Doctor Who Episode Guide - Fathers Day

1) Andrew Oakley (Profile)

If you liked the Eastenders soap-opera feel of the season premiere “Rose”, you’ll like this even more. Shot almost entirely on one location, a suburban church, this episode deals with one of the biggest unanswered questions of Doctor Who cannon; why can’t people intervene to prevent bad things from ever happening?

Credit goes to the author, established TV scriptwriter Paul Cornell who had already written episodes of the “Corronation Street” soap opera and “Casualty” hospital drama, for managing to write about such a complex topic in such an accessible way (this episode scored some of the highest UK viewing figures since the season premiere). Time travel paradoxes are frequent plot-lines of other sci-fi shows, where those episodes are panned as unfathomable technobable; here, Cornell approaches the subject with an everyday matter-of-fact air previously unheard of in sci-fi. The idea of a soap-opera family audience watching a sci-fi time-paradox story and winning the number one position for viewing figures on its peak Saturday-night timeslot really does demonstrate just how far Doctor Who has come.

Shot well with amusingly correct 1980’s costumes and good character actors, this remains a heartfelt episode that plays on emotional sympathy despite the “monster of the week” that threatens the heroes. The monsters aren’t named on-screen, but were called “Reapers” in publicity material despite being previously been referred to as “Vortisaurs” in spin-off audio dramas such as 8th Doctor Paul McGann’s “Storm Warning” and called “Chronovores” in Cornell’s previous Doctor Who spin-off novel “No Future”. The lack of on-screen naming of the monsters may be due to split rights to the monster between these spin-offs, and with the Beeb already reeling from a extortionately long negotiation with the owners of the Dalek intellectual property, the producers may have decided not to enter that particular battle.

To answer the cannon question, though, the rule appears to be that time travellers can only change events if they are unaware of the consequences, are unsuccessful (such as the 4th Doctor wimping out of killing baby Daleks in “Genesis of the Daleks”), or if their attempt didn’t result in a change and was absorbed into existing history (such as Adric’s firey death causing the extinction of the dinosaurs in “Earthshock”). If a traveller attempts to change a known event - and succeeds - only then do the Vortisaurs attack. Of course with a 40-plus years of episodes and spin-offs, Doctor Who cannon isn’t static.