 |
| Pete Tyler comes face to face with his adult daughter. |
Rose tells the Doctor the story of how her father, Pete
Tyler, was killed in a hit and run incident on the way to a family wedding when
she was still a baby. She tells the
Doctor that he died on his own and that she wants to be able to be there for
him, to comfort him as he dies. The
Doctor reluctantly agrees and takes Rose to see her father.
As they watch Pete is hit by a car and lays dieing in the
road. Rose finds herself unable to move,
frozen by what she is seeing. Once she
recovers Rose asks the Doctor if they could try it again. The Doctor and Rose travel back to the same
point in time once again, where the Doctor warns Rose to wait until their past
selves leaves. Unfortunately Rose
ignores his warnings and runs out into the road and saves her dad, creating a
time paradox.
Rose is initially thrilled with her achievement, with her
dad now alive and well and able to be there for her as she grows up. Unfortunately the Doctor is less than pleased
with her, warning her of the consequences of creating a paradox. Whilst Rose leaves with Pete to go to the
wedding the Doctor storms off back to the Tardis only to find that it is now
just an empty shell.
The Doctor races back to the church to find Rose when they
come under attack from Reapers, creatures that have appeared to ‘sterilise’ the
wound in time that Rose has created by consuming everyone they come
across. Taking shelter within the church
Rose must come to terms with the fact that whilst she has saved her father she
may have doomed everyone else on earth.
 |
| The Reapers have come to 'sterilize' the paradox in time. |
‘Fathers Day’ is the first story of the revived series to
really take the time to delve into the past of the Doctors companion and shows
the motivations behind Rose joining the Doctor in the Tardis. The story also marks the first appearance of Shaun
Dingwall as Pete Tyler.
Despite being a story about the end of the world and the
dangers of time travel at its heart ‘Fathers Day’ is a love story, a love story
between a father and a daughter. We see
what Rose is willing to do to save her fathers life, and what her father is
willing to do for his daughter to ensure she has a future. The sacrifice the Pete makes for Rose is one
of the first truly emotional moments of the show, one that goes on to be
remembered long after the story ends.
The performances in the episode are all top notch, with
Eccleston playing a Doctor that has to fact the prospect of having chosen a ‘bad’
companion, Billie Piper acting her heart out as her character must live through
the death of her father, and Camille Coduri taking a rather soft turn as Jackie
Tyler.
The stand out performance of the episode has to go to Dingwall’s
Pete Tyler. Pete is set up as just a
regular man, something of a wheeler-dealer and a flake, someone that’s not
always reliable but come the end of the episode he’s the hero of the
story. His realisation that Rose is in fact
his daughter and that he has to die to set things right is the real heart of
the story, and his willingness to give his life to ensure that Rose has a
future is amazing and echoes the Doctors sentiment earlier in the episode that ‘ordinary’
people are amazing.
A great episode that shows the heart and emotion that Doctor
Who is able to achieve and gives its cast the opportunity to go to places they
don’t normally get to go. 7/10
Amy.
xx
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