From MadCap's Couch - "The Doctor's Daughter"

Finally, we have reached it. I honestly have mixed feelings about this episode that kind of muddle it up for me. Like I said last week, I do like it and I like the titular character...there's just some things that crop up in this episode that, while I doubt were intentional by the writer, nonetheless raise a few unfortunate implications involving consent issues.

Yeah, I'm going there. It really can't be ignored in this instance. The subtext is very rapidly becoming text.

I've delayed long enough, so let's get into The Doctor's Daughter.

Following on from the end of The Poison Sky, the Doctor, Donna, and now an unwilling Martha are getting shot through the Time Vortex to who knows where. The Doctor notes the bubbling hand, and Donna has a similar reaction to the one Martha had when she first found out about it and Martha gives the split-second bit of exposition that it got cut off and he grew a new one. Donna proclaims the Doctor impossible, him countering with "Not impossible...just a bit unlikely!".

An apt descriptor for the Doctor if ever there was one.

Soon, the TARDIS comes to a stop after it's sudden departure from Earth in the year 2009 (or 2008, not sure where we are in the time skip from Aliens of London). The trio head out, Martha a bit giddy about being on another alien world even in spite of wanting to go home, and they find themselves in what looks to be a disused warehouse full of junk. Later on, we learn that these are tunnels in an underground complex. Also, the group gets put at gunpoint by some armed men who insist that they're "clean" and should be "processed".

Two men pull the Doctor forward, putting his hand into a machine that takes a tissue sample and extrapolates it...the doors to the machine open just after Donna and Martha pull the Doctor free, and a blonde woman in incredibly tight leather pants emerges, having been brought to life. She's handed a gun by a fellow soldier, the Doctor coming to the conclusion that "she's my daughter". Jenny (a name she gets later in the episode, so I'm just going to say it now for brevity) loads her gun and flashes the camera a smile as she proclaims "Hello, Dad!"

Here is where I have to stop the episode to address a few things. No, this isn't the big complaint that muddies up this episode for me, but it's a start. So...bear with me here.

So, Jenny comes out of the machine...and she's wearing leather pants and a green top while everyone else is wearing army fatigues. Literally, we never see any of the human characters wearing anything resembling what she is wearing.

She's also wearing eye shadow, when no one else seems to be.

Also, where did the clothing and the eye shadow come from? We see other clones being produced later wearing fatigues and such, but not any of this. You can take the answer that Georgia Moffett was meant to be a bit of cheesecake and that's valid for an out of universe explanation. In-universe, though, why?

Also also, one of the soldiers claims that everyone gets processed, but after they scan the Doctor's biodata in...they don't do the same to Martha and Donna. They just kind of stop and for no real reason. You could say it's because of the shootout that's about to happen, but...there's no way they could have known about that given the pacing of the scenes - the cold open and the first one after the credits, respectively.

Also, why is this machine all the way out in the tunnels when all the other ones we see are at the headquarters of the respective factions?

Anyway, back to the episode. The Doctor explains progenation for the audience - reproduction from a single organism. A shoot out then occurs with a race of fish people called the Hath. In short, Martha gets kidnapped by the Hath, Jenny does some kung fu, and the tunnel gets detonated. The Doctor and Donna are stuck with Jenny and the human soldiers after the tunnel collapses and away from the TARDIS.

"Okay, now bend over and cough."

The Doctor berates Jenny for losing Martha. When Jenny tries to pass it off as "collateral damage", Donna rightly lays into her for it. When the Doctor is determined to find Martha, one of Jenny's fellows puts him and Donna at gunpoint, saying that he's taking them to a "General Cobb". 

Martha, meanwhile, regains consciousness amid the rubble of the explosion and aids a Hath with a dislocated arm. Despite being put at gunpoint by other Hath, she is very adamant about helping it. When she does so, Martha gives an oddly out of place boast of "I'm Doctor Martha Jones, who the hell are you?"

Somehow, she's not shot immediately afterwards.

Maybe it's just a way to show how Martha has become more confident and assured of her own abilities, but it's...kind of weird and feels out of place for her to do so so blatantly. "Boastful" is not a character trait I'd apply to Martha Jones.

On the way to Cobb, Donna asks Jenny what her name is. We find out that the soldiers don't have names until they're assigned, but the progenitor machines put all the information necessary for warfare into their minds from the moment they're created. The Doctor declares her a "generated anomaly" and Donna extrapolates that into "Jenny", which Jenny likes. When Donna chides him for not being a "natural parent", the Doctor rightly points out that getting a tissue sample stolen at gunpoint is not natural parenting in any sense of the word.

We'll be getting back to this. Yes, this is where the big issue starts cropping up...but wait a bit.

Also, Donna making a joke about Naris having twins with a turkey baster...really doesn't help and only raises more issues and questions.

They find out that they're on the planet Messaline and that the humans there are at war with the Hath from one General Cobb. Cobb is an ass, and he's meant to be. More on him later. After Martha gets fondled by some fish people (no, context doesn't help this at all), Cobb explains to the Doctor and Martha that [insert generic story of ancient conflict] here. Donna notes that the base, which appears to be built in a theater, has windows which is odd considering it's said that the surface of Messaline is hostile to all life.

Apparently, the Humans and Hath have been fighting this war literally for longer than anyone - even Cobb - can remember. "Countless generations marked only by the death", he says. As I said, we'll be getting back to that. On both ends of the conflict, a map is played with and Cobb and the soldier from the tunnels give some exposition about "the Source".

OH GOD! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!  NO! NO! NO! NO!

…okay, I feel better now. My editors have been kind enough to inform me that this is not...that movie...but instead a mystical energy source that some great creator used to breathe life into the universe. He who controls the Source controls the universe...or, at least, Messaline. With enough exposition given, the plot has to move, so the Doctor uses some sonic trickery to bring up a second layer of information on the map. This also brings up the map for the Hath, showing the different set of tunnels. Cobb claims that it will lead them to the Temple and the Source.

Cobb wants to go full blood-thirsty and the Doctor objects, Cobb having him, Donna, and Jenny arrested and locked away. Once in the cell, Donna notes some numbers that she also saw outside, though the meanings were "lost to time" as Cobb put it. We get a great little scene where Jenny draws some comparisons to the Doctor's hairbrained scheming as an analogy to being a war general. He insists that he's trying to stop the fighting, and Jenny points out the fallacy in his logic with a single question: "Isn't every soldier?".

This derails him, much to Donna's amusement, and the Doctor deflects by upgrading her phone with the soni-wait a minute...they didn't check the Doctor for anything? They didn't search the man before putting him in a prison cell?

HOW STUPID ARE THESE PE-

The Doctor gets in touch with Martha and she gets them up to speed on the Hath and they know that the clock is ticking even faster now. Cobb and his men get ready to move. The Doctor prepares to get them out, refuting Jenny's help. When Donna reacts badly and insists that Jenny belongs with them and specifically with him as his daughter, the Doctor insists that she's not his daughter - she's just a soldier. Donna asks him for his stethoscope and listens, placing it in two places...and then having the Doctor listen well.

There are two heartbeats. The two hearts of a Gallifreyan.

. . .depending on which version of canon you follow.

The Doctor goes into full stoic mode from this, talking about Gallifrey and the Time Lords that were lost on that terrible day so long ago. He calls Jenny an "echo" and refutes that she is a Time Lord, saying that she cannot possibly know what he's been through. She points out that he fought and killed in that War he mentioned, the Time War...and then asks the Doctor how they're different. David Tennant gives a fantastic performance as always, stoic, but clearly dealing with some extreme inner turmoil as he ponders the question silently.

Except Jenny hasn't killed anyone by this point...and ironically, neither has the Doctor, but he doesn't know that yet.

More on that much later.

Martha gets some help from a helpful Hath, deciding to risk going across the surface despite the heavy radiation out there.

. . .shame the Doctor doesn't know where she might pick up some anti-radiation gloves. Drugs.

She heads off with her fish man...who might as well be putting on a red shirt.

Oh, no! The Humans and Hath are going to slaughter each other!
Too bad I'm in jail!

Back at the ranch, Jenny snogs the guard to get them the keys to the cell. Donna makes a snarky comment about wanting to see the Doctor try that and, a bit later, he turns down her offer to use her "womanly wiles" to get them past the second guard. The Doctor uses a toy mouse...because sure and Jenny knocks the guard out with a judo chop.

Martha and her Hath head out over the surface of the planet. Cobb catches on that the Doctor and company have escaped. As the Doctor, Donna, and Jenny head out, Donna notes more numbers and notes that they seem to be counting down. She starts writing them down, thinking there's something she's missing. Jenny asks about who they are and what they do. Donna tells her that the Doctor travels "[saving] planets, rescues civilizations, and defeats terrible creatures". Plus, there's an awful lot of running involved.

Personally, I prefer my own description, but Donna's is pretty good, too.

The Doctor opens a secret passage that he can't, for some reason, close behind them and so they have to run when Cobb's soldiers start to close in on them. We get a scene of pure absurd death lasers and Jenny going back to hold off Cobb's men. The Doctor encourages her not to kill, saying that once you've done it, it always infects you and that you're never rid of it once it does.

Never mind the Doctor killing a sentient lifeform just last episode...

But yes, yes, "we always have a choice". Shit reasoning like that is what keeps the Joker killing people in Gotham, Doc.

The Doctor bitterly tells Donna that Jenny's "Nothing but a soldier" when they hear the gunfire, which Donna refutes. Cobb calls for a cease fire, trying to appeal to Jenny's warrior programming. When it seems like she's about to shoot him, she instead shoots a pipe that billows smoke all around and misdirects Cobb and his men, allowing her to escape...just in time to get to the laser grid as it reactivates.

She then, through a combination of gymnastics, rapid editing, and stretching the suspension of disbelief so thing you can see through it, gets through the grid and joyfully tells the Doctor that she didn't kill anyone. Not even Cobb!

This choice will come back to haunt her.

We also get the echo of the earlier "not impossible, just a bit unlikely".

On the surface, Martha's Hath dies after drowning in a pool of liquid.

Two episodes already? I should have used this before.

. . .mind you, I'm still trying to figure out how a fish man drowns in liquid, especially since he has a breathing device of some kind that's already pumping liquid into him. It's clear that it's not some form of acid, which was my first thought, since Martha gets caught in it and seems to suffer no real ill effect, but never mind I guess. Fish Man dead, moving on.

Back with the plot, Donna tells Jenny about what it's like to travel with the Doctor. When Jenny expresses a desire to travel, Donna asks the Doctor if Jenny will see any new worlds and the Doctor replies with the notion that they can't just leave Jenny there. Excited, Jenny bounds forward to scout after hugging him...and the Doctor's expression becomes somber. Donna calls the look "Dad shock", meaning sudden and unexpected fatherhood.

The Doctor mentions that he's been a father before, something that has come up a few times so far in the Revived Series. It's actually something that goes back to the very first episode of the show, given who his original companion was.

Here...we get into where the controversy is. This scene is basically where the Doctor's pain of having to live with a reminder of everything he lost, all the people that (for all he presently knows) he had to murder in order to save the universe from the Daleks, everything that he did...and this episode plays it off as though Jenny is just a sudden and unexpected child that dropped into his lap...

. . .and isn't a child that was conceived through rape.

At the risk of getting trigger warning-y: he had a tissue sample stolen from him at gunpoint, against his will, and it was made into a living, breathing being. The Doctor did not give permission to do this and very much protested the entire thing.

What exactly would you call it, if not rape?

That itself isn't the problem, however. The problem stems from the episode being so tonally dissonant from that and trying to play off the Doctor's disgust and later his pain and rage as "dad shock", as if the Doctor had had a consensual one night-stand and then nine months later had a child from it. It's honestly kind of gross and disturbing. Again, I don't think this was intentional by the writer, Stephen Greenhorn, but the subtext is there...and it's really not pleasant.

If the episode had noticed this and gone into it a bit more, maybe that would mean something. As it is, the Doctor is basically made to be "grumpy man now has kid" and it just...doesn't work. This all said, the way the Doctor treats Jenny - who was created without consent or knowledge or indeed any hand in it whatsoever - is particularly dickish. While I can understand his issues with the subject, that is no reason to take it out on her.

David Tennant, as he has through this episode, plays the Doctor's pain insanely well. He tells Donna that he doesn't know that he can face Jenny every day, knowing that she's a living reminder of what he lost. When they all died, that part of him died with him, he says. Donna believes that Jenny will help him find it again, and tells him that she thinks he's wrong.

First time that Donna has felt in-character on this subject, so there's that.

Donna finds more numbers and the group finds their way into what looks to be an engine room. Jenny wonders if the ship is the one that originally brought the colonists to Messaline, though the Doctor insists the power would have run out by now. They check the ship's log...and find the start of the war between the Human and the Hath, the mission commander having died and no one know who should assume command. Donna also finds a digitally-projected date and figures out what all the numbers she's been seeing mean - they're dates.

Specifically, dates from the New Byzantine Calendar. All of this means that from the latest date they saw back in the Human Camp...it's only been seven days since war broke out.

. . .

. . .I just...so many questions. They try to pass off the "generations" comment as meaning that the soldiers could have 20 generations in a day and all pass on the legend...but really doesn't work. Some of them would have had to have survived and passed on at least something resembling concrete facts. Look at General Cobb, who is clearly much older than any of the soldiers at his command. Are they saying he just came out of the machine that way? Why would it make him old instead of all hale and hearty so he could be in peak physical health and thus be more effective as a fighter?

Come to think of it, why do the progenation machines create soldiers when the original group was to be colonists?

This entire thing gets more and more holes in it the more you think about it.

They head off to find the Source, reuniting with Martha on the way. They notice the scent of flowers and head into what looks to be Joshua's garden from Supernatural...or just an arboretum. They find a sphere in the center of it all, the Source. The Doctor calls it a terraforming device. The humans and the Hath bust in and the Doctor talks them into not shooting, explaining the reality of their situation and the Source.

The Doctor smashes the Source against the floor and this somehow activates it, spreading it out through the ventilation system and across the planet...somehow.

While you might think this will lead to a Vault 22 situation, it instead has the humans and the Hath drop their guns. While the Doctor explains the terraforming process to Jenny, Cobb takes aim at him...and Jenny gets in the way of the bullet, getting shot in the chest. The Doctor holds Jenny in his arms as she dies, promising that they have so much to do...and while she says that sounds lovely, she succumbs to the wound and (seemingly) dies.

The Doctor thinks, if they wait, she'll just regenerate like him. Martha, though, lets him down easy on this...saying that there's no sign. She's not enough like him, Martha says. The Doctor tells Martha that "She was too much like me." He gently lays Jenny's body down and proceeds to pick up Cobb's gun, putting it to the man's head. The music tells me that I should feel worried that the Doctor is going to blow the man's head clean off. The fact that the Russell T. Davies era is what we're in right now tells me that this isn't going to happen.

The Doctor declares that, "I never would." He makes a speech to the humans and Hath, telling them to make their foundation of their society a man who never would...before tossing away the gun in disgust. Now, you might think that this is fitting with Russell's more pacifistic take on the Doctor that we've seen since Series 1. I would argue that this is the same man who:

• callously allowed Lady Cassandra to literally burn to death.
  
• ordered a tactical carpet bombing on 10 Downing Street.
  
• was ready and willing to murder a Dalek with a big ass gun.
  
• created a device that would have killed all life on half of the Earth.
  
• caused the Sycorax Leader to fall to his death.
  
• joked and laughed with Rose while a werewolf murdered people.
  
• trapped the Wire on a cassette tape that he then recorded over, thus murdering a sentient life form.
  
• committed genocide against the Racnoss.
  
• killed Richard Lazarus not once, but twice.
  
• was ready to let the Master live after the dude killed off one-tenth of the human population plus however many more were murdered in the Year That Never Was.
  

Jesus. Christ. RUSSELL.

Now, I am not someone who believes that the Doctor should be a pacifist. I believe that he is someone who should use killing as a last resort, but when it has to be done it has to be done. In action, he does this in all the examples that I've listed here...so I'm not really sure why this particular moment gets the "I never would." You can make an argument for pragmatism in almost every one of those examples, where sentient beings did actually die by either the Doctor's action or inaction, and all of this from just the Russell T. Davies era.

The murder of his own daughter, literally his own flesh and blood, is something that I could absolutely see the Doctor reacting with violent rage at and being entirely justified. What I'm saying is that General Cobb should have been dead, because the Doctor should have emptied that entire gun into his head. But, no...no, the Doctor gives lip service to pacifism and ignores the fact that this action is entirely justified.

See also The End of Time (we'll get to that in due course). Again, the music tells me this is supposed to be deep and dramatic. Reality tells me that this is stupid. Really, really, really stupid.

That's it! I'm taking my ball and going home!

Jenny is to be given a proper ceremony by the soldiers, with the Doctor's blessing, and the Doctor explains to Martha and Donna what happened - Jenny drew the TARDIS here, essentially creating herself. An endless paradox.

. . .which still makes more sense than Bad Wolf, so I'll let it slide. I have no idea what the Doctor's hand had to do with it but, in the end, I don't know and I don't care and the episode is over anyway.

The TARDIS returns to Earth, Martha telling Donna that traveling with the Doctor is amazing, but she can't do it anymore. She says Donna will feel the same some day, but Donna is adamant that she won't.

"I'm gonna travel with that man forever."

. . .my heart breaks, just a lot.

The Doctor and Martha have a moment, Martha lamenting that the Doctor always had so many things he was willing to die for, and she thought (with Jenny) that he'd finally have something to live for. They embrace and goodbyes are shared before the Doctor and Donna depart for further adventures.

Back on Messaline, as the human and Hath prepare Jenny for their funeral ceremony, she suddenly gasps and a golden energy is expelled from her mouth...looking oddly familiar. She suddenly awakens to their shock and then proceeds to follow in her old man's footsteps and steals a rocket. When questioned, she proclaims that she has "planets to save, civilizations to rescue, creatures to defeat...an an awful lot of running to do."

Muddied premise, bad execution, decent ending.
Gotta stick that landing if the plane's on fire, I guess.

As you can probably tell from how long this episode has gone on in comparison to others I've done before, The Doctor's Daughter is a very mixed episode for me. The whole parenting analogy that is hilariously tone deaf with reality drags the episode down and the plot holes in this one are so wide you could drive Russell T. Davies' ego through them. It's silly, tone-deaf, and very disjointed.

There are good things. Georgia Moffett (now Georgia Tennant. Who, yes, is the daughter of the Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison - as well as David Tennant's real life wife, who proceeded to have a daughter with David Tennant and making her the Doctor's daughter who is also the mother of the Doctor's daughter) gives a pretty good performance as Jenny and makes a good foil to David Tennant's scowl-y, broody moments as the Tenth Doctor. They would have made an excellent double bill to see going forward, the Doctor being able to teach her about the universe and her bringing out things in him we don't normally see with his human companions.

Alas, that didn't happen. Despite the set up, Jenny has not made a return to the series since she took off in that rocket, at least not on television. However, she has shown up in comic form as well as audio form through Big Finish Productions. Given that Steven Moffat was the one who is credited for saying Jenny should live at the end of the episode, this led to rumors that she'd end up being the first companion of the new Doctor after David Tennant's departure...but that didn't end up happening. It's kind of a shame, really. She does well and could have developed into a well-rounded character. I know this because, we've seen other companions have lackluster premiere episodes and turn out pretty alright in the end.

Pictured: The Doctor (far-right) trying to figure out this
cluster of an episode. (2008, colorized)

Next time, the Doctor and Donna arrive in England in 1926. Agatha Christie's at a garden party and a murder has happened! Who is responsible? You'll be buzzing with excitement when we dig into The Unicorn and the Wasp.

. . .seriously, though. Agatha Christie and a murder mystery? How ridiculous! That's like running into Charles Dickens and ghosts at Christmas!

. . .hey, wait a minute!