Father’s Day (Series One, Ep. 8; 2005)
Viewed 04 Apr 2013

Doctor/Companion: Nine, Rose Tyler
Stars: Christopher Eccleston, Billie Piper
Preceding Story: The Long Game (Nine, Rose)
Succeeding Story: The Empty Child (Nine, Rose)

I know the Ninth Doctor isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (especially with last week’s frankly unsurprising news that Eccleston definitely will not be participating in the 50th), but great heavens, is he ever mine.

Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2005 BBC

While Father’s Day doesn’t grab me the same way that Dalek does, it serves a vital purpose in terms of character development. Of course, the “character” in this case is actually the relationship between the Doctor and Rose. (Just a heads-up, in case you haven’t seen the episode: the rest of the post is pretty spoilery.)

Rose decides she wants to see her long-dead father and the Doctor questions her motivation. When she passive-aggressively suggests he can’t do it, he responds that “I can do anything. I’m just more worried about you.” And that, effectively, is the theme of the whole piece.

But first we have to see Rose be an utter idiot (some would argue there should be an “again” in that sentence). The Doctor loves her enough (however you define that love in your own headcanon) to do something dangerous to please her. “What ever happened to the ‘you can’t cross your own timeline’ thing?” wondered jE. Of course, it all backfires. The second Rose rushes to save Pete. “Ruh roh,”says jO. The camera pans back to Nine’s furious face. “RUH roh…” (I suspect jO hasn’t seen this since I first hooked her on the show, some four years ago.)

Well, needless to say, things go south. “I did it again. I picked another stupid ape,” bitches Nine. Rose’s defense that Pete is just another bloke doesn’t fly, either. “An ordinary man. That’s the most important thing in creation.” (Incidentally, I love this theme throughout the show, both this episode and elsewhere. A bit later here, the Doctor queries the bride and groom’s assertions with, “Who said you’re not important?” Years later, Eleven says that “in nine hundred years of time and space and I’ve never met anybody who wasn’t important before.” I think it’s vital for us to remember that while we may envy the Doctor his adventures, sometimes he envies us our “ordinary” lives.) So the Doctor and Rose have a right proper domestic, and he storms away.

Meanwhile, there’s a wedding supposed to be getting underway. I love how they’ve nailed the ’80s styles every way you turn. “Nice earring,” jA says of the groom. The peach bridesmaid’s dresses are perfect, too, and even Rose notices the hair. Then, “Rickrolled!” Pete is driving Rose to the wedding, and it is playing on the radio. Coincidence – or evil genius? You decide.

Back in the Doctor’s neck of the woods, he’s made a disturbing discovery. The TARDIS is not a TARDIS. “I hate it when that happens,” jE complains on his behalf. “She gave you the wrong key!” This is the point at which the Doctor knows just how bad Rose’s meddling has really made things, yet even so, he still tries to spare her the pain of losing her father again. I don’t know; either I’m not as nice a person, or I’m simply not that loopy in love – I would have chosen to save the universe instead of spare my Companion the pain of a natural separation. Guess that’s why I’m not the Doctor.

Making it worse, the smug “I knew he’d come crawling back to me” look on Rose’s face as he runs to warn them all of the danger really makes me want to slap her face clean off her head (oh wait… that’s Idiot’s Lantern…). She makes it tough to have any desire to side with her in their row.

In stark contrast, we – or at least I – found her utterly relatable when it comes to her scenes with Pete, especially once she’s admitted to him he’s “[her] daddy.” (Though jA makes a good point, when Pete asks about Rose’s presence and she admits to having used a time machine: “How else would she have got there?”) Both of them want so badly for the relationship to work, to be/have been something more than just their own imaginings. “Am I a good dad?” he asks, and she tells him everything she imagined he’d be. That’s the part that’s so utterly tragic; at that point they both know it’s sheer fantasy on her part and really, it will always have to remain so. I have to credit Pete; for all that he’s depicted as “useless,” he’s clever enough to pick up on the (admittedly copious) clues, and a big enough person to do what needs to be done.

Of course, it might never have needed to be done in the first place if the Doctor’s work-around had come to fruition. But since Rose is the only one who’s heard him warn her, “Don’t touch the baby! … That’s a paradox,” the other stupid apes don’t know any better. Thus, we get the satisfying moment when jO lets out a literal ~gasp!~ and puts her hands to her mouth in horror as Pete hands baby Rose to grown Rose to hold (I told you she hadn’t seen this in years).

As the Reavers invade the church and consume the Doctor, all seems lost. In the end, though, Pete gets to be the hero Rose always believed him to be. Time is restored, the Doctor and his TARDIS return from wherever they’d been banished, and Nine & Rose come out the other side a stronger pair than they’d been before.

General reactions:

• jA – “Those were the good ol’ days.”
• jE – Kind of breaking some laws of time…
• jO – Good to get a refresher
• mrfranklin – Like the character development for both of them here

These early post-Hiatus stories hold such a special place in three of our hearts, as our entry to the Whoniverse, yet are not always well remembered (as evidenced here). Often, then, the Ladies’ comments are few and far between, as we simply sit back and enjoy. In the coming weeks, we will be doing that all the more as we watch Series Seven together, so things will be quiet on the Nu-View front for a while. You can expect to hear from the Ladies again some time in June.

Verdict: Thumbs up

Looking ahead: The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances