Sarah -
I have been looking forward to rewatching "Human Nature/The Family of Blood" since we started this marathon and I enjoyed it as much -- or possibly even more than -- past viewings. This was also the first time my daughter watched the story and her review at the end was an effusive, “That was great!”
Harry -
This story is class. Lush Doctor Who to wrap oneself in like an amazing blanket.
Sarah -
Paul Cornell’s script is adapted from Human Nature, his Virgin New Adventures novel, which featured the Seventh Doctor and Bernice Summerfield. I’ve still not read the novel. Have you?
Harry -
I read the novel just before the TV adaptation was broadcast, and both of them -- as young Latimer might put it -- are wonderful. This is Cornell's masterpiece.
Sarah -
It’s been on my to-read list since 2007. Apparently, I haven’t managed to find a moment to read it in the past 12 years, but, to be fair, it is quite a long list.
Harry -
Having escaped near-disaster in "42", the Doctor and Martha have got themselves right into another jam. "Human Nature" begins with the both of them scrambling for cover inside the TARDIS with a blast of laser fire behind them. The Doctor is on edge, knowing that he's being pursued by a relentless enemy. It's not a situation where the TARDIS can simply slip away. After flailing about and wracking his brain, he seems to arrive at a terrible decision, and brandishes a watch at Martha...
...and then he wakes up in a comfy set of PJs, in a comfy bed, in a comfy English room.
Sarah -
That is a comfy room, isn’t it? The housemaid turns up with some breakfast, and its Martha. It’s a confusing situation for everyone, but especially the viewer at this point.
It’s 1913 and the Doctor is Dr. John Smith, a teacher at the Farringham School for Boys. Martha is there to keep an eye on him, but the Doctor doesn’t know who she really is or why he keeps having dreams about traveling time and space.
Harry -
There have been previous instances on TV and in print where the Doctor has experienced temporary amnesia or a lack of coherence, but it's something else to watch David Tennant play a Doctor who has completely forgotten that he's the Doctor. He describes his dreams of being an adventurer in time and space and he finds it all jolly fun. However, he knows it's all made up and he's just John Smith, schoolteacher, with Miss Jones his loyal servant.
Servant, yuck. But Martha plays along with the times they find themselves in, even if it means not reacting to the casual racism and sexism thrown her way by students and staff.
Sarah -
David Tennant and Freema Agyeman are so amazing in this story. He has created an entirely distinctive character in John Smith, while she has to portray a 21st century woman living 100 years in the past. It’s a master class in characterization.
Harry -
At least Martha knows that this current reality is the made up one.
Sarah -
The Doctor has used chameleon arch technology to rewrite his DNA and appear human, so he can hide from the Family, about whom we don’t know much at this point. He’s left a video with instructions for Martha, which tells her that the Family will find him if the watch that contains his true DNA is opened.
Harry -
The John Smith ruse has been going on for two months, with Martha maintaining appearances, keeping the Doctor under cover, and keeping that pocket watch nearby at all times. A perception filter keeps Smith from being curious about the watch and flipping it open.
Sarah -
The casual treatment of the watch by everyone else in the story was terrifying. I can’t imagine how Martha slept at night!
Harry -
Aside from his duties at the school, Smith has been spending time with school nurse Joan Redfern. Their relationship has grown over the weeks, to the point where he suddenly confides in her that he keeps a dream journal. He hands it over to Joan, right in front of Martha, who immediately recognizes his sketches of Daleks and the TARDIS. Smith describes some of the fantastic things he's written down, recording his dreams as fiction.
Sarah -
The journal! This was one of the most exciting moments in all of NuWho for me. It feels like a stupid thing to see from 2019, but in 2007, the sketches in the journal finally helped me accept the Eighth Doctor as canon. Up until that moment, the TV Movie was still something that only filled me with disappointment. It was also before I started listening to Big Finish. I might have gotten there eventually, but that little sketch of Paul McGann’s Doctor made it all possible.
Harry -
Martha tries pushing the Doctor to remember the things in his journal, but he brusquely dismisses her and reminds her of her place. He does this with Joan in the room, and Martha now has to cope with the fact that John Smith has fallen in love. The Doctor left no instructions what to do in that eventuality.
Sarah -
It’s really heartbreaking to watch how John Smith treats Martha. She’s the one keeping everything together and he has no idea what he’s doing to her. “You had to go and fall in love with a human and it wasn’t me.” It’s heart-rending.
At the same time, I can’t not love Joan Redfern. She’s amazing and Jessica Hynes hits every note perfectly. When the Doctor gets around to making copies of himself, he should have made a John Smith to send back to Joan. (I’m sure there’s a fanfic for that.)
Harry -
For all the grief that the character of Martha Jones gets from fanhood at large, I just can't see why. She's brilliant here as the Doctor's guardian, putting up with shit that would make anyone want to scream, and pressing on to keep the ruse in place.
Sarah -
Martha Jones is a fucking badass who needs to be recognized as an exemplary companion. I will fight anyone on this and Exhibit #1 will be "Human Nature". The story is brilliant on its own, but it also provides so much character development for Martha that will carry us through the rest of the series. This is the story where Martha becomes more proactive and she just gets more awesome from here on.
The story is set in a British boys’ school, so we inevitably meet the bullies (Baines) and bullied (Latimer). While Latimer polishes Baines’ shoes, Baines, who feels free to insult and belittle Martha, slips out to try to find some hidden beer. Being the doof he is, he doesn’t find the beer, but manages to stumble into an invisible spaceship.
Harry -
I liked Baines' transformation from noisy schoolboy ("I SAY WHO'S THERE?") to sinister alien after his body was taken over by a Family member. Harry Lloyd did a skin-crawlingly good job leering, sniffing and barking his way through the rest of the story.
Sarah -
Just when you thought his character couldn’t be any more repulsive! But, honestly, his performance is amazing.
Harry -
Thomas Sangster's performance was an emotional opposite. Quietly observant and totally contained. Latimer has a gift of second sight which makes him subject to ridicule from the other boys, but it also guides him to John Smith's watch. He sees right past the perception filter and picks it up, sensing that there's something supernatural about the timepiece.
Sarah -
Martha really should have kept that watch in a safe place.
Harry -
Meanwhile, out for a walk with Nurse Redfern, John Smith experiences a moment of heroism and saves a woman and her baby from a falling piano. An astounding split second calculation and/or muscle memory allowed him to hurl a cricket ball into a series of amazing ricochets that kept the mum and pram from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Astounded by his action, Smith chokes out an invitation to Redfern, asking her to the upcoming dance. She readily agrees and it's a date!
If this was a totally different show, about a humble schoolteacher who had some deep inner gift for doing good things, I could watch an entire season of this. After each extraordinary feat of heroism, his catchphrase could be "Goodness! I didn't know I had it in me!" and then Nurse Redfern takes him by the arm and calms him with a warm "Oh John."
The romance between Smith and Redfern is so sweet.
Sarah -
It’s so wonderfully sweet. I would read the entire series of the Joan and John Smith novels. Book four would feature a visit from his Irish parents, Verity and Sidney.
Harry -
I still remember to this day, that moment in 2007 when Smith uttered those lines about being from Gallifrey (presumably somewhere in Ireland), and the names of his parents. It was like a jolt of electricity surged through me.
Sarah -
Thank you, Paul Cornell, for making us all so happy.
Harry -
Naturally after all these sweet scenes, disaster was bound to happen. While the great Edwardian courtship has been going on, the Family has been snatching bodies all across the countryside.
Sarah -
Snatching bodies and animating scarecrows! Those scarecrows were scary AF, even on a repeat viewing. Some of the marching scenes are a big egregious and feel like they’re there to pad the story a bit. But that’s proper Doctor Who, isn’t it?
Harry -
The scarecrows were almost superfluous to the story. The Family were scary enough. Four of them now appear as humans, hunting the scent of the Time Lord. All things converge on the night of the dance, when the family crashes the party and starts killing bystanders, demanding that the Time Lord give himself up. They don't know what he looks like, they can only pick up the faintest of scents from him.
Sarah -
Martha doesn’t know where the watch is and tries to tell John Smith who he really is, urging him to change back into the Doctor. He and Joan are shocked by this news, but it also leads the Family to discover him and we end with an epic cliffhanger as they threaten to kills Martha or Joan: "Maid or matron, friend or lover, your choice." Oh, the drama!
Harry -
Tennant on top of his game again as the frightened, freaked out John Smith who struggles to cope with this nightmare.
Sarah -
With her friend and fellow maid Jenny possessed by the Family, it’s up to Martha to save the day...again. She has a standoff with Son of Mine and gets everyone out of the dancehall, because she is awesome. Everyone retreats to the school and the alarm is sounded. At last, all that machine gun training will come in handy.
Harry -
The scarecrows did come in handy as machine gun fodder, for a moment. The bullets proved ineffective as they simply reanimated. The folly of teaching young boys that machine guns are the answer comes to no good end. Their own headmaster falls victim to the Family, another casualty of their laser disintegrator.
I liked the spontaneous Team Jones that formed as Smith and Redfern coalesced around Martha's leadership. Also, my obligatory shout out to the fantastic night time footage during this part of the story.
Sarah -
This whole story is on Martha’s back and she more than rises to the challenge.
Harry -
The second half of the story felt like an extended chase scene until Latimer finally -- FINALLY -- shows up and returns the watch. But suddenly, another terrible choice must be made. If Smith opens the watch, he will disappear as the Doctor's body is restored to Gallifreyan form. He will essentially kill himself, and lose everything including Nurse Redfern. There's nothing Martha can do at this point, but hope for the Doctor to return -- even as Smith berates her again.
DOCTOR: Falling in love? That didn't even occur to him?
MARTHA: No.
DOCTOR: Then what sort of man is that? And now you expect me to die?
Sensing that he really has no choice, Smith then breaks Redfern's heart.
JOAN: If I could do this instead of you, then I would. I'd hoped. But my hopes aren't important.
DOCTOR: He won't love you.
JOAN: If he's not you, then I don't want him to.
So painful. This is peak RTD.
Sarah -
Doctor Who so rarely makes me cry, or even tear up. This scene is enough to open the waterworks.
Harry -
The scene cuts to the interior of the Family's ship. Smith stumbles inside pleading a meek surrender. He's come to beg for understanding from the Family, and he gives them the watch. Gleefully they gather round and flip it open, but it's empty.
And then comes the revenge of the angry god.
Sarah -
They did not know with whom they were dealing.
Harry -
While playing Smith, the Doctor has rigged the ship to blow up. Everyone scrambles outside, and one by one, the Doctor doles out his revenge on each member of the Family. They had sought the immortality of a Time Lord. Instead, they face an eternity of punishment.
Sarah -
There is no compassion for the Family and they deserve none.
Harry -
As a human, we saw how far John Smith would go to be decent and kind and helpful. Here we see the counterpoint that RTD hammered home -- that the Doctor is capable of unleashing anger and vengeance and death. Even wrapped up in the cuddly character of the Tenth Doctor, it's still terrifying.
Sarah -
We end with the Doctor inviting Joan to join them in the TARDIS and she’s having none of it. This exchange guts me:
DOCTOR: Come with me.
JOAN: I'm sorry?
DOCTOR: Travel with me.
JOAN: As what?
DOCTOR: My companion.
JOAN: But that's not fair. What must I look like to you, Doctor? I must seem so very small.
DOCTOR: No. We could start again. I'd like that. You and me. We could try, at least. Because everything that John Smith is and was, I'm capable of that, too.
JOAN: I can't.
DOCTOR: Please come with me.
JOAN: I can't.
DOCTOR: Why not?
JOAN: John Smith is dead, and you look like him.
DOCTOR: But he's here, inside, if you look in my eyes.
JOAN: Answer me this. Just one question, that's all. If the Doctor had never visited us, if he'd never chosen this place on a whim, would anybody here have died? (The Doctor doesn’t answer.) You can go.
Harry -
I said earlier that this is Cornell's masterpiece, but everyone made it so. The writing acting, sets, direction, all of it makes this a highlight of Season 3. The hot streak continues as we move on to Steven Moffat's story next. We'll need refills on the splishy-splashy for sure.
Sarah -
Everything about "Human Nature/The Family of Blood" is perfect. It just may be my favorite Tenth Doctor Story. We’ll see if anything manages surpasses it.
Harry -
Best Line:
JOAN: Ever the artist. Where did you learn to draw?
DOCTOR: Gallifrey.
JOAN: Is that in Ireland?
DOCTOR: Yes, it must be, yes.
JOAN: But you're not Irish?
DOCTOR: Not at all, no. My father Sidney was a watchmaker from Nottingham, and my mother Verity was, er. Well, she was a nurse, actually.
Favourite Moment: the alternate-history montage of Smith and Redfern's lives together.
Lasting Image: Baines' psychotic expressions after his body is possessed by a Family member.
9/10
Sarah -
Best Line:
"That's all I want to be. John Smith, with his life, and his job, and his love. Why can't I be John Smith?"
Favorite Moment: Every time Martha is being amazing.
Lasting Image: Martha Jones watching over the Doctor.
10/10 - I don't think I've given out a 10/10 since the Fourth Doctor Era!
Our marathon continues with Story #186: Blink...
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