« Who you gonna call? |
Main
|
Ianto! What the Hell? »
Doctor Who
Season 4 Episode 6
The Doctor's Daughter
So the Doctor doesn't know where they're going but his hand sure is excited about it.
Donna thought it was some "Freaky Alien thing" Ahh, I like how Donna comes up with terminology for stuff that sounds like something I would write.
Martha explains where the hand came from.
Donna calls him impossible.
Not impossible. Just unlikely. Impossible is reserved for another character in the Whoniverse, sorry.
Great. Out of a war zone, into a war zone.
Martha, despite screaming her head off to go home last week has decided she's excited for another adventure.
But then some kid and some troops come by with Guns. I will call him Shaggy. He notes the Doctor and friends clean hands and sends them in for processing.
He sticks the Doctor's hand in a machine for "Processing".
And after a bit of pain THIS comes out of the machine.
So what is it? It's the Doctor's daughter he informs the girls, and she's been uploaded with a bunch of military data. She was grown from his tissue sample it turns out
Anyway, before the discussion can get any further some aliens who look like weird fishes come and attack! (They are called the Hath) The Girl is ready for action.
Short story: Martha gets captured, and Blondie blows up the tunnel per Shaggy's orders.
![]()
So Now the Doctor and Donna and their new 'friends' are stuck, without TARDIS and the tunnel has collapsed. Martha has been taken hostage again and is on the other side.
The Doctor yells at blondie and wants to know why she did it. He's all angry and accusatory. Very fatherly. Blondie's only been on this world for two seconds and has had fighting programmed into her brain. "They were trying to kill us" is all the reason she needs to seal the tunnel. Fair point I say.
But Martha! RAaaaaaar!
Blondie chalks it up to collateral damage. Which is cold, but...fair point. I mean, the fishmen had guns! And Blondie's just a baby cog in a big old war machine.
Shaggy lost both his men, so what about that? At least Donna's still around.
M-A-R-T-H-A and Martha was her name-oh! Donna reminds everybody that their pal isn't collateral damage. This is the same thing the Doctor said to Mace when Ross got shot. They need Gwen's board of humanity up in this joint pronto. No, not really. Keep it far away.
Blondie looks a little shamed after Donna calls her G.I. Jane. Or maybe she just things Donna is wacko.
The Doctor shoots his baby girl some disapproving glares and declares the mission for this episode: Find Martha!
Shaggy isn't going to let that happen. He finds their lack of fight disturbing, so he's going to take them to General Cobb.
On the other side of the tunnel, Martha is not dead.
She finds an injured fishman and her mad doctorin' skillz take over. I see TARDIS. Why doesn't it translate fishman language? Is it because of the bubbles?
Martha communicates with it, and I think it seeing the fishman trust her and seeing it all sad an in pain, my fickle sympathies go out to the fishmen.
Fishman has a dislocated shoulder, at least as far as Martha can tell.
Our poor fishman's friends don't really like this turn of events.
But as it turns out Martha's no damsel in distress. She's all, 'he's my patient fool, step off!' and the fishman tells his buddies that it's okay.
The fishman cock their weapons when she jams the injured guy's shoulder back in place.
But they've got magic to do, just for you...
Right, so, just in case you didn't realize how dorky I am. Anyway, the injured fishman goes to bat for Martha. Now she's friend of the fishmen.
Then Martha's all, "Who the hell are you?" Seriously? You're going to get all snippy with the gun-toting aliens? Good thing they aren't big bad and evil.
back in human land, blondie doesn't have a name, which is why I'm calling her blondie. The Doctor's daughter is just way too long.
All she really knows how to do is fight. Which is kind of a kick in the pants for the Doctor.
He calls her a generated anomaly.
Donna Christens her "Jenny". The anomaly approves. I don't know who this chick is, but she does kind of look like the Doctor when she's grinning ridiculously like this.
Donna asks dad what he thinks. He's like, "Whatever."
Donna makes fun of his parenting skills, or lack thereof and he's says Jenny's nothing more than a processed tissue sampled. Doesn't exactly make for the best of familial ties.
Donna points out that it isn't all about the natural childbirth...as we can tell from this whole series in which 5 out of six episodes deal with species that asexually reproduce. Review? Adipose came from people fat...the Pyrovale turned people into them by inhaling dust...The clones and now this.
The Doctor calls Jenny a biological accident and tells Donna to stop extrapolating relationships where there are none. Cold. You know she can hear you, dude?
Then he says that because he shares traits with simian's it doesn't make him a monkey's uncle. Doesn't make him human either. But Jenny's not just physiological traits...she's got his Gallifreyan genes for goodness sakes. He could be a tad nicer.
Jenny finally speaks up for herself after listening to daddy deny her for several yards. She's not a monkey, or a child.
The Doctor glares at her and walks on.
So what planet are they on anyway? Messaline.
At the Human base they're popping out new generations of soldiers at a frantic pace.
Here's the General.
They're inside some kind of old theater in what Donna calls a kind of underground city.
Cobb cuts to the chase. He wants to know where they came from and why they're there. They're not part of that crazy pacifist group in the East are they?
Well, that seems as good a place as any to be from without raising and unwanted questions.
The Doctor introduces himself and Donna. Jenny has to introduce herself because he's pretending like she doesn't exist right now.
Cobb doesn't want a nasty peace infection breaking out.
the Doctor says fine. Kill each other all you like, I've got a TARDIS and a Martha to find.
Cobb tells him he can't leave They're at war with the Hath (Fishmen!) after all.
Who are the Hath anyway?
We're not going to stick around to hear Cobb's answer. We'll just go visit the Hath instead. They're hanging out in front of the space heater.
They're also creating new armies.
Martha cannot understand a word coming out of their bubbulators. That's what I'm calling it. Bubbulator.
They all crowd in to take a gander at Martha's holy awesomeness.
Okay, we're going back the Doctor now, thankfully because I cannot understand Fish language.
Cobb explains that back in the ancient times their forefather's imagined a world where the Hath and people could live and love and sleep together...In case you haven't noticed this recap is a little cracky. I'm late! This is what happens!
So why all the fighting?
The Dream died. Cobb thinks the Hath wanted to take over. Back in the day. Way back in the day. In ancient times even. They used the machines to make soldiers instead of colonists like they were supposed to.
Donna wonders why the heck they built windows, what with there being nothing but Earth outside. Clearly she has found Cobb's story boring and has wandered away.
Why build underground anyway? The surface is too harsh of course.
And what of the numbers, that Donna has found that are completely irrelevant?
Cobb chalks it up to the symbols of their ancestors. Way back in the day. A long long time ago.
How long has the war been going on?
Longer than anyone can remember. Many generations. Careful word choices.
The Doctor does not like this. Time is marked only by the mountains of dead bodies.
Jenny has been taking this in. She's been programmed with this fighting mentality so she thinks that they must fight to survive like everybody else. She calls it her inheritance.
Kids these days. Huh?
All she knows is how to fight and how to die.
Bubble, bubble, bubble.
the Hath are conferring with Martha for some reason. Her awesomeness apparently transcends language barriers. They're showing her a map of the tunnels.
You are here.
Fishmen nod. They knew Martha was smart.
In people land the Doctor is looking at the same map.
He's planning on using it to help find Martha.
According to Shaggy Martha = Not important. They have better things to do like make new people from Donna and the Doctor, kill some Fishmen. Things like that.
The Donna's all, "hell no! That's not happening. No offense, Jen. It's not like you're real." NICE, Donna. Nice.
Jenny asks if you prick her does she not bleed? She's as real as anything. See how she sticks up for herself and has independent thought and such.
Cobb is proud of his new soldier.
Now we're going to learn about the source. Cobb explains that it is the breath of life.
????
Shaggy explains: In the beginning...the great one breathed life into the universe, seen what she had done and sighed.
Jenny likes that their god is a woman. Girl Power!
The Doctor looks dubious. Creation Myth. How cute.
Cobb is mad. He says it's real. The sigh, from the beginning of time. A long time ago was captured and kept.
The Doctor spots something amiss with the map. So he screams at it. Then sonics it.
Aha!
And in Fishmanland the Doctor has caused their map to light up the secret tunnels also.
The lost temple! The Source will be inside! Good Job Doctor, way to escalate the war!
The Plan. March on the temple in the morning after whipping up a batch of brand new soldiers. Peace will happen at last.
The Doctor wants to know why they don't just stop fighting if all they want is peace.
Only if they have the source, so they can wipe out the Hath. Awww, Genocide. How nice.
The Doctor is not pleased.
As far as Cobb is concerned Genocide = survival. I don't know about all that, I mean, the Fishmen don't seem that bad. They haven't killed and filleted Martha yet. They seem to quite like her actually.
Over my dead body says the Doctor.
Cobb wonders what the Doctor is complaining about. He's the one who opened up the path anyway. They can ironically watch from their prison cells.
I believe Donna tells Shaggy to cool the beans when he pulls out his gun.
Cobb warns the Doctor that if he tries anything his "woman" will be disposed of first. Woman? No...No...Totally not a couple!
The Doctor vows to stop Cobb.
You and who's army? Cobb's got his troops, what has the Doctor got.
His forehead.
Lock them up Shaggy.
And what about Jenny? Can't be trusted, that Doctor's daughter. Lock her up too.
The Fishmen celebrate. They want to get to the breath too. Praise Martha! Who is confused as to exactly what is happening.
the fishmen congratulate her. She thinks she's started a war. No, that would be your Doctor at work again.
Back in peopleland: a trio of jailbirds.
Donna spies more numbers. Nobody else seems to be that interested in them. The Doctor thinks it's just a bunch of nonsense like the breath of life story.
Jenny's a little insulted because that's the belief system that was uploaded into her brain. She can't believe it's not true.
Donna confirms it's a myth. Right Doctor?
but like any myth there is a grain of truth in there somewhere. It could be anything. The source. Even a weapon.
And we've just given it to the crazy warmongering general? asks Donna. Good job guys.
Not good. Jenny just stands there with her arms crossed.
The Doctor has to get them out of there and stop Cobb.
She still observing him with quiet amusement.
The Doctor wants to know what's up with that.
Jenny thinks he's behaving like a proper general himself.
He's just trying to stop the fighting. By fighting back...hence war. Right?
Isn't that what every soldier is trying to do?
The Doctor's at a loss. It's totally not the same thing. He says. Donna thinks this is hilarious and the Doctor changes the subject because he can't think of any proper rebuttal to this cute little blonde girl who has been in existence for less than a day. He pulls out his screwdriver so he can upgrade Donna's phone.
Jenny thinks it's a weapon.
The Doctor says it's not.
But you're using it to fight back, says Jenny. She's excited because she's going to learn so much from him, because he is such a soldier.
Educate the lass, he says to Donna and Donna laughs at him too, because Jenny has rendered him speechless again.
The Doctor gets Martha on the line.
Martha is glad to hear from him...in English.
Everybody's fine. Donna reminds the Doctor that Jenny exists.
He explains to Martha, and actually admits that she's his daughter except she isn't, and what a sneer of disgust he's wearing. Baby steps. The Doctor is such an ass sometimes.
Makes Jenny sad.
Martha explains that the fishmen seem to be gearing up for war because of the map that just popped up.
Uh-Oh, Spaghetti-Oh's. It's going to be a bloodbath.
Martha asks for her orders.
Stay where you are.
But Martha wants to help. Then her phone cuts out. It's out of juice.
And the Hath March on.
Cobb gives a rousing speech to the troops. To victory! yay!
So the Doctor has to get past the guard. What to do, what to do.
Jenny wants to deal with him. The Doctor says no and sends her to her room.
He tells her she belongs with her warring friends, not with him.
The Donna says no way Jose. She belongs with you, biological accident or not, she still came from you. Since this is Donna using her "I am right voice" you know the Doctor is totally going to cave.
But not right away. He's going to rant about her being a soldier who was born out of a machine while ignoring the girl and addressing Donna.
Donna knows. She was there. She wants the stethoscope.
I'm pretty sure he knows what Donna's going to use it for.
Donna looks for a heartbeat.
And the other one. We have a winner.
Sorry Doc. She's Gallifreyan or Time Lord or whatever. She's part you anyway.
Donna makes him listen. And Jenny waits for a little acceptance.
Yep she's got two hearts he says.
What? Says Jenny.
So is she a Time Lord or what? Jenny's like, What? For real, what's a time lord?
That would be the Doctor.
Then he calls Jenny an echo of a Time Lord, nothing more, she's lacking the shared experience of being a Time Lord. There are no other Time Lords left.
Oh, no. You unleashed some major Doctor Angst, Donna.
It's all gone forever.
Jenny wants to know what happened.
War. What is it good for? Yeah, Yeah. It was much bigger and the Doctor fought in it, and killed.
So how exactly is he so damn different than her? She wants to know.
Martha needs some power to charge up her phone so she can tell the Doctor she's totally not going to follow his instructions, but her Fish friend has stayed behind to keep her company and he's found something. Clever fishman that he is.
The map is even bigger and in 3-D. Yay!
Martha plans on going to the surface so she can reach the tower.
Fishman tells her it's too dangerous.
Martha decides that it doesn't look too bad up there. As long as she doesn't stay up for too long.
The fishman tries to persuade her to stay. (I'm totally making this up by the way because who the heck knows what it's saying)
Martha says she has to find her friends.
Fishman decides to go with her.
Well, back in peopleland They've decided to put a plan into motion rather than sitting there debating who is and who is not a soldier. Jenny chats up Shaggy.
He totally digs her, and who can blame him? He tires to pretend he'd rather stand gaurd than talk to her.
She wants to know if he considers her dangerous or if she just nees protecting.
Anyway, Shaggy is stupid and he gets close enough to the bars for her to kiss him.
And take his gun away.
Donna would like to see the Doctor try that move.
There's some troops standing watch by the exit. The Doctor takes Jenny's gun away.
Donna wants to try her hand at distraction.
The Doctor does not approve of Donna's womanly wiles.
Instead the Doctor distracts him with a mouse toy.
And Jenny takes him out with a karate chop.
The Doctor does not approve.
Jenny's all, 'Distraction, Lack of consciousness, same thing.'
Fishmen on the March, and they have found a secret tunnel
Martha's friend doesn't really want to go outside.
But Martha's got places to go and Doctors to see, so she's going whether or not he's going with her. Though she does try to convince him.
He's still not keen on the idea.
Out she goes into the barren, windy landscape.
And her Fishman can't help but follow her. He's a good guy.
/>
Martha's says she knew he couldn't resist the call of the wild. I for one think he just digs Martha. Or...maybe he's her lifelong servant now that she's fixed his arm? Who the heck knows.
Why are these people lagging behind? The Hath are already halfway to the Source by now, and here they are finding Shaggy trussed up like a christmas goose.
Cobb says nobody is going to get in his way. It's the first sign of madness I say. He's starting to get that crazy killing look in his eye.
The Doctor and Co. Find the secret entrance.
Donna spies some numbers. I'm sure they're not important.
The Doctor doesn't really care. He just tosses it off as on old cataloging system left by the builders. Could be.
The Numbers are counting down.
Jenny wants to know who they are and why they keep thinking.
The Doctor says again that he is the Doctor and that is all the information you will get.
Since he has no real name that he's saying, Jenny wonders if he's also an anomoly like her. Like father like daughter? He says no.
Donna says yes.
Jenny is giving us a history lesson in Doctorology, because she keeps asking questions. Like what are Time Lords for exactly.
They're not for anything! They just are. He just travels through time and space.
And so modest. Donna lets Jenny in on the little detail of saving whole worlds at a time. There's also a lot of running involved.
The Doctor hears the army approach. It's time to run.
OMG! Lasers!
The Doctor is going to look for a control panel.
Donna peeps a number and writes it down. I'm sure these things have no signifigance to the plot of this story about very ancient cultures and everlasting wars.
Jenny is going to hold up the bad guys...and is it me? Or is the Doctor showign actually concern for his little anomaly?
He just doesn't want Jenny to kill anybody.
Though she only has the best of intentions. Like, saving thier lives.
Killing is like a bad infection, the Doctor lectures. Don't let it get you. Jenny thinks she has no choice.
There is a choice. There's always a choice. Hmmm, where have I heard that before?
Jenny runs off to go kill some baddies. The little rebel.
The Doctor is irritated. He doesn't think Jenny is anything more than a soldier still.
The Donna knows Jenny is only trying to help. Give the girl a little slack.
Besides, like she says, she's real, she has indipendant thought, and dad's been filling it with the idea that killing is wrong.
Bye, bye, lasers, goodbye. The Doctor calls for Jenny.
Cobb tries to convice her to join them because she's a child of the machine after all. Nothing more than a soldier. Killing Hath is in her blood he says. Don't deny it.
Yeah, maybe, but she's also got more than a few Doctor genes mixed in, and that blood is thicker than...err, a machine. or Something. Anyway, she shoots some pipe in the cieling and some gas rushes out temporarily blinding Cobb. She grins like...well, like the Doctor.
The Doctor and Donna urge her on.
But the lasers kick back on. There's nothing the Doctor can do, and he seems a little distressed. Yes, yes, I believe that is actual concern for her well being creeping in.
but Jenny is a resourcful lass with a brain full of military training. She just summersaults through the lasers like it's no big thing.
Donna says, Impossible!
Nah, Just a bit Unlikely says the Doctor. Ah, come on, admit it, you like your little anomaly, Doctor, don't you.
She even gets hugs, and a BRILLIANT!
Donna's all, 'I totally knew he would come around.'
And what could she possibly do to make him even more proud? Choose not to kill the general when she had the chance, and she's really excited that she chose the high ground on that one.
Sorry, they're adorble.
the Doctor imparts some words of warning upon Cobb. Cobb tries to shoot him through the lasers.
Meanwhile, Martha is trundling along the surface with her fish friend.
And she falls in a hole with some handy quicksand at the bottom.
Unfortunately the fishman can't reach.
So he has to jump in and push her butt out. Thus sacrificing himself in the process.
And Martha cries. I have to say I'm not quite sure what purpose this whole part of the storyline serves except to make me weep and fall in love with the Fishmen even more.
Now Donna is explaining to Jenny that she and the Doctor are just friends.
Donna explains their tavelling ways and about all the awesome stuff the Doctor shows her.
Jenny wants to see awesome stuff and new worlds too.
Donna says she will, because she's totally going with them. The Doctor agrees. He even manages to smile out of the corner of his mouth a little bit.
Jenny is excited. More hugs!
She skips ahead and the Doctor calls after her to watch out for traps. How sweet.
He's coming around to accept that he's managed to create offspring, but still, there's the frown. "Dad Shock" Donna calls it.
That's not it though. Donna wants to know what is.
Turns out it's a much bigger deal than anything Donna can imagine. Nope. He's been a father before. He lost everything in the Time War.
Donna wonders why he never talks about it. I dunno, maybe it's a painful memory. Just a guess.
He has to face up though. Because every time he sees Jenny he sees them, the hole his family left, and all the pain that filled it. He doesn't know if he can take it.
Donna wants to help, but it's not really that easy.
The Doctor says a part of him has died, and he's never getting it back.
Donna, she thinks he's wrong.
Jenny comes bearing news. Thier persuers have blasted through the beams. Time to run. LOVE the running. Heh. She's starting to sound like him now.
Love the running! he agrees.
Meanwhile Martha crawls out of her hole.
And spots her destination.
They've stumbled upon the door to the temple, and Donna finds more numbers.
Jenny's keeping lookout, and Donna's pondering the numbers which cannot be a cataloging system like the Doctor says, and the Doctor is telling Jenny to keep out of harms way.
The Doctor gets the door opened and Martha gets her door opened, and the troops are hot on their tails.
Donna doesn't think it's much of a temple. And it's not. It's a space ship.
The Donna wonders if it's the space ship that the colonists arrived in in those Oh so ancient times. The Doctor doesn't think so because it's still powered up and functional. If it was that old it wouldn't be working. Right? RIGHT.
The Doctor finds the ship's log. It's the original ship after all.
Time for a short story: Robot Drones built the City, The Leader of the Colonists died and the Hath and Humans split into factions. End of the Captain's log.
Donna finds some more numbers. Seriously, Donna. Nobody cares about the numbers.
Supertemp goes to work!
The Numbers are a DATE.
Another Short story: The other numbers are a completion date for each section.
Donna is brilliant. The Doctor still does not get the relevance of the numbers. Completion dates, so what?
The Relevance? It has only been seven days since war broke out.
Jenny cannot believe this.
Off to find the source.
Martha is back! Umm, yay. Alright.
Martha smells something floral.
They find themselves in a jungle of sorts.
And there's the source. It's terraforming. It's all the building blocks to create life on a new planet. All they have to do is crack it open and everything will be great!
Hath and Human arrive at the same time. The Doctor tells them not to shoot.
Cobb thinks it's a trap.
The Doctor says that they don't even know what they're fighting over, then he explains what the source does.
It's not for killing. It's for bringing life!
I want a Hath. That is all.
Anyway, This is the Doctor.
And he declares this war OVER!
The all purpose golden mist swirls, armies lay down thier weapons.
Cobb is mad. In more ways than one.
The Doctor explains that the gasses are going to create life on this planet now.
Jenny sees Cobb raise his gun.
and she steps in front of her Dad and takes the bullet for him.
Martha lets us know that Jenny is beyond saving.
The Hath are...?? They look kind of sad anyway.
At least she got to see one new world.
The Doctor totally doesn't want her to die. (understatement of the year.)
He finally calls her his daughter, and tells her they have so much to do and see and that she's going to be great, and yeah. This is all sad and stuff. I cried.
And then she dies in his arms.
The Donna and Martha watch on.
The Doctor clings to one last hope...that she will regenerate.
Martha shakes her head like she A. Was even around during this whole episode to learn anything about Jenny and the way she was created and B.knows Time Lord physiology enough to think that it won't happen.
She thinks that Maybe Jenny's not enough like a Time Lord. Seriously Martha...you've been hanging out with Fishmen this whole episode what do you know?
She's too much like me the Doctor says.
Goodbye Jenny.
The Doctor pics up the gun and he's all intense and irate and we hear the sound of drums start to pound, which really, truly kind of freaks me out.
Donna and Martha don't believe what they're seeing.
In the end the Doctor says he never would. And we can all breath a sigh of relief.
He stands up and addresses the Human and Hath. He tells them to make the foundation of the society a man who never would.
he's going to watch over Jenny just a little while longer.
Later the terraforming starts working, stripping away the layers of bad on the surface and letting the sunshine in.
So what about Jenny?
They're going to give her a proper ceremony.
The Doctor says Okay.
Later in the TARDIS the Doctor explains that Jenny was the reason they came in the first place, but they got there too soon, and that's when they made Jenny out of the tissue sample and then my brain exploded.
It's a paradox, foo!
It's time for Martha to go home. She looks like hell.
And away they go.
While Jenny lays on her table.
Back in present day Earth Martha is so ready to stay home forever and Donna is so ready to stay with the Doctor forever.
Goodbye hugs.
And Martha says that she thought the Doctor had finally found something worth living for, but he tells her that there's always something worth living for.
More goodbye hugs.
Martha fondles her ring and runs off, hopefully to find her Man inside.
Back in the Hath/People land, they are laying Jenny to rest.
A golden light escapes Jenny's lips.
Shaggy and Fishman exchange 'what the heck?' looks.
And Jenny gasps awake.
Well, she apparently escapes Fishman and Shaggy because the next thing you know she's in a space shuttle getting ready for take off. Shaggy wants to know what she's up to.
Jenny's off to follow in Dad's footsteps. Saving worlds, rescuing planets, defeating monsters, and running. A whole lot of running.
Next Time
Agatha Christie!
Pyschic paper.
It's a Murder Mystery!
Leave a comment