The Doctor’s Daughter – a Review

I really liked Stephen Greenhorn’s story last year, The Lazarus Experiment.  Yeah, it had a plot so simple that you’d sort of figured out the ending within 30 seconds of the pre-teaser sequence, but I liked how good the writing was.  Tennant was in top form, and his scenes with Mark Gattis – especially toward the end of the episode – were an absolute highlight.

The Doctor’s Daughter is a different beast altogether.  In an attempt to compensate for last years very simple plot, Greenhorn gives us a story that’s bursting at the seams.  We have an alien planet.  A war between two races.  A search for something mystical.  A mystery as to how the war started and why.  And to top it all off, we have Jenny – the Doctor’s daughter.  It’s ambitious, I’ll give it that.

Unfortunately, it all starts to fall apart within 60 seconds of the pre-teaser sequence.  I can just about accept the progenitor machine and it’s magical properties.  I can just about swallow that in the space of about thirty seconds it can combine, recombine and then re-re combine someone’s DNA (even the DNA of someone who it’s likely never, ever encountered before) into a human (or non human) adult.  I can also, mostly, accept that the machine has the capacity to download 20 generations of strategy and myth into the clone / new offspring’s head.  And, I suppose I can sort of (but not really) accept that it can kit the new, adult into clothing (and also apply make-up and eyeliner).  But what I can’t accept is why this machine is in the story in the first place.

This story should have been about the mystery of how Jenny came to be.  The Doctor should have stepped out of the TARDIS, met this gorgeous blonde girl and then be shocked when his spider Time Lord sense tingled, telling him that she might be one of his kind.  And what a revelation that would be, considering the events of Season 3.  Of course, you can still have all the running around and the shooting and the war with the Hath (though I’d rather you didn’t), but at least have that central mystery resting at the centre of the story – how is this girl the Doctor’s Daughter?  And, then come up with an answer that (a) isn’t a cop out or (b) doesn’t involve a cloning machine.  In other words, take the idea of the Doctor’s Daughter and do something bold and interesting with it.

But instead we get that horrible opening scene and that horrible first line from Jenny.  “Hello Dad” indeed.

And that’s not the only issue with this hodge podge of a story.  The progenitor machine – and the 7 day war concept (which I liked, and more of later) raises the problem of General Cobb.  Everyone on the interweb has asked the same question.  How is it that everyone else is so young and that Cobb is so old?  Am I to believe that Cobb is one of the original colonists?  Because if I am, it aint in the dialogue.  Or should I just note this down as another magical property of the machine?

Also, what’s Martha doing here?  Rumours abound on the interweb about contractual obligations and the like.  And it might just be the case that Greenhorn was lumped with having Martha in the story.  But even so, at least give her something interesting to do.  Her stuff with the Hath is just awful,  I mean, the Hath are OK,they’re an interesting design and all, and I like that they only speak in bubbles.  But the moment they meet Martha they become all sheepish and nice and sweet.  All because she un-dislocated a shoulder.  The patting of Martha was nice, in concept, but all it does is undermine the Hath as an opposing side in a genocidal war between two factions.  There’s probably a message here about mis-communication and how peace is just a dislocated shoulder away, but if its there, I missed it.

The biggest problem with Martha isn’t Freema’s a bit rubbish acting – including that awful bit where Mr Hath drowns.  No, it’s how her presence hurts the structure of the story.  Without Martha in the story, it becomes Donna who gets captured by the Hath, and who has thrilling adventures with them involving shoulder dislocation and mud pools.  And this leaves the Doctor to come to terms with his daughter without being prodded by someone else.  And isn’t that more interesting?  To remove any sort of safety net and have the Doctor actually deal with his feelings without being told by Donna that he should love this strange, violent young woman. 

And then there’s Jenny herself.  Georgia Moffat is actually very good in the role – if a bit one note.  And in a short space of time, you begin to like her character.  But Daughter’s Doctor is not Girl in the Fireplace, so any emotional bond between the Doctor and Jenny is forced and abrupt and manufactured for the convenience of the script.  And unfortunately it makes her death a cynical experience.  Rather than be touched by what’s just occurred, all I can think of is how predictable a scene this is and how Murray’s milking it for all its worth.  It’s not helped by Georgia Moffat being forced to cover her ‘gun wound’, even when dead, because the show can’t show any blood (unless its written by RTD and its episode 13).   And, of course, because I don’t buy her death, I’m certainly not gonna buy her resurrection, which is a shame because Jenny has interesting character written all over her.

And yet, for all my complaints and bitching and moaning and general criticism, I’m still going to give this story an average mark.  And there’s three reasons for this.  The first is Donna.  Whose great.  Again.  I like that she figures out the central mystery.  Yeah, all that temping stuff is a bit convenient, but I like it.  I also like the stethoscope scene, and Donna prodding the Doctor to recognise his daughter – even if I think, structurally, these scenes shouldn’t have included her.  That’s not Catherine Tate’s fault – and she’s great.

I also liked the 7-day war thing, only because I wasn’t expecting it.  I’m not sure how much actual sense it makes, and it does raise problems, like the existence of General Cobb, but I liked that it was something different and interesting.  If only they’d applied the same imagination to the Doctor’s Daughter bit of the story.

And finally there’s David’s acting.  After last week where he was a bit rubbish, he really nails all the important scenes in Doctor’s Daughter.  For all its problems, as with Lazarus Experiment, Greenhorn actually gives Tennant some stuff to work with.  Yes, it’s not what I wanted and it’s truncated and it’s emotional manipulative – but… Tennant does a brilliant job selling it.  When he tells Donna about his family – with all its fannish implications – you feel the Doctor’s pain and that he’s still hurt by the loss of his family.  And even when he resorts to shouting at the end – this is one of the very few occasions where it works, where it’s believable, where it demonstrates how brilliant an actor David truly is and how he can rise above the mediocre.

Sometimes.

God, haven’t I become a Doctor Who moaner.  When did that happen?  I do love the series, I do love Rusty and his vision, I even like bits of Season 4.  But this episode so frustrated me because it could have been so much better and yet it misses a trick at every beat.  Actually, in retrospect, this episode really isn’t a curate’s egg, but just something that’s a bit not very good.

Still, if not for David, and Donna and one interesting twist that I didn’t see coming, this episode would be a 3 or 4 out of 10.  But instead, I’m giving it a 5/10.  And again, I’m probably being too generous.