Human Nature

"I need to stop being a Time Lord... I'm going to become human."

Writer: Paul Cornell

Format: TV

Broadcast: 26th May 2007

Series: 3.08

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Martha

Synopsis 

England 1913, and a schoolteacher called John Smith has strange dreams of adventures in time and space.

Verdict 

Human Nature is a sensational episode of Doctor Who and an outstanding 45 minutes of television drama, and the story is only just getting started! I just love everything about this episode (and the one that follows) from start to finish. We get a taste of something going wrong with the Doctor and Martha under attack from an unknown gang of aliens. We've never encountered them before but they're deadly and they want a Time Lord. But suddenly, the Doctor really is John Smith and a human school teacher with Martha as his maid. You'd think the scenes were some sort of dream but the TARDIS scenes were actually the dream! A quite incomprehensible concept. Could the Doctor's life really have been a dream? Obviously not, as more information was fed to us throughout the episode. But whilst we weren't quite sure what was going on, it really was fascinating seeing John Smith dreaming of being the Doctor. The depictions of the dreams were stunning with far too many flashbacks to mention! But they were all there. Adventures and faces of all incarnations of the Doctor we know and love, and even in human form the Doctor still didn't want to remember anything about the War incarnation of himself. Not even a murmur. The Journal of Impossible Things was an incredible collection of sketches and information and I really did admire the artwork! The reference to Rose being simply a character that disappears was quite sad I thought. Although I wouldn't say I'm her greatest fan, she deserves far more of a mention than that when it comes to the Doctor, especially this incarnation, because she's the companion the Doctor fell in love with. But now, John Smith fell in love with Nurse Redfern which made Martha absolutely heartbroken. I think she was just a companion too late! Had she worked in a shop where an Auton attack commenced then maybe she'd have been the one the Doctor would have fallen in love with. It was instantly noticeable that Martha could see where things were heading between the man she so unsubtly loved and the matron. 1913 was a tremendous setting and watching now, 101 years after the story is set, it's intriguing to see just how utterly unlike schools are nowadays. Imagine children learning how to fire a gun! It's almost unthinkable. But a century ago war was a common thing and there'd be a tremendously huge one waiting around the corner. The reference to John Smith's parents being called Sydney and Verity and was a stunning throwback to the creation of the series we're still loving today! Seeing the Doctor still have his skill with a cricket ball was great and I loved how his remarkableness was just increased. He wasn't even a Time Lord anymore but he was still absolutely brilliant. The Family's arrival was superb and I just adore everything about them. Their creepiness is uncanny and just sublime. Baines as Son of Mine is one of the best villains in Doctot Who history in my opinion. As if the story wasn't good enough, we get an absolutely excellent villainous character too! The whole Family though really are magnificent together and add that to their army of Scarecrow soldiers and you've got quite an alliance on your hands! I've recently managed to get my little six-year-old cousin into Doctor Who after he found himself watching Deep Breath with me earlier this year. He's since watched every Twelfth Doctor episode so I thought it was time for him to experience a new Doctor and what better than my all time favourite Tenth Doctor story that I've found myself on in my mini rewatch of Series Three. With the Doctor human it was difficult for him to make a judgement on the Tenth Doctor himself but the reason I'm mentioning him is because of the impact the Scarecrows had on him. I never thought of them as one of the scariest monsters to appear in Doctor Who but watching him react to them was just magnificent from my perspective. I'll never get that feeling of watching a Tenth Doctor story for the first time and it was the look in his eyes that just made me smile so much. I've introduced the show to a brand new pair of eyes very close to me and that really makes me proud. I can't wait for him to watch more! The intrusion of the barn dance where John and Joan were having their first date was brilliant. Timothy had opened the fob watch which contained everything the Doctor was for just long enough so that the Family knew who they were after. One problem, the Doctor had changed his biological makeup using the chameleon arch, something I remember swinging about in Rise of the Cybermen, and had a perception filter on the fob watch. He genuinely didn't know who he really was. To him they were just echoes from dreams. He'd need to remember quickly though because the Family had his companion and his newfound lover at gunpoint. They'd both be killed if he didn't change back to being a Time Lord. Just one problem - he had no idea how nor what the family were on about. After a story of beauty surrounding the Doctor as a human, things are going to get a whole lot nastier in the second episode! And that's where my final rating will appear. But even as just an opening half of a story, this really is one of my all time favourite episodes.