Doctor Who’s Dadshock Is Really Grief

This is really quite a nice moment , from the belated episode of the BBC ’s time - traveling soap opera house Doctor Who . David Tennant gives a amazingly understate functioning as the alien traveler who ’s lost his intact race , include his crime syndicate . And Catherine Tate makes the transition from cockamamy “ dadshock ” jokes to factual substance surprisingly well . There was a lot that I wish about this sequence … except for the new guest - adept that we ’re suddenly suppose to care about . spoiler ahead .

But before I get into the eponymous " girl " at the heart of " The Doctor ’s Daughter , " I should call the overarching message of the episode . Here to excuse it to you is Puppet Boy George ( from TV’sSpitting Imagesatire show . ) Take it away , PBG :

Now that we ’ve get that out of the way , I felt like this sequence was a bit of a tease . Not because we were promised the Doctor ’s girl , and rather we have the Doctor ’s cobbled - together supersoldier semi - ringer . Who ’s all cute and chirpy despite being bred only for warfare . I wait something like that . ( Even though it made no sense to me that Donna and Martha did n’t get “ girl ” of their own . The explanation of why only the Doctor was copied seemed very hand - crinkly . And it would have made the installment much more interesting if all three traveler had had to deal with sudden spotless conception . )

Doctor Who’s Dadshock Is Really Grief

No , rather , the instalment was a tease because for the billionth clock time , we see the Doctor working through the precise same issues , and not getting anywhere .

This episode was n’t really that much about fatherhood — the girl in interrogation was a convenient receptacle for the Doctor ’s angst , and did n’t really have that much personality of her own . Instead , the instalment was all about the Doctor ’s brokenheartedness for the beat Time Lords , and his PTSD about the Time War . Back in season one — in the scene where Christopher Eccleston brandishes an enormous gun at the disabled Dalek , and then breaks down — I had high hope for cut into into the Doctor ’s grief and PTSD . And when the Doctor finally find another Time Lord and it turned out to be the crappest Time Lord possible — the Master — I sense for him again . But this time around , it just felt sort of sleazy .

Although , to be fairish , I ’m hold out a glimmer of hope here that this recent spate in “ violence is bad , guns are stupid ” moralisation from the Doctor means that his posttraumatic stress disorder is finally reaching some kind of bill and we ’re rifle to see a crisis of some kind . I ’m not trusted what form that crisis would take — whether it would be the Doctor getting even more reckless and disposed to sacrifice his own life more and more needlessly , or the Doctor of the Church getting more gruelling - handed in his tampering . I am fain for there to be an arc here .

Last Of Us 7 Ellie Crash

But I ’m not holding my breathing place : the show seems to prefer doing episodes like this one , which organise a situation designed to elicit an emotional crisis , which is “ resolved ” by the ending of the episode . Despite vociferously admire Joss Whedon ’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer , the makers of the unexampled Who do n’t have the same genius for building lineament level hebdomad on hebdomad .

But even though I ’ve just excoriated the installment for being a act of a cheat , I mostly liked it . Georgia Moffett was fun to watch as the pseudo - clone of the Doctor . If you take it as just , “ the Doctor ’s got a wizardly daughter ! And she ’s cunning ! And she does backflips through optical maser ! ” It worked moderately well . She was cute , and we did n’t really ask her to have hidden profoundness . On that level , the show work quite well . I would n’t even mind if we get the inevitable Jenny comeback , although I ’m really not sure there ’s any more to her quality than we ’ve already seen .

The main reason I sort of like this episode despite its manipulative and contrived main plot of ground was that the whole byplay with the endless state of war , which plough out to have lasted only a hebdomad , was middling bully . It was also sort of contrived and clever - apt , but it was just plausible enough not to inconvenience oneself me . I retrieve myself wishing , while the Doctor kept struggling with the non - dilemma of whether to accept his cute gymnast kid , that we could pass more sentence on the war , and the process of indoctrination that had supervise to convert these people they ’d been fight back for eon , and the social club that produced this difference of opinion in the first place . Plus , the Hath were cute !

Mission Impossible 8 Underwater

Other random observations : the matter about the TARDIS play them there so they could fulfil Jenny , but first the Doctor had to create Jenny , made no sense , even by Doctor Who ’s dodgy time - paradox standards . So I just ignored it . Once again , Martha was criminally underused . I really do think Donna is show a surprising reach , and she ’s by all odds develop on me .

I do n’t really have much more to say about this episode . It was another merriment man of bagatelle , and as long as you ignore all of the sledgehammery hints that we ’re actually supposed to care about Jenny , it ’s a fun hoyden . judge from the previous two seasons , we ’re almost at the last of the “ frivolity ” parcel of the yr . At this point last year , we were on the wand of the underrated “ 42 , ” follow by “ Human Nature”/”Family of origin , ” “ Blink ” and then the final three - parter . The class before , the second half had the dreaded “ Fear Her ” but was otherwise pretty great .

So I am keeping my fingers crossed that before long I will be able to drop a line Doctor Who recaps that are n’t just a variation on “ Well , it ’s not that bad , if you ignore the plot and most of the type . ” Coming up next : the Agatha Christie instalment write by Gareth Roberts ( whose The Highest Science may be my best-loved Who novel ) , and then Steven Moffat ’s two - parter about a black library . I populate in Bob Hope .

Lesdilley