I think it would just be too hard to keep track of everyone and prevent a paradox.

But if the Mum/Rose talk hadn't changed, then future Rose would still think her dad had died alone and would want to go and see the moment of death to comfort him; thus causing the whole malarky to happen again (infinitely?). With the revision, she knows that he was comforted by a mysterious stranger and wouldn't feel the compulsion to see him, thus meaning that this whole unpleasantness would never occur.

My head hurts!

Now I may be getting a little confused here.

On Mickeys website it shows reapers and the doctor etc.

Now if time has changed and Roses dad died during/after the wedding and the story of his death changed as told by Jackie, when Rose asked the doctor to see her fathers death would they have not gone back after the event of the reapers - so the grooms father is still alive etc.

Also Rose will have not learnt her lesson on changing events and have not seen the death of the doctor as in this new timeline they never happened.

My brains hurts

Thought it was an excellent episode by the way.

Great episode, great story and I remember 1987 like it was yesterday. Rose was so good and I really felt for her. Well Done Billie, and everyone involved I'm so loving this Dr Who

Excellent writing and acting. But I doubt the reapers will be remembered in a few years time - not comparable with the Daleks, Sea Devils etc

Best Saturday night tv for a long time, I watch DW every week with my grandchildren [male and female] aged from 4-11yrs and they all think it's great.

An great episode tonight. I'm really glad to see Billie doing so well, for me she is the highlight of the series.

This brings me to an odd thought, As CE is not returning for "series 2", will that mean Billie will stay? Do the Dr's assistants usually last longer than him? i.e. will Rose be the first assistant to span two doctors?

Billie Piper (Rose) has been confirmed for season 2. Also a few companions have witnessed regeneration in the past.

Billie/Rose stays, for at least the next series.

Father's Day was a superb episode and the trailer for next weeks story looks excellent.Shame we have only five episodes left to watch.

Quite a lot of the assistants have stayed on in the past.

One thing I forgot to mention is that for some reason I was reminded of Dead Like Me... There was something about the reapers in Doctor Who that reminded me of the Gravelings in DLMeven though they look and act completely differently.

The other assistants to span more than one Doctor were:

Polly Wright
Ben Jackson
Sarah Jane Smith
Adric
Nyssa
Tegan
Peri
Mel

So hopefully Billie will also be added to the list!

Someone asked earlier why the driver drove off the first time he ran over Rose's dad but stopped the second. In the first instance, the fault lay with the driver as he should have been paying more attention - in the second, the guy literally ran in front of him as though he had a death-wish.
Ignore the obvious paradoxes, ignore the gosh-wow factor of the (imo unnecessary) reapers, and its a moving, human story, which is all it should have been.

Right, I've had time to collect my thoughts (and get rid of a nasty headache that came on just as Rose's dad died - maybe the paradoxes were too much for my brain to handle ), and these are them...

I firstly have to get one issue out of the way - why on Earth did the Doctor take Rose back to the same time twice if he knew it would create a vulnerability in time? He should have learned last week that you cannot trust us human beings - Adam was supposed to be a genius, but that didn't stop him doing something stupid by leaving messages on his parents' answerphone.

I love the theme of 'ordinary people' and their importance that was woven through this episode. I especially like the fact that we got to see some major character flaws. For example: Rose is a bit stupid, and a little too headstrong for her own good. She was warned about the vulnerability in time, but she ignored this and followed her own, slightly selfish agenda. This is by no means an attack on her - for instance, if I had the chance to prevent the death of a loved one I would be really tempted to do so, but she ultimately endangered the Doctor's safety to save a man she didn't know very well. Let's not forget something she said to the Doctor - 'Are you jealous because you're not the most important man in my life anymore?' (I'm paraphrasing massively here, but I'm sure you get the gist ). I'd go as far as saying she loves the Doctor, but it was interesting that she chose to ignore his warnings. Rose's dad was exposed as a bit of a loser, despite his obvious love for his daughter. When she pretended he'd taken her on picnics and read her bedtime stories, he said 'That's not me'. He knew that he could never be the perfect father, and the character was all the better for it. Rose's mum was shown to be a bit of a cow, too. The Doctor however wasn't enough of a bastard in my eyes - his depth of feeling for his travelling partner stopped him from giving her a proper telling off.

I too got a bit misty eyed at several points in the episode, and thought that the emotional bits were carried off fantastically by Billie and the man who played her father. I've been really impressed by her, especially considering how much I disliked her as a singer . I really liked the fact that emotions took centre stage in this episode, as it gives a real depth to things.

I'm sure I've got more to say, but my mind's gone blank I'm not sure whether I'm looking forward to next week's episode or not, but it should give us a bit of an insight into Rose's willingness to go off with any man who is nice to her. Be careful, young lady - countless girls got themselves into trouble during the war by falling for the charms of American pilots Oh, and the child with the gas mask ('Let me in, mummy') looks really creepy, so that ought to be good too.

I like your way of thinking: Captain Jack Harkness, overpaid, oversexed and over here!

Exactly. Though I strongly suspect she'd be his for a pair of stockings, some chocolate, and some chewing gum

Isn't it obvious?

He LOVES her.

In dalek he risked letting the dalek escape to save her.

Today he actually died to try and save her dream of having her father live. As the dad said "your doctor knew what I have to do, but he cares about you too much to tell me" (or something like that).

Loved it Loved it Loved it! Only thing that spoiled it for me was my ex being too selfish and thoughtless to bring our daughter back on time as he had promised so we could watch it together . One thing bugs me though. "Dad" didn't die on the right street corner after all. Billie and Dad drove to the church together.
Once the hole in time was repaired, surely it would have gone back to the original plot and the Hoskins would have been married very uneventfully and Dads death would only have been discovered later, pictures showing the incident would have vaporised along with the Reapers, and no-one he knew would have witnessed Dad's demise except for Rose and the Doctor?. Doesn't the existence of the photos on Mickey's website indicate that the paradox was not properly mended at all?

Why not just call him Captain Flashheart and have done with it.

I loved this episode, great acting all round, very sad yet also very funny. Jackie had me in stitches with her suspicions!

The man getting married was called Stuart Hoskins, wasn't he in Big Brother 2? Have there been any other references to BB housemates?

Also, with regard to the 'no third term for Thatcher' posters. By November 87 she'd already won it (shame they couldn't alter that particular timeline )

Anyone interested in reading Dr Who novels without paying can find several free ebooks on the BBC cult website, including one by the writer of tonight's brilliant episode.

Click here for a look see.

Ooh I never noticed that and I actually know Stuart Hoskin from BB2 lol - really nice bloke.

Sorry I will not type any more cos I have had fqr to mmuch to drink tonight

Oh I definitely see your point - the Doctor risked a hell of a lot to please her, and even when she endangered the planet he couldn't bring himself to have a proper go at her. The way he walked out was also reminiscent of an argument between lovers - it's best to just walk out instead of saying something you'll regret. But you could also argue that he put her in an awful lot of danger by taking her back to that spot twice. In fact, you could say that he completely disregarded the emotional factor in this act. He failed to see that Rose's love for her father may override her common sense.

Pretty much all sci-fi involving time travel hits a problem with the "butterfly effect". The idea is that you can go back in time and "not interfere" and not risk a paradox, or that you can repair a paradox situation by returning things to more or less the way they were before you interfered. If you accept that everything, no matter how minor, affects everything else then there is no scope for this sort of scenario. Even by turning up and moving a few air molecules about you risk altering the future.

In order to keep time travel stories alive you have to assume that there is is a mechanism which causes minor changes such as the ones introduced to work their way out of the system and reconverge on the "correct" time line.

If this reconvergence took some time then it would be possible for a few minor side effects of the paradox to still be seen a few years later, e.g. on Mickey's web site.

How could you forget James Robert McCrimmon?
And a few others.