DW 4x06 - The Doctor's Daughter

[seriousfic]

Okay, Jenny wasn’t as Super-Special Awesome Mary-Sue as she could’ve been (insert Rose joke here), as she at least refrained from sexing up Jack Harkness and playing yenta to the Doctor and the Master, though she still pressed a lot of buttons. Death scene with everyone feeling sad, check, plus inexplicable resurrection, check… angsty backstory… character treating her like a jerk until he realizes she’s awesomesauce… et al, et al. I can just feel the YA novels about her adventures in space waiting to be written.

Come on now. After hyping that the Doctor had a daughter – oooh, did the Rani steal his DNA? Did he have a biological daughter and abandon her? – it turns out to be a pretty straight-forward one-shot deal. It’s kinda like the monster in Cloverfield in that it’s just a monster.

But aside from some rather dubious choices there, the actress did manage to make the character endearing and the writing was alright when not being stupid (aliens fighting for no good reason, superstitious aliens worshipping advanced technology… all that’s missing is the Doctor mocking Spock and we’ve got a TOS episode).

Although what was the point of Martha being in this? At first I thought “oooh, we’re getting some nice double-action in seeing the Doctor’s other legacy, his Daughter and the Doctor-in-training Martha, with her Hath companion!” But no, as it turns out, getting subjected to freezing temperatures, radiation, and losing her new friend were really just pointless. She could’ve followed the Doctor’s advice and stayed where she was and everything would’ve turned out just fine (unless everyone else’s nostrils were plugged up, I guess). And her friend wouldn’t have died that way. So, Martha’s main purpose here was to get the in-story equivalent of “She’s gone and she ain’t coming back!” because traveling with the Doctor is too haaaaard. GAG. At least let her go on crazy adventures with Jenny. They could be like Misty Knight and Colleen Wing… Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy… Thelma & Louise.

Look, she’s basically the Doctor with nicer breasts anyway, and she loves the military. It’s like she was made for Martha to be Docsexual for. And for all the tiemcock fangirls, this is why God the Doctor invented the sonic strap-on. I’ll be quiet now.

It’s canon: The universe hates the Doctor. He just starts to grow back his familial affection when his daughter gets fridged. Honestly, the Doctor saying “hey, maybe [not official companion] can travel like us” is like Captain Kirk falling in love with a hot babe. It can only end in tears. ONLY IN TEARS. Still, at least he got to play God afterwards. That always makes him feel better. “HEY, DUM-DUMS, BASE YOUR ENTIRE SOCIETY ON HOW AWESOME I AM!”

We also found out that the Doctor made a house call for some lucky lady, if you know what I mean and I think you do. Cue the Doctor/Master mpreg. His semi-annual Time War angst provided some nice follow-through on last arc’s UNIT shenanigans. He hates guns and soldiers because of self-loathing for his own participation in the Time War, where presumably the Time Lords jumped out from their foxholes to take pot shots at the Daleks with their Colt .45s. Really, couldn’t advanced alien weaponry have more in common with a DVD player? Then he could look at someone watching Daredevil on DVD with a face like “you absolute fuck.” And it’d be for a reason other than that they’re watching Daredevil.

Comments

[ash-in-your-eye.livejournal.com]

I'm not a Dr. Who fan so I don't have much to say.

I am, though, absolutely going to use the word 'awsomesauce' in conversation today.

[ermer00.livejournal.com]

Over from Doctorwho comm. I just wanted to say that I so agree about Martha not really having a point in this episode. I've read so many reviews now with people saying how much they loved her sobbing over her little friend but I really did spend most of the episode thinking 'Why is Martha in this?'

I don't mind Martha at all but it just irked me that in this, she was wasting screen time. Thank you for finally letting me read a review I agree with. :D

[shishmish.livejournal.com]

I'm from doctorwho and I just have to say - FUCKING AWESOME REVIEW ♥ I cracked up so many times reading this I scared the shit out of my dog XD

I agree with everything you said and so can't add on anything else :D

Just so much

[gillyp.livejournal.com]

Word, really. You tick all my boxes with this fine review. ::nods::

[isacuttlefish.livejournal.com]

In all fairness, I thought it was the best so far of the season. At the least, it's the first one that has made me like Catherine Tate's character.

I mean, yeah, Martha did very little, but the point didn't seem to be Martha doing things.

The point I got was that the Doctor was being completely thrown by a creature at least as intelligent as he is dissecting his beliefs. The hype about the daughter was a bit unneeded, but I guess the target audience for 'a detailed discussion of pacifism and how to apply it' is pretty small.

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

I thought it had some intriguing premises, with the week-old timeless war and the Doctor making some progress on his arc from wounded man-child to Time Lord, but it never really came together the way some of the better, earlier episodes did.

I think I was especially thrown by the Doctor's categorization of violence as not just something that should be avoided, but something that's always unnecessary. Given that this season has characterized him as a man who's unable to make that hard choice (at least not without help) since Gallifrey, turning that borderline character flaw into another way the Doctor is amazing strikes me as a step backwards.

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

Humans eat pints of ice cream. Time Lords pose with messanic symbology. It's a cultural divide.

[pokadotvelvet.livejournal.com]

You made a lot of good points there.

I thought episode was okay, it didn't live up to the amount of hype surrounding it. I thought Georgia Moffatt did a good job and I found her likable enough. I'm not sure if I want to see her back though.

You're right about Martha. It's like they just flung Freema in that episode for contractual reasons. I also thought some of the acting choices she made were a bit on the dire side. I thought she was a bit OTT in her crying scene, it made me cringe. I quite like Martha so it was a bit disappointing.

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm not sure what there's left for Jenny to do. Other than maybe give a speech about how the Doctor rocks in his darkest hour, having a tiny blonde squeeing over stuff with him would basically be a platonic Doctor/Rose redux. Having an action girl as part of the team might be interesting, but this really isn't that kind of show, and it'd be kind of awkward if they threw in a gunfight.

Plus, given this episode showed they couldn't provide anything for Martha to do besides "look! Martha! Look!", I don't know how they'd fit Jenny into another episode. Unless they turned her evil, and that'd just be groan-worthy.