After the epic Sontaran two-parter, Doctor Who comes down to earth (or another planet, at least) with a much frothier tale.
In some ways, this episode shouldn’t work as it contains enough plot holes to fill the quota for an entire series. Here’s a handy-dandy list:
- A fish-like alien drowns. Whats that about?!!?
- Said fishy Hath creatures speak a cool bubbly language which Martha can understand, but the Doctor & Donna can’t. Sounds like the Tardis translator circuit needs a kick
- Gawd-awful excuse for the dramatics at the beginning with a paradox being used to “explain” why the TARDIS pulled the Doctor to the planet causing the creation of the Dcotor’s daughter. Sloppy sloppy
- New colony needs terraforming, so what do the colonists build? An underground Victorian theatre, of course. I ask you……
I could go on, but y’know what……. all of that didn’t matter – it was still a great episode, for all the flaws. There’s more than enough of what Doctor Who is best at – sparklingly good lines – that nothing else matters, really.
It’s a shame that the Doctor’s Daughter of the title wasn’t Miranda, his adopted/real offsrping from the novels. I had my hopes up there, but ah well. Jenny more than up for that. Georgia Moffett played the part brilliantly, playing off Catherine Tate (Donna) perfectly. We’re going to see more of her, that’s for sure. Even though she was good, I hope to God that they don’t decide she merits a spin-off series. Two spin-offs (Torchwood and Sarah Jane Adventures) are enough, already
Even though it’s a pretty light-weight episode, there’s a fair amount of moralizing and lots of “Guns never solve anything” ranting from the Doctor. I expect that’ll be edited out for the American audiences though. They’ll probably get the Director’s Cut where the Doctor, Martha and Donna storm the Hath wielding SMGs and blowing them all to hell before taking their oil.
Next episode, Doctor Who meets Agatha Christie. Need I say more? 
