I think I prefer the themes of The Doctor's Daughter more than I enjoy its overall execution. The exploration of the Doctor's relationship with his daughter while not my jam at first really stuck the landing. What Jenny means to him as the last Time Lord and in the context of the loss of his other children (ie Susan) was fascinating. Tennant really captures a breadth of emotion throughout the episode. I also respect the theme of pacifism and especially that last speech about building a world without violence and vengeance. Honestly the anti-gun thing works much better here than in the Sontaran Stratagem because the story hones in on how pointless the war is.
But I can't get over how the logistics of this episode trip me up. I get that the whole seven days thing is probably there as a biblical allusion but you cannot convince me this full scale contextless war broke out in 7 days. Given that the episode doesn't have the budget to realize what war with the Hoth actually looks like outside of skirmishes in hallways I just can't believe generations of soldiers were bred and died in 7 days to the extent that a game of telephone myth was legitimately believed by everyone. Sure they're all clones but they can track the passage of time.
Review by TshepisoBlockedParent2023-10-30T02:37:22Z
I think I prefer the themes of The Doctor's Daughter more than I enjoy its overall execution. The exploration of the Doctor's relationship with his daughter while not my jam at first really stuck the landing. What Jenny means to him as the last Time Lord and in the context of the loss of his other children (ie Susan) was fascinating. Tennant really captures a breadth of emotion throughout the episode. I also respect the theme of pacifism and especially that last speech about building a world without violence and vengeance. Honestly the anti-gun thing works much better here than in the Sontaran Stratagem because the story hones in on how pointless the war is.
But I can't get over how the logistics of this episode trip me up. I get that the whole seven days thing is probably there as a biblical allusion but you cannot convince me this full scale contextless war broke out in 7 days. Given that the episode doesn't have the budget to realize what war with the Hoth actually looks like outside of skirmishes in hallways I just can't believe generations of soldiers were bred and died in 7 days to the extent that a game of telephone myth was legitimately believed by everyone. Sure they're all clones but they can track the passage of time.