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Doctor Who – 4x06 – The Doctor’s Daughter (Grade/Discuss)

Grade The Doctor's Daughter

  • Total voters
    144
Hell, you'd think that once the Doctor was "elected' president some Roger Clinton drop kick of a sibling would have shown up to suckle up to his power... Although He was such a lonely little boy with such a lonely child hood according to Rene.

The novels for a while supported that the timelords were a clone race produced from a genetic loom... So because of this, we're back to thinking they're just more primates doing it like they do it on Animal Planet... Though would they really leave so much to chance?
 
Guy Gardener said:
Hell, you'd think that once the Doctor was "elected' president some Roger Clinton drop kick of a sibling would have shown up to suckle up to his power... Although He was such a lonely little boy with such a lonely child hood according to Rene.
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The Doctor mentions in "The Empty Child" that he knows what it's like to be the only child left out in the cold. Having a sibling doesn't mean you're not lonely. I've often suspected that the Doctor may have been abandoned by his family as a child, or at the very least forcibly separated from them by outside circumstances.

The novels for a while supported that the timelords were a clone race produced from a genetic loom... So because of this, we're back to thinking they're just more primates doing it like they do it on Animal Planet... Though would they really leave so much to chance?
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Who's to say it's left to chance? Maybe Time Lord marriages are all pre-arranged. Maybe the Time Lords genetically engineered their race so many centuries ago that they're all so gosh darned genetically "perfect" that it doesn't matter who breeds with whom.
 
I found the description of the Time Lord children being taken away to the academy at the age of 8 to be comparable tot he opening scenes of 300 where they explain who Spartan Children are conditioned to be the best of the best.

Besides, we saw what Chewies family did for his street cred. I wonder what the Doctor is going to do when she starts procreating? besides, there's still a chance that Lucy got knocked up that the master's daughter might still put down with Jenny and a spoiler character from another show.
 
The more I reflect on this, the more problems I have with it. Aside from the stupidity of a machine that creates people ready clothed and made up (Unless eyeliner and mascara are in the Doctor's DNA??) I find myself dissatisfied with the underlying concept of parenting it promotes.

There's more to being a parent than the genetics of the thing. There's the nurturing, protecting, caring relationship. The shared memories. The emotional bond. Most people who've been adopted will tell you that their 'birth parents' may be important, but their 'real parents' are the people who raised them. Jenny has none of that. Heck, The Doctor has more back-story with the Master than with Jenny. It was very noticeable when confidential showed the Master's death - the Doctor reminding him of 'all that we've ben through together'.

Frankly, I agree with the doctor - Jenny is NOT his daughter: she may be made from his genetic material, but she was never 'his child'. The Doctor's loss is of someone who can fill the void left in him by the other Time Lords.

I also wonder who the heck she will turn out to be given that Jenny is a person with no childhood, no background. I'm not sure I really want to see her again.
 
I think people are misinterpreting what happened. It wasn't a regeneration, it was The Search for Spock.

Above Average from me.
 
RevdKathy said:
The more I reflect on this, the more problems I have with it. Aside from the stupidity of a machine that creates people ready clothed and made up (Unless eyeliner and mascara are in the Doctor's DNA??) I find myself dissatisfied with the underlying concept of parenting it promotes.

There's more to being a parent than the genetics of the thing. There's the nurturing, protecting, caring relationship. The shared memories. The emotional bond. Most people who've been adopted will tell you that their 'birth parents' may be important, but their 'real parents' are the people who raised them. Jenny has none of that. Heck, The Doctor has more back-story with the Master than with Jenny. It was very noticeable when confidential showed the Master's death - the Doctor reminding him of 'all that we've ben through together'.

Frankly, I agree with the doctor - Jenny is NOT his daughter: she may be made from his genetic material, but she was never 'his child'. The Doctor's loss is of someone who can fill the void left in him by the other Time Lords.

I also wonder who the heck she will turn out to be given that Jenny is a person with no childhood, no background. I'm not sure I really want to see her again.
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I don't think that the episode was arguing that parenting was a pure matter of genetics (though it's important not to discount genetics). Rather, the episode was agreeing with you -- it's about more than that. It's about love. Jenny did not become the Doctor's daughter by virtue of having been created out of his DNA; she became the Doctor's daughter when the Doctor and Jenny mutually decided that that was the kind of relationship they would have, that they would live together and build up a relationship and history. "We were gonna be so great, you and I," the Doctor says to her as she dies. The episode makes it very clear that they mutually chose to become father and daughter; if anything, it confirms the view of parenthood that you're describing.
 
RevdKathy said:
The more I reflect on this, the more problems I have with it. Aside from the stupidity of a machine that creates people ready clothed and made up (Unless eyeliner and mascara are in the Doctor's DNA??) I find myself dissatisfied with the underlying concept of parenting it promotes.

There's more to being a parent than the genetics of the thing. There's the nurturing, protecting, caring relationship. The shared memories. The emotional bond. Most people who've been adopted will tell you that their 'birth parents' may be important, but their 'real parents' are the people who raised them. Jenny has none of that. Heck, The Doctor has more back-story with the Master than with Jenny. It was very noticeable when confidential showed the Master's death - the Doctor reminding him of 'all that we've ben through together'.

Frankly, I agree with the doctor - Jenny is NOT his daughter: she may be made from his genetic material, but she was never 'his child'. The Doctor's loss is of someone who can fill the void left in him by the other Time Lords.

I also wonder who the heck she will turn out to be given that Jenny is a person with no childhood, no background. I'm not sure I really want to see her again.
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WTF were you watching? The episode is pretty much 100% agreeing with you. For most of the episode the Doctor was saying that she was not his daughter, to paraphrase "You cannot extrapolate a relationship from an accident of biology." And the father/daughter relationship only started once they had a proper dialogue going with each other, and it was established that they were both willing to take on ideas from each other.
 
I wanted her to be a "real" daughter but as the episode progressed I'm kinda liking this version. They could've done with a bit less build-up though. Two things:

1. She should've come out of the machine naked
2. I'm betting someone will say "Who's your daddy?" the next time she appears.
 
Garibaldi O'brien said:
Just got a chance to watch the ep. and I enjoyed it. Not the best of the season, but it certainly does lay the groundwork for a spinoff with Jenny, once Dad grows her a new TARDIS from his hand, and used pinball machine parts.

I rather thought they handled her coming back to life rather well. I do think she can regenerate (6 1/2 times?), but I don't think that's what happened on the table. It seemed to be more along the lines of the Doctor re-growing his hand provided it was within 20 hours of the new regeneration. She was quite new, so her body probably just repaired/regrew the damaged bits and she was right as rain.

I do hope we get to see her again. She has tons of potential as a character, and I would surprise lots of buried Timelord knowledge in her DNA.
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I very much agree with you. When she looked like being dead I got pretty annoyed. I hate this cliche of introducing a good character just to kill him or her off at the end for some shock value. My 5-year-old daughter loved the episode until that happened and wandered off. I called her when Jenny woke up again but at that point she was more interested in what Daddy is doing on the computer.

I like your theory and it makes a lot of sense. I was thinking that maybe female Time Lords (or Ladies?) regenerate differently and don`t change appearance. I am certainly no expert. Have we ever seen a female Time Lord regenerate before?

Yes, I also hope to see her again. She is a fun character with a huge amount of potential.
 
Servo said:
Please, tell me nobody actually, seriously believed that she would end up being his real daughter? I mean, come on.
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Why not?

Servo said:
My theory before the episode was that the Doctor's DNA had been used in a deliberate attempt to create a kind of super soldier by splicing Time Lord DNA with Human soldiers, to fight in some war somewhere (which I think would have been a bit cooler than what we got), but I never once thought that she'd actually end up being a true daughter of his.
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I thought that maybe somebody had managed to find the genetic looms that Gallifrey used to produce new offspring and the Doctor's was in there somewhere.
 
TigerOfDarkness said:
MisterGaribaldi said:
USS KG5 said:
Well we ALL think that, but its a family show and not just wank-fodder!
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Yeah, they can afford a little artistic license on that score... It's just like The Hulk's purple shorts.
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She also had a gun didn't she - presumably after being "born", the machine applied clothes and make-up and supplied weaponary before opening the doors?
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Actually they gave her the gun after she exited the machine...
 
TigerOfDarkness said:
MisterGaribaldi said:
USS KG5 said:
Well we ALL think that, but its a family show and not just wank-fodder!
Click to expand...

Yeah, they can afford a little artistic license on that score... It's just like The Hulk's purple shorts.
Click to expand...

She also had a gun didn't she - presumably after being "born", the machine applied clothes and make-up and supplied weaponary before opening the doors?
Click to expand...
No, she was given the gun immediately after stepping out.

As for the clothing issue, I agree. All it took was clever camera angles. The reactions from The Doctor, Donna, and Martha would have been priceless. :lol:
 
Baerbel Haddrell said:
I like your theory and it makes a lot of sense. I was thinking that maybe female Time Lords (or Ladies?) regenerate differently and don`t change appearance. I am certainly no expert. Have we ever seen a female Time Lord regenerate before?
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Actually, it is just the opposite. Yes, we've seen Romana regenerate. She was able to change her appearance several times before deciding on a face she liked, she was even able to make her face match the appearance of another women. What is arguable is if she used up any regenerations in doing so, Timelord women may have the ability to change appearance after a regeneration and not use up extra regenerations, or, she may have used up several of them, which would be quite a stupid thing to do.
 
I think she regenerated to look like that other woman quite by chance, and then knowing the Doctor wouldn't approve used some sort of technology (like the TARDIS chameleon circuit) which altered her appearance in the Doctors eyes.
 
wamdue said:
I think she regenerated to look like that other woman quite by chance, and then knowing the Doctor wouldn't approve used some sort of technology (like the TARDIS chameleon circuit) which altered her appearance in the Doctors eyes.
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There is absolutely no evidence she used technology to regenerate to look like the princess, IIRC, she did it very quickly and purposefully.
 
Brent said:
wamdue said:
I think she regenerated to look like that other woman quite by chance, and then knowing the Doctor wouldn't approve used some sort of technology (like the TARDIS chameleon circuit) which altered her appearance in the Doctors eyes.
Click to expand...

There is absolutely no evidence she used technology to regenerate to look like the princess, IIRC, she did it very quickly and purposefully.
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no she did that herself, its the other appearances she created with technology, so the Doctor would realise the "princess" appearance wasn't the worst that could happen.
 
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