This two part story is based on a 1995 New Adventure Novel written by Paul Cornell. In this novel, it’s the Seventh Doctor and Bernice Summerfield who feature in the story. Bernice is grieving over the death of someone and after some drinking , the Doctor is trying to understand her grief and alters his biodata turning him into a human and the Aubertides are hunting him to try and acquire Timelord abilities. That’s the general twist however obvious that’s not going to work and some trimming and tweeking is obviously required. I have to admit that I have never read the original Human Nature nor do I have any intention of doing so but was an interesting prospect of finding out what an adaption of a novel would look like. The story in this version is that the Doctor and Martha are running from an unknown force and try to flee from them with the Doctor removes all of his Timelord knowledge so he is human and trusts Martha with keeping hold of the fob watch. They then arrive on earth in 1913 (just like the novel) and the story is about them holding up in a boarding school for three months whilst the Family die.
Now while the story moves at a different pace from previous adventures. The whole feel is one that is very welcomed by myself. I think that its nice to have a story that is completely different from what has gone before it. The story takes time in setting up the friendship/relationship between John Smith and Joan Redfern. I have to praise Jessica Hynes who is simply superb as Joan. She is understated yet is fantastic in every scene she’s in. The relationship between Tennant and Hynes is a joy to watch. There was a cheer when a certain book appears in the middle of the episode. It has all the Doctors faces along with monsters from the shows past. This is the most blatant nod to the shows past yet. I really liked it because it wasn’t over the top and fitted in with the style of the story. I also liked how there was a lovely nod to the creators of Doctor Who – Sydney Newman and Verity Lambert – who in this story had were the mother and father of John Smith. I also think that Freema Agyeman puts in another superb performance. She is effectively playing a baby sitter to Tennant’s teacher. She has to keep hold of the fob watch and keep an eye on him. However as she tries to remind him of who he really is, Smith refuses to listen. Tennant is also on superb form. He has to play someone that is the Doctor but isnt the Doctor and as a result we get a severely toned down version of what we got the previous week. It was nice and refreshing and shows us how good an actor Tennant is.
The Family themselves are very good. The humans that they take over are relatively plain with the young boy being the most annoying. He has a look on his face with you just want to slap which possibly isn’t a bad thing. I found the scarecrow’s to be very eerie. If you didn’t know the author of this story you would have sworn that they were a Steven Moffat creation. There simple yet effective and that what makes a monster. They obviously don’t have a life outside of these two stories but during these two episodes they work really well.
The cliffhanger in this episode is one of the best that has been done in the new series. The story works on the viewer believing that the Doctor isn’t pretending to be human with Timelord knowledge and knowing he’s a Timelord but he genuinally believes that he is a teacher called John Smith. The Doctor has to make a choice between Martha and Joan, the only way they will be spared is if he reveals himself but Smith doesn’t know he is really a Timelord. This creates a wonderful thought of just how are they going to get out of this situation. Only time will tell.
Now while the story moves at a different pace from previous adventures. The whole feel is one that is very welcomed by myself. I think that its nice to have a story that is completely different from what has gone before it. The story takes time in setting up the friendship/relationship between John Smith and Joan Redfern. I have to praise Jessica Hynes who is simply superb as Joan. She is understated yet is fantastic in every scene she’s in. The relationship between Tennant and Hynes is a joy to watch. There was a cheer when a certain book appears in the middle of the episode. It has all the Doctors faces along with monsters from the shows past. This is the most blatant nod to the shows past yet. I really liked it because it wasn’t over the top and fitted in with the style of the story. I also liked how there was a lovely nod to the creators of Doctor Who – Sydney Newman and Verity Lambert – who in this story had were the mother and father of John Smith. I also think that Freema Agyeman puts in another superb performance. She is effectively playing a baby sitter to Tennant’s teacher. She has to keep hold of the fob watch and keep an eye on him. However as she tries to remind him of who he really is, Smith refuses to listen. Tennant is also on superb form. He has to play someone that is the Doctor but isnt the Doctor and as a result we get a severely toned down version of what we got the previous week. It was nice and refreshing and shows us how good an actor Tennant is.
The Family themselves are very good. The humans that they take over are relatively plain with the young boy being the most annoying. He has a look on his face with you just want to slap which possibly isn’t a bad thing. I found the scarecrow’s to be very eerie. If you didn’t know the author of this story you would have sworn that they were a Steven Moffat creation. There simple yet effective and that what makes a monster. They obviously don’t have a life outside of these two stories but during these two episodes they work really well.
The cliffhanger in this episode is one of the best that has been done in the new series. The story works on the viewer believing that the Doctor isn’t pretending to be human with Timelord knowledge and knowing he’s a Timelord but he genuinally believes that he is a teacher called John Smith. The Doctor has to make a choice between Martha and Joan, the only way they will be spared is if he reveals himself but Smith doesn’t know he is really a Timelord. This creates a wonderful thought of just how are they going to get out of this situation. Only time will tell.
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