Watching Doctor Who

This week’s episode of Doctor Who: The Family of Blood is the second half of Paul Cornell’s adaptation of his book Human Nature. Some of you may recall that Paul Cornell’s Father’s Day was my favorite episode from series one (and I actually got a chance to tell Mr. Cornell that I loved Father’s Day when I met him at Gallifrey One) and I was a wee bit worried about this two parter. Well, let me just say that he didn’t let me down.

For those of you interested in reading the original novel, the official Doctor Who site has posted it here. And before I move on to the spoilery stuff, I offer you a general piece of advice from this week’s Fact File: “Despite appearances, the Doctor is an immensely powerful being. Don’t make him angry. You won’t like him when he’s angry.”

David Tennant really outdid himself this week. You could clearly see the difference between John Smith and The Doctor. This was particularly well illustrated during the bit where he went from John Smith to The Doctor and back to John Smith again. The Doctor just seems to carry a bit more gravity with him, somehow. It’s like the weight of the Universe has settled on his shoulders once more. I feel bad for John Smith and Joan, though. At least he was able to show her the possible time line where they stayed together. There was no way that Joan would travel with him as The Doctor, and she had to go and point out the one fact that haunts him no matter where he travels. People died because he was there.

Adding to my general bit of advice from the Fact File above, this episode reminded me of a quote from School Reunion. “I’m so old now. I used to have so much mercy. You get one warning. That was it.” It is not often that we see the extent of The Doctor’s power. The Empress of Racnoss was in the right place at the wrong time to cross him and she paid the price. The Family of Blood pushed him too far, and they got a similar punishment to the baddies in The Five Doctors. They wanted longer lives, so that’s what they got. Hey, he tried to be kind. The Doctor is not human, and occasionally it’s good to be reminded of what we are dealing with. (OMG, he trapped her in a mirror! Scary.)

Martha had to run the show quite a bit this time around. As has been the case in many of the episodes this series, if she wasn’t around The Doctor would likely have died. Tim did a great job of defending the watch, with the help of the bit of The Doctor living in the watch. Good to have someone slightly telepathic around, eh? Joan managed to get everyone out of the Dance when John Smith froze. I was glad to see that Tim made it through the war, thanks to The Doctor, and lived to be quite old and well decorated with medals. (In case you are wondering, Thomas Sangster, who played Tim, turned 17 this May.) I suppose that if anyone knows about war at this point, it’s The Doctor.

Has anyone else noticed the “War” theme this series? We’ve talked about WWII with Doctor Lazarus, encountered bits of the Time War with the Daleks, and now we’ve got The Great War. I wonder what this means for the end of the series…

What did you folks think of the episode?

Well, next week is Steven Moffat’s episode for the season, and it looks…creepy. I may have to write my reaction post from behind the sofa…

Doctor Who, The Family of Blood, Human Nature, Gallifrey One