• “Father’s Day” is considered one of the best episodes Doctor Whobut his monster of the week, the Reapers, doesn’t fit into the show’s canon.
  • The Reapers serve a metaphorical purpose, symbolizing the destruction of Rose’s world if her father survives the accident, but their existence conflicts with the Doctor’s ability to change past events.
  • Absence of Reapers in other episodes Doctor Who it is necessary that the Doctor can save people from past events by making them unfit for the show.

If you ask anyone who knows even a little about Doctor Who about what this popular BBC series is about, they will probably answer that it tells the story of an alien who travels through time and saves people wherever they go. It doesn’t matter which iteration of the Doctor we’re talking about here, that’s pretty much how they do it: they travel to the past and the future, stopping humans and fellow aliens from a terrible fate. The long-term consequences of their actions are usually minimal, although the anger of their many enemies has served as the catalyst for more than one story arc late in the season, from Journey’s End to Pandorica Discovery. However, there is one episode from the first season of the rebooted series that has very immediate consequences for the Doctor’s (and his companion’s) actions. This episode is often considered one of the best in the series, but when viewed up close, it doesn’t make much sense precisely because of how different its approach to time travel is from the rest of the show. .

Written Paul Cornell”Father’s Day” is the eighth episode of the 2005 TV series. Doctor Who row. Starring Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler’s companion, she tells a beautiful, heartbreaking tale of death, love, and the difficult choices we must make to protect the people we care about. This is without a doubt a real masterpiece, one of the best 45 minutes in history WHO-nivers. However, his monster of the week, while important to the episode’s narrative, is completely out of place in this episode. Doctor Who canon. Said to be creatures that sterilize temporary wounds whenever a crack opens, the aliens known as the Reapers never appear again in any episode of the series. And neither could they, because their mere existence would be enough to make 99% of the Doctor’s machinations nearly impossible.

Doctor Who’s “Father’s Day” is a beautiful story about love and death

Sean Dingwall and Billie Piper as Peter and Rose on Doctor Who
Image via BBC

“Father’s Day” begins with Rose asking the Doctor to take her to the day her father died, back in 1987, when she was still a child. Hearing throughout her life that her dad, Peter (Sean Dingwall), who died alone as a result of a collision, she wants to be near him in his last moments. However, when it came time to go to him, Rose was too shocked to move. She asks the Doctor to redo it, but ends up doing something completely unexpected: she runs ahead of her from the past and pushes her father away from the car that was supposed to hit him.

This series of events - three Roses existing at the same moment in time and space, a man who survived an accident that should have killed him - opens the doors of Earth to an attack by a group of pterodactyl beasts, which the Doctor calls the Reapers. . According to the Time Lord, they appear whenever there is a particularly nasty wound to cauterize in time. And they do this by killing and devouring anyone who gets in their way. Little by little, the people who were supposed to attend the wedding that Peter was going to when he crossed paths with Rose begin to disappear, and it doesn’t take long for the Reapers to attack the church where the event takes place.

The doctor, of course, does everything in his power to keep the bride, groom and guests out of harm’s way. First, he locks them all inside the church, as the old brick walls are a barrier to the creatures. He then tries to summon the TARDIS to take everyone, but his plan is foiled when Rose accidentally makes contact with her child self, causing the Reaper to materialize inside the church. In an attempt to use himself as a shield for others, the Doctor is devoured and the people must figure out how to save their lives. Peter Tyler breaks the code. Noticing that the car that was supposed to hit him got stuck in a loop near the church, he recalls a conversation with Rose in which she was unable to answer if he was a good father. Realizing that he should have died, he kisses his daughter and wife Jackie (Camille Coduri), goodbye, and marches to his death.

As soon as Peter leaves, the Reapers disappear and the Doctor returns. Rose is unable to save her father from death, but she still manages to be by his side as he breathes his last. This is a touching, heartbreaking conclusion to an extremely sensitive story about what people are willing to do for those they love. To save her father’s life, Rose risks the very fabric of time and space. In order to allow Rose to spend time with her father, the Doctor does not tell her that Peter must die, instead opting to find other ways out of the Reaper situation. To let his wife and daughter live, Peter accepts his own death. And finally, in order to give her father a hand to shake as he breathes his last, Rose drowns out her own pain and fear, now knowing for sure that there is no way to save him. There are certain moments in time that can’t be changed Doctor Who often tells us even if they are terrible. However, at least according to Father’s Day, that doesn’t mean we can’t find ways to make them a little less terrifying.

“Doctor Who Reapers” makes absolutely no sense as part of the show’s canon

Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor in Doctor Who
Image via BBC

The Reapers are an integral part of the story Father’s Day wants to tell. From a physical standpoint, like the sci-fi monster of the week, they pose a threat to humanity as a whole and must be destroyed so that life on Earth can continue to exist. However, on a metaphorical level, they mean the destruction of the world as Rosa knows it, due to a radical change in an event that is an integral part of her life. If Peter had been alive and well, Rose’s life would have been completely different. The people she knew would be different, and perhaps she wouldn’t even recognize the Doctor. For all intents and purposes, the world that Rose Tyler knows traveling with the Doctor will cease to exist if her father survives the accident that should have killed him.

Looking at it from that angle, Reapers really is the perfect fit for Father’s Day. But when we look at the general scheme of things, their existence in Doctor Who The universe is simply impossible. The Doctor and his comrades constantly save acquaintances and strangers from past events. The classic example is when the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) and Donna (Katherine Tate) save Caecilius (Peter CapaldiYes, What Peter Capaldi) and his family from being killed by a volcanic eruption in season 4 “The Fires of Pompeii”. Such actions would not be possible in a universe where beings like the Reapers exist. It could, of course, be argued that it’s not the fact that they stopped Peter’s death that grabs the Reapers’ attention, but the coexistence of multiple versions of Rose and the Doctor at the same time. However, the Doctor and his companions have encountered previous and future versions of themselves many times in both the classic and new series. For example, in season 7’s “Journey to the Center of the TARDIS”, the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) has to tell a previous version of himself how to keep his ship from exploding, not to mention all the anniversary specials in which the beloved Time Lord interacted with past and future incarnations of themselves.

The Reapers never reappeared in Doctor Who, and this is to be expected: if their presence was a constant danger, many of the adventures that fans have loved so much would simply be impossible. Can you imagine the Doctor trying to save someone from a completely different monster only to have the Reapers wreak havoc every second episode? It would just be chaotic. But if that’s the case, then why were the Reapers allowed to appear on Father’s Day? Well, for starters, Cornell’s story is too good not to be told. “Father’s Day” is such a great episode that it’s more than worth breaking away from established canon.

Secondly, the episode originally aired when the show was just starting its new run after more than a decade away from television. Showrunner Russell T Davies still working out the details of his universe. It only makes sense for writers to try weird new things at this point in the show. And we are very happy about this: after all, if not for him, we would not have “Father’s Day”. But in the meantime, let’s just hope the Reapers never rear their ugly, pterodactyl-like heads again. They are definitely not suitable for Doctor Who.