| 193 – "The Doctor's Daughter" | |||||
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| Doctor Who episode | |||||
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Others
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| Production | |||||
| Writer | Stephen Greenhorn | ||||
| Director | Alice Troughton | ||||
| Script editor | Lindsey Alford | ||||
| Producer | Phil Collinson | ||||
| Executive producer(s) | Russell T Davies Julie Gardner |
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| Production code | 4.6 | ||||
| Series | Series 4 | ||||
| Length | 45 minutes | ||||
| Originally broadcast | 10 May 2008 | ||||
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"The Doctor's Daughter"[1] is the sixth episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 10 May 2008.[2]
Contents |
Continuing from where "The Poison Sky" left off, the TARDIS kidnaps the Doctor and his companions and whisks them away to the planet Messaline, in the midst of a generations-long war between humans and the Hath, fish-like humanoids. Emerging from the TARDIS, Martha reveals that although she wanted to be home, she did miss the adventure. They are then met by armed men working for General Cobb. Cline, the leader of the men, forces the Doctor's hand in a progenation machine, using his DNA to create a female soldier, the episode's title character. Born without a name, she is named Jenny by Donna after the Doctor describes her as a 'generated anomaly'.
Martha is captured by the Hath, and, following an explosion caused by Jenny, the Doctor, Donna, and Jenny are imprisoned by General Cobb because of the Doctor's pacifist attitude. Each of the primary characters learns about the war from its belligerents; the Hath and humans were initially meant to live in a peaceful colony, but were divided over a dispute about "the Source", believed by each side to be the breath of their creator. When the Doctor unwittingly reveals the location of the Source, the two sides race to claim it first. The Doctor, Donna and Jenny escape their prison cell when Jenny distracts Cline by flirting with him, and then holding him at gunpoint.
The Doctor is initially dismissive of Jenny but becomes closer to her as the episode progresses. Donna is also intrigued by a series of numbered plaques she notices in each room. When they reach the location of the Source, it turns out to be a terraforming device within a colonising spaceship. They discover that the plaques represent the date the building was completed, which was a mere seven days previous; the humans and Hath have bred so many generations through the progenation machines that their own history degraded into myth. The original casus belli was a power vacuum caused by the death of the mission commander.
Meanwhile, Martha has been making her own way to the Source via the surface with a Hath who dies saving her from quicksand. Devastated, she reunites with the Doctor and Donna near the Source shortly before both armies arrive.
The Doctor declares the war to be over, and releases the terraforming agent; everyone present lays down their weapons, with the exception of Cobb who tries to shoot the Doctor. Jenny steps in the way and takes a bullet to the chest. The Doctor cries as he holds her, lovingly telling Jenny they have many journeys to take as father and daughter. She replies she'd like to do that, and finally passes away. Enraged, the Doctor picks up Cobb's gun and holds him at gunpoint, to the shock of Martha and Donna, but refuses to shoot him. Angrily, the Doctor orders the humans and the Hath to build their society on the basis of 'the man who never would'.
With Jenny to be given a proper burial by Cline and the Hath, the Doctor takes Martha home. Martha says she can't handle the death and devastation any more and warns Donna that life with the Doctor can be dangerous. Donna nevertheless resolves to stay with the Doctor indefinitely. As Donna leaves them to walk on their own, the Doctor rehashes one of his lines from their time together ("We're making a habit of this"), while Martha expresses her sorrow about the Doctor losing Jenny. He remarks that there's always something worth living for before hugging Martha tightly and departing as Martha happily runs inside her home.
Concurrently, on Messaline, Jenny revives. She escapes Messaline, determined to follow in her father's footsteps by resolving disputes, fighting villains, and doing "an awful lot of running" (referencing Donna's explanation of what life with the Doctor is like).
In "Fear Her" the Doctor mentioned to Rose he "was a dad once".[3] The only other member of the Doctor's family seen in the series has been Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter, who travelled as the First Doctor's companion until The Dalek Invasion of Earth. The Second Doctor tells Victoria Waterfield of his family in The Tomb of the Cybermen, claiming they "sleep in [his] mind".[4] The Eighth Doctor, during his century-long amnesic exile on Earth (The Ancestor Cell to Escape Velocity), also adopted a young girl called Miranda in the 1980s (Father Time).
Russell T Davies has stated that this episode "does exactly as it says on the tin".[5] Jenny's death was originally to take place in what Davies called "a Generic Spaceship Room", but producer Phil Collinson suggested filming the scene at Plantasia botanical garden in Swansea.[6][7] Having Jenny come back to life at the end of the episode was Steven Moffat's idea.[5]
Georgia Moffett, who plays Jenny, is the real-life daughter of Fifth Doctor actor Peter Davison and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy star Sandra Dickinson.[1] David Tennant described the episode by saying "We get to see the Doctor's daughter, played by the Doctor's daughter."[8] Moffett had previously auditioned for the role of Rose Tyler in 2004 and a role in "The Unicorn and the Wasp" in 2007. Her role as Jenny was not chosen because of her father; it was entirely coincidental but nevertheless a "great PR coup" for the series.[5] Moffett previously appeared alongside her father in the Big Finish audio story Red Dawn and drama series Fear, Stress & Anger. In Doctor Who Confidential, Peter Davison stated that after he finished filming "Time Crash", he said to Georgia "[now] it's your turn".
Unofficial figures indicated that "The Doctor's Daughter" was watched by 6.6 million viewers, giving it a 38.4% share of the total television audience. The final consolidated figure was 7.33 million viewers.[9] While most programmes received lower figures than the previous week, Doctor Who had increased its audience. The top rated programme of the day was still ITV1's Britain's Got Talent although its audience was down by a million at 8.17 million. Doctor Who was the highest rated programme on BBC1 for the day and had the biggest share of any programme on Saturday. The episode received an Appreciation Index score of 88 (considered "Excellent").[10]
"The Doctor's Daughter" received mixed reviews. David Chater of The Times described it as "A wonderful episode - funny, exciting and strangely moving."[11] Martin Anderson of Den of Geek! stated that it was "rather good - though badly plot-holed". He noted that it was yet another episode of Doctor Who "undermined by Murray Gold's incessant music". He also described the episode as "quite redolent of Tom Baker-era Who, with plenty of dark and cheap corridors to run down and two under-manned warring factions for the Doctor to bring peace to".[12] For SFX's Ian Berriman, the running up and down corridors was reminiscent of Lenny Henry's 1985 Doctor Who spoof featured on The Lenny Henry Show. Berriman described the episode as "underwhelming", citing that because one "always suspect[s] she's a redshirt" it is difficult to care for Jenny. Although "reasonably diverting", Berriman argues that budgetary constraints make "the story feel so enclosed" and that the episode's plot, likened to "old-school Trek", seems too similar to that of the Sontaran two-parter immediately prior to this adventure because both involve "militarism" and "cloning".[13] Newsround's Lizo Mzimba also notes the similarities with "The Sontaran Stratagem" and "The Poison Sky". Mzimba asserts that the episode's "biggest problem" is that it tries "to cram an enormous amount into 45 minutes" with most of the "interesting" and new ideas not getting "the attention they deserve" resulting in the audience not caring about either the human fighters or the Hath and thereby limiting a "sense of danger or menace".[14]
Mzimba observes that since her return in "The Sontaran Stratagem", Martha shares little onscreen time with the Doctor therefore reducing the emotional impact of her departure in this episode. He describes Moffett as "superb",[14] with Berriman calling her "cute as a button".[13] Berriman praises Tennant's performance,[13] but Anderson suggests that Tennant shouts too much. Anderson asserts that "Donna's role as the Doctor's conscience is beginning to take shape" describing this as "refreshing" in a companion and noting that "Tate has toned down the grating voice a tad".[12]
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