Previously: Donna saved the effing world from the Sontarans and a nerd boy. Also, Martha.
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The Doctor’s Daughter
Kirsti: We pick up exactly where we left off, with the TARDIS vworp vworping off to God knows where, Martha still on board. The controls aren’t responding, and the Doctor says he has no idea where they’re going, but his spare hand is super excited about. Donna’s all “Your spare WHAT?” and Martha briefly explains. (M: Donna, girl. You never noticed the bubbling hand?) The TARDIS lands, and the Doctor pokes his head out into an underground tunnel, full of barbed wire and shot up sheets of metal. Martha whispers to Donna that she loves this bit, where the Doctor works out where and when they are.
They’re confronted by three spotty teenagers with guns, and they raise their hands. The three spotty teens are all “OMG LOOK AT THEIR HANDS” and drag our trio off to be processed. The Doctor gets his arm shoved into a metal cylinder. There’s a whirring noise, and he yells in pain. Donna demands to know what it’s doing to him, and a spotty teen insists that “everyone gets processed.”
The Doctor says “ow” a lot, and says the machine has taken a tissue sample and is extrapolating it. The machine releases him, and he’s got a patch of skin scraped off the back of his hand. He looks up to see the doors on some sci-fi machine opening. A blonde woman in combat gear steps out. Everyone stares in awe. One of the spotty teens hands her a giant gun. Martha and Donna are all “The fuck is she?” and the Doctor says in surprise that she’s his daughter. “Hello, Dad,” says Georgia Moffett, daughter of the Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison, and Future Wife of David Tennant.
Marines: This wikia explains it this way: She is the Doctor’s daughter, she played the Doctor’s daughter, she starred in The Doctor’s Daughter, and she had the Doctor’s daughter.
K: Perfection.
I just found out that Georgia Moffett is 20 months younger than me, has four children, and is married to David Tennant. (M: I bet she calls him something different than dad now…) I’m single and live with my parents. To paraphrase Emma Thompson in Love Actually, the problem with being a Snark Lady is that it does put your life into rather harsh perspective. But I digress.
DOO WEE OOO!
After the credits, Future Mrs Tennant says that she’s ready to fight. Donna’s more concerned about the whole insta-daughter thing. The Doctor babbles madly, and it basically boils down to “the magic machine did something cool, and now there’s a person”. Future Mrs Tennant says that something’s coming down the tunnel. Dark figures appear from the shadows, guns firing. FMT and the spotty teens (M: band name!) return fire. Donna, Martha, and the Doctor duck for cover.
As the dark figures – the Hath – get closer, we can see that they’re weird fish people things with glowing green breathing masks over their mouths. A spotty teen yells that they need to detonate and seal the tunnel. One of the Hath grabs Martha and drags her off. FMT grabs the detonator and hits the button. Everyone makes a run for it. The tunnel explodes.
Post-detonation, the Doctor stares at the sealed tunnel in slightly teary horror. He shouts about how the Hath have Martha. FMT declares her to be collateral damage. Donna is fucking pissed. She and the Doctor turn to go in search of Martha. Spotty Teen trains his gun on them, and says they’re not going anywhere because they make zero sense and have no fight in them. He’s going to take them to see the General.
Meanwhile, Martha’s regaining consciousness on the other side of the blocked tunnel. The Hath that dragged her off is sitting on the ground, cradling one arm. Being the medical professional that she is, Martha heads over to examine it. The Hath bubbles at her – they communicate by producing bubbles in their liquid filled gas mask-y things – and she works out that it’s got a dislocated shoulder. She fixes it just as a bunch of other Hath appear and point their weapons at her. The injured Hath bubbles an explanation, and everyone relaxes. Martha introduces herself like a total BAMF: “Now then. I’m Dr. Martha Jones. Who the hell are you?”
K: Absolutely!
Elsewhere, FMT leads the way to the General. Donna asks what her name is, and FMT is all “Fucked if I know”. The Doctor says that the insta-person machine must have filled her full of military tactics and history, but no names. Seeing as how she’s a generated anomaly, Donna names her Jenny. Jenny approves of this. So do I because I can stop calling her FMT. Donna asks the Doctor what he thinks, and he’s all “IDGAF” because apparently a “biological accident” doesn’t count as natural parenting. Donna snarks that it does to the Child Protection Agency. Jenny insists that she’s not a child.
They reach an open area, full of insta-person machines, camp beds, and soldiers. Donna realises that the open area is a theatre. The Doctor introduces himself to the General (RISE UP!) but has no desire to be his right hand man. One day I promise I’ll stop making Hamilton references. And on that day, I will be dead. (M: And on that day, you probably won’t have finished recapping Supernatural.) (K: Sad but very, VERY true.) General Cobb demands to know if they came from the eastern tunnels, which experienced a wave of pacifism and then fell out of contact. The Doctor’s all “YUP TOTES FROM THERE”.
General Cobb insists that they’re going to fight to the bitter end, and the Doctor’s all “Cool story. Now who the fuck are the Hath?”. With that, we cut to Martha. The Hath walk her into a similarly arrayed room, and then stand around patting her hair while she looks super awkward. Back to the General. He tells the Doctor and Donna that the planet was founded with the intention of humans and Hath living peacefully together. But the Hath are fucking liars who lie, and so instead of using the insta-person machines to make colonists, they made soldiers to fight back.
Donna asks why everything is underground, and is told that the surface is too dangerous to live on. She asks why the building has windows, and is basically told to STFU. She spots a number on a plaque and asks what it means, but apparently the meaning is lost to time. The Doctor asks how long the war’s been going for, and the answer is “IDK, fucking ages?” Countless generations have died. Donna’s horrified. Jenny says every child of the machine is born knowing about the war and that they must fight and die in it. It’s all they know how to do.
Meanwhile, Martha is shown a digital map of the tunnels and works out where she is. The Hath bubble at her approvingly. The Doctor looks at a similar map and says it’ll help him locate Martha. Spotty Teen is more interested in using the Doctor and Donna to make an entire platoon of soldiers. Donna’s all “Ew, no” because she’d rather make babies the old fashioned way and mould them to be little sass monsters. Also because Jenny’s totally not real.
Jenny gets super pissy about that, snapping “I have a body, I have a mind, I have independent thought. How am I not real? What makes you better than me?” General Cobb applauds her statement, and says they need more like her if they’re going to find The Source. The Doctor’s all “Ooooh, tell me more!”. It’s basically a creation myth – some omniscient being breathed life into the universe, then sighed. The sigh was captured as the Source, but it was lost when the war started. Whoever finds it controls the planet’s destiny. The Doctor sonics the map and realises there’s a hidden layer of information on it – more tunnels.
Mari: Surely there was a way of looking at the hidden layers without all the people with guns around.
K: You would think. But contrivance demands that it happen thusly.
Martha’s map changes to show the Doctor’s sonic-ed additions. Both sides realise that it shows a hidden temple and that that must be where the Source is. Everyone rushes around in excitement. General Cobb says they’ll produce a bunch of new insta-people, then march to the temple. When they have control, they’ll use the Source to restore peace. The Doctor points out that they could have peace by NOT FIGHTING ANY MORE, but LOL NOPE. General Cobb insists that peace can only be achieved when the Hath are all dead. The Doctor points out that that’s less peace and more GENOCIDE, ASSHOLE.
Cells. Donna notices another plaque of numbers. The Doctor tells Jenny that Santa Claus the Source isn’t real. She’s shocked. He says the Source could be something else – a weapon or a piece of technology. “So the Source could be a weapon and we’ve just given directions to Captain Nutjob?” Donna says. I love her so much. The Doctor says they need to get out and find Martha. Jenny calls him a soldier, coming up with strategies. He’s horrified. He takes Donna’s phone and sonics it, and Jenny’s all “And now you have a weapon”. He insists that it’s not a weapon, and she counters that it is because he’s going to use it to fight back. Donna watches with a smirk. The Doctor scowls and phones Martha.
After establishing that everyone’s fine – and also establishing that the insta-people machine does hella good winged eyeliner, thanks to a close up of Jenny – the Doctor asks Martha where she is. She tells him she’s in the Hath camp but that all the Hath are marching off somewhere. He tells her to stay put because it’s going to be a bloodbath. She insists that she can help, and then her phone battery dies. If her phone is anything like mine, it’s because Feedly is running in the background and she forgot to force stop it.
Mari: If it’s like mine, it’s actually not the phone at all, but something about plugging it in to charge every night that makes me feel so lazy. Probably because I only remember when I’m snuggled in bed here and the charger is over there.
K: My phone is my alarm clock, so if I don’t charge it, I’m royally fucked.
Martha watches sadly as the Hath march out. General Cobb gives his people a rousing speech, and everyone cheers. The Doctor says they have to get past the guard. Jenny insists she can deal with it, and the Doctor gets pissy, saying that she’s a soldier like the others and she can’t possibly come with them. Donna’s all “EXCUSE ME?? DEADBEAT DAD MUCH?”.
She orders him to get out his stethoscope, and finds that Jenny has two hearts. Donna’s all “See? Time Lord!”. He snaps that she isn’t, because being a Time Lord was about shared knowledge and suffering and history. It’s very Dark!Doctor. He mentions the Time War, and Jenny jumps on it, pointing out that they’re not so different if he killed for his planet and his people. I don’t know if it’s possible for a bassoon to Tinkly Orchestra all on its own, but it tries.
Mari: The episode kind of asks a few times if these insta-people are people and now we get the question of if without the shared knowledge of a place or culture, you belong to it. I’m sorry, I’m having first generation American feels.
K: Legit.
Meanwhile, Martha and her injured Hath are studying the map some more. The Hath manages to get the map into 3D, and Martha realises that she can beat everyone to the temple if she goes over the surface. The Hath bubbles at her. She studies the surface readings, and says that the radiation levels will be fine if she’s not out there too long. She insists that she has to find her friends. The Hath bubbles some more, and follows her.
Back in the cell, Jenny flirts with Spotty Teen, who’s guarding their cell. She pulls him close to the bars and kisses him, but uses it as cover to steal his gun and order him to open the cell.
Donna smirks at the Doctor and it’s great. They make their escape.
Part way down the stairs, there’s another guard. Donna wants to seduce this one, and the Doctor’s all “NO THANK YOU PLEASE”. Donna glares a little. Instead, they distract him with a wind up mouse, then Jenny karate chops him on the back of the neck. The Doctor is unimpressed, and orders Jenny to stay put and not hurt anyone. The Hath march through the tunnels and start hammering down a doorway. Martha heads up a flight of stairs towards the surface. Her injured Hath freaks a little at the bottom of the stairs. She encourages it to come feel the wind on its face, and it reluctantly follows. They clamber out onto the surface, which is super windy and cold. Martha grins.
Cell. General Cobb and his minions free Spotty Teen, who says that Jenny tricked him and the prisoners got away. General Cobb starts yelling that they’re marching to war because ain’t nobody going to get in his way. Elsewhere, the Doctor finds the entrance to the hidden tunnel and starts looking for a control panel. Donna spots another numbered panel and demands a pen and paper, because they’re counting down to something.
The Doctor sonics at the control panel while Jenny asks who he is and what he does. He replies that he travels through time and space. Donna elaborates: “He saves planets, rescues civilisations, defeats terrible creatures. And runs a lot. Seriously, there’s an outrageous amount of running involved.” Jenny looks excited. Just then, the Doctor gets the door open and they hear General Cobb and his men approaching. The outrageous amount of running commences.
Mari: I’m very realistic about my own fears and lack of courage and all that, but truly, I would never cut it as a companion primarily because of the running.
K: Same. Any running is too much running. Plus, I’d need advanced warning to put on a sports bra.
They reach a corridor full of red laser beams. The Doctor tosses his wind up mouse into the beams, and it explodes. Donna spots more numbered panels. The General gets closer. Jenny tries to go and hold them up, but the Doctor stops her. He insists that the killing will infect her. She says she has no choice. “We always have a choice,” he replies. She ducks back around the corner and starts shooting at Cobb and his soldiers. The Doctor’s disgusted. Donna insists that she’s just trying to help.
Jenny stops shooting and looks at her gun thoughtfully. The Doctor manages to sonic the laser beams off, and he and Donna run through. He yells for Jenny. But Cobb is reminding her that she’s “a child of the machine” and urges her to join them. She shoots a hole in a steam pipe above his head, and runs. But the laser beams come back on. The Doctor dithers uselessly, unwilling to watch another one of his children die. But Jenny throws down her gun and does a series of ridiculous backflips through the beams. The Doctor fanboys and hugs her enthusiastically as she gushes about her choice to not kill Cobb. She and Donna dash off.
As they walk, Donna and Jenny talk about what it’s like to travel with the Doctor. Donna says “It can be terrifying, brilliant and funny, sometimes all at the same time.” The episodes are often like that too…
Jenny says she’d love to see other worlds, and Donna nudges the Doctor in the direction of responsible parenting. He insists that they won’t leave her there, and she bounces around excitedly and hugs him. She dashes off, and he yells after her that there might be traps.
Donna smiles fondly, then realises he’s got a raging case of bitchface. She declares him to have “dad-shock“, courtesy of sudden and unexpected fatherhood. He says it’s not that – he had children long ago, but he lost them along with everything else. Donna’s all “….WHAT.” He tells her that he can see them in Jenny, and he’s not sure if he can deal with that every day, because part of him died with them. Donna looks feelsy and insists that he’s wrong.
Jenny comes dashing back to give them an update, and says it’s time to run again. She and the Doctor grin about running, and it’s adorable. Up on the surface, Martha’s struggle bussed her way out of the pit and to the temple. The Doctor finds a door into the temple and starts sonic-ing it. Donna spots more numbers, and says they look super familiar. Jenny unhelpfully yells that General Cobb and his minions are getting closer. The Doctor gets the door open, and a door conveniently opens for Martha on the surface. She scurries inside.
The Doctor sonics the door closed again just as Cobb and Co (Yes, Isa, that one’s for you) arrive. They rush further inside, and the Doctor realises it’s not a temple. It’s a spaceship. Donna’s all “The one the colonists arrived on?” The Doctor insists that it can’t be because the power would have run down by now, whereas this one’s still functioning. They run through the ship and somehow come across the mission log. It IS the ship the colonists arrived on, and it tells them that the mission commander died, leaving a power vacuum. Humans and Hath split into factions as a result, and a war broke out.
The log also tells them that the colonists used robot drones to build the city. With this piece of information, Donna finally realises what the metal plaques are – they’re date stamps, the numbers getting bigger the further out they get. She works out that the war, the one that’s lasted through endless generations, has actually only been going for a week. Womp. It’s only lasted generations because the generations keep getting killed in the war and it only takes seconds to produce a new generation. (M: That’s trippy.)
Jenny’s all “…but the buildings are ruined??”. The Doctor says they’re not ruined. They’re just empty, and waiting for occupants. They reunite with Martha, and there’s much rejoicing. They hear Cobb and his minions approaching, but Martha says she can smell flowers. They rush off in search of the Source (and the source of the smell). They find themselves in a big central garden, which the Doctor declares to be brilliant.
There’s a big glowy sphere in the middle, which the Doctor explains is a terraform device. It’s just in stasis. They’re interrupted by the Hath and the soldiers, rushing in from opposite sides. The Doctor yells that the war can never be won, because they don’t even know what they’re fighting over. There’s nothing mystical about the Source, it was made in a lab. It’s for bringing life to a planet. He picks up the sphere, then smashes it on the floor and declares the war to be over. A bubble of glowy gas flies up into the air, and everyone watches in awe.
Everyone but General Cobb lays down their weapons. Jenny rushes over and asks the Doctor excitedly what it all means. He says the gases will escape and start the terraforming process. It means a new world for them all. They grin at each other adorably again, then she jumps in front of him just as Cobb shoots. The bullet hits her in the chest, and the Doctor sinks to his knees, cradling Jenny in his arms. The soldiers grab hold of Cobb. Martha examines Jenny, then shakes her head sadly. The Hath look awkwardly sad.
The Doctor tells Jenny to be strong because they’ve got things to do and places to see. They can go anywhere she wants. They both get teary as he tells her how brilliant she’s going to be. And then she dies. The Doctor tearfully kisses her forehead. Then he looks sadly up at Martha and Donna, and says that Jenny has two hearts, just like him. They just have to wait. Martha looks pained, and says that there’s no sign of regeneration energy. Maybe she wasn’t enough like the Doctor. He tearfully says that she was too much like him. He lowers Jenny to the floor and kisses her forehead again.
Then he rushes over and picks up Cobb’s gun. He points it at his head, and the music drops to a single drumbeat. Donna and Martha look horrified. Then the Doctor puts the safety on. “I never would,” he hisses. He yells at them to make “a man who never would” the foundation of their new society. That’s… a nice message, but also hella egotistical, Doctor…
Mari: Aw, give him a break. He means the kind of man who would never execute another.
K: Oh, I get that. But he still kind of made it all about him…
Later, Jenny’s body is lying in state at the camp. Sunlight streams through the stained glass windows, and Martha says the terraforming has started. Spotty Teen asks if they can give Jenny a proper funeral, saying that it will help the humans and Hath to bond.
TARDIS. The Doctor says Jenny was the reason the TARDIS brought them there. It just got them there too early, which is how Jenny was created in the first place. It’s an endless paradox. “Time to go home,” he says. Martha agrees. They vworp vworp away and land on a London street. Martha says she’s definitely done for good now. Donna says excitedly that she could never go back to reality and she’s going to travel with the Doctor forever. Ow, my feels. The Doctor and Martha hug goodbye, and she studies her engagement ring and rushes back into her flat.
Back in space, Spotty Teen and the Hath prepare Jenny for her funeral. But LOL NOPE, a little puff of regeneration energy comes out of her mouth. She gasps, and her eyes pop open. “Hello, boys!” she says with a grin. Cut to the spaceship. Spotty Teen demands to know what she’s doing. Jenny grins that she’s stealing the shuttle because she’s got worlds to save and creatures to defeat and running to do. Just like her dad. Fade to black.
I really like this episode. I love the twist that the generations-old war has only been going for a week. I like that Martha gets a storyline that makes her realise that she’s not only over the Doctor, but she’s over travelling with him as well. I love that Donna’s the one who figures out the big twist. I love the flashes of Dark!Doctor, and the little nods to Classic Who in mentioning his family. And the dynamic between Tennant and Georgia Moffett is obviously fabulous, if a little confusing because she’s literally the Doctor’s daughter but she’s also the Doctor’s future wife, and she’s playing the Doctor’s daughter while also indulging in a heavy amount of eye sex with the guy playing her father. So. Confusing and I-Don’t-Know-How-To-Feel-About-This-Relationship-y. But also great.
Fingers crossed that Steven Moffat abandoning ship means that we get to see Jenny again. Because she’s kind of fabulous.
Mari: I enjoyed it as well! Definitely not one of my favorite episodes, but Martha, Donna and Jenny were all fantastic and I always like the moments when we get to see a little bit deeper into the Doctor’s trauma. I know that’s weird to say, but this show is so ridiculous, that it’s those very emotion-based moments that ground it and make it amazing to watch. Jenny was a bit of a superficial character, but what she brings out in the Doctor is not. I appreciated that.
Next time on Doctor Who: The Doctor and Donna hang out with Agatha Christie in S04 E07 – The Unicorn and the Wasp.
I'm a 30-something librarian and I still live with my parents because I'm super broke. Leader of Team Heartless Cow. I have an inexplicable love for 90s television, eat too much chocolate, and read more than is good for me.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
