Day 744: The Doctor's Daughter

The Doctor's Daughter, as an episode, was brought about because Stephen Greenhorn, the writer, said that the Doctor was essentially an unchanging character, so Russell T Davies, the showrunner, wanted to challenge him on that point. Thus, the idea of having an episode where the Doctor has to deal with a genetic offspring was conceived. And whilst this idea may actually be rather interesting, the episode that builds on it just doesn't work, in my opinion.

The reason why it doesn't work is that it fails to allow the central concept to breathe. There are some really good scenes where the Doctor and Jenny spend time together, and they are what makes the episode worth watching but they aren't well drawn enough to give the impression that a relationship has been built up between the two characters. Take, for instance, the scene with the laser grid. Within the space of three minutes, we go from the Doctor being angry at Jenny for shooting at people, to Jenny shooting at a ventilation duct to buy them more time and to find the non-violent solution, which causes the Doctor to suddenly turn his position completely around to loving Jenny for what she does. It's too quick to feel like a natural development of their relationship, and so the story suffers for it.

And it's not as if the story didn't have anything to lose. For some reason Martha Jones is in this story, where she contributes virtually nothing of interest to the plot. All she does is end up on the side of the opposing army, trek across a wasteland, have someone die whilst saving her, and then have a chat with the Doctor at the end. It's a lot of screen time for something that doesn't really add anything to the plot, and you can't help but be struck by how this time could have been better spent elsewhere. And that sums up the problem with the story. Even though Greenhorn has been tasked with writing a story that changes the Doctor, it seems that he can't get away from the idea that the series should be purely about people having a science-fiction adventure. And whilst this is not necessarily a bad thing, it does mean that there's a lack of focus in this story that prompts it to not entirely work as an episode of Doctor Who overall.

Which isn't the best way to end the year, but there we are. Still, at least tomorrow we'll be able to start the year on a high note.