Doctor Who retro review: The Doctor’s Daughter (Tenth Doctor story)

It’s been more than ten years since The Doctor’s Daughter was broadcast. Is it a strong episode, and did it live up to the hype of its very title?

Ah, The Doctor’s Daughter. More than ten years ago, this was an incredibly anticipated episode for Doctor Who. How could it not be, with that title?

And that’s all the BBC were willing to let the audience know about it, too. Before the episode was broadcast, while trailers were shown for the episode, nothing revealed how “Jenny” was the Doctor’s daughter. Was she going to be a member of the Doctor’s original family?

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This might be The Doctor’s Daughter‘s biggest problem. The episode was hyped up, to an incredible extent. The following quote particularly sums it up.

"As the shadows of war loom on the planet Messaline, the Doctor meets the most important woman of his life…"

This was the BBC’s official description of the episode. That’s quite the description. But did The Doctor’s Daughter really live up to it?

Gritty war

The overall story is harmless enough. It’s a war story, and rather grittier than The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky, which this episode continues directly from. There’s a focus on how pointless some wars truly are. On how many lives are lost, particularly when they don’t even know the reason why.

Martha getting separated from the Doctor, Donna and Jenny was a great way of showing both sides to a conflict. It was good that the episode made it clear that things weren’t black and white. The humans weren’t good and the Hath weren’t evil. They were just two sides who’d forgotten what they were fighting for.

But was it a good idea not to let the audience know what the Hath were saying? It just seemed to be done purely for the sake of comic relief (as Martha could understand them and told one off for swearing). The cost of this choice was making them a little harder to relate to.

The Tenth Doctor meets his “daughter”, Jenny.

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/BBC. Image obtained from: BBC Press.)

The Doctor’s daughter(?)

Then again, the war was not really the main focus of the episode. The episode was more focused on how the Doctor reacted to having a new “daughter”.  The episode took its time to really make the Doctor accept Jenny.

Of course, it’s not just the Doctor who had to be sold that Jenny is the Doctor’s daughter. It’s the audience too. Which was perhaps a trickier sell.

Considering that Jenny was, perhaps very unsurprisingly, not a member of the Doctor’s original family, the episode does an acceptable job telling us that she is the Doctor’s new daughter. The writing explores how she has some similar elements of biology to the Doctor. And of course, some similar values, too.

Showing the Doctor’s progression from being completely against the idea towards fully accepting it helped. And Georgia Moffett (now of course, Georgia Tennant) does a good job in the role. Certainly enough to make the idea of her upcoming spin-off series interesting.

An important episode?

If there’s one thing that goes against making the audience believe that she’s his daughter, it’s the families on Messaline. Or rather, how we actually don’t see any. Because no one treats each other like parents or children, or even siblings. When we don’t see these soldiers accept each other as “family”, it does make it harder for us to do the same with Jenny, too.

However, the one final thing that does make it convincing to us at least is Tennant’s performance. Watching his Doctor slowly accept Jenny is great to watch, and it’s purely down to how Tennant plays it.

The scene with the Doctor pointing the gun at Cobb’s head before saying he “never would” truly stands out. There’s a reason why Tennant is still a very popular Doctor, and this episode really shows it.

However, while the episode isn’t necessarily bad, it does feel very throwaway. Especially compared to other episodes this season. While Jenny survived, she was never seen again.

Considering that the Doctor had a family on Gallifrey, not to mention that we’ve seen his actual granddaughter Susan, Jenny was hardly “the most important woman of his life”. So the episode feels like it was done purely to grab viewers, without adding a great deal to the story.

The Doctor’s Daughter isn’t a bad episode. Just a very average and standalone one. And considering the title, that’s still pretty disappointing.

Next: Doctor Who review: Lucie Miller (Eighth Doctor audio)

What do you think of The Doctor’s Daughter? Is it an episode that you enjoyed? What did you think of the character of Jenny? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.