Doctor Who Series 1: Episode 8

Father's Day by Paul Cornell

Jul 3, 2007 Colin Harvey

In Father's Day, the TARDIS appears in 1987, on the day when Rose's father was killed. She's never seen him, as far as she can recollect; he died when she was a toddler.

In Father's Day, the TARDIS materializes in 1987. It's the day when Rose's father was killed. Rose has never seen him, as far as she can receollect, for he died when she was just a toddler.

She's had a lifetime of her mother Jacqui filling her head with stories of a wonderful man, cut down in his prime. But the reality is very different, and much shabbier. Pete Tyler is a wastrel who can't remember his wife's name at their wedding and has a string of get rich quick schemes, none of which ever work out, though the fault is never his.

But Rose knows none of this as they round the corner to witness him being knocked down by a hit and run driver.

"Go to him," the Doctor urges, but she shakes her head, and then it's too late.

Rose begs the Doctor to let her try again, and although he has obvious reservations, he agrees; but things are getting dangerous now -- there are two Roses from the same time-stream present, and she risks creating a paradox if she's not careful.

The Doctor's worst fears are made real when Rose rushes out and and knocks Pete out of the car's path, and in so doing, creates a paradox; a man who should have died is still alive.

In so doing, she's changed the course of history, and weakened the fabric of the universe, allowing strange creatures -- Reapers -- into reality, that consume anyone around the anamoly that Rose has created, and in the process 'tidying' the paradox up.

The Doctor, Rose and a motley band of survivors including a bride and groom, Pete and Jacqui and Baby Rose, all seek sanctuary in the local church. But even in here they are not safe, and the Doctor and Rose find that even the TARDIS is no use -- it has metamorphosed into a simple wooden box, solid where it should be an empty warehouse inside.

They watch a car appear and disappear, orbiting the church in the same way as the moon orbits the earth; the hit and run driver has been similarly thrown out of time by the paradox.

To make matters worse, Jacqui does not realize who Rose is, and the Doctor forbids Rose to tell her. But Jacqui thinks that Rose is a threat to her relationship, and jealous, spits out the truth about him.

The Doctor and Rose try everything, until it becomes clear to Pete, who has been watching and listening all this time, that there is really only one thing that can put things right. he must die, as close to the original time as possible, and under the wheels of the car.

Father's Day is at times almost too painful to watch; Paul Cornell's fine and powerful script deals with the emotional consequences of Rose's actions, and allows us to watch her learn the truth about her father, whom for almost twenty years Jacqui has built up in Rose's eyes. And then, as she becomes disenchanted with his human frailty, Cornell allows Pete Tyler a moment of sublime heroism.

Like Dalek, this is is mass-market television that transcends all genre, and is simply outstanding drama.

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