Episode #199 : The Doctor's Daughter

"He saves planets, rescues civilizations, defeats terrible creatures... and runs a lot. Seriously, there is an outrageous amount of running involved."

Episode #199:         The Doctor's Daughter.
Companions:           10th Doctor, Donna Noble and Martha Jones.
Air Date:                 10th May 2008.

Just after finally defeating the Sontarans on modern-day Earth, the Doctor's TARDIS takes the Tenth Doctor, Donna Noble and Martha Jones on an unexpected trip to the planet Messaline. Arriving right in the middle of a war between humans and Hath, the Doctor meets someone he thought he never would: his daughter. Can the Doctor accept this clone as his offspring, and can he stop the war before it all ends in massacre on both sides?

It is always nice to see interaction between old companions and new. With the threat of the Sontarans out of the way the Doctor drags Donna and Martha off into time and space. Although they do get split up after a while there is some fun interaction similar to, but more serious than, when Rose Tyler and Sarah Jane Smith met back in School Reunion.

The biggest plot element that had people talking about the episode all week before it was shown was the trailer reference to "hi dad" and the episode title. I had hoped, against hope, that it would be his direct daughter - Susan's mother. But alas, that was not to be. Sometimes I do wish we could just get some direct continuity back to Susan but I doubt now that it will happen. Instead, Jenny, is a clone creation made by a machine. She is programmed to be a soldier, which makes the Doctor distrust her immediately, and it takes Donna to force him to see her as his own flesh and blood. I won't spoil the ending where Jenny is concerned but we need a repeat appearance or her own spin off show.

As you are already probably aware Georgia Moffatt who plays Jenny is the daughter of 5th Doctor Peter Davison. So technically she is the Doctor's daughter, who is married to the Doctor (David Tennant) and has had the Doctor's daughter. Timey whimey.

As an episode, the Doctor's Daughter isn't bad but it feels somewhat cheap in places as though this was the runt of the series. It is a story that doesn't really go anywhere and perhaps may have been better as a classic era story spanning three or four parts. It is the problem with many modern episodes though and by now I should be used to it.