Father's Day [TV/2005.5.14]

★★★☆☆

  A great exploration into Rose Tyler's past and why time travel can be so dangerous (although we're not seeing those damn Reapers ever again), I see and hear Father's Day praise all over the country from all sorts of people. Good thing, really, how an episode of Dr. Who can unite people so. Paul Cornell is brought onto the show proper to contribute, and you can 100% tell that this is from the same writer who wrote Love and War. Russell T Davies was in love with his writing from the Virgin New Adventures days, and it shows; this has all the angst and existential dread of the 1990s, hints of heavy topics (infidelity, infinite rows, even unintended incest), and a companion who shows herself to be a human first and a Dr. Who character second. Rose Tyler has never felt more human than she does here; she misses the dad of hers that she never got to truly meet, she's given the opportunity to save him at the cost of ruining the entire fabric of time... wouldn't you do the same, if you never got to meet your dad because he died? I don't know about you, but I would've taken the chance in a single emotional moment, logic be damned. 

  And that's what Father's Day as an episode is, it's the most human episode of the series. RTD injected his own sense of kitchen-sink drama and living, breathing characters in his first series as a whole, yes, but it's this Cornell episode that beats and pumps like a human. It's rough around the edges (like any normal person), it's frequently dramatic when it doesn't really need to (like any normal person), and in the midst of its furious and chaotic frenzy, you catch a glimpse of something special, a sort of naked beauty hiding amongst all the emotional rubble. This is the episode that embodies human error, in Rose's mistake that sends the entire world infested by Reapers, and in Pete's "failure" as a dad because he croaked before Rose could even walk. It deals with consequences, emotions and how to forgive and let go. It's an embodiment of that old adage from that one work of art (Fallout: New Vegas - Dead Money, for those who are asking): "[finding it,] it's not the hard part... it's letting go." Billie Piper and Christopher Eccleston give such amazing performances, and it's without a doubt a crucial episode for Piper's character. I enjoyed it a lot more than I last did, and I have a fondness for Father's Day now.