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Hello Dad!
Synopsis
The Doctor, Donna and Martha arrive on the distant planet Messaline, which is in the middle of an endless war. While there the Doctor meets the most important woman of his life; his daughter, Jenny.
But as General Cobb threatens genocide, and Martha is kidnapped by the Hath, the Doctor faces an even greater battle – can he find peace with his own child?
Plot
While the TARDIS is taking them away the Doctor, Donna and Martha are failing to keep balance because of the rough ride the TARDIS is giving them. When the Doctor falls over next to his hand he points out that it is glowing, he says it is excited. Donna then says she didn't know it was his hand. When Martha explains now he lost his hand and grew it back Donna calls him impossible, to which the Doctor responds "not impossible, just a bit unlikely"
Finally the TARDIS takes the Doctor, Donna and Martha to the planet Messaline, where armed men seize the Doctor. Recognising them all as people who can provide new DNA to the army, they use his diploid cells to produce the titular character, Jenny. She emerges from a machine after being grown at an accelerated pace as an adult soldier, and almost immediately is engaged in a skirmish with a species called the Hath. During the disarray Martha is kidnapped by a Hath soldier. The Doctor and Donna are separated from Martha by an explosion triggered by Jenny. The Doctor tries to go after Martha, but the soldiers detain him and insist he be brought before General Cobb.
Cobb explains that originally the humans and Hath can come to this planet to share it, but the Hath lied and they have been at war for generations. Cobb also explains a desire to recover lost divine knowledge from their goddess of “the source”, which would effectively end the war. While trying to use a holographic map to find Martha, The Doctor accidentally reveals a previously unknown route to the temple to Cobb. Unbeknown to them, the Doctor has also inadvertently revealed the map to Martha and the Hath, who have come to trust her after she helps one of their injured. The Doctor tries to talk Cobb out of going after "the Source", which he intends to use to slaughter the Hath, but Cobb is distrustful of the Doctor and Donna's peaceful intentions and has them along with Jenny (as she comes from the Doctor) imprisoned.
The Doctor is having trouble perceiving Jenny as his daughter, claiming she is nothing more than a soldier. As he plans how to stop Cobb Jenny perceives the Doctor to be akin to a General, making plans and strategies, which the Doctor denies. He used his sonic screwdriver to convert Donna’s mobile phone to a superphone to contact Martha, which Jenny remarks is much like a weapon used to achieve a goal. Martha is studying the tunnels on Messaline herself, working with the Hath she saved, and plans to travel to the surface to reach the Temple. Donna persuades the Doctor to use his stethoscope to confirm that Jenny has two hearts, but he remains convinced that Time Lords are defined by their shared suffering. And that while she and he may be biologically alike, there is much more to being a Time Lord. Jenny is confused by what they are saying and the Doctor explains he is the last of his kind, a traveler of time and space. He explained that all his people died in a massive war, that he had to kill, which Jenny indicates that they are more alike than unalike.
The Hath use a battering ram to break through a barrier in the tunnels. Martha and her Hath friend reach a hatch that leads the surface which is barely hospitable. Although there is a cold wind, they are both grateful to be on the planet’s surface. Meanwhile, Jenny has helped the Doctor and Donna to escape their cell, where Donna notices a plaque indicating 8 numbers. As they travel she continues to notice more plaques, counting down as they near the Temple. The Doctor opens a door with the sonic screwdriver, finding a system of deadly lasers on the other side. Jenny runs off to try and hold off Cobb, which the Doctor unsuccessfully tries to stop as he knows how killing can change a person.
The Doctor disarms the lasers while Jenny holds off Cobb’s men with gunfire without injuring them, as the Doctor's words had an impact on her. As Jenny tries to follow the Doctor and Donna, the laser grid reactivates and she is forced to traverse the lasers with an impressive display of acrobatics. Meanwhile Martha falls down an incline while travelling to the Temple and starts to sink in some black quicksand, but is saved by the Hath accompanying her, who subsequently drowns. She continues onto the temple, crying in mourning.
Jenny questions the Doctor and Donna's relationship, which both are adamant is purely platonic. Donna that they save planets, rescue civilisations, defeat awful creatures. And also do an outrageous amount of running. This leads to a conversation about Jenny's future and to her happiness the Doctor wants her to come with him. After Jenny runs ahead to scout, The Doctor explains to Donna his previous parenting, the pain of losing the Time Lords and his family, and the fact that he is reminded of them when he sees Jenny. That is why he has been having a hard time dealing with this. Donna is sure that having Jenny in his life will help him heal those old wounds though.
The Doctor, Donna, Jenny and Martha are reunited in the temple, which the Doctor recognises as the original and fully functional colony spaceship. While the Doctor discovers that the city was built by robots, Donna discovers the numbers they have been seeing are dates. She realized that the city must have been built in sections outwards from the spaceship. She deduces the war, which has gone on for so many "generations", has in fact been going on for just seven days. The Doctor realizes that the term "generations" is a relative term here as that the method of reproduction the humans and the Hath use allow for 20 generations to be born a day.
As both armies close in, they next discover "The Source", a terraforming device which would make the environment outside more hospitable. Thus, despite the belief that the source kills, it actually brings life. The Doctor, now surrounded by both armies, declares the war over and smashes the source to release its gases and start the terraforming process. Both armies lay down their weapons in awe of the new planet forming around them.
However Cobb tries to shoot the Doctor out of revenge, but Jenny sacrifices herself by shielding him, getting shot in the heart instead of him. Cobb is immediately restrained by his soldiers. Martha realises Jenny will not survive as the wound is fatal. Jenny apparently dies in the Doctor’s arms without regenerating, even though the Doctor recalls she has two hearts, so she may survive given enough time. Martha points out that there is no sign of her regenerating, and that while she is like the Doctor, it may not have been enough. The Doctor feels she was actually too much like him. After he lays he head gently on the ground, the Doctor holds Cobb at gunpoint but does not pull the trigger, saying, “I never would”.
He asks both armies that they let the idea of a man 'who never would', be the foundation of the Hath-human society that will now emerge. The Hath and Humans ask the Doctor to allow them to give Jenny a proper funeral, which he grants sadly. Later, the Doctor concludes that, Jenny's creation was the reason the TARDIS had brought them to Messaline, they had just gotten there a little too soon. They then created Jenny, creating a unending paradox. He returns Martha home, and Donna resolves to stay with the Doctor while Martha leaves. Meanwhile, Jenny comes back to life as the Doctor had expected would happen if she was given enough time. She escapes Messaline in a shuttle and resolves to travel the universe, saving planets, rescuing civilizations, defeating creatures, and to do an awful lot of running just like her father.
Cast
Production crew
to be added
References
- Once again the Doctor and Donna are mistaken for a couple.
- Messaline has relatively high radiation.
- Messaline is terraformed.
- The Doctor's hand sent the TARDIS to Messaline, detecting the presence of another Gallifreyan, but they arrived before Jenny was created therefore creating the circumstances for her creation, creating a paradox.
- Jenny's regeneration/rejuvenation closely resembles the Seventh Doctor's regeneration into his eighth incarnation, both were shot and then both recovered in a mausoleum. Both also exhaled in similar manners as the process ended.
- Just like Rose Tyler, Donna expresses interest in staying with The Doctor "forever".
Story notes
- Russell T. Davies has stated that this episode "does exactly what it says on the tin". Stephen Greenhorn's episode has the Doctor facing a dilemma unlike anything before, and it is wildly different to "The Lazarus Experiment". He also said that his episode was designed by Russell to "change the Doctor" in a big episode that will have "a real impact on him" and that, in terms of the series continuity, it will be a "lasting impact".
- Stephen Greenhorn wrote The Lazarus Experiment which coincidentally was also the sixth episode of the series it was in and also followed a two part story by Helen Raynor that featured a returning enemy.
- Georgia Moffett is the daughter of Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison. In 2004 Georgia was considered for the role of Rose Tyler.
- Jenny's impressive acrobatics in a corridor full of deadly laser beams was inspired by Britney Spears' Toxic video.
- The two Hath named in credits would appear to be named after famous actors; "Hath Peck" drawing his name from Gregory Peck, and the "Hath Gable" taking his from actor Clark Gable. Whether this is deliberate or a mere coincidence is uncertain.
- According to the BBC Pod cast Russell T. Davies said the original intention was to kill Jenny off at the end of the episode. It was Steven Moffat who expressed the desire to bring her back to life.
Ratings
to be added
Filming Locations
- Barry Island, Barry Shooting Range (Tunnel sequences)
Myth
- It was heavily rumoured Jenny would be Susan's mother, but this proved to be false.
Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors
- It appears that Jenny regenerates as a substance similar to the vortex and the terraforming process escapes from her mouth. However her body does not change. The Doctor regrew his hand in The Christmas Invasion, as a Time Lord has great capacity for self-repair shortly after a full regeneration.
- During one scene in the tunnels of Messaline, the UNIT logo can be seen in the background.Possibly UNIT is still operational at this time.
- Jenny's top appears to "regenerate" after Cobb shoots her through one of her hearts. It is possible that they changed Jenny's clothes for her funeral.
- Some would argue that it is improbable that the Hath would so quickly come to trust Martha, given that she is the same species that they are at war against. However Martha had helped Peck whereas most of the other humans could have killed him. Therefore they quickly identified that she was different. It also helps the audience understand that the Hath are different to the monsters General Cobb makes them out to be.
- The TARDIS's telepathic circuits do not translate what the Hath are saying to the audience but Martha is able to speak to them and know that the Hath she travels around with is called Peck. It could be translating to what humans speak and the Hath understand. The reason it was not translated to the audience is a choice by the producers to add comic relief that Martha is the only one who can understand them and translate what they are saying. For example when Peck swears and she tells him to watch his language.
- All Jenny's knowledge and abilities were given to her by the machine she was born in. This may include her gymnastics skills. It is never explained why the other soldiers do not have the same ability. The extent of Jenny's gymnastic skills are likely to be as the result of being a Time Lady rather than a soldier. Her gymnastic skills go far beyond that of almost any human. Therefore even if the soldiers could use gymnastic skills, Jenny is more physically able than the other soldiers.
- It is not explained how Jenny would know how to fly a shuttle as the machines embedded military knowledge but not the knowledge of how to fly a space shuttle. This may be an example of Jenny's Time Lord heritage. Many times the Doctor has worked things out as he's gone along. Jenny is likely to be doing the same thing.
- Four apparent facts cannot all be true at once: (a) the war has only been going on for seven days; (b) General Cobb knows about The Source and its purpose only by hearsay passed on through the generations; (c) General Cobb is in his late forties or his fifties; and (d) offspring produced by the machine emerge with the bodies and personalities of human beings in their early twenties. If Cobb is as old as he looks, he ought to have been a member of the original landing party, in which case he would know what the Source really is.
Continuity
- In the original first series the First Doctor was travelling with his granddaughter Susan Foreman, who is to date the only relative of the Doctor to be seen on screen. The Doctor's other two grandchildren John and Gillian also appeared in some of the comic strips.
- In DW: The Empty Child Dr. Constantine remarks "Before the war I was a father, a grandfather now I am neither. But I'm still a doctor." To which the Doctor replies, "I know the feeling."
- In DW: Fear Her, the Doctor mentions to Rose; "I was a dad once.".
- The Doctor mentions his family, his family is first mentioned in DW: The Tomb of the Cybermen also in Delta and the Bannermen, his granddaughter first appeared on screen in DW: An Unearthly Child which was the first ever episode, he has a brother who first appeared in NA: Theatre of War, an (adoptive) daughter who first appeared in EDA: Father Time and a wife DW: Blink, PDA: The Infinity Doctors/MA: Cold Fusion.
- The Seventh Doctor says that he does not know if he has any living family members in DW: The Curse of Fenric
- At the end of this episode Jenny escapes from her home planet in a stolen spacecraft to travel the universe. This mirrors her father's actions.
- Martha metitions the events of the sword fight in The Christmas Invasion when discussing the Doctor's hand.
- Donna mentions her friend Nerys whom we saw in the Christmas Special and describes how she got pregnant using just a turkey baster.
DVD and Other releases
to be added
See also
to be added