I am – Hercules!!

“Doctor Dan” says:

DOCTOR WHO 4.6 – "The Doctor's Daughter"

Writer: Stephen Greenhorn
Director: Alice Troughton

Cast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Catherine Tate (Donna Noble), Georgia Moffett (Jenny), Nigel Terry (Cobb), Joe Dempsie (Cline), Paul Kasey (Hath Peck), Ruari Mears (Hath Gable), Akin Gazi (Carter) & Olalekan Lawal Jr (Soldier)

After arriving on the planet Messaline, Martha is kidnapped by militaristic fish-like humanoids called the Hath, and The Doctor meets a young woman with a close connection to him...

Can you smell the oestrogen? The Doctor (David Tennant) is joined by three female companions this week, as the TARDIS whisks him to the planet Messaline with Martha (Freema Agyeman) and Donna (Catherine Tate), only to be forcibly used as the blueprint for a genetically-created "daughter" who comes to be known as Jenny (Georgia Moffett). And that all happens in the teaser!

To be honest, this episode was a bit too hectic for its own good, but the breathless pace and some enjoyable moments eventually dovetailed in a decent climax. The Doctor discovers that the people of Messaline have been engaged in a generations-long battle with fish-humanoid enemy The Hath (trout-headed men with green optics bolted into their mouths). As a pacifist, The Doctor tries to end the pointless war that's been raging beneath the planet's surface (in a web of tunnels snaking out from a theatre), as it's lost all meaning and both sides refuse to back down -- out of stubbornness and a misplaced sense of tradition. The situation isn't helped by the fact both sides have access to high-tech equipment ("progenation machines") that can create a stream of battle-ready soldiers, so there's little chance of one side losing through mass fatalities...

Inevitably, Martha gets separated from everyone but befriends a Hath (by helping with its dislocated shoulder) and earns their species' trust. The creatures only talk in a flurry of bubbles, although Martha apparently has their language translated by the TARDIS (we just don't have any subtitles as the viewers). I think writer Stephen Greenhorn missed a trick in avoiding an Enemy Mine overtone to the Martha/Hath interplay, but perhaps it would have just been too difficult to pull off in 45-minutes...

Besides, it's not long before The Doctor, Donna and Jenny accidentally help both sides realize there's a mythical "Source" in a hidden network of tunnels. Both societies have a Creationist myth about how they came to be, and The Doctor seems to have been instrumental in leading them toward this "divine knowledge". So the hunt is on, with the humans, led by Cobb (Nigel Terry), chasing after The Doctor, Donna and Jenny through a labyrinth of new tunnels, as Martha leads her befriended Hath to the Source across the dark, windswept planet's surface...

The Doctor's Daughter is something of a typical episode. My first impression of everything wasn't good; with the set-up and sketchily-drawn characters quickly preparing me for a bog-standard cost-cutting adventure. That said, it was impossible not to be swept along by everything, and Greenhorn's story soon started showing signs of texture and intelligence...

As the titular Doctor's daughter, Jenny is pure delight. Georgia Moffett's obviously lovely to look at, but she's also great fun. Issue of parental responsibility are tackled, as The Doctor is initially dismissive of Jenny as nothing but a genetic creation, not a true child – until he hears her dual-heartbeat. For all the swagger about war and some mystical overtones, this episode is at its best when dealing with The Doctor's burgeoning affection for his offspring. Jenny was introduced in a split-second (irritatingly), but her relationship with her "dad" evolves very nicely, brilliantly stirred along by a more thoughtful Donna's comments.

Yes, Catherine Tate's very good here; acting as a decent counterbalance to The Doctor in his turmoil over being lumbered with parenthood. There are a few "comedy bits" that Tate once again lurches into ("GI Jane!"), but for the most part I liked her interactions and she even outsmarts The Doctor in resolving the mystery about the Source (using knowledge gleamed from a "temp job" again, amusingly.)

On the flipside, poor Freema Agyeman finds herself in another three-episode stint where she was only required for one (see season 2 of Torchwood.) I loved her enthusiasm and quick-thinking last season, but it's clear now that she's a character who's run her course. This episode gives her a subplot that acts as a balance (by showing things from "the enemy" perspective), but ultimately she's surplus to requirement. And you just can't imagine Martha Jones giving The Doctor a pep talk on being a good dad, can you? She's too young, really. Donna's maturity has its downsides on the show, but she's better placed to tackle The Doctor on weightier issues. If we do see Martha Jones again, fine -- I like her. But I'm not leading signing a petition to get her re-instated for season 5, sorry...

David Tennant doesn't get the same quality of witty remarks and quips under Greenhorn's pen, but he's brilliant at the emotional stuff with Jenny. His unease over her creation, then grudging fondness, followed by excitement about having a daughter accompany him on adventures, was handled superbly. I particularly liked how Jenny seemed to rise above her war-like "programming" to become more like her father, when she decided not to kill their pursuers. SPOILERS BEGIN. The eventual demise of Jenny perhaps shouldn't have worked (as we'd only spent 40-minutes in her company), but thanks to Moffett and Tennant's skills, they pulled her death scene off well. I was priming myself to begin a Sally Sparrow-like campaign to get Jenny reinstated on the show, so when she was joyously resurrected and blasted off into space in her own space-ship (bound for a spin-off adventure of her own?) I had to grin. Wonderful! I can't wait to see her again. SPOILERS END.

Overall, The Doctor's Daughter was an episode with a relatively unexciting premise, rescued by a late-twist that put everything into a fresh perspective. But the real pleasure of the episode came not from the extraneous Martha, the wasted Hath, or the humdrum premise (too much running down corridors this week), but the simple pleasure in seeing The Doctor interact with his child. It was Tennant's touching performance, and the doe-eyed charms of sexy Georgia Moffett doing somersaults down a corridor of laser-beams, that ensured this adventure's success...

The Good

1. David Tennant (less witty than usual as The Doctor, but excellent when called upon to handle the weight of parenthood). Catherine Tate (improving every week -- just drop the lock-jawed outbursts, please?) and the delectable Georgia Moffett. Forget Sarah Jane Adventures – I think every kid (and plenty of men) want to see where Jenny goes in her rocket.

2. The eventual twist and explanation for the human/Hath conflict was inventive and certainly helped gloss over a slightly dull premise.

3. Some great alien world landscapes, once we broke out of the identikit corridors.

The Bad

1. Freema Agyeman. She did her best, but Martha was wasted and her presence just unbalances everything. And the less said about the silly "quicksand" moment, the better. Was anyone else contemplating screaming "Atreyuuuu!" at the screen?

2. All of the supporting players were blander than bland this week. Nigel Terry deserved better, if only for the brave decision to have a villain use a West Country accent.

3. It wasn't bad, really, but the basic storyline was a bit forgettable and disposable. If it wasn't for the late-twist about the human/Hath history together, I'd have been more upset.

4. The Hath. A silly fishy-design, that also meant they never talked. I know the characters could understand their bubbly noise, but it's a shame Who's budget can't stretch to animatronic mouths (see also: The Face Of Boe, The Ood, Torchwood's Weevils, etc). The Hath looked like actors in boiler suits with rubber heads on. More so than usual, I mean.

The Geeky

1. In the season 2 episode Fear Her, The Doctor mentioned he "was a dad once".

2. The only member of The Doctor's family seen in the series before was his granddaughter Susan Foreman, who last appeared in The Five Doctors. The Eighth Doctor adopted a daughter called Miranda in a range of novels by author Lance Parkin, but it's debatable if these are show canon.

3. Georgia Moffett (Jenny) is the real-life daughter of actors Peter Davison (who played the Fifth Doctor) and Sandra Dickinson (who played Trillian in The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy TV series.) The reason her surname is Moffett is that Davison is the stage-name of her father.

4. Moffett starred opposite her father's incarnation of the Time Lord in the Big Finish audio story Red Dawn. She also auditioned for the role of Rose Tyler that eventually went to Billie Piper.

5. All the Hath dialogue was fully scripted, just not subtitled. They included a mild bit of profanity!

6. Jenny's acrobatics through the corridor of deadly laser-beams was inspired by Britney Spears' "Toxic" music video.

7. At one point Donna asks what a female Time Lord is called, but The Doctor doesn't respond. The answer is: Time Lady. In the show we have seen Rodan (1978s The Invasion Of Time) and Romana (1978s The Ribos Operation.)

Rating: 3 / 5

“Seresecros” says:

Here’s a spoiler warning: “The Daughters Daughter” is perhaps the weakest episode of Doctor Who we’ve seen under Russell T. Davies’ command yet. From the contrived opening sequence through to the tacky battle sequences and spectacularly uninteresting plot, it goes nowhere for 40 minutes. After a quick bit of blather where Donna, Martha and the Doctor deliver some standard lines about how shocking it is that the Tardis has gone haywire, the thing lands in the middle of an underground tunnel in a world where a group of humans are fighting a group of fish monsters called the Hath. Why? Well, uh… oh look! The Doctor has a clone! Let’s focus on that instead.

Yes, the Doctor gets grabbed as soon as he lands and put into a DNA machine which looks strangely like the ones in Idiocracy, and a hatch duly opens and releases Jenny upon the world. Technically she’s the daughter of the Doctor, but instead of getting any exploration of this we instead get a lot of bickering and monologues instead. Practically the entire episode is made up of Donna saying “isn’t it amazing that you have a daughter?”, the Doctor denying that she’s really his daughter, and Jenny talking about how much she loves fighting. It gets tiring very very quickly, but the worst thing is that there’s really no need to her to exist at all. The fact she’s created from DNA provided by the Doctor is at no point relevant to the plot – she’s here for one episode, and then she sacrifices herself to save the Doctor. Anyone could have done that! Georgia Moffet is adorable, don't get me wrong, and you see her bring a sparky energy to her role, but the role is so underwritten and uninteresting that everything she does is overshadowed by the clunky plot device that introduces her.

There’s a lot of fighting in this episode between two groups. One group, the humans, are led by Nigel Terry, taking the “wooden plank” approach to leadership. Every line he delivers is flat and monotone, there’s no emotion or feeling behind any of his actions, meaning that when he turns ‘properly’ evil at the end, nobody is surprised. The plot is the barest of threads, and everything hangs off it limply. Speaking of, the giant fish creatures the hath are completely odd, the rubberest looking monsters we’ve seen since… the Autons, who were rubber by nature. Martha gets saddled with them for the B-plot after they kidnap her, and spends most of her time delivering exposition. When she finally gets round to doing something, it seems completely irrelevant and leads to the WORST MOMENT IN DR WHO HISTORY. A swamp is involved. You have to see it to believe it.

Neither of the B-plots eventually go anywhere, and we end up in a big room with all the characters together, as the Doctor gives a big speech about… something. It’s impossible to care about anyone involved here, and the contrivances that bring the plot to a head are just annoying. What’s worse is that writer Stephen Greenhorn’s take on the Doctor seems completely wrong. Instead of being fascinated by the machine which appears from nowhere and replicates a daughter from his DNA, he actively tries to disown her. It feels like a cheap way to distance the Doctor from the audience, and Tennant’s performance is anything but convincing. You can tell when he feels bored with the role, and here he has to deliver a lot of wooden dialogue which goes nowhere, and the desperation and annoyance in his eyes seems to come from Tennant instead of the Doctor. He’s as tired with the premise of the show as we are.

Not everything’s bad, although depending on your feelings about Catherine Tate this next statement may tell you everything you need to know about the ep: Donna is the best thing in it. Her character is smart and witty, and actually shows human emotions that anyone could relate to. Whereas Martha is crying her eyes out because a fish monster died (by drowning! WHAT?) and the humans are fighting because - wait, that was never really explained – Donna is trying to do something about the situation and fix things. She steps into the role of the main companion, and she brings some sense of gravity to proceedings. I know she gets a lot of stick online, but she’s the best thing for the series right now.

Every now and again Doctor Who fumbles an episode – oh Michelle Collins, where art thou – and this is a classic example. The plot makes no sense even in a sci-fi setting, the characterisations are wrong, everything about this episode is awful. And don’t even get me started on that bolted-on epilogue, which seems more like an excuse for another spin-off than anything else. This is a filler episode, but the writers don’t even have the courtesy to make it, at the very least, an entertaining bit of filler. The worst piece of TV I’ve seen in a long while.

Episode Rating: F.

Other Points of Interest:

How does Martha know about regeneration? She’s never seen one!

That scene where Jenny flips through the wire grid is even worse than it looked on the trailer. What was the point again?

At least Martha’s out of the picture, our of the Tardis. I still don’t understand why she needed to be in there in the first place.

Next week: A murder-mystery? With Agatha Christie! Golly…

“Kelvington” says:

In the first thirty seconds of the episode they explain how the Doctor has a daughter and it's more boring that you can imagine. The main thrust of the episode is the separation of Martha and the TARDIS from the Doctor. Seems we have a war between humans and half-fish half humans creatures. The humans are sort of extrapolated from each other, which is how the Doctor's daughter comes into being. (I said it was boring) As for the fish heads, they talk to each other by blowing bubbles in the face masks. Which oddly the TARDIS doesn't translate for Martha.

The crux of the story is there's a war between the fish heads and the humans, it's gone on for generations and they are looking for something called the MacGuffin... I mean the source. Which will help them wipe out the fish heads, after a heated debate the Doctor and Donna get locked up as both side start searching for the Source. In the mean time we get some introspection from The Doctor and his new daughter. Martha hatches a plan to get to the source before everyone else, by going out side, with one of her fishy friends. When the fish head dies in a sludge pool it's meant to be sad, but instead it's just awkward, it's one of the few times I would say Freema's acting wasn't on par.

As an episode it looks pretty but there's very little substance here, I wasn't impressed with either the story which is borrowed heavily from the Genesis device or look of the fish heads. The acting was fairly good, and Donna was kept on a pretty short leash here, but overall this is not my favorite episode. I think it has to do with the lack of mystery that surrounds the title character. With at title like "The Doctor's Daughter" I wanted something fantastic, something amazing, some mystery. Not, stick your hand in a machine and out pops a fully formed girl.

The ending and the end of The Doctor Daughter is contrived at best. While this is no "Love and Monsters" it's certainly not good.

Just my 2¢

“DJ Bollocks” says:

Tardis lands - Doctor processed by a bloke that looks like he didn't make the cut for McFly - and is if by magic Stars In Their Eyes style through the door a Daughter is created - "Hello Dad !"

Everyone attacked - explosions and Martha is captured - hair looks undamaged though - by some amphibian human hybrid with Lime slushies for mouths - The Hath - Martha makes fishy friends by undislocating a shoulder...

The "Generated Anomaly" becomes Jenny and the first discussion of the numbers that are attached to the ceilings and corridors...

and we're in what looks like the old ECW Arena where we meet General Cobb... wo apparantly rules the human roost...

Then we meet The Hath - Martha seems quite popular

They're underground, with apparently a long war having been fought between the humans and the Hath

"It's our inheritance it's what we know - How to fight and how to die..."

Some clunky dialogue about The Breath of Life, The Source and The Lost Temple - It's Like a Macho Dungeons & Dragons in here as maps are revealed...

A scene about whether the Doctor is a soldier or not as he gets some quality time with his 'daughter' as they are put in jail for being pacifists...

So The Hath and the Humans are both going to the Temple - "and to victory !"

She's got two hearts and then it becomes real to the Doctor.... More Time War reflection... and the comparisons... "then how are we different ?"

Martha tinkers with the ever expanding map...

Jenny is hot... in a Kristen Bell sandwich kinda way... Peter Davison's daughter doncha know...

A Get out of jail free mouse... And a Hathering Ram... *ahem*

There's a reason why they're not down on the surface and Martha finds out... 3 suns and a bit Transylvanian looking - Thankfully no Cheeky Girls...

The General finds out his prisoners have escaped...

More with the numbers... what could they mean ?

"That's not mood lighting is it...."

More numbers and more referencing of choices - The Sontarans had a choice too.... "When it comes to killing, there's always a choice.."

"Watch and learn father..."

Martha in Transylvania - into the gloop... Poor Freema seems to be getting all the messy jobs... Plastic fish apparently drowns and Martha really OD's on the death scene emotions...

Oh, this is is going to end unhappily...

Our troubled Doctor reflects on his previous kids... and the heartbreak and pain... Tears before bedtime anyone ?

More numbers and the temple approaces... Of course nothing is as it seems and it's a spaceship... They discover what appears to be a clock and the numbers situation is solved as they read the ships log...

"Two armies fighting a never ending war..."

"This war started 7 days ago..."

"They've mythologised their entire history..."

All the creating new soldiers had made them believe that they had been fighting for generations...

The Source is a Terraforming device (Third Generation) for making a world where Humans and the Hath could live together..

The Doctor unleashes the device and everyone lays down their weapons apart from the General who shoots Jenny....

Emotional death scene - more war is hell....

Time to go home as we drop Martha off...

"I'm going to travel with that man forever..." Oh the foreboding for Donna...

And Martha's story is wrapped up nicely....

Back to Jenny and we get the regeneration fx out of her mouth... is she going to change ? No ! But she's out in the temple/rocket exploring the universe - no doubt we'll see her again soon !

A good fun Doctor Who romp this week... nothing spectacular, a bit of fun, told a good story, ended Martha's tale (for now) some subtle foreboding of things to come albeit a crap alien and some clicheed War is Hell analogies....

Next week it's Agatha Christie in what already looks like a great BBC costume drama piece...

“Alex” says:

Okay I’m going to give a very brief review of this weeks Who. The story centres on The Doctor, Donna and Martha being brought to an alien planet (by the Tardis). On arrival the doctor is forced to put his hand into a strange device that creates “he Doctors Daughter”.

The Good:

Martha Jones – my favourite companion. Her emotional scene in this (with the Hath) is very well handled by Miss Ageyman

Donna Noble – Tate is great at playing The Doctors conscience.

Jenny – the Doctors Daughter played by Georgia Moffet. She’s seriously cute and I expect we’ll see her again soon (Season 5 companion???).

The Bad:

There are quite a few plot holes - if they’ve only been fighting for 7 days, then why is the general so old? Surely he was created within those 7 days as a teenager?

The Hath – I like the idea of them. But clearly they didn’t have a lot of FX budget left, nothing special here…

The story itself is nothing great and seems like a rehash of the last two episodes…

Martha Jones leaves…

Jenny’s death fails to resonate as you know she is doomed (we know she doesn’t end up with the doctor this series). Her resurrection then becomes obvious with the terrorforming…

….

Okay so not the greatest this series… but there’s some good character stuff here from Martha, Donna and Jenny. Can’t wait for Miss Jones to return later this series and let’s hope we haven’t seen the last of Jenny.

2.5/5

Alex Morris

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