Story #187b/c - The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords (2007)

Sarah -
Martha Jones Saves the World!

Can we leave it at that and move on to the next story?


Harry -
After the excellence of Utopia, an opening episode that gave us a new TARDIS trio, a voyage to the end of the universe, and the return of the Master, the final two episodes of this season-ending triple header were bound to be a step down. But what a step down.


Sarah -
More of a plummet down. It’s even worse than I remembered.


Harry -
Yes, it was great to see the Master in all his diabolical majesty again. He's become prime minister of Britain -- which is brilliant! -- and he's concocted a whole new bonkers plan for the destruction of Earth and conquest of the universe. A mega-level Master plot at this scale could only come from the blockbuster mind of RTD.


Sarah -
Because I’m in a cranky mood, I’ll point out that the only reason Saxon was able to become PM was because the Doctor caused Harriet Jones’ downfall -- that and the hypnosis, of course.


Harry -
I liked this new take on a classic character. Young and energetic like the Doctor, with the same fashion sense trending towards black. He still loves his pseudonyms and mind control, and he's gotten himself an accomplice.

I have rewatched this story a few times over the years, and really want to like it because who doesn't like a good Master story? But every time, I find it all... too much. And a bit nonsensical. The story stumbles at the big picture stuff, like the Toclafane who span colossal epochs of time in order to destroy humanity with a paradox machine before heading off who knows where. Stumbles? It almost bores to be honest. I wouldn't call it a failing, but one of the things I liked least about the RTD era were these overly epic blockbusters that required the Doctor to become almost godlike in order to prevail. We certainly got a big dose of that here.


Sarah -
The Dobby-Doctor and his Jesus-like resurrection is certainly a low point of the RTD era. The whole story is just trying to do too much.


Harry -
Yeah. What I liked best was when the story zeroed in on small moments. The Doctor's phone conversation with the Master, the TARDIS trio hatching their plan over chips, Martha and Milligan bonding over their common cause.


Sarah -
These moments really are the best in the story. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough of them. I will admit that I laughed out loud when the Master asked the people of Earth to “please attend carefully” and addressed “Britain, Britain, Britain” on television.


Harry -
I loved the random quotations.

Martha. Martha Jones. She saved the world and we barely saw a thing she did. Turns out, the Doctor sent her out to be a kind of biblical prophet. Yeesh. I'm jumping around a bit here, but there are so many things I can't help but pick at in these two episodes.


Sarah -
There’s so much to pick at, like how Jack ends up a disembodied head. Whatever.


Harry -
I loved what John Simm brought to his role. Unfortunately, the whole thing had been spoiled for me back in 2007. "Spoilers" were still rampant in the online Who community, and the whole damn thing had been let out of the bag before I'd seen any of this story.  

One thing that I didn't know in advance was that we'd meet the Master's "wife." The best performance in this story might have been Alexandra Moen's zombie-like Lucy Saxon, redeemed at the very end when the Archangel satellite network was destroyed.

Sarah -
My favorite moment of the story is Martha’s final scene, in which she asserts herself and leaves the Doctor. Martha Jones is one of my favorite companions and this scene is a big part of that. We’re not done with you, Martha Jones, and I look forward to seeing you soon.


Harry -
Knowing that we'll see her again, let's leave our Martha Jones appreciation for another time.

As for this story, it started off with a bang in Utopia, but it just couldn't sustain itself and ultimately too many poor choices made this one a dud.


Sarah -
Best Line: Everything Martha says in her final scene:

MARTHA: I just can't. 
DOCTOR: Yeah. 
MARTHA: Spent all these years training to be a doctor. Now I've got people to look after. They saw half the planet slaughtered and they're devastated. I can't leave them. 
DOCTOR: Of course not. Thank you. Martha Jones, you saved the world. 
MARTHA: Yes, I did. I spent a lot of time with you thinking I was second best, but you know what? I am good. You going to be alright? 
DOCTOR: Always. Yeah. 
MARTHA: Right then. Bye. 
(Martha leaves, then goes back inside.) 
MARTHA: Because the thing is, it's like my friend Vicky. She lived with this bloke, student housing, there were five of them all packed in, and this bloke was called Sean. And she loved him. She did. She completely adored him. Spent all day long talking about him. 
DOCTOR: Is this going anywhere? 
MARTHA: Yes. Because he never looked at her twice. I mean, he liked her, but that was it. And she wasted years pining after him. Years of her life. Because while he was around, she never looked at anyone else. And I told her, I always said to her, time and time again, I said, get out. So this is me, getting out.

Favorite Moment: Martha telling the Doctor she’s out. 

Lasting Image: Martha walking away from the TARDIS. 

2/10


Harry -
Best Line: from the cabinet gassing scene, short and simple.
Cabinet Minister: You’re insane!
The Master: Yes!

Favourite Moment: the telephone conversation between the Doctor and the Master.

Lasting Image: the Master dying in the Doctor's arms.

4/10

Our marathon will continue...

Story #187a - Utopia (2007)

Harry -
By the end of his third season as showrunner, Russell T. Davies showed us that there were still untold blocks he could bust with his Doctor Who season finale blockbusters.


Sarah -
RTD reached a new level with "Utopia". The script is tight, well-paced, compelling, and surprisingly witty for such a dark story. I was delighted that "Utopia" lived up to my memories of it. Plus, Derek Jacobi!


Harry -
Kolossal!


Sarah -
I remember being caught off-guard by his appearance and so very happy to have him turn up in Doctor Who. I recall him saying that his remaining career goals had been Doctor Who and Coronation Street. I don't know if he ever made it onto Corrie, but I'm sure he never imagined he'd still be playing the War Master all these years later!


Harry -
I'm very happy he's continued playing the Master for our friends at Big Finish. One of the best actors of our times. I have said this elsewhere, but Big Finish could release a box set of Jacobi reading a phone book and I would pre-order it on day one.


Sarah -
Dear Mr. Haigh-Ellery, we have a proposal...


Harry -
"Utopia" is the opening chapter of an epic three-parter that brings together new faces and old. It begins innocently enough, with a TARDIS refueling stop in 2007 Cardiff.


Sarah -
It's been a minute, Cardiff. And who should turn up but our old pal Jack, who has spent uncounted years hanging around the Rift, waiting for the Doctor's return.


Harry -
The year 2007 was definitely the heydays for Captain Jack Harkness in the Whoniverse. His return appearance here came on the heels of the first season of Torchwood. 


Sarah -
I really wanted to like Torchwood, to no avail, but I’m always down for some Captain Jack.


Harry -
It was certainly great to see him again, but the Doctor was less enthused. Seeing Jack approaching on the TARDIS monitor, the Doctor initiates dematerialization. Jack makes a desperate leap, clings to the TARDIS doors, and goes for a ride through the vortex -- millions, billions, trillions of years ahead -- to the very end of the universe.


Sarah -
We’ve all gone out of our way to avoid someone, but the Doctor takes it to new heights!


Harry -
The TARDIS lands on a planet under a dark sky. The Doctor and Martha emerge, and Martha spots Jack's prone body on the ground. She goes to his aid, but Jack does his Jack thing and gasps back to life. Martha is stunned, the Doctor is still unenthused.


Sarah -
The Doctor couldn’t possibly be less enthused! Of course, things are bound to be awkward when you’ve abandoned your traveling companion out of his timeline after he’s been made immortal. It’s almost the definition of awkward, especially when he turns up with your hand! 


Harry -
There's an awkward reunion as both Jack and the Doctor are initially wary, but when Rose's name comes up they happily embrace at the fact that she's still alive in a parallel world. Hurray for Rose! It's Martha's turn to be unenthused.


Sarah -
I laughed out loud at Martha’s “Oh, she was blonde? Oh, what a surprise!” Martha is truly all of us.


Harry -
The trio do some looking around the seemingly empty landscape. Suddenly a man appears, pursued by the cast of The Road Warrior, and they run to help.


Sarah -
Something about this setting and the Road Warrior wannabes made it all feel very Seventh Doctor Era to me. I can almost see the Doctor and Ace scrambling over the hill in the background to avoid running into himself.


Harry -
Yes! Now that you mention it, this setting was not much of a stretch from the planet of the cat people. Only here, the fanged marauders don't have fur.


Sarah -
But they do have an equally fierce look.


Harry -
A unique shout out to Paul Marc Davis, who plays the lead post-human character. He has the distinction of being the only actor who has appeared in Doctor Who, Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures and Class (where he played the Shadow King).


Sarah -
Well done!


Harry -
Now four, the group scramble to a security fence and gain access to a place simply called the silo. Inside, it is filled with humans, much to the Doctor's delight. Despite everything, over trillions of years and the collapse of countless civilizations, humans survived to the end of the universe and he's proper chuffed.


Sarah -
Humans, the cockroaches of the universe!


Harry -
What an honour.


Sarah -
You gotta take what you can get.


Harry -
The inside of the silo looks more like a refugee camp, and we learn that everyone is waiting to board a massive rocket, if only the scientific team could finish the pre-launch preparations.

We soon learn that the scientific team is just one human man and one indigenous woman, neither of whom have a freaking clue how to get the rocket off the ground.

Another well-deserved shout out to Chipo Chung, who almost steals the show as Chantho. She and professor Yana have been toiling who knows how long in their laboratory, trying to find a way to launch the rocket that will take everyone off this dying lump of a planet.


Sarah -
It’s an amazing performance. I enjoy her scenes with Martha, especially when Martha encourages her to be “rude.” Chantho would have made an excellent addition to the TARDIS team.


Harry -
Enter our new TARDIS trio. Professor Yana is thrilled to meet the Doctor, a fellow man of science. Together, they might be able to send the rocket in the direction of Utopia, a place whose signal beckoned people to a new destiny. It's all fanciful stuff and the thing of legend, but here at the end of time and the end of existence, even the faintest hope will drive people to risk everything to survive.

It was a bit of a stretch, but with a flurry of technobabble and a wave of the sonic screwdriver, the Doctor instantly finds a way to activate the dormant rocket. Back in the Pertwee era, Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts would have built an entire extra episode around the Doctor working out the equations and calculations, but in this era a good plot can't be bogged down by difficult maths. So within moments, it's all aboard and begin the countdown. All that's left is the coupling of the fuel links and the rocket will be ready for blast off.

Problem: one of the "futurekind" post-humans has infiltrated the silo, and she sabotages the systems.


Sarah -
How did she manage to escape the teeth-inspection protocol?


Harry -
It was a dodgy protocol to be honest.


Sarah -
The TARDIS team springs into action after Jack is resurrected from the dead a second time. The Doctor and Jack, who is the only person who can enter the couplings room without dying, head down to couple the fuel links so the rocket can take off. Jack tells the Doctor his story of discovering that he is immortal and all he has gone through to find Doctor again. The Doctor can barely look at Jack as he explains how Jack was made immortal by Rose and that the TARDIS traveled to the end of the universe to get away from him.


Harry -
I liked how the story slowed right down so that Jack and the Doctor could have their conversation. Right before everything went haywire.


Sarah -
It’s all in the timing. Meanwhile, Martha has been telling Yana and Chantho about her travels in the TARDIS with the Doctor and they can overhear the Doctor and Jack’s conversation. The words reverberate in Yana’s head along with the sound of drums and memories start to come back to him.


Harry -
"Daleks... Time War... regeneration..." Each word hammers away at the professor's mental shell.


Sarah -
He removes his fob watch from its pocket and Martha turns it over to discover the Gallifreyan inscriptions, just like the ones on the Doctor’s watch in "Human Nature/Family of Blood."

This is the moment when my brain exploded the first time I watch "Utopia". At this point, we knew John Simm was going to bring back the Master, but it wasn’t until we saw the watch that I realized PROFESSOR YANA WAS THE MASTER! I don’t know how I managed not to run into a spoiler beforehand, but I’m so happy I didn’t. The shock of this moment is one of my favorite Doctor Who memories.


Harry -
The buildup to this moment is also one of my favourites. Martha hurries to the Doctor and tells him that Yana has a watch just like his. Excitedly, Jack exclaims that it could be another Time Lord. The Doctor waves it off as ridiculous, impossible. It's almost as if the Doctor prefers to be last of the Time Lords, he's made so much of that mantle that he hates the thought of losing it now.


Sarah -
He’s a bit invested in the distinction: “Time Lord, last of. Heard of them? Legend or anything? Not even a myth? Blimey, end of the universe is a bit humbling.”


Harry -
Voices from the past circle Yana's mind. These are his own past voices -- Anthony Ainley chuckling, Roger Delgado shouting. It's electrifying stuff and leaves no doubt any longer. Yana finally sees through the perception filter.


Sarah -
And, OMG, the moment when Jacobi opens the watch and becomes the Master is chilling. His entire face changes and he becomes a new person without any special effects. It’s a spectacular moment.


Harry -
Jacobi's performance is perfection. The frustrated, blustering professor is gone, replaced by the icy, smirking Master. He looks around with disgust at the rocket project that he's spent years working on, spitting out the word "Utopia" as if the word itself tastes rotten.

Immediately, he turns on Chantho, blasting her for never thinking to open the watch and restore him. How was she supposed to know? He curses her out and turns to lock the laboratory. 


Sarah -
It’s handy to have an immediate reminder that the Master is an absolute rat bastard.


Harry -
In a role reversal, David Tennant goes from cocky to panicked as the Master slams doors and throws obstacles in his path. He knows who it is inside the laboratory.


Sarah -
There’s no one else it could be!


Harry -
All Chantho knows is that Yana has snapped and must be stopped from ruining everything. Underneath all the prosthetics, Chung conveys heartbreak and terror as the Master assaults Chantho. Her final act of desperation is to shoot him.


Sarah -
Watching him abuse Chantho is so painful to watch. She deserves better.


Harry -
It was unfortunate to see her forgotten after she shot the Master.  Mortally wounded, he staggers into the TARDIS, locks the doors right before the Doctor can get to him, and regenerates. Enter John Simm, bursting with youthful energy and bouncing around the TARDIS console.


Sarah -
“Killed by an insect. A girl. How inappropriate. Still, if the Doctor can be young and strong, then so can I. The Master reborn!”  His misogyny is particularly noteworthy given his later reaction to his next regeneration, but that’s a story for another day...or year.


Harry -
Unlike the conversation between the Doctor and Jack, this one has none of the warmth of old friends reunited.


Sarah -
Talk about awkward reunions.


Harry -
The Futurekind run rampant in the silo and Jack and Martha hold them back at the laboratory door. The Doctor pleads for the Master to slow down and talk things over, but he will have none of it. It's a complete checkmate. The Doctor can only stand and watch as the TARDIS dematerializes. Now THAT is a cliffhanger for the ages.


Sarah -
I want to savor this moment before we head into the two-part finale. I don’t believe I’ve rewatched is since it first aired; I may need to fortify myself with a beverage to get through what’s to come. Let’s forge on, shall we?


Harry -
Some final shout outs to literally everyone.  The acting was top-level all around.  The sets and costumes were memorable.  Good old Graeme Harper delivered another masterpiece as director, and RTD blew us away with the opening chapter of this season-ender.  Ready to forge on!


Sarah -
Best Line: 
"A hermit with friends?" Jacobi’s read made me laugh out loud

Favorite Moment: Yana becoming the Master

Lasting Image: Yana and his watch

8/10


Harry -
Best Line: "I...am...the Master."  I remember laughing maniacally at this moment on the first broadcast.

Favourite Moment: definitely the return of the Master

Lasting Image: Derek Jacobi unleashed as the Master

8/10

Our marathon continues with the final two parts of this story: "The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords"...

Story #186 - Blink (2007)

Harry -
By 2007, fans knew that a Doctor Who story penned by Steven Moffat was event viewing. He had already given us "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances" and "The Girl in the Fireplace". We knew that something amazing awaited us as the third season of Nu Who ticked around to The Moffat Episode. And "Blink" surpassed all expectations.


Sarah -
If "Human Nature/Family of Blood" is peak RTD, "Blink" is peak Steven Moffat. If he never wrote another story after "Blink" (and I’m so grateful he wrote many more) he would have more than made his mark on Doctor Who history. I still remember watching "Blink" for the first time and being completely blown away.


Harry -
It starts innocently enough, with an urban explorer type sneaking into an abandoned house for a look around. There's the usual dust and decay inside. She notices something behind a peeling corner of wallpaper. Tearing it away, an unexpected message for her is revealed:

BEWARE THE WEEPING ANGEL. OH, AND DUCK! REALLY, DUCK! 

She glances around and looks out the windows. There's nothing out in the yard except a forgotten statue of a weeping angel. She turns back to the wall.

SALLY SPARROW DUCK NOW!

--LOVE FROM THE DOCTOR 1969

Sally ducks just as a flower pot smashes through the window and shatters. She's stunned. It's the beginning of the timey-wimeyest Doctor Who story yet.


Sarah -
Sally Sparrow really takes everything much more in stride that I ever could!


Harry -
She doesn't stick around though. Scrambling to a friend's house, she rousts her mate Kathy Nightingale -- after an unexpected kitchen encounter with Kathy's nude brother. Sally and Kathy return to the house and look around together. They think themselves caught when someone knocks on the front door. It turns out to be a young man with an envelope for Sally, from his grandmother Kathy Nightingale.

As Sally tries to wrap her head around what the man is telling her, Kathy continues looking around the house and we see the first signs that the weeping angel statue is actually moving. Hair-raising moments!


Sarah -
While Sally is talking to Kathy’s grandson, the angels send Kathy to Hull in 1920 and Sally reads about it just moments later. This is the point when I would have completely lost it.


Harry -
"Blink" gets better and better with each twist.


Sarah -
And, then, just to ramp up the tension, Sally runs upstairs only to find a gaggle of angels, one of which is holding a familiar-looking (to us) Yale key. She grabs the key and runs out of the house, while I was preoccupied with not blinking to keep those angels in place. Steven Moffat is a genius when it comes to making ordinary things - like blinking - absolutely terrifying.


Harry -
Sally's dangerous explorations of the house are so riveting that it's almost a quarter of the way through the story and the Doctor has only appeared in brief background video snippets. We first see him issuing strange instructions -- hammering home a point about not blinking -- on a telly at Kathy's place, and later inside the video store where her now-clothed brother Larry works. After the bonkers experience at the old house, Sally is there to tell him that Kathy has gone away.  She cannot help but ask about the curious man on the video.

Larry comes alive and explains that the video snippets are hidden as Easter eggs on 17 different DVDs. They watch some more as the video man continues his odd one-sided conversation. It's unnerving but also compelling to watch the Doctor go on, like a prof lecturing on some esoteric subject.


Sarah -
It’s confounding for everyone, from the characters to the first time viewer. My daughter kept asking, “What the heck is going on?” I, of course, merely responded, “Spoilers.”

I’d like to give a shout-out to Ian Boldsworth who plays Larry’s coworker, Banto, for the greatest performance of a video nerd ever.


Harry -
Very true to life.


Sarah -
He also inspires her next move when he yells at the movie he’s watching, “Why does nobody ever just go to the police?”

Sally heads to the police station, where the angels are keeping an eye on things. She meets the handsome DI Billy Shipton, who takes her to the parking garage that holds a collection of cars that were all left outside the Wester Drumlins house with no sign of their drivers. In the middle of the cars, is an abandoned Police Box found at the house. Sally has never seen one, of course, but Billy explains “they used to have them all over. But this isn't a real one. The phone's just a dummy, and the windows are the wrong size.” Bless you, Steven Moffat, for speaking for the fans on the pressing window-size controversy.


Harry -
An innocuous throwaway line for the casual viewer, but I remember people freaking out every time the TARDIS design changed shape or size.


Sarah -
So. Much. Discussion.


Harry -
DI Shipton charms Sally into giving him her phone number before she departs.


Sarah -
Billy manages to make “Because life is short and you are hot” charming, rather than creepy.


Harry -
Having stayed back in the garage, he spots the angels surrounding the police box, trying to break in. He tries to intervene but gets zapped back to 1969. There he meets the Doctor and Martha, who explain to him just what the heck is going on.


Sarah -
It’s a very enlightening explanation for both Billy and the audience.


Harry -
As if her day could not get any weirder, Sally receives a call from the DI, asking him to meet her at a hospital. There, she meets a Billy who has aged 38 years seemingly instantaneously. He reveals to her that he ran a video production company, and is the man behind the Easter eggs. The messages, hidden on those 17 DVDs, are meant for her. Sadly, Billy cannot impart much more information. His task has been to carry this message across the decades, knowing that he will pass away on this very day, when the rain outside stops. For a show that takes place in Britain a lot, there is a notable lack of rain from story to story in Doctor Who. Here the rain became a minor plot point, but a good one.


Sarah -
This scene makes me so sad.


Harry -
Sally returns to the house with her DVDs and Larry with his portable TV and DVD player in tow. They watch the Easter eggs, and the Doctor's alarming lecture plays out in full, as a real-time conversation between himself and Sally. 

"The angels have the phone box," is the line that Larry loves best.  I also got it put on a t-shirt shortly after "Blink" was first broadcast.

The Doctor is responding to Sally's words, as transcribed by Larry and somehow sent back in time for the Doctor to read in 1969. At this point during my first viewing of "Blink", I would have lost track of how many times my mind had been blown.


Sarah -
Right? It’s nice to sit back and watch the story unfold, admiring the structure and wondering how Moffat managed to pull it all together, but it was a whole other story on the first watch. I was gobsmacked over and over again. 

While our minds were being blown, the angels have been closing in on Sally and Larry. Larry keeps his eyes on the angel, while every viewer helps him out by NOT BLINKING AT ALL. Sally finds a door to the cellar, hoping it will lead to a way out. Instead, it leads them to the TARDIS -- and more angels. They keep their eyes on the angels as the lights flicker and Sally manages to open the TARDIS. The angels are shaking the TARDIS as Larry puts the DVD into the console. The TARDIS starts to dematerialize, leaving them behind in the middle of a circle of angels… who are looking at each other and unable to move! The day is saved by Sally Sparrow and her sidekick, Larry. Hooray! 

It’s safe to blink now.  


Harry -
They make a cute team.


Sarah -
Cut to a year later, Sally and Larry are running the DVD store together. Sally can’t let go of the events at Wester Drumlins, to Larry’s disappointment. When he leaves the shop to get some milk, who should Sally see on the street but the Doctor and Martha. She rushes out to talk to him and realizes that he doesn’t even know who she is. He has yet to experience the event that changed her life, so she gives him her folder of information, including the DVD transcript, and sends him on his way. 

Timey Flipping Wimey!


Harry -
Oh Moffat you genius.  Everything is brilliantly tied together in the end.  

I liked how the Doctor took it all in stride that this strange woman knew him but he hadn't the faintest idea.  He'll be meeting another strange woman of an even greater magnitude of importance soon.  For now, he takes the folder from Sally, and he and Martha dash off with their long bow and quiver full of arrows -- a weaponry kit that delighted me to no end.


Sarah -
We end with a montage of public statuary, just to make sure we can never look at a statue in the same way again.


Harry -
On a personal note I'm glad I haven't overwatched this episode, so that it's still brilliant and surprising on a rewatch.


Sarah -
Best Line: “You've only got seventeen DVDs?” It makes me laugh every time. 

Favorite moment: It’s hard to pick just one. I’ll go with Sally finally meeting the Doctor, but there are so many. 

Lasting Image: The Angels, of course. 

10/10


Harry -
Best line: 
KATHY: "What's good about sad?"
SALLY: "It's happy for deep people."

Favourite Moment: Sally's mind-bending encounter with Kathy's grandson.

Lasting Image: the Doctor's video bits.

9/10

Our marathon continues with Story #187a: Utopia...

Story #185 - Human Nature / The Family of Blood (2007)

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...