Human Nature/The Family of Blood

You shouldn't have let me push all those buttons.

After being a Debbie-downer in my last couple of reviews, I thought I would cover a story I greatly enjoy: Human Nature and The Family of Blood.

The Tenth Doctor is quite possibly the most human Doctor of all his iterations. It is therefore interesting to see him take the extra step and go all in and in fact make himself fully human. In the grand scheme of things, this really isn't much more than Chekhov's Gun for Utopia, but it still works pretty well as a story on it's own.

The story is straightforward. The Doctor transforms himself into a full human (John Smith) to escape a family of aliens who are hunting him. He loses himself in early 20th century England where he takes up a post as a teacher at a boy's school. Martha is disguised as a maid to keep an eye on him. The aliens track him down and things are complicated by the fact that John Smith is falling in love with the school nurse, Joan Redfern. In the end, to thwart the alien attack, he reverts to the Doctor. Having tossed aside his act of mercy in trying to elude them, the Doctor extracts vengeance on them; binding them in eternal prisons.

What I like about this story so much is that we get both aspects of what the Tenth Doctor was so good at. His humanity and sentimentality come strongly through, without the need the throw in the "alien-ness" that sometimes felt a bit forced with the Tenth Doctor. You are also emotionally torn as you know that John Smith will eventually choose to become the Doctor again. But at the same time, you want him to live out this romance with Joan and be happy with her.

But once that is shattered, the vengeful Doctor comes. I know that some didn't care for the angry Tenth Doctor, but I wasn't one of them. It is enjoyable to see the power and fury of the Doctor's wrath unleashed. Too often, especially in the Eleventh Doctor era, enemies would run away because the Doctor simply threatened them. To make that truly work, you need to see instances where someone does not run away and the fury of the angry Time Lord must be meted out. In this case, it is not just the defeat of the Family. No, for what they have done, they must suffer and the Doctor dishes that suffering out, all while hating both them and himself for doing it. It makes for a satisfying conclusion in what could have been a very depressing story.

Following on the revenge, there is a great moment of poignancy. The Doctor attempts to reconnect with Joan, even going so far as to offer her the chance to travel with him. She rejects this as it was John Smith that she cared for. She also points out clearly that the Doctor's attempt at mercy to evil ended up costing the lives of several people, certainly the four individuals that they took the form of as well as any killed in their assault on the village and school. It raises the interesting question as to why it is sometimes seen as necessary for the hero to indulge in mercy towards evil when that ends up costing the lives of innocents. Why does the hero have to go through these motions to supposedly preserve the good in him when swift action against evil would have been the better option? Of course, it's because it makes for a better story that way, but it is still a question that should be raised.

Now there are a couple of sour notes as well. The subplot involving Tim Latimer and his taking of the fob watch and his subsequent escape from death in WWI is a distraction and not something that draws you in. It feels like padding, as though the writers knew this story was going to stretch close to an hour and they needed to pack it with a subplot to get it closer to an hour and a half and the ability to cut it in two parts. Some of the child acting is also a little off, but that is to be expected when dealing with these ages.

Overall though, I have very little problem in sitting down and enjoying these episodes again.

Overall personal score: Human Nature - 4.5 out of 5, The Family of Blood - 5 out of 5