30.06: The Doctor's Daughter

[Kostmayer]

Pah, Cloning, I sense a cop out.

Though she could still be Susans mother..

Also, the old guy play Arthur in Excalibur - I can't believe I recognised him.

[Perpetual Man]

I too felt a bit of a cop out at the start, but by the end was really enjoying it...
And if nothing else it got us all talking for a week!
I don't think there was any relation to Susan, the Doctor went on to mention his previous family - but said they were all dead. But I did wonder about Susan herself, perhaps she was on Earth isolated from the time war.

[Lenny]

Typical. The modem cops out at the wrong moment, and this is what I get for five weeks of good service.

Anyway...

---

Well, that was quickly sorted. A week of discussion from our greatest minds, and it turns out she's a clone.

The ending was a bit... well, too neat. I think the Ood episode suffered from the same fault - too happy, for want of a better word.

No mention of Medusa, or the Shadow Proclamation again, but we got another nice shot of the Doctor's old hand, and planet that was terraformed. Which fits in some sort of "Planet" theme - destroyed, used as breeding grounds, taken over... how will Ms. Christie fit into all that (with what looks like the Torchwood house from the Werewofl episode in the series before last)?

[Ursa major]

I didn't buy the seven days business. Even if every front line soldier dies in the space of seventy-two minutes (for 20 generations a day) what about the leaders (remember: we're talking about every single leader)? Apart from that, this episode was okay.


By the way, does anyone else think there's another spin-off on the cards?

[Harpo]

Yeah, I thought of a future spin-off possibility.
And surely if she were a clone she'd have been played by DT?

[PTeppic]

I got the impression she was more of an extrapolation than a straight clone, but at least it got it out of the way at the start of the episode. Didn't think it was a cop-out, since they covered his existing family and the new relationships with pseudo-daughter were very well handled. To me the acting was great throughout, with plenty of thrills and spills, nippy dialogue and one-liners. Donna is definitely getting into her stride, though TPTB will need to be careful how many temping jobs she's had. Mention above about no mention of the Medusa Cascade; more important, I think, was mention of the Time War and the Time Lords. Well, we've arguably now got extra Time Lord DNA wandering loose (more of which anon), and it seems expected that the head honcho on the Dalek side is going to appear later, meaning they need to keep the War telegraphed. As for the ending, it all seemed quite right and proper, nay predictable, that Jenny would do what she did and stop the Doctor being shot; but afterwards, that certainly surprised the pants off me. The obvious phrase is "can anyone spell 'spin-off'?" but in this instance I think it'll all go around and thus, ultimately, come around. After all, the TARDIS has found her when needed once: it's bound to do it again.

One of the better episodes, I thought, though obviously plenty of holes. How did communication break down so far (i.e. a week). Are so many of the "clones" being killed so fast that the truth has been lost in so short a time. Did no one leave big signs or mission instructions lying around?

PS. Anyone catch "Confidential"? Trivia of the day: Georgia went to school with Colin Baker's daughter. I won't mention the pseudo-goth look when not in a Rose-esque blonde ponytail. Also, does anyone know if the episode's director, Alice Troughton, is related to a series-related gentleman of the same surname?

[Tillane]

Good episode - but, as others have mentioned, plenty of plot holes. Georgia Moffett seemed to fit in with The Doctor, Martha and Donna very quickly and easily, and I certainly wouldn't object to seeing Jenny turn up again (and I'm sure she will, though not in a spin-off. I suspect she'll re-appear before the end of this series.)

And we had terraforming tech appearing for the second time in as many episodes. I agree with Lenny; the theme looks to be planet birth, death and shaping. And if we're expecting old Davros back at the end of the series, what's the betting that he'll be trying to turn Earth into New Skaro?

[Talysia]

Not a bad episode, although like a lot of people here, I thought the ending a bit too neat, and I can definitely see the Doctor's daughter returning (though I hope not in another spin-off). Next week's episode looks interesting, too.

[Rane Longfox]

I've just watched the first three minutes (iplayer is being ridiculously slow tonight) and I must say, I feel extremely vidicated that the daughter is a clone, after I said that was most likely at the very beginning of the guessing thread for this episode, and everyone ignored it and continued to geekgasm over who the mother might be.


Thank you, I'm here till thursday. Try the veal.

[Foxbat]

The Doc gave a rapidfire (and garbled technobabble as usual) explanation of how the cells are split and mixed (more like meiosis rather than mitosis) which means she was not technically a clone. Thought 'the source' was a bit silly and acted almost as quick as Anadin.

Enjoyed it though

I also thought Cobb was Arthur from Excalibur but wasn't certain.

A spin-off possibility? Undoubtedly.

[Perpetual Man]

Originally Posted by PTeppic

Also, does anyone know if the episode's director, Alice Troughton, is related to a series-related gentleman of the same surname?

I think if my brain cells are working this morning that Alice is Patrick Troughtons Grandaughter.

Also as an interesting aside...

Another possible reason for the 'clone' looking nothing like the Doctor. The doctor has a very unuasual makeup genetically - he can completely chnage his appearance, so perhaps the cells just regenerated as the copied him - or perhaps they drew on 'dead' cells remnants of former Doctors, creating a composite of previous Doctors in a female form... perhaps even with slightly stronger genetic material from a previous Doctor, shall we say the fifth...

After all, according to some source I saw in the lead up to the episode, it was stated that Georgina Moffett was Peter Davidson's daughter

Ex-Corrie star Sarah Lancashire lines up with who's who of stars in Doctor Who | the Daily Mail

(Sorry if anyone else mentioned it, but I only scan read the above)

[Kostmayer]

Thats the problem with being British - trying to take all these extras seriously when you've seen them in other things

I mean, if you were gonna create a soldier, would you use Chris from Skins as a template?

[purple_kathryn]

Only if you wanted to find lots and lots of pot

A bit off topic but after watching the 2 series of skins I realised I hated it. Well the characters anyways

[PTeppic]

Originally Posted by Perpetual Man

Another possible reason for the 'clone' looking nothing like the Doctor. The doctor has a very unuasual makeup genetically - he can completely chnage his appearance, so perhaps the cells just regenerated as the copied him - or perhaps they drew on 'dead' cells remnants of former Doctors, creating a composite of previous Doctors in a female form... perhaps even with slightly stronger genetic material from a previous Doctor, shall we say the fifth...

As mentioned previously, the Doctor did explicitly say, when the sample was taken, that it was being extrapolated... presumably that's not needed for straight cloning?

[Rane Longfox]

He explained in some detail how it worked, and how it wasn't straight cloning...

Well, I say "worked", as much as anything else that happens in this program "works".