Harry -
Pass the tissues, Sarah. That was an absolute sobfest -- even more than I remembered.
Sarah -
I’ve always liked "Father’s Day" but I have to admit it’s never made me cry. Maybe I’m too busy admiring its construction.
Harry -
While I go on blubbing let me say this is peak RTD right here. Companion backstory with huge emotional crescendos. We meet Pete Tyler and little Mickey, we see baby Rose, and there's chaos in the timestream as the monstrous Reapers appear through a wound in time. All because Rose wanted to see her dad.
Sarah -
One of the big differences for me this time around is that having just rewatched all of Doctor Who, "The Aztecs" was front and center in my mind. “You can't rewrite history! Not one line!”
Harry -
The Doctor's reaction here is much different. No stern admonishments, instead he seems OK with standing back and letting Rose see her Dad on the day he died.
Sarah -
He definitely has concerns about her request and warns her to be careful what she wishes for. Initially, she asked to just see Pete, so the Doctor takes her to Pete and Jackie’s wedding -- where he messes up her middle name during the vows. (Poor Jackie.) After that, Rose ups the ante and asks to be there for Pete on the day he dies.
Harry -
Perhaps the Doctor wasn't expecting her to dash out into the street to rescue Pete. Just when he started taking a liking to us stupid, emotional apes again.
Sarah -
Much like the situation with Adam, the Doctor should have known better. He’s clearly forgotten how humans can be, showing off with his “I can do anything.” The fact that you can doesn’t mean that you should.
Harry -
Indeed.
It's the seventh of November 1987, and the Tylers are going to a wedding. Pete has just picked up a vase to give as a gift. As he steps out of his vehicle, another car speeds around a corner headed straight for him. This was how he died, alone, after a hit and run. Initially, Rose's intention was to be there to comfort him as he died. She freezes up at the first opportunity and asks the Doctor if she can try again. The Doctor agrees, even though that now places two versions of themselves in the same place. The second time around, Rose can't bear to see her father get mowed down again. She rushes past the earlier Doctor and Rose (who subsequently vanish), and pushes Pete out of harm’s way. His life has been saved. Time has been altered. The Doctor is angered.
Sarah -
I love the time paradox of Rose and the Doctor watching themselves watching Pete the second time around. I don’t think Rose planned to save him, but it’s easy to understand her instincts kicking in.
Harry -
The Doctor and Rose get into a fight over what just happened, and it ends with him storming back to the TARDIS. Only, the TARDIS is not the TARDIS any longer. It's just an empty shell. I remember being freaked out when he opened those doors and nothing was there.
Sarah -
The empty police box is one of my favorite moments in the story. This has never happened before -- and it can’t be good.
The scene leading up to this shocking moment is focused on the Doctor-Rose argument, which plays out way too uncomfortably (for me, anyway) as a lover’s spat. He admonishes her selfishness, “My entire planet died. My whole family. Do you think it never occurred to me to go back and save them?” But Rose doesn’t understand why he’s so upset, focusing only on having her father back. He demands the TARDIS key back and says goodbye. She tells him that he’ll be waiting a long time for her to come back. Meanwhile, something is attacking random neighbors and making them disappear.
Rose and Pete head out to the wedding, where they encounter a not-very-happy Jackie. This is such an important story for Jackie, who has not been treated kindly up until this point. The moment when she asks Pete if Rose is “another one of yours” is heartbreaking. The story began with Jackie telling young Rose about her wonderful father and little by little we discover that he’s definitely not the man Rose was led to believe.
Harry -
This is a very different kind of Doctor Who story. Even though we just watched it and I know it's not the case, it felt like the Doctor was barely in this one. Rose and her family are front and centre the entire time.
Sarah -
Making "Father’s Day" perhaps the most revolutionary story in Doctor Who history!
Harry -
As everyone starts to gather for the wedding, the Reapers break through the rift in time and start attacking people. They are entirely CGI creations, and to be honest, not that convincing. As well, they don't seem concerned with who might have caused the disruptions in time, they just randomly attack anyone.
Sarah -
I find the janky effects reassuring. How else will I know I’m watching proper Doctor Who?
Harry -
Good point. After the Doctor herds everyone inside the church (claiming the older something is, the stronger it is), he declares that the Reapers are there to sterilize the wound in time and they have to eliminate everyone present. He takes his TARDIS key and attempts to materialize his ship around it.
Sarah -
I was surprised all over again when the Doctor says that in the past, his people would have taken care of the situation. It’s feels a bit disingenuous, because we all know they’d just send the Doctor to do their work.
Harry -
During these "church under siege" scenes, we see young Mickey make a cameo and Rose encounter herself as a baby.
Sarah -
Were you surprised to learn that Mickey is at least three years older than Rose? I’d forgotten about that and was taken aback.
Harry -
It never occurred to me until you mentioned it.
Rose's appearance beside Pete sets of a new round of misunderstanding and argument between him and Jackie, who assumes that adult Rose is Pete's daughter by another woman. In the brief scuffle that follows, Rose comes into contact with her infant self. Instead of the dimension-blowing explosion that happened when two Brigadiers made contact in "Mawdryn Undead", the rift in time widens and allows one of the Reapers inside.
Sarah -
The Blinovitch Limitation Effect strikes again!
Harry -
The Doctor draws the Reaper's attention, and it swoops down and consumes him. He is gone, and the TARDIS key falls to the ground.
Worst wedding ever!
Sarah -
And that’s counting all of Donna’s weddings!
The Doctor is taken out of the story and it’s up to those left in the church to save themselves. This is Pete’s moment. During the siege, he’s come to the realization that Rose is his grown-up daughter. She’s very careful about discussing the future with him, but he’s smart enough to realize that it doesn’t include him. Pete has been watching the car that was supposed to hit him spin around the corner of the church and disappear over and over and realizes what he has to do.
Harry -
After so many get-rich-quick schemes and disappointments, Pete in his final moments makes the toughest decision of his life -- but the right one, as his action will save the lives of everyone besieged by the Reapers. Counter to what the bride said earlier -- "I know we're not important" -- Pete proved that even an everyman can be vitally important in the grand scheme of things.
Sarah -
Before he leaves the church, Pete helps Jackie understand that Rose is their daughter and they all embrace. Then, vase in hand, he dashes into the road to be hit by the speeding car. Rose runs to Pete and holds him as he dies. The Reapers vanish and everyone who was taken by them is returned.
The Doctor and Rose return to the TARDIS, having rewritten one small line of history. The end took me back to "The Aztecs", when the Doctor told Barbara, “You failed to save a civilisation, but at least you helped one man.”
The story opened with Jackie telling Rose about her wonderful father, who died alone after being struck by a hit-and-run driver. It ends with a new version of the story, where Pete ran in front of the car and the driver stayed until the police arrived, while a mysterious young woman comforted Pete as he died. Just one line.
Harry -
Just a few months ago, we were watching the McCoy era. What a leap between then and now, not just in the production quality, but in the attention to detail RTD gives his supporting characters. Granted, there probably isn't another story that will go this deep into a companion's family life, but to learn so much about them like this was groundbreaking. For the rest of this season, the Doctor will reclaim most of the spotlight and there will be more companions and their relatives in seasons to come, but "Father's Day" stands out as a very unique piece in the new series.
Sarah -
I recall having read that Simon Pegg was originally going to play Pete Tyler, but was moved to "The Long Game" due to scheduling conflicts. At this point, I can’t imagine anyone other than Shaun Dingwall as Pete. The entire story rests on his shoulders and he’s fantastic.
Harry -
We'll even get to see him again, but for now I'm eager to be introduced to a certain Captain for the first time, all over again. Shall we?
Sarah -
Before we go, I'll continue our Bad Wolf tracking. Bad Wolf was scrawled across one of the posters for ENERGIZE, which is on a wall near where the Doctor and Rose are watching Pete get hit by the car. I had to look this one up, because I didn't catch it during the episode.
Best Line: Jackie leaves baby Rose with the Doctor - “Jackie gave her to me to look after. How times change.”
Favorite Moment: Pete realizing what he has to do.
Lasting Image: Pete watching the car spin around the corner and disappear.
8/10
Harry -
Best Line: "Who said you're not important? I've travelled to all sorts of places, done things you couldn't even imagine, but you two. Street corner, two in the morning, getting a taxi home. I've never had a life like that. Yes. I'll try and save you."
Favourite Moment: the TARDIS is empty!
Lasting Image: the TARDIS is empty!
7/10
Our marathon continues with Story #164: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances...
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