Half Human

"Sometimes it's okay not to know."

Writer: Matthew Jacobs

Format: Short Story

Released: April 2026

Printed in: DWM Special Edition 73

Featuring: Eighth Doctor

Synopsis

This is the story of a Screenwriter commission to write a short story concerning the Doctor's supposed being half human on his mother's side...

Verdict

Half Human was an incredibly strange little short story to accompany the latest edition of Doctor Who Magazine's special edition celebrating 30 years of the Eighth Doctor! I was very excited when this release was announced as it's fitting to have a celebration of all things The Movie and Paul McGann's magnificent Eighth Doctor. This short story is actually the only feature in the magazine I have read at the time of writing, but it was far from what I expected! The prospect of a new Eighth Doctor story in prose by the same writer that wrote his debt is a tantalising prospect and was a big selling point of the magazine for me, but it was pretty disappointing I must say. I'm still not entirely sure what I read to be honest and I don't think that's really a good thing! I'm just not sure I can consider this canonical when it's a short story about the process and the steps taken to pitch the short story that I was reading, but then it didn't really do anything about the titular element of the Doctor being half human? That's an element of the Eighth Doctor that has been largely forgotten and shoved under the carpet which is fun, but I do agree with the author that it would make sense if he was half human. It would explain his love of the human race and the frequency in which he visits Earth, but The Timeless Children appears to have firmly put that to bed now even though it was flirted with again in Hell Bent for the Twelfth Doctor. I don't think it's something that we will hear the last of as it's just too tantalising and too obvious a concept. I thought the illustration of the Griffith Observatory was tremendous as that's a place I have visited and absolutely adored. It's such a cool tourist destination and really is a bucket list item I would recommend to anyone to get ticked off with the view of the Hollywood sign. It's always great to see things in print that you know in real life. That's why I like the use of so many local towns and elements in Torchwood because I live in the area. I think this must be a really nice story for the writer to basically throw himself into the Whoniverse and even meet the Eighth Doctor briefly in something that was initially deemed a hallucination. It was just all so weird and I don't really understand what was trying to be achieved. Is the title just a selling point? I don't want to say this became something of a vanity project but I can't help but feel that way a little bit. The more I write the more confused I am about what I read. So the whole story is about writing a story about a concept that was then just said it didn't matter? I do agree that sometimes it is better to not know the important details because we would lose so much of the mystery if we knew the Doctor's mother and had the backstory confirming or depicting how he was actually half human, but as fans we can't help but to want to know! The line at the end about observing Gallifrey from the Griffith Observatory was tremendous though and that's a tantalising image indeed. Overall, ever so strange. Not at all what I think anybody would have expected! 

Rating: 5/10