Father's Day (Doctor Who) Father's Day (Doctor Who) "Father's Day" is the eighth episode of the first series of the British science fiction television programme "Doctor Who", first broadcast on 14 May 2005 on BBC One. It was written by Paul Cornell and directed by Joe Ahearne. In the episode, alien time traveller the Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) agrees to take his companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) back to the day her father Pete (Shaun Dingwall) died in 1987. When Rose intervenes and pulls her father out of the path of a car, time is wounded and dangerous Reapers attack, threatening to erase history. Pete
Companion (Doctor Who) "what constitutes a Doctor Who companion is no longer clear". During the Doctor's latest incarnations, his primary companions, such as Rose Tyler and Martha Jones, have fulfilled a distinct dramatic role, more significant than other, less-prominent TARDIS travellers such as Adam, Jack, and Mickey. The British press referred to Martha as the "first ethnic minority companion in the 43-year television history of "Doctor Who"" and the "first black assistant", despite the presence of Mickey Smith in the previous season—including several episodes in which he travelled in the TARDIS with the Doctor. Similarly, some characters who appear to qualify as companions