Fathers Day arrives with a blast
When this show focuses on something, it delivers its best episodes without a shred of a doubt. For the most part, this episode ditched the cliché and campy humor for a very human that was both emotionally powerful, and fascinating.
When Rose’s emotions overcome her, and she saves her Father from dying in the intended car crash, she literally screws up time, and these strange beasts (reapers) appear in London (and apparently the rest of the world) to quite literally kill everyone, to correct this malfunction. There were a few issues with this episode, firstly, why do these creatures not like “old” things? And it never quite felt like the end of the world.
But apart from these two things, this episode was mostly solid. We saw an emotional storyline involving Rose’s father, who was played brilliantly played by Shaun Dingwall. I will say right away that I loved her father’s personality, he was quirky and not in the least bit sardonic. Both of these traits are a pleasure to see, and he really did deviate from my expectations. We also found out how much of an absolute bitch Rose’s mother used to be, it may have been for a reason, but quite honestly, she did not gain any sympathy from me for the plain fact that her reason for her anger was not explained in full detail.
We also see the TARDIS stop functioning (for whatever reason) and we see a wedding get crashed. Everyone who attended were hiding in a church, and although this episode did not have some epic feel to it, it did have a personal one. I will easily admit that a few scenes in this episode were heartwarming and well-enough acted that I could overlook some of the clichés.
In the end, Rose’s father sacrifices himself for the sake of humanity. I was originally not enjoying this episode too much, it was slow paced for the first twenty or so minutes, however, it quickly began picking up to be one of the best ones of the show so far (if not the best). So I will freely applaud it’s deviation from the Dr.Who norm and hope that it’s not the only one that’s like this.
Although there were a few things that weren’t explained properly, the entirety of it was a solid forty minutes of emotional, and character developing goodness that I just had to re-watch. Rose, or Billie Piper, I should say. Has come a long way acting wise, she was much too stiff in the first few episodes, but now she has truly started to show her range as she conveyed true emotions through some of these scenes.
I am not sure if I like “Daleks” more than this episode, or if I enjoy this episode more than “Daleks”… all I do know is that it was an entertaining half hour of TV that I shall remember for the future seasons to come.
P.S- But really… what’sup with the TARDIS just randomly failing? Did I miss why?
Grade: B+
awkwardreviews 
What´s up with the Tardis failing? did you miss something?
Well yes, this go back way back to the first Doctor (the one you are watching is the 9th), he got feed up with the actitude of the other Timelords and rebeled, then he took his grandaughter and stole a Tardis that was in a museum (so you know tht is an old model even for his time) The Tardis was defective and its most clear failure is that once it materializes it tooks miliseconds to analyse the enviroment and it disguises itself to match the time and place it lands but this one got stuck in the look it has now.
I mean, when the doctor was running back to it after getting into a fight with Rose, he entered it but it wasn’t the “TARDIS” on the inside. It was just a regular blue box.
It’s been a very long time since I’ve watched this episode, I love Doctor Who, but not having the funds to fork out for the DVDs I tend to only catch the episodes when they first air, or when they’re repeated. But remembering back, I think it was kind of mumbled by the Doctor, but it had something to do with the way the Reapers ‘cleans’ the dodgy timeline. They cut it off from the rest of time and because the Doctor wasn’t quick enough getting back to the TARDIS she became nothing more than an outdated piece of police kit. At least in that little pocket of time, the TARDIS herself with all her space defying insides was outside and couldn’t get back in until a path to the original timeline was created by Pete sacrificing himself. At least that’s what I think I remember happened but I am trying to think back through several years of memory lol
Hana Shie is right about why the TARDIS sometimes fails, she is old, and although it does play into plots in the future, it doesn’t in this particular episode.