Episode #166 : Father's Day

"Rose, there's a man alive in the world who wasn't alive before. An ordinary man - that's the most important thing in creation! The whole world's different because he's alive!"

Episode 166:       Father's Day.
Companions:      9th Doctor and Rose Tyler.
Air Date:             14th May 2005.

Pete Alan Tyler, the father of Rose and husband of Jackie, died on November 7 1987, the day of Stuart Hoskins and Sarah Clark's wedding. Rose was just a baby at the time, Jackie told the young Rose that nobody was there for Pete when he died and that the hit-and-run driver was never found...
Now grown up, Rose asks the Ninth Doctor to take her to see him alive, but on a whim, ends up changing his fate, not realising the consequences of such a paradox. After all, the Doctor has saved so many lives...what could the real consequences be over a man alive in the world who wasn't alive before?

Father's Day deals with the concept of what happens when you go back and make a major change to history. The concept of paradox is nothing new to the show but this is the first time that it occurs on such a scale. It is hinted at that this sort of thing didn't happen when the Time Lords still existed. It also sets up the back story to the Tyler family in preperation for future stories involving Rose.

Once again the Doctor turns nasty in this one. At this point the whole "stupid ape" attitude is getting old and tired. We get the point already. On the flip side, it is a story for Rose and we see how she could react when the opportunity presents itself. It never happens again so either Rose learns her lesson or the story element is somewhat of a throw away.

The story is ok, but is all too slow in it's pacing. It is only the interesting paradox elements that give the story any real body. Even the back story for Rose's family doesn't really help float it very well. It really needed something else to give it a kick up the backside. That's not to say that the story is in any way bad, but it is lacking something.