Felt very retro. Also a bit rushed. For instance: (spoiler)
Was the old general implied to be the only human survivor of the ship, and had been the istigator of the war? If all the artifical soldiers come out 20ish, he can't have been one, but his motivations weren't really explained.
This episode had some really great moments, and a lot of contrived conceits that made it tough for me to really appreciate it as much as I would have otherwise.
For one thing, the whole "Jenny" conception was a bit much to swallow. Not only is the Doctor the only one processed (despite everyone saying at the beginning that everyone needs to be processed- yet Donna and Martha are spared), but the bit about the paradox of her creation at the end and it being the reason for their presence was hokey.
I'm glad Jenny is still around (I kept wondering- how are they going to get rid of her. I figured there would be a time limit on the "clones", so was wrong) but her regeneration was- again- contrived.
I really liked the bits of the Doctor bonding with her, a bit more about the horrors of the Time War, and some more on the Doctor's kids (though I kept wishing he'd have said the name Susan).
If they could have found a way to make certain elements so shoehorned in the way they did, I really would have classified this as one of the better episodes.
Huw said:
Was the old general implied to be the only human survivor of the ship, and had been the istigator of the war? If all the artifical soldiers come out 20ish, he can't have been one, but his motivations weren't really explained.
(Thread title indicates Spoilers, so I'm not going to use spoiler blocks. If anyone objects, I can edit.)
I think everyone was a "clone," probably several times over. Your theory is interesting, and there definitely seems to be some kind of oddity regarding the ages, but I'm not certain. I think he was supposed to be just as much in the dark about things as everyone else, and that his sole motivation was the same thing that had been programmed into them- to fight.
I'm not certain, though, now that you bring it up.
I think everyone was a "clone," probably several times over. Your theory is interesting, and there definitely seems to be some kind of oddity regarding the ages, but I'm not certain. I think he was supposed to be just as much in the dark about things as everyone else, and that his sole motivation was the same thing that had been programmed into them- to fight.
That aside, I was pleasantly surprised by this. A nice introduction to a new character in the Who universe. I really liked Jenny. At first I feared she'd become annoying, but she won me over with that bright and optimistic spirit that she clearly inherited from her "father". It helps that Georgia Moffett (who as TheNovaLord pointed out, is Fifth Doctor Peter Davidson's real life daughter) is such an appealing actress, much in the way Carey Mulligan was when she played Sally Sparrow in last season's Blink. [sblock]Quite surprised that they let her lived. But then again it opens up more story possibilities than if she were dead.[/sblock]
But alas, the show clearly belongs to David Tennant. While the rest of the cast are fine as always, Tennant takes his acting here up a notch with some great scenes of the Doctor reminiscing about the Time Lords, mourning the family he lost, and of course, working out his feelings on being a dad again. A splendid performance, and quite possibly his best since Human Nature/The Family of Blood. Bravo.
Still, I do have some nitpicks though. The plot felt a little too rushed, with no time to develop some of the story details. This would have been much better as a two parter rather than the one off that we got.
The episode itself had some fun, old-school Whovian goodness . . . but I'm getting a little tired of the Doctor being portrayed as a little 'dim'. Don't get me wrong, Donna is my favorite companion since Tegan---but are the writers trying a little to hard to make give her things to do?
1. Jenny is a clone of a Gallifreyan. Of course she'd have two hearts---why wouldn't she? Did we really need Donna to demonstrate that to the Doctor?
2. Donna may be 'good with numbers' from all those years as an office temp. But isn't the Doctor also supposed to be somewhat clever?
Yeah, yeah, nothing more boring than nerdly nickpicking. My main gripe with the episiode is that it felt like a backdoor pilot---and man oh man do I hate those things. Can the Whoniverse survive another spinoff?
During ENWorld's downtime, I've been mulling over a number of disjointed observations:
1) This show has gotten really, really, REALLLY girly. Plucky girls, pert chits, cheeky women--enough already! I concede the point: chicks rock. One side order of testosterone, please.
2) "Poison Sky" was a painfully slow two-parter, while "Doctor's Daughter" was a rushed one-parter. Should've been the other way 'round to my thinking. The Doctor goes from barely tolerating Jenny to cherishing her in the space of about 10 minutes. That's awkward.
3) For the whole "countless generations living and dying in the space of a week" gimmick to work, wouldn't the soliders not only have to be bred at a fast pace, but also not survive more than an hour or so? And I don't mean most, but everybody, across the board? You wouldn't have a wizened old general. You wouldn't have a guy saying "the replciators are down for the night" as if it were routine, because a night would be like a vast stretch of time.
4) "I'm Doctor Martha Jones! Who the hell are you?"
BLAM BLAM BLAM
THUD
"bloopoopbloop?" (Translation: "Did she think assertiveness would stop hot lead?")
5) Are we staring down the barrel of yet another Dr. Who spin-off?
6) Not sure which was more ham-handed: Jenny's convenient death or her obilgatory resurrection.
My hopes for this episode were so sky-high. I thought we really going to see The Doctor's background fleshed-out a little, not have his "daughter" (might as well call her a sister or a cousin) pop out of a vending machine.
I'm thinking you missed the whole point of that scene. The Doctor was all for leaving Jenny behind because:
1) she was an artificially created lifeform, and therefore not "real" in his eyes.
2) she was made to be a soldier. Soldiers of course, carry guns. And according to the Doctor's holier than thou moral code, people with guns are not worth his time nor his help.
What Donna was trying to prove to him wasn't Jenny's status as a Gallifreyan, but that she was as real as he was, and not an "echo", as he referred to her. One of the Doctor's most enduring traits is his love and respect for all life. Had he turned his back on her, he'd be a hypocrite now wouldn't he?
In fact, this story held a lot of special moments for me in that the Doctor was chastised for the streak of arrogance he'd been recently displaying in the past couple of episodes. There was a moment in Planet of the Ood when he bluntly pointed out to Donna that slavery was just as common in her time as it is in the 42nd century. Then there's his snide attitude towards UNIT in The Sontaran Strategem/The Poison Sky, all cause they carry guns, despite the fact that they're a military outfit, so of course they'd carry weapons. Weapons that have saved his butt on more than one occasion if I recall right.
The Doctor may be right most of the time on certain things, but it's good to see him put in his place every once in awhile.
Actually, I sagree. It seems now that Donna is here, the Doctor is always wrong all of the time, and she puts him right every time. How he managed for 900 years before meeting her, goodnes only knows.
