Doctor Who:
Human Nature/The
Family of Blood
By Paul
Cornell
“Because I've
seen him. He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night and the storm in
the heart of the sun. He's ancient and
forever. He burns at the centre of time and he can see the turn of the
universe. And he's wonderful.”
For fans of
the old Doctor Who book range that was published by Virgin Publishing all those
many years ago Human Nature is the story for them. Originally published in May 1995 Paul Cornell
took the plot from his book and made it into the David Tennant story we all
enjoy now. While I was reading this book
18 years ago I considered Human Nature to be one of the best novels in the
Virgin Doctor Who line. So way back in
2007 when I heard it was going to be made into a TV adventure loosely adapted
from print to screen I had some reservations.
Would it be just as good in its new form and would be kept from the
original.
Well to be
honest this two part adventure is one of the best stories in the David Tennant
era. Here you have a story that has not
been attempted before on television.
What a unique concept they pulled off by having The Doctor become human
with no trace of his Time Lord self with new memories and identity programmed
in by the TARDIS. The reason to make him
human is different from the book. While
in the book it was more of a curiosity while on TV it was out of desperation to
hide from the Family. The Family of
Blood wants to live forever and need The Doctor’s essence to achieve it hence
why he decides to hide from them by making himself human.
Human nature
is slow moving which in effect does not hinder the story at all. In fact the pace of Human Nature helps you experience
and get to know what is eventually going to happen to The Doctor and what he
eventually becomes when he is human. You
see the developing relationship between The Doctor and Joan and how it materializes
into something more than just friends.
They have struck up a relationship at the school they work at which has
Martha worried because nowhere in the directions left for her does it say what
to do if he falls in love.
The Pace of
The Family of Blood is a lot faster and action packed. At times the episode was very intense and kept
you on the edge of your seat as to what would happen next and what John Smith
would eventually do and then the sad ending you knew was going to happen. You knew that The Doctor was going to change
back to a Time Lord and break Joan’s heart and that sequence of the story is
one of the saddest I have seen in the shows history which there hasn’t been
many until the New series and the way the writers have decided to try different
things.
The main
villain Baines played by Harry Lloyd was excellent in that part. The former Will Scarlet from the last Robin
Hood series had a type of freaky and creepy quality to him that just made the
villain that more memorable. Harry
Lloyds performance was one of the best for a bad guy in the new Who
series. I also liked the performance of
Thomas Sangster who played Tim Latimer
whose character actually helps The Doctor out of a couple of jams. He was excellent as the creepy kid that was
lurking around in the background who actually has a major part to play. The scarecrows were pretty cool also. The way they walked around menacing everyone
was pretty cool and I really liked how creepy they were. That image always stayed with me from the
book and it was good to see it in the TV show.
All those
performances pale to the one that David Tennant turns in. His portrayal of John Smith was by far and
away one of his best performances during his era in Doctor Who. In fact it ranks right up there with the all-time
best performances by an actor playing The Doctor. You could really believe the pain that John
Smith was in when everything in his world started collapsing in around
him. You couldn’t help but feel sorry
for him as you knew he would sacrifice his relationship with Joan to bring The
Doctor back. Just watching that
performance you could see what RTD saw in him when he choose him to be The
Doctor. Human Nature/ The Family of
Blood is one of my favorite David Tennant stories of all time and one of my
favorite Doctor Who stories also and is one that still holds up well today.
Grade A
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