📝10/10

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"Father's Day: Daddy Issues in Time and Space"

Father’s Day is a standout episode from the early days of the revival, blending emotional depth with a sobering lesson about the dangers of time travel, much like The Aztecs did for Classic Who. Paul Cornell crafts a poignant and bittersweet tale of love, loss, and consequence, placing Rose and the Ninth Doctor at the heart of a beautifully tragic story.

The episode delves into Rose’s family history, offering an emotional exploration of her father, Pete Tyler, and the impact of his absence. Rose’s decision to save her father—at the cost of ripping apart the fabric of time—strains her relationship with the Doctor, who is left furious at her reckless gamble. The dynamic between the two recalls the tension of Seven and Ace, with a Doctor who feels increasingly out of control and a companion whose personal emotions complicate his attempts to fix the situation.

The premise is as compelling as it is horrifying: the Doctor taking Rose to witness her father’s death so she can say goodbye, only for her to change a fixed point in time with catastrophic consequences. The consequences—manifested in the terrifying Reapers—highlight the series’ ability to turn its sci-fi premise into a deeply personal, moral dilemma.

Billie Piper shines in one of her most memorable performances as Rose, driven by grief, love, and guilt as she struggles with the fallout of her actions. Christopher Eccleston brings an intense, moody energy to the Ninth Doctor, showing both his anger at Rose’s mistake and his relentless moral compass as he works to prevent the collapse of time.

Shaun Dingwall is exceptional as Pete Tyler, portraying a man who is both flawed and deeply loveable. Pete’s journey—from a slightly aimless father who doubts his worth to a self-sacrificing hero—grounds the fantastical premise in raw, human emotion. Camille Coduri also delivers as a younger, fiery Jackie, adding humour and poignancy to the story.

The Reapers are an ingenious concept: predators that clean up the wounds in time caused by paradoxes. Their initial reveal—through red-tinged point-of-view shots and eerie screeches—builds tension beautifully, evoking Classic Who monsters like the Silurians. While their CGI feels a bit dated, the menace they bring and the moral implications of their existence more than compensate. It’s a shame they’ve never returned to the show, as their potential remains untapped.

The pacing is pitch-perfect, allowing time for both the central threat and the emotional core of the story to develop without ever feeling rushed. Cornell’s writing balances the sci-fi stakes with tender, heartbreaking moments, particularly the final scenes between Rose and Pete. The story also serves as a powerful exploration of the responsibilities of parenthood and the consequences of tampering with time.

The episode’s climax is devastatingly emotional, as Pete sacrifices himself to restore the timeline, giving Rose a fleeting but meaningful connection with her father. It’s one of the series’ most powerful moments, proving how Doctor Who can seamlessly merge poignant drama with its sci-fi roots.

Final Thoughts:

Father’s Day is a masterclass in storytelling, delivering a perfect balance of emotional depth, time-travel intrigue, and genuine horror. It’s an unforgettable tale of family and consequence, showcasing the Ninth Doctor’s darker side and Rose’s enduring humanity.

A heartbreaking and beautifully crafted episode that remains a cornerstone of modern Doctor Who.

Random Observations:

• The Doctor walking back to his TARDIS, only to notice that it’s turned into a normal police box, is such a great moment!

There's a lot I really, really like about Father's Day. It's a very significant episode of Doctor Who in exploring often discussed ideas in fan discussions around time travel stories. Why can't the Doctor just fix every problem with time travel? How are these rules enforced in a world without Time Lords? Just how bad can we make a CGI monster look, if we really, really try?

All this is explored in a story very grounded and almost exclusively taking place in and around a church, on the day of a wedding and the death of Rose's dad. This was new territory for Doctor Who and really showcases how well the series could do things the old one simply never really opted for.

Unfortunately, Father's Day is limited by two fronts. One, is the special effects. I think the Reapers are a very cool idea, but they just look terrible. Even compared to the rest of series one, this episode (along with The Long Game) really stretch credulity with their dated CGI. Wisely, production does avoid relying on them too much and keeps them behind windows a lot, but they do it in a way that feels a little cheap.

I feel like the writing is a lot more dramatic than usual, but that drama is deserved given the sudden and violent death of Pete. That's traumatic and terrible, but I think that point gets underplayed a bit with some of the direction and dialogue given to the Tyler family. Rose is pretty good, but the parents are a little more inconsistent. Jackie was always funny to be sure but her character was never done any favours in the writing when it came to this dramatic stuff. I think it is telling that in spite of the many problems around his character, Danny Pink's car accident is comparably so much more devastating.

On the other hand, Eccleston remains the consistently powerful performer he showed himself to be across pretty much his entire run of TV Doctor Who.

All told, this is one of those episodes I wish I could go higher than 7/10. It has a lot of traits I would normally consider to be along the lines of an 8/10 episode, but there's just enough little issues and problems that hold it back a bit from that distinction. Still, in a lot of ways, a highlight of series one, and a pretty unforgettable Doctor Who story in its own unique way. It's the kind of thing I don't think should be recreated because Father's Day serves as a nice little niche and it doesn't feel like this needs to be revisited.

Bloody hell. What an emotional gut punch this one is. A cautionary tale of the dangers of time travel when you start to meddle in your family’s own history. The fact that The Doctor would even take Rose to the scene of her father’s death shows how alien and envelope pushing Eccleston’s Doctor is. He will drive the show forward in freaky and spooky ways.

As well as this episode seeing the impacts of time travel going wrong pushed further than at most points in the show’s history, it’s a new kind of sci-fi for Doctor Who. It’s more in the mold of The Twilight Zone, where the writer works with a clever concept and then looks at its emotional consequences for our cast.

Rose is given a rich mythology, a sad past with her father which bonds us to her. She gets an uncomfortable insight into her parent’s less than perfect marriage and has to square the past she thought she knew with the past as it really was. Incidentally one of the treats for this story is seeing Jackie Tyler as an equally mouthy and confrontational younger self initially laying into modern day Rose.

And The Doctor dies! He actually dies! In the 1980s! How mad is that? Before Pete Tyler realises what has happened and makes the ultimate sacrifice. Pete is given the chance to save the day and be the hero. There is so much beauty and heart in that.