch.

Also wretchedly awful: Rose’s interactions with her father prior to his knowing that he’s her father. Just. Everything. It’s awkward and awful for me to watch, and I hate it. I really do. (This is part of the reason why I can’t watch like… the whole first half of Back to the Future. Just. No. I can’t. Sorry.) When the cat’s let out of the bag, their interactions are a lot more wonderful and it all really comes to a wonderful end when Pete realizes he has to sacrifice himself to save everything. (Also “I’m your dad. It’s my job for it to be my fault.” reduces me to tears every time.)

I really do understand why people love this episode and consider it one of the “best” ones; it’s a lovely episode, one of the best that Series 1 has to offer. I just can’t enjoy it because of the enormous pile of awkward leading up on its front end. The secondhand embarrassment quotient is just too big for me to deal with.

Part of me also wants to note that I don’t really think highly of the monsters this time around, but from what I understand they were kind of shoehorned in at the last moment, so I’ll forgive that. This probably also explains why they’ve never come up again in New Who at all, despite there being quite a few on offer. (I will also hasten to point out that there is a HUGE difference between Bootstrap Paradoxes and the regular impossible paradoxes like what we see here. Bootstraps are circular paradoxes; they resolve themselves. The thing about this particular paradox is that there’s no way to resolve it. The Rose who saved her father shouldn’t even be there, because technically she never went back in time again to do the deed in the first place. There’s no way to fix it, except, I suppose, by reversing the event that caused the paradox in the first place.)

Anyway. I don’t particularly like this episode, mostly because of the reasons listed above. That said, I totally can see why it’s much-beloved in fandom, and I have no intention of raining on that parade. These are just my thoughts, and nothing more.

(113/260)

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