I'm going to tackle this episode in order of least to most significant elements, which means that I'll be taking aim at the biggest elephants in the room last.
Our own Bill Reed observed that, after "Partners in Crime," Season 4 of NuWho has seemed remarkably like a tour through each Doctor's era:- "The Fires of Pompeii" was a First Doctor classical (literally) historic epic in the mold of "The Romans," which even gets referenced in the episode by the Doctor himself.
- "Planet of the Ood" was a Second Doctor offbeat sidebar encounter with an odd little non-humanoid species on a distant planet.
- "The Sontaran Stratagem" and "The Poison Sky" were a Third Doctor serial of UNIT fending off a militaristic invading race (bonus points since the Sontarans themselves were introduced during the Third Doctor's era), with the modern cast feeling at times like they were simply filling in for members of the "UNIT Family" (Col. Mace for the Brigadier, Ross Jenkins for Benton, Martha Jones for Liz Shaw ... hell, even Luke Rattigan for Delgado!Master, since it's not much more of a stretch than Simm!Master doing the same).
- And "The Doctor's Daughter" was a Fourth Doctor adventure on an alien world, whose conflicts were nonetheless noticeably, albeit broadly, allegorical in illustrating the absurdity of Earthbound behavior, with wild ideas struggling to compensate for a loose, disjointed plot, in which the characters were occasionally reduced to running around in subplots for no other discernible purpose than to pad out the episode.
- Which makes it all the more appropriate that "The Unicorn & The Wasp" shares so many elements with the Fifth Doctor early 20th-century period piece murder mystery, "Black Orchid."
So, we've now had Martha Jones in three episodes each of Torchwood Season 2 and Doctor Who Season 4, and call me crazy, but I've spotted what appears to be a pattern in both arcs:- Episode 1 - "Hi, I'm Martha Jones. I will cause all of the characters to comment on how I am a bad-ass who has her shit so totally together, even if they do so enviously or fearfully. I'll also be initiating the plot and driving a lot of its action forward."
- Episode 2 - "Hi, I'm Martha Jones. I will be sidelined for more than half of this episode, although saving me eventually will ostensibly serve as a motivation for one or more of the characters' missions throughout the story."
- Episode 3 - "Hi, I'm Martha Jones. I will be playing the part of wallpaper in this episode, because anything I do or say will be rendered irrelevant by the other characters and their drama."
Seriously, as much as I love to see Martha, why the fuck was she even in "The Doctor's Daughter"? Granted, it was kind of cool when she was shown acting like a mini-Doctor, complete with a companion of her own, but what did she actually accomplish, beyond inadvertently getting the Hath who trusted her and followed her killed? After all the abuse to which her character has already been subjected, laying that guilt trip on her just seemed gratuitous, especially since she'd already declared, at the end of "The Poison Sky," that she didn't want to deal with all the issues of traveling in the TARDIS again.
But enough about that; on to the central point of this episode. On the one hand, Georgia Moffett is an attractive and charismatic actress. On the other, even before we found out that she and David Tennant were probably fucking in real life, their performance felt a lot less like a biological daughter and father meeting each other for the first time, and a lot more like Rose Tyler's heretofore-undiscovered slightly younger sister and Ten were sizing one another up for a potential sexual relationship. It didn't help, on that score, that the script limited Moffett's range of expressed emotions to the two poles of "hurt" and "perky."
And as long as we're talking about the script, JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, I've never seen a more blatant in-canon Mary Sue fanfic in my fucking LIFE. I almost (almost) felt bad in retrospect about accusing Russell T. Davies of turning Rose into his Personal Canon Sue, because if Rose had ever gotten this bad, I probably would have freaked the fuck out so badly that even Lawrence Miles would have said, "Jesus, dude, calm the fuck down." Let's just work our way down the list, shall we?- Canon Sue is improbably related, through a complicated contrivance, to a primary character (hereby designated Lust Object Alpha) over whom many fangirls squee.
- Canon Sue is born flawlessly beautiful, right down to having perfect hair and a face that always looks made up, even though it isn't (unless we're supposed to take it for granted that the progenation machine applied Jenny's mascara).
- Canon Sue is born knowing an unholy shitload about combat tactics/acrobatics/the native society/whatever is needed to a) move the plot forward and b) show how uber-competent she is.
- Canon Sue might be initially rejected by Lust Object Alpha, but only so that she can ultimately a) make him realize that he's been wrong and b) break down his emotional walls and heal his inner pain.
- Tragically for Lust Object Alpha, he will only come to realize the full scope of his newfound love for Canon Sue (which often occurs within a remarkably short window of time after her introduction) after she's sacrificed herself to bring about A New Golden Age throughout the "entire world" (however broadly that term might be defined within the story in question), which is why the "entire world's" inhabitants will all tearfully mourn her passing.
- Oh, and bonus points if Canon Sue is resurrected under incredibly ill-defined pretenses!
And yet, in spite of all this ... I kind of like Jenny. It doesn't hurt that I'm a heterosexual male, since Moffett could pass for an A-list porn star without even trying, but since I doubt we'll see Carole Ann Ford on NuWho, I suspect the character of Jenny might be the best way left of addressing all those potential stories about what it might mean to be the Doctor's offspring. A couple of pieces of advice for future storytellers, though:- We've already seen Jenny do "wide-eyed wonder" and "scolded puppy." She needs a few more layers, and for the record, "tough" does not qualify as another layer, especially since she was literally born knowing how to kick ass in a physical fight. Just because a girl can lay the smack down in hand-to-hand, that does not make her an OMG FULLY REALIZED AND EMANCIPATED HEROINE (Joss Whedon, please take note, because I can see the bottom of your bag of storytelling tricks, and it's not a pretty sight).
- I like Georgia Moffett, and I like David Tennant, and I wouldn't want to begrudge them whatever relationship they might have in real life, but if they're going to play father and daughter, they need to learn to STOP GODDAMN EYE-FUCKING EACH OTHER every time they share a scene. It's no fucking wonder people are shipping Ten/Jenny, when they look like they're about to start making out like horny teenagers every time they're onscreen together.
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