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Episode recap: "The Doctor's Daughter"
“Kids, they never listen.”
—Donna Noble
The runaway TARDIS transports the Doctor, Donna and Martha to the planet Messaline. Upon exiting he time machine, human soldiers apprehend them and create a woman almost instantaneously by using the Doctors DNA -the Doctor's Daughter, eventually named Jenny. The reason for this instant creation is to help resupply troops for a war between the humans and the Hath, fish-type beings. During an initial Hath attack, Martha is separated from her companions and captured by the Hath. The separated group each discover that the was has waged for generations over something called “The Source” or the 'breath of life' as described by General Cobb, the leader of the human forces. The Doctor and Martha each inadvertently uncover hidden passageways that lead to The Source's location. Cobb imprisons Doctor/Donna and Jenny when the Doctor/Donna protest Cobb's plans (dreams) of killing all the Hath once the power of The Source is harnessed. At first cold, with Donna's help, the Doctor starts accepting Jenny as more than just 'an echo.' With her help, all three are able to break out of the prison cell and attempt to reach The Source first. After they reach The Source, Donna is able to deduce that only seven days have passed since the war had started -to the warring factions it seemed like countless years because of the multiple generations of manufactured beings. Martha catches up with them and smells flowers, so the entire group 'follow their noses' to the actual source: a third generation terraforming device. The two warring factions also make their way to there with their weapons drawn. The Doctor reveals what the device is, then breaks it, releasing the gas within that starts the planet-wide terraforming. Soldiers on both sides drop their weapons —all except Cobb who aims his pistol at the Doctor. Jenny sees this and jumps in the path of the bullet and dies. Cobb is taken prisoner, Jenny's body is left behind for a proper funeral on the new world and the TARDIS returns Martha to Earth. Martha and the Doctor/Donna say their goodbyes as Martha turns away and thinks about the future —her future. Back on Messaline, the terraforming gases help revive Jenny. As she takes off in a shuttle, she ponders her future as well.
Commentary
The episode was a substantial improvement over the two parter that proceeded it; however. it felt a bit rushed and it did have some issues with logic
Initially. I disliked the character of Jenny, only to start liking her up and until she was shot. Didn't like her at the end when she took off in the shuttle. Again, Doona proves her worth by defending Jenny to the Doctor (loved the stethoscope bit). Felt the change over from uneasiness to real fatherly affection and love was never more evident than this simple thing the Doctor mentions to Jenny:“Careful, there might be traps!” Did you see the look of admiration on Jenny's face during the Doctor' speech at the end? How freakin obvious was it that she would die? Saw that one a mile away. Wasn't really expecting her to return to life, but was instead wondering why we are having a cutting back to them prepping the body. In the future, I could easily see Jenny retuning to team-up with the Doctor.
Anybody else think to themselves: “What the heck is John Houston doing in Doctor Who?”
Note to new friends who decide to tag along with Martha: don't. I love Freema and I do miss the character of Miss, now Doctor, Martha Jones; however, was it really necessary to have her be a guest star in this episode as well? I'm sure Donna could had taken her place with the Hath and maybe have the Doctor/Donna communicate via cell phones through out the episode. Check our Freema's goody expressions when the Hath start patting her when she first enters their main base!
The running gag of whether Doctor/Donna are a couple or not is brought up, again. This seriously has to be addressed by the end of the season! I wonder if Donna's statement to Martha at the end of the episode will come back and haunt her: “I'm going to travel with that man forever.” (note: she didn't say 'alien')
Music was a wee bit overused throughout the episode, although I did like the score during the exchange between the Doctor and Jenny in the prison cell. I also thought the composer was back on his game towards the end of the episode (when the TARDIS leaves the planet and drops off Martha). Is that the last time we will ever hear the Martha Jones theme?
What the heck? I don't recall the Doctor having miracles Mary Cherry-type abilities with his jacket pockets! (Popular reference ya'll)
Liked the Hath design -especially the weird water breathing apparatis on their faces. Sort of reminded me, very very loosely, of the weapon/gauntlets or the video game, “Haze.”
Wow! 'Chinese whispers?” Was this term the Doctor uses in the US version? Wow.
Upon return to Earth to drop off Martha, the TARDIS is literally parked in the street between two cars! ha!
Nitpicking
If “everyone gets processed,' why didn't Donna or Martha get 'processed' in the very beginning too? Before anyone responds that there wasn't any time, jenny's replication process took seconds.
If twenty generations can be produced in a day, with the majority of them killed, and only seven days have passed, would not the entire complex be filled with human and Hath bodies?
As the Doctor directs a gun at Cobb's head, then lowers it and states that, “I never would,” in reference to shooting/killing via a weapon. Did he not kill during the Time War? Then again, he is trying to make a point to both sides.
As Jenny is prepping to leave the planet, Cline mentions to his new Hath friend, “The shuttle.” How would he/they know what a 'shuttle' is or rather, that the sounds heard are from a shuttle? Finally, how did she know how to pilot the shuttle in the first place? I know they were bred with solidering knowledge, however, why was shuttle piloting included in the learning matrix?
Quotes
Donna: “You are completely impossible.”
Doctor: “Not 'impossible; just a bit unlikely.”
Martha: “Now then, I'm Doctor Martha Jones, who the hell are you?”
Jenny: “I'm not a monkey... or a child!”
Doctor: “Then you need to get yourself a better dictionary. When you do, look up 'genocide,' you will see a little picture of me there. And the caption will read: 'over my dead body.'”
Donna: “So The Source could be a weapon and we just given directions to Captain Nut Job.”
Donna: “I have picked up a few womanly whiles over the years.”
Doctor: “Lets save your whiles for later... in case of an emergency.”
Doctor: “Listen to me. Killing... after a while it infects you. Once it does, you're never rid of it.”
Jenny: “We don't have a choice.”
Doctor: “We always have a choice.”
Donna: “But what is it then? Having Jenny in the TARDIS is that it? What is she going to 'cramp your style?' Like you got a sports car and she's gonna turn it into a 'people carrier.'”
Donna: “You talk all the time but you don't say anything.”
Martha: “All those things you been ready to die for. I thought for a moment here you finally found something worth living for.”
Doctor: “Oh, there is always something worth living for, Martha.”
Goodbye, Doctor Martha Jones! Until we meet again, adieu!
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Jun 7, 2008 3:36 AM
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He did say "Chinese Whispers" in the Sci Fi version. I'm surprised that he didn't say "Telephone Game." Will some Asian group protest that it was racist? I haven't heard about anything happening over in England about it, but one never knows.
I liked this episode, but it did feel more than a bit rushed.
Also, I don't think it was the gases that brought Jenny back to life, it was the Doctor's essence. The breath affect has been used before to symbolize his regenerative powers, but I'm a little surprised that Jenny didn't transform like the Doctor. Maybe because she's an "echo" that the regeneration process both took a longer time and just revived her without transforming her.
Yeah, why didn't they process Martha and Donna?
Where did that shuttle come from, how did the soldier know about it, and how did Jenny know how to fly it. Again, all part of the "rushed" feeling.
Martha crying over the Hath dying seemed forced. Again with the rushed feeling.
Yes, we all knew Jenny would die, and it was pretty lame how it happened.
Since it's only been 7 days since the war started, and Cobb was an old fart, I have to guess that he knew the truth. So why did he hate the Hath so much, and why did he decide to try to kill the Doctor to punish him for revealing the truth?
I doubt that this is the last we'll see of Martha, I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't get involved with whatever crisis occurs when you-know-who finally shows up.
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Jun 7, 2008 8:45 AM
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Not so much a comment on this episode. I like Donna! And I don't think I'm goning to like it when Rose comes back. Why? Because the doctor has changed since the Rose years...for the better. Martha and especially Donna have made the doctor a little less silly. They call him on things that he never wants to talk about. Like Donna said "you talk a lot but you never say anything."
I like the new doctor and his gal pals.
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Jun 7, 2008 11:45 AM
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It's interesting to read people's overall being a little disappointed with the this season of Dr Who in terms of the stories. To an extent they are right. There is a difficulty to maintaining a certain quality when each season is suppose to have an over-arching theme.
I have noticed though that what the season has lack in quality of plotting they have compensated with character growth. The revived Dr Who series has tried to present the Doctor as a more 3 dimensional character, more fleshed out with baggage and romantic attachments. This 4th season seems to focus more on that change and on the Doctor working through and confronting a lot of his issues.
In this respect the addition of Donna has proven to be a great development to the show despite her initial shrillness. She has affected real openess in him and has clearly done things to help start him to heal.
The scene where she reveals to him Jenny's 2 hearts speaks volumes about the Doctor & Donna's relationship. This is something I dont feel Rose could have done and to a lesser extent Martha. I think it certainly helps that Donna is older and been knocked down by life time and time again. She isn't dazzled in the same way by him and can see him more for what he is and calls him on it.
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Jun 7, 2008 1:14 PM
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Georgia Moffatt, who played Jenny, is the daughter of Peter Davison, a former Doctor. So she really is the daughter of the Doctor.
She and the current Doctor are an offscreen item.
LL
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Jun 7, 2008 3:31 PM
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I just love Donna. She is the ordinary, every day woman. Not too young, not too slim and trim. She has a wonderful heart, and wicked sense of humor. I hope she stays for quite awhile!
This wasn't one of my fav episodes of the season, but I liked the gal who played Jenny/the daughter. Glad she got away as it leaves the door open to see her again.
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Jun 7, 2008 4:02 PM
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It really felt like the whole purpose of this episode was to set up later appearances of Jenny. Also this ep seemed a little more preachy than most.
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Jun 7, 2008 4:02 PM
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Robert, I'm surprised that you didn't mention the passage way laced with lasers/red lights in your nitpicking section. Why were they there? The Doctor found a passage way that the humans didn't know about, so they couldn't have been the ones to have set up that trap and why would the robots that built the underground city have done that? I would think that getting to the "source" would be a necessary thing. I think it really should have been taken up to the surface to work properly, so who would do that? (Unless, with it being a third generation terra-former, it doesn't need to be on the surface, but still why block the way to it?) I guess it was just so we could see Jenny do her amazing hand springs.
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Jun 7, 2008 9:55 PM
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I'm a bit nervous about the whole Jenny story line. It feels an awful lot like an attempt to appeal to a younger fan base at the expense of some serious Who canon... the whole point of the Doctor's psyche is that he is the LAST of the time lords and essentially, alone in the universe. Adding a "daughter" (and one that can regenerate, at that) to the mix could really dilute the impact that theme has had on the whole series since day one. (I know, the MASTER came along but we all knew he was destined to die before long.)
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Jun 7, 2008 11:18 PM
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The one thing that bothered me about this ep was how Martha was able to communicate with the fish-heads. Not only was she carrying on conversations with them, of which we only got her POV, but she even mentioned the name of her new salmon-sidekick, Peck.
I guess it was a telepathic thing, but maybe this also added to the rushed feeling, as maybe a little exposition isn't necessarily a bad thing with this show. I don't mind using my noodle to figure stuff out, but leaps of logic just annoy the crap out of me.
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Jun 8, 2008 12:00 PM
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I don't think the Master is permanently dead. At the end of "The Last of the Time Lords," they gave a pretty strong indication that he'll be back somehow.
And are we absolutely sure the Face of Boe meant only the Master when he told the Doctor that he isn't alone? After all, that took place five billion years from now, and the Master was trapped on that planet, having forgotten who he was, one trillion years from now...and if Jenny is a new Time Lord living approx. 4,000 years from now, she could be the matriarch of a whole Neo-Time Lord race by the time the Face of Boe passed on that message to the Doctor.
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Jun 8, 2008 1:42 PM
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>
> Jenny: “I'm not a monkey... or a child!”
>
>
>
> Donna: “I have picked up a few womanly whiles over
> the years.”
> Doctor: “Lets save your whiles for later... in case
> of an emergency.”
>
Unfortunately those two parts weren't in the Scifi version of the show. They cut the whole part where Donna comes up with the name Jenny for Generated Anomaly.
I really liked the part from Donna about using her womanly whiles and was disappointed that it was there. There was a cut from them finding the person guarding the hallway to the mechanical mouse on the floor.
gb
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Jun 8, 2008 10:08 PM
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Ok, I would have enjoyed the concept of this episode a lot more if the internet hadn't been swirling with rumors of David Tennant dating his on-screen daughter. Darn those Google news updates. 
I would like to know where that clockwork mouse came from. Does the Doctor just keep them in his pocket for those kind of laser traps?
David Tennant's acting was simply brilliant at the end, though. He's marvelous.
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Jun 9, 2008 11:06 AM
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The Doctor always has unusual things in his pockets. His pockets wmploy TARDIS technology 'bigger on the inside'
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Jun 9, 2008 2:22 PM
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I'm really confused by what's going on with the Doctor's compansion(s). I read several reports after last season saying that Martha's departure was only temporary, while she was on Torchwood and that she would return and Donna would simply fill in as companion until then. Now everything seems to point this being less and less definite; did something change?
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Jun 9, 2008 10:52 PM
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