The Doctor's Daughter
I loved it.
I love Jenny.
She's wonderful and bright and smart, learns a moral sense quickly and is perky without any noticeable self-pitying whininess and I adore her.
The episode did just what it had to do - set up the new companion for a little down the line.
In which it succeeded beautifully.
That is why the story around it was the same type as 'Rose' and 'Smith & Jones'. It is a fairly generic romp with side order of moral point and lots of meta stuff.
Good meta stuff. Who is about saving planets, having some laughs and lots of running.
As well as war is bad, though soldiers should be respected unless they slip into murdering.
With a little extra light on the Doctor's own character and history. His loss speech about his dead family has that call back to the beautiful speech of Two's about them and his unwillingness to go through that pain again by letting Jenny in shows how bad it and the Time War damage was.
But this season is about healing and starting again, as the planet and Jenny and the Doctor do.
He does have to lose her to gain her and that willingness to try again.
And he will. Not right now, but later and probably next season and/or under the next regime.
But in the meantime we have a character out there who can cross over with anyone.
The Master can shag his old boyfriend's clone who is also Miss Grant in type - and he was fond of her.
Jack can shag the Doctor in the form of a small blonde that is rather Rose-ish in looks.
Captain John can have a change from poodles.
There can be a Torchwood crossover generally:)
And if she is the next companion as I'm sure she will be, its one way of avoiding a shippiness problem. It being the you can't ship Wolverine and X23 situation, but they can have a really interesting relationship nonetheless.
And having her made from insta-clone avoids traumatising the asexualists, having to bring back the whole Romana backstory if she were the mum or the Susan backstory if she were the mum. Also Looms. *spits*
Donna was also wonderful and smart and intelligent as well as a moral voice in her own right. she also didn't have to cry this week.
Martha did and Freema isn't as good as crying as Catherine, but at least she wasn't bad this week.
The idea of rapid generational deaths and rapid cloning causing Chinese whispers cultural history formation was interesting.
And blended well with the war bad message as well as forming an interesting shadow doubling of the cloning Sontarans from last week.
Only this had a war of a week's duration and theirs was 50k years and counting.
We got shown how he is healing. From his low point of the Racnoss and the Family of Blood, he faces the man that has killed the last part of himself and takes the gun and is tempted - as he might become a mythic founder of a society he isn't a god and the breath of life he comes from a lab and not an imaginary friend in the sky - but he doesn't do it.
He is tempted, because he is that damaged and hurt, but he doesn't do it.
He's getting better.
He's healing.
Just like Jenny did.
I do wonder if she regenerated in the same face because she doesn't know she can change face and that's who she sees herself as.
Or, like in Destiny of the Daleks, the female Gallifreyan is just better at choosing her form.
It is interesting re companion casting that her being able to regenerate does allow the same character to persist over cast change the did with Romana and the Doctor himself.
Interesting use of images from the Bruce Dern movie with the last rainforests and the Blake's 7 rocket of civilisation saving left over while the locals fight in quarries.
Speaking of Who traditions - nice use of the traditional method of managing multiple companions in getting one kidnapped. Though it was good that she got herself out of trouble and to the end point of the plot herself.
But most of all, a good companion set up story.
And a companion I will enjoy very much.