"Father's Day," "The Empty Child," 'The Doctor Dances" and "Boom Town"
I remember thinking fondly about "Father's Day." It was one of the few episodes that I watched my first run through of series one, and it has some of those classic deep moments that I love about Doctor Who. At one point, the Doctor swears he's going to leave his companion behind and maybe might have (no matter what he says at the end of the episode) if time hadn't robbed him of the TARDIS. And there's this quick acknowledgement that this sort of thing wouldn't have happened if the Time Lords were still around. Not only would the Doctor probably not have dared crossing his own time line when other Time Lords were there to catch him, but his people would have cleaned up the paradox/time-wackiness.
And then there's the ending--where Rose finally has the courage to hold her father as he dies. She's faced Daleks, the End of the World, and a giant monster at the top of a space station with little more than a couple of screams, but she can't say goodbye again. It's a touching moment, a moment when we get to see how similar Rose is to her dead father, combined with just enough dark undertones to keep it from being sappy.
But "Father's Day" has a rigid take on time travel that the rest of the series soon starts to ignore. Sure, the whole problem is that Rose and the Doctor cross their own time line creating a sort of weak point in the fabric of time and space--but series five and Amy Pond anyone? Anyone?). "Father's Day" therefore doesn't seem to fit in the cannon of the show anymore, but exists in some sort of no-man's land for things with other Doctor Who plots and elements that sorta work but don't really if you think about it too hard.
But maybe I was just in a rush to get through the episode because I knew the next one had THIS guy....
Man. Captain Jack is awesome. From the beginning, it's obvious that this man is a lot of what the Doctor is not. He uses technology to simplify matters, he flirts with most anything that walks, he's selfish, he's uses time travel as a means for his own gain, he carries a gun, he's out for himself and no one else. It's obvious that in the absence of Time Lords some other type of organization would have to take it's place, and the introduction of Time Agents is one that, at this early stage, still had a whole lot of potential. (The fact that for the most part the organization soon enters the no-man's land with "Father's Day" is pretty disappointing). But hanging out with the Doctor changes a man. Earlier in the episode, Jack would have come up with a way to cover his tracks and make a hasty retreat when faced with a giant bomb. But by the end of the episode, the conman is willing to die for others because he knows that's what the Doctor would do. And so the man abandons his profession and decides to travel with a man from some North somewhere and a girl.
The introduction of Captain Jack also allows for the Doctor to run across another time traveler. Nine's greatest comedic moment is when he switches out the Captain's blaster for a banana. Of course there's a back and forth masculine "Rose is mine!" thing going on. The Doctor noticeably doesn't let Jack cut in at the end (a rare selfish move for him). But although Rose is of course tempted, there's a difference between a former Time Agent and a Time Lord--especially this Time Lord. By the end of the first episode, Rose has already switched her loyalties back to the Doctor (although they had really never strayed) and Jack soon realizes that it will always be the Doctor and Rose.
But Steven Moffat's first two-parter of new Who isn't all about the Captain. It's also about an Empty Child whose just looking for his mother. What the Moffat does best and what he'll do over and over and over again is to take things that we all know and love, like little five-year old boys, and make them ridiculously scary. With the Empty Child, he takes everything about being human out of this small boy and the result is terrifying.
This is also one of those rare episodes where everybody lives. For a show that's still (at rare times) called a family/children's show, Doctor Who stacks up a lot of bodies. But at the end of this episode, the universe gives the Doctor a gift. Everybody lives. And he's so excited, that he dances.
But my favorite episode of the series so far (because if I remember correctly there's a pretty terrific episode just around the corner) has to be "Boom Town" which is surprising because a) not a lot actually happens in the episode and b) it features the Slitheen. Not surprisingly, however, I love this episode for it's character moments. First, Mickey finally comes back into the picture and dumps Rose. I'm not in the camp of people that think that, if the Doctor hadn't taken her hand in the shop and told her to run, Mickey and Rose would have lived happily ever after. Rose obviously was eventually going to go off and do something drastic with her life, leaving Mickey behind. But his last scene is still a great moment for Mickey--a moment where he finally leaves her guessing where he is instead of the reverse.
There's also the continued adventures of Captain Jack in the TARDIS. I like to imagine that the trio has been off having wild adventures between "The Doctor Dances" and "Boom Town." The three of them are so in sync, so connected in their shared love of time, space, and adventures that Mickey immediately notices that he doesn't belong. Also there's the continued evolution of Jack's relationship with the Doctor--he's not the superior mind with the most experience anymore.
But the real character moments are with the Doctor. He very quickly and easily captures his opponent and is all set to bring her back to her home planet to face justice, but he's then forced with the label of being her executioner. And suddenly he's called a murderer again. And even as Nine nears his end and his final redemption, he still isn't comfortable with the truth of that statement. He's killed two entire races, obliterated them in fact, and in many ways that makes him far worse from the creature that is sitting across the table from him.
The danger of the Doctor and the damage he does isn't easily resolved--even after he regenerates a couple of times. He's the most powerful creature left in the universe and that power is scary. As Margaret the Slitheen acknowledges, she has no where to run when the Doctor is looking.
Next Up: "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways." But first, a bonus picture of Captain Jack.
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