“Be careful what you wish for”

Jackie is telling little Rose about her father and the day he died. Knocked down by a hit and run driver he died alone. Snap forward to Rose asking the Doctor if she can go and see him.

First they go back to Jackie and Pete’s wedding and watch from the back. Then to the day he died before going to someone else’s wedding. They watch, the Doctor holding her hand as Pete gets out of his car and is knocked down, but Rose freezes. She asks to try again. They return, intending for her to run to him after the previous version of herself has fled so he doesn’t die alone, but she rushes over sooner and prevents him being killed.

The Doctor doesn’t say a word but looks like murder. Pete takes them back to his flat where Rose and the Doctor have a fight, he’s furious because she changed time, she’s furious because she thinks he does it all the time and is being unfair.

Meanwhile something that sees in red is pouncing on people from above. In the church the groom and his father notice that not all their guests have turned up.

The Doctor returns alone to the TARDIS but finds it empty, just a shell. Something is terribly wrong.

Rose tries to use her phone but hears only “Watson come here I need you” (the first phone call ever made). At the church the groom’s father has the same problem.

Pete and Rose arrive at the church where they meet Jackie and Rose get’s a nasty shock as she sees how her parents really were rather than the idilic picture her mother had painted.

Round the corner in a playground children start to vanish, leaving only one boy alone and scared.

The Doctor arrives and so do some scary monsters (reapers) which pounce on and devour the father of the groom and the vicar. The Doctor gets everyone to hide inside the church, which protects them as it’s old. He tells everyone there’s been a wound in time and Rose realises it’s all her fault. Outside the reapers continue to feed.

Pete turns out to be a lot smarter than you might expect. He works out who Rose is. They talk and Rose tries not to let on that he’s going to die. The Doctor is looking after baby Rose and tells adult Rose that she cannot touch the baby, it would cause a paradox which would allow the reapers in. Rose says she’s sorry and he forgives her.

The TARDIS key is glowing, the Doctor says he needs a power source and he’ll be able save everyone. Nobody is to touch the key under any circumstances.

Rose and Pete talk some more, he asks about the future and it’s clear that he’s realised that she’s not there by coincidence on the day he nearly got run over and she’s lying to him.

Baby Rose is put in Rose’s arms and a paradox is caused, a reaper appears through the wall. It eats the Doctor and brushes against the TARDIS key making the TARDIS vanish. All hope seems to be lost.

Pete looks out of the window and sees the car that knocked him down still driving past, appearing and vanishing as if it’s waiting for him, trying to relive the accident. He realises what he has to do. After saying goodbye he runs in front of car and is knocked down.

The Doctor reappears and tells Rose to go to her father.

Rose and the Doctor leave and we return to Jackie telling a younger Rose a slightly altered version of her father’s death, the driver who stays until the police arrive and the unknown blonde girl who was with him as he died.

Darth_Namialus : This was by far my favourite episode of Series 1, and perhaps one of my favourites ever. What *could* happen if one is ever stopped someone from dying when it was meant to happen? And what happens when one goes back in time and meets his or her past? These themes have bothered us – why can’t the Doctor go back in time and stop a tragedy from happening? Because he can’t, no one is meant to stop death in such circumstances, and this episode answered them all!

– Pete was a very likable character to me. You just can’t hate him, and he so sweetly fits as Rose’s father. Imagine how *he* would’ve felt if, had he been alive, he knew Rose was travelling through space and time? He would’ve supported it, which reminds me of Wilfred Mott. And his ultimate sacrifice in the end was heart wrenching!
-The sadness was perfect. After a few episodes of the series, none were truly sad like this one, and before it even I didn’t think the show could do an emotional episode. After all, it was sci-fi, but foolish me! It was the saddest of the season.
-The reapers were interesting villains. Well, the whole paradox thing was rather confusing and so were these villains, but they fit the tale well. Time monsters, that’s cool.
-The ending was just perfect. Pete *had* to die and he did, and none other than Rose went to help him. It’s like Rose to do that, to save him. Like any companion. She was perfect.

This episode deserves a full 10/10 from me. It was fantastic.