Doctor Who in Review: Season Four, Episode #6 – The Doctor’s Daughter
The hit BBC series Doctor Who is now in its fourth season on the Sci-Fi Channel, and since we’re all big fans here at ComicMix, we’ve decided to kick off an episode-by-episode analysis of the reinvigorated science-fiction classic.
Every week, we’ll have our best Who-philes go through the most recent episode with a fine-tooth comb (or whatever the "sonic screwdriver" equivalent might be) and call out all of the continuity checks, names dropped and storyline hints we can find to keep in mind for future episodes. We’ll post our analysis each Monday, so you have ample time to check out the episode once it airs each Friday at 9 PM EST on Sci-Fi Channel before reading our review.
Missed a week? Check out our "Doctor Who in Review" archive or check out any of the past editions of this column via the links at the end of this article.
Keep in mind, we’re going to assume readers have already watched the episode when we put fingers to keyboard and come up with our roundup of important plot points. In other words, SPOILER ALERT!
Let’s begin now, shall we?
Season Four, Episode #6: "The Doctor’s Daughter"
IN BRIEF: The Doctor, Donna Noble and hijacked former companion Martha Jones arrive in an unknown location when the TARDIS takes off on its own accord. Upon their arrival, armed men force The Doctor to provide a DNA sample, and just a few moments later we’re introduced to Jenny, a female clone of the Time Lord. There isn’t much time for a family reunion, however, as a battle breaks out with the Hath, a fish-like species at war with the humans over ownership of the base. Martha is separated from The Doctor and Donna, tempers flare and The Doctor, Donna and Jenny (The Doctor’s new "daughter"), as well as Martha and one of the Hath, race to discover a mysterious object called "The Source" hidden deep within the base.
In the end, it turns out that the humans and the Hath have only been fighting for a week, but the rapid rate at which they’re cloning new soldiers has caused more than 20 generations to to be born and die in a single day. The Doctor starts up The Source, a terraforming tool, but Jenny is fatally wounded in the aftermath. The Doctor says goodbye to the daughter he hardly knew, but after The Doctor and his companions depart, Jenny wakes up and sets off in a spaceship of her own — determined to explore the universe like her "father."
GIVE THE DOCTOR A HAND: We always thought it was a bit creepy when Jack Harkness was carrying around The Doctor’s dismembered hand from two seasons ago (in the Christmas Special titled "The Christmas Invasion"). Now that The Doctor is carrying it around in the TARDIS, well… it’s still pretty creepy. You have to hand it to Donna, though, she’s developing a real knack for taking in stride the unique situations that develop when you’re around The Doctor (i.e. "Yes, that’s my hand, but I grew a new one").
FOR THE LAST TIME, WE’RE NOT TOGETHER: Yet again, The Doctor and Donna Noble find the need to point out in this episode that they aren’t romantically involved. But while they aren’t a "couple" per se, The Doctor and Donna continue to have an interesting relationship — one that seems fairly unique even by longtime Who fans’ standards. Other than someone like The Brigadier (who we discussed at length in last week’s review of "The Poison Sky"), The Doctor’s companions have rarely been as outspoken and willing to say what’s on their minds as Donna has shown herself to be. Of course, maybe it’s that willingness to argue with each other that has everyone thinking they’re married!
A TIME OF WAR: In this episode, we learn a bit more about The Doctor’s involvement in the "Time War" that killed most of the Time Lords and the Daleks, as The Doctor tells Jenny and Donna that he had been forced to kill during the war. Previously, we learned that The Doctor led the final battle of the Time War, and during our review of "The Sontaran Stratagem" we discussed at length what we know thus far about how various species and characters were affected by the War.
THE CREATURE REPORT: While the Hath makeup and effects are great from the neck up, everything below that point seems a bit too, well… man-ish… for a fish-like species, don’t you think? Even so, the demise of Hath "Peck" (Martha’s companion) choked us up a bit. Oh, and the credits list two of the Hath as "Hath Peck" and "Hath Gable" — a play on Clark Gable and Gregory Peck, we can only assume. But why?
FAMILY MATTERS: After spending much of the episode trying to convince The Doctor that he should consider Jenny his daughter, he explains that his resistance to the notion is the result of having had a family in the past — and losing them. While some might wonder where that revelation came from, the idea of The Doctor having a family harkens back to the very first episode of Doctor Who, "An Unearthly Child." For much of the first few seasons, The Doctor traveled with his granddaughter, Susan Foreman, as well as two of her teachers. The Doctor has also mentioned having a family several times throughout the new series, such as the time he told former companion Rose Tyler that he "was a dad once" in the episode titled "Fear Her."
NAME GAMES: Jenny becomes the latest character to ask The Doctor about his real name in this episode. Thus far the most significant clue we’ve been given about this running plot point might be the prophesy revealed in "The Fires of Pompeii," when an oracle states that The Doctor’s name "burns in the stars, in the Cascade of Medusa."
ROMANCE AMONG THE STARS: While we’re usually not the sort to dabble in the real-world dramas that occur behind the series, we thought this one was worth noting: According to various reports (including David Tennant’s page on Wikipedia), Tennant is currently involved in a serious romantic relationship with Georgia Moffet, who plays his character’s "daughter" in this episode. Now that you know this, go back and re-watch the episode — especially the death scene. It puts a whole new, extra-skeevy spin on some of the dialogue between The Doctor and Jenny.
KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY: While the headline for this section could just have easily been used for the previous one, we assure you that this item won’t be nearly as sketchy. It turns out that the actress who portrays Jenny in "The Doctor’s Daughter" is the real-life daughter of Peter Davison, The Fifth Doctor. Whether we’ll be seeing more of her is the big question, though. According to the Doctor Who Wiki, Russell Davies intended to kill Jenny off at the end of this episode, but Steven Moffat — who will be taking over for Davies next season — insisted that she live.
CHINESE WHAT? Maybe it’s just me, but has anyone else ever heard of the term "Chinese Whispers?" The Doctor mentions it around the episode’s 35:10 mark, and while we get the reference, we’re just curious if this is a term that’s really in wide use today.
QUESTIONS UNANSWERED: The big question raised in this episode has to be what’s in store for Jenny, The Doctor’s "daughter." Since the Doctor Who creators aren’t the sort to include major, unresolved plot points without those points carrying some meaning down the road, one has to wonder what role this new, female Time Lord (or at least, the genetic duplicate of one) will play in the show’s future. Could Georgia Moffet be Tennant’s successor? His next companion, perhaps?
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE NEXT EPISODE, "The Unicorn and the Wasp": Martha’s gone, but maybe that big wasp means that we’ll finally learn why all the bees are disappearing?
Thanks to various ComicMix contributors for help with this week’s analysis. Credit also goes out to the good people at The Doctor Who Wiki for information related to several of this week’s story notes.
Screencaps courtesy of SciFi.com.
For more on Doctor Who and other great programs, check out Scifi.com and the BBC.
Want to know what you’ve been missing? Check out all of the past "Doctor Who in Review" features via the following links:
Season Four, Episode #1 – "Partners in Crime"
Season Four, Episode #2 – "The Fires of Pompeii"
Season Four, Episode #3 – "Planet of the Ood"
Georgia Moffet was actually on the short list of actresses to play Rose for the first season of Doctor Who. RTD and Co. decided she was just a bit young for the part, but were determined to keep an eye on her, confident that she'd only get better in a few years. Indeed, she came this season in for a smaller part in another episode, but they asked her if she could keep her schedule open for a "slightly" larger part later in the series. She could and did, and the rest is history."Chinese Whispers" is a more British term for the kids' game "telephone" where an oft-repeated phrase rapidly degenerates to nonsense.One of the common complaints the team expected for the death of Hath Peck was wondering how a fish-creature drown in a slurry of mostly water. While it wasn't explicitly explained in the episode, the hath actually breathe and nourish themselves through that phial of nutrient-rich liquid mounted on their faces. If you listen carefully, you can hear the sound of shattering glass as he sinks into the quicksand, attemtping to indicate his impending doom. I fully expected him to sink to the bottom, walk or climb his way out and meet up with them letter. But I expect one miraculous survival is enough for any Doctor Who story.Liz Shaw was a good example of an attempt to give The Doctor a more peer-like companion in the Pertwee years. She was an established scientist, able and willing to stand up to Doctor, and was able to make the odd helpful suggestion on occasion. When she was eventually replaced by Jo Grant in a later season, Liz (as quoted by The Brigadier) says that all The Doctor really needed for an assistant was "someone to hand him test tubes and tell him how brilliant he is". Liz was a memorable companion, and Caroline John returned to play her in a series of BBV fan-produced stories about a UNIT/Torchwood-like organization called PROBE.Guest Star report – Cobb, the leader of the humans is played by Nigel Terry; quite the busy actor in England, but best known in America for the role of King Arthur in Excalibur. That magnificent voice is still instantly recognizable, and he actually looks quite a bit like he did when the old-age makeup was applied in the film.I get the distinct impression that there are indeed no concrete plans to see Jenny again anytime soon, it's just another delicious open plot thread that the creators are leaving for future teams to pick up on. They gave us the Flash Gordonesque shot of a lady's hand picking The Master's ring at the end of last season, and there's more than a few reverse breadcrumbs coming in the next few episodes. Of course, if she's the Doctor's (genetic) daughter, she could call herself Nurse Jenny is that name wasn't already taken…
In the commentary (directory Alice Troughton, Russell Davies and David Tennant), they mentioned that small part she auditioned for was in the next episode – Unicorn and the Wasp. They also mentioned the audition for Rose (and most of the info your first paragraph) and Russell Davies tells that it was Steven Moffat's idea for Jenny to live. They also said that The Source was originally going to be in a factory corridor, but it was Phil Collinson's idea to have a green house. They had to block the windows for filming. They also mention a nice blooper on the "funeral" scene – Alice Troughton on viewing that says, "the t-shirt has regenerated." There is no longer a bullet hole in it. They do discuss the Peck and Gable, but I can't remember much about that besides them indicating the reference to the actors. The episode straddled Christmas in filming. One of the tunnels became a Santa's grotto while they weren't using it.Russell Davies brought up the question about the TARDIS' translation circuits and why we couldn't understand the Hath. He said that Martha did start to understand them and but having them speak in bubbles – "it is more fun." They also mention that it was Freema's idea to look at her engagement ring at the end. David Tennant mentions that they cut out a brief bit of him either miming or asking her to call him.
I'm glad they didn't kill Jenny off permanently as I would have found that a bit too predictable.In fact, as I watched, I noted that she was cannon fodder, someone who existed to make the Doctor feel terrible and let Tennant play anguished — which he does very well. Instead, they pulled a Spock — terraformed planet revives her, or so it seemed to me — and let her go racing off to the stars which made ME feel good — which I like a Doctor Who episode to do. Moffat had it right, IMO. Makes me feel good about his upcoming tenure as well.
Those who don't want to see even mild spoilers would do well to skip this comment:SPOILERSPACESPOILERSPACEFAMILY MATTERS: After spending much of the episode trying to convince The Doctor that he should consider Jenny his daughter, he explains that his resistance to the notion is the result of having had a family in the past — and losing them. While some might wonder where that revelation came from, the idea of The Doctor having a family harkens back to the very first episode of Doctor Who, "An Unearthly Child." For much of the first few seasons, The Doctor traveled with his granddaughter, Susan Foreman, as well as two of her teachers. The Doctor has also mentioned having a family several times throughout the new series, such as the time he told former companion Rose Tyler that he "was a dad once" in the episode titled "Fear Her."Couple of episodes down the road – "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of Death", written by Moffat, we meet up with Doctor River Song, an archaeologist who knows the Doctor – but who the Doctor has not met. She carries an obviously old an well used (and thick) diary, decorated to resemble the TARDIS, which she will not let the Doctor read – at his behest, because it contains spoilers, she says.She possesses certain objects that she says the Doctor is going to give her.A lot of fanboy types are guessing that she is the Doctor's (future) wife, or perhaps his daughter (not Jenny).Remember the remark the Oud made, that we thought meant that the Doctor is coming up on another regeneration soon? The one about his "song" ending soon?NAME GAMES: Jenny becomes the latest character to ask The Doctor about his real name in this episode. Very important (but tantalisingly unresolved) reference to this coming up.According to various reports (including David Tennant's page on Wikipedia), Tennant is currently involved in a serious romantic relationship with Georgia Moffet, who plays his character's "daughter" in this episode. Well, Tom Baker was married to Lalla Ward for 16 months…
With just one line "You talk all the time but you don't say anything", Donna Noble becomes the greatest companion ever.
On the other hand, there's that great bit in "Runaway Bride" in which the Doctor is working on opening a door with Donna standing behind him and he's ramblin on about this and that an suddenly without a pause he says "…and you've never been quiet for this long…", looks around, and, indeed, Donna has been snatched.
the expression "Chinese Whispers" is commonly used in the UK..it's actually a kids game where you all sit in a circle, you whisper a phrase to the person next to you, they whisper it to the person next to them and so on.. when it comes back around to the first person, it will have changed somewhat in the telling.. thats the game!