Christology of Who: Father's Day Part One

A look at “Father’s Day,” written by Paul Cornell, from Series One.

SPOILER ALERT:  As we look at the Doctor Who episode, I wanted to give my warning again: I will be giving away the end of the episode.

Episode summary:

Rose has never met her father (Pete) – he died when she was a baby; but her mother (Jackie) always told Rose what a wonderful, perfect man he was. Rose convinces the Doctor to take her back to the day of Pete’s death, so she can be with him and therefore he won’t die alone.

Instead of just being with him, Rose impulsively saves her father from the hit-and-run. Good for him, bad for the world as this action upsets the balance of time, and Reapers come out to kill everyone in the world and thus erase the damage.

Rose, Jackie, Pete and Baby Rose hide with the Doctor inside a church for a while, until a Reaper gets in and kills the Doctor. Pete, realizing that this is all because he wasn’t supposed to live, sacrifices himself by jumping in front of the hit-and-run car – which has been reappearing in front of the church the whole time they’ve been hiding there.

Time is restored, the Doctor is back, everyone forgets what just happened, and Rose is able to be with her dad as he lay on the street dying.

And now for a look at a few of the themes:

Humanity Matters

A running premise of the entire series is that people matter. And not just the Churchills and Victorias and Einsteins and Shakespeares – but the ordinary, every day person is important.

This notion is underscored twice in the episode, first when Rose can’t understand why the Doctor is ticked at her for saving her daddy. After all, he is just a regular person, so she can’t have changed much.

THE DOCTOR
Rose - there's a man alive in the world who wasn't alive before. An ordinary man, that's the most important thing in creation. The whole world's different because he's alive. 

Later, when the Doctor is talking to the bride and groom during a lull in the attack, he gets them to tell of how they met. But as the reality of the situation kicks in, they both protest that they aren’t important.

The Doctor disagrees:

THE DOCTOR
I've traveled to all sorts of places. Done things you couldn't even imagine. But, you two: Street corner. Two in the morning. Getting a taxi home. I've never had a life like that. Yes.
(smiles)
I'll try and save you. 

Humanity matters, and not just the ones we think of as important – but all of them are worth fighting and dying for.

“For G-d so loved the world…”

To be continued... 

Just my thoughts,

Sean