You’d think watching one (1) episode of Doctor Who per week wouldn’t be too difficult, but there are times when it’s hard to squeeze it in…

“Father’s Day” stands out to me because it’s a good episode that’s successful in spite of…just about everything about it.

The weak production values that have plagued the season are still on full display. It’s shot in a largely boring fashion, and is downright maudlin at times. I absolutely hate Murray Gold’s choices, with those string chords that suddenly turn downward, which doesn’t sound sad so much as it sounds like there’s something wrong with the audio track. The episode does everything it can to be bad.

And it fails. The story is great, and the performances are better. Shaun Dingwall nails the portayal of Pete Tyler, likeable fuckup. Camille Coduri is great as Jackie, as always. Billie Piper turns in what is easily her best performance as Rose so far. Eccleston is good as always, but since the Doctor is in a pretty dour mood for most of the episode, he doesn’t get to show a ton of range.

The creatures (apparently called “Reapers” in ancillary material) are interesting, and it’s a shame the concept has never been revisited. The episode does a lot to establish that time paradoxes can be a thing, and it’s possible to do a lot of damage with time travel, even though it’s not something the series typically worries about.

But in the end, the strength of the episode is its simplicity. Rose can’t help but save her dad, he eventually realizes who she is and learns of his own fate, and has to sacrifice himself to make things right.