These reviews are based on the UK broadcast of the series, which is several episodes ahead of the US broadcast, so beware of spoilers.
SUMMARY:
The out-of-control TARDIS brings the Doctor, Donna and Martha to the planet Messaline. They are immediately accosted by a group of soldiers, who hook the Doctor up to a genetic extraction machine that generates a fully grown adult - a young blond woman - from his DNA, along with a full catalogue of military strategy downloaded into her brain. The Doctor explains to a bewildered Donna and Martha that this woman is technically his daughter.
The group is attacked by Hath, fishlike humanoids, one of whom grabs Martha. The newly generated clone sets off explosives to collapse the tunnel. Before the Doctor can leave to find Martha, the remaining soldier, named Cline, escorts him and Donna to see General Cobb.
Martha survives the explosion and helps an injured Hath, earning her their friendship.
Donna asks the Doctor's 'daughter' what her name is, but she says she doesn't know because she hasn't been assigned one yet. Since the Doctor refers to her as a generated anomaly, Donna dubs her Jenny. They arrive in the human camp, which is full of generation machines pumping out clones. Donna notices that the camp is in what looks like a theater, except that it's underground. At the same time in another part of the complex, Martha enters the Hath camp, which looks to be in an art gallery. Their camp is also full of the same generation machines.
Cobb tells the Doctor and Donna the legend of how colonists, both human and Hath, came to Messaline to build a new world together, but the Hath broke their promises and war started. The generation machines were programmed to breed soldiers instead of more colonists, and everything is underground because the surface is too dangerous. Donna notices a plackard stamped with a string of numbers on it, but Cobb says the meaning of it has been lost over time and countless generations. The ultimate goal of the war is to reach the Temple and find the Source, the mythical breath of life left over after the goddess formed the universe.
The Doctor is able to fix a holographic map of the complex, revealing a whole system of undiscovered tunnels, which also show up simultaneously on the Hath map. The new information shows the location of the lost Temple, which the humans are closest to. General Cobb orders full mobilization, declaring that when they have the Source they can restore peace by wiping out the Hath. The Doctor opposes Cobb's plan of genocide, and the General orders Cline to lock him and Donna up, as well as Jenny, whom he cannot afford to trust since she was made from the Doctor's pacifist genes. Meanwhile the Hath also begin their march to reach the Source.
The Doctor tinkers with Donna's mobile phone and makes contact with Martha, and she informs him that the Hath are marching. The Doctor realizes that when both armies meet there will be a bloodbath. Martha's phone dies, cutting off their means of communication.
The Doctor intends to escape and leave Jenny behind, but Donna uses his stethascope to prove that Jenny belongs with them: she has two hearts, just like him.
Peck, the Hath that Martha helped, finds yet another hidden layer in the map, showing a three dimensional image of the complex. Martha realizes she can reach the destination of both armies first if she travels above ground. Despite some radiation spikes, the atmopshere conditions are like those of Earth. She sets off with a reluctant Peck in tow.
Jenny seduces Cline into a kiss, using the distraction to disarm him and force him to open the cell. They come upon another guard in the hall that the Doctor distracts with a toy mouse, but instead of slipping by, Jenny knocks him unconscious. They reach a hidden tunnel, and along the way Donna notices more number plaques which seem to be counting down the closer they get to the Temple. The trio are held up by an array of security lasers. While Jenny holds off General Cobb's forces, the Doctor deactivates the security system, but only long enough for him and Donna to get through. Jenny calls upon the training implanted in her brain and flips her way through the lasers.
On the surface, Martha falls into a patch of quicksand, but Peck sacrifices himself to rescue her.
While Jenny scouts ahead, the Doctor confides in Donna the reason why being around her makes him uncomfortable: he was a father once long ago, and Jenny reminds him of his family, their deaths and the pain he's had to live with since then.
They reach the Temple, which they discover is actually a spaceship. The Doctor finds the ship's log, the last entry of which states that the mission commander died, creating a power vacuum. The Hath and humans could not decide on who should take over leadership, and therefore divided into factions.
Donna sees a computer display with the same type of number sequence as the plaques. She works out that the number is actually the date, which the Doctor confirms as the New Byzantine Calendar. The plaques are date stamps on each completed section of the complex, counting out rather than counting down. The first number she saw was 60120717, and the readout currently shows 60120724, which means the entire war has only lasted seven days, but to the Hath and humans it's been many generations due to the speed with which they generate new soldiers, and in that time the truth of their mission has been distorted into the legend of the Source.
The group is reunited with Martha and finds an arboritum. There they discover the Source, which the Doctor identifies as a terraforming device. The human and Hath armies arrive, and the Doctor tells them what the Source really is and what it does. He cracks open the device, releasing its mix of chemicals and gasses that will float out to the surface and begin the process of making the planet habitable.
The soldiers lay down their weapons, but General Cobb, angry over being cheated out of his victory, fires on the Doctor. Jenny places herself in harm's way, taking the bullet instead as Cobb's men overpower him. The Doctor holds out hope that Jenny has enough Time Lord DNA in her to regenerate, but she dies in his arms. The Doctor retrieves Cobb's gun and points it at him, but refuses to shoot, telling him "I never would." He tells the humans and Hath to choose a leader who never would kill.
The Doctor says the TARDIS came to Messaline because it sensed Jenny, but it arrived too early, thus creating her, therefore Jenny's existence is a paradox. He takes Martha home where she bids him and Donna goodbye.
On Messaline, as they prepare to lay Jenny to rest, a glow of energy escapes her mouth, and she returns to life. She takes off in a scout ship, intent on adventure.
REVIEW:
In the long history of Doctor Who, one thing that has hardly ever been discussed is the Doctor's past. Over the years, he has mentioned his family barely a handful of times, and even then in no great detail.
The only member of the Doctor's family that has been seen on-screen is his granddaughter Susan, his very first companion who was travling with him back in those hazy times before the series chronicled his adventures. Susan was created before the series developed it's Time Lord mythology, back before anyone realized Doctor Who would becom a phenomenon that would last for decades. Because of this, some fans have had difficulty reconciling her existence with everything else the series has built up over the years. Some speculated that she wasn't his biological granddaughter at all. The novels complicated things even more by creating the idea of the Looms, machines that wove Time Lords from the genetic pool, rather than natural procreation.
The new series has slowly begun to forge a path out of this confusion, cutting through the various explainations to finally begin to establish those elements of Time Lord culture and the Doctor's history that were ignored by the classic series. Chief among these revelations is that the Doctor once had a family: a woman he was in love with, a child (or children), and this finally validates Susan as his real granddaughter.
The theme of family even carries over into the cast. The part of Jenny is played by Georgia Moffett, who is the daughter of the 5th Doctor himself, Peter Davison. Georgia had previously auditioned for the part of Rose back in 2004. This year she had auditioned for a part in a different episode, and while her casting as Jenny was not planned, it was still a perfect opportunity the production team chose to follow.
In Jenny, there are hints of how modern American telefantsy dramas like Buffy The Vampire Slayer inspired Russel T Davies in the creation of the new Doctor Who. Jenny is blond, a fighter, and able to pull of some impressive moves.
Donna continues to prove herself as one of the best companions in the history of the series. The knowledge Donna has gained from her years in temp jobs is proving to be advantageous. Her work in a library learning the Dewy Decimal system allows her to clue in to the real meaning behind the number plaques. She's also continuing to work well in her role as the Doctor's conscience, helping him warm up to Jenny.
Martha's screen time is minimal, although she allows the audience a glimpse into the other side of the war, showing that the Hath are as 'human' as the humans themselves. The Hath design is quite interesting: humanoid fish aliens with 'water breather' masks covering their mouths. This is a bit of a sore thumb though, preventing them from doing anything besides mumbling into the mask and causing this liquid inside to bubble.
The episode is full of interesting concepts, but the 45-minute length prevents any real deep exploration of these ideas, particularly how the Source myth manages to develop in only seven days, even with the high turnover of generated soldiers. What was the exact cause that led the truth to become so badly garbled and mythologized?
The idea of cloned soldiers is also a bit too close to the preceeding episodes, making it feel like more of the same, with only the barest of differences.
REACTION:
I thought this was a decent episode overall, but this one shows how painful the short format of the new series can be at times. The arrival on Messaline and introduction of Jenny happens in just over two minutes, whereas the same situation would have taken a good 10-15 minutes at least in the serial format of the classic series. The concepts are all good, but only given the most basic of explainations.
David Tennant and Catherine Tate put in good performances again, and I'm definitely coming to think of Donna as my favorite companion of the new series. The writers just continue to flesh out her character more and more, she is so far away from her original portrayal.
My favorite part is when the Doctor tells Donna about his family, and being a father. The classic series and it's continuation in novels and everything else kept on emphazising the more mysterious aspects of the Doctor, making him almost godlike. I love when the new series brings us back down from that, portraying the Doctor as almost an ordinary person, emphasizing his human qualities.
Another small but entertaining moment was the bit with the toy mouse. That made me laugh so much, because it's perfect Doctor behavior. Only he would have a wind-up toy mouse in his pockets, and only he would use it as a distraction. It's little things like this that help highlight the quirky nature of the character, and how different he is from many of the classic hero archetypes.
And then there was the final surprise of Jenny coming back to life. I hope she returns in the near future, because she's an interesting character to explore and it will help pull the Doctor out of at least some of his angst to know that she is alive and following his example.
