Doctor Who 3.9: The Family of Blood

[selenay]

Have I mentioned yet that Martha is fantastic?

This episode really gave Martha the chance to shine and I adore her. She had to take charge, work out how to save them all and then try to talk John Smith into becoming the Doctor again. It was all beautifully done and I loved this chance to see just how far Martha has come and how much of her own character she is.

I also adored Joan to pieces. She's a lovely character and part of me ached as she let go of her dreams and forced John Smith to change back. It would have been so easy to make her a character to hate, stealing our Doctor away, but they didn't. It was beautifully played and easy to see why John Smith fell in love with her.

The scenes at the end with the Doctor were perfectly played and heartbreaking. He's a different character from John Smith, and has such an incredibly alien outlook on things. I loved that he thought he could love her again, but I'm glad that Joan had the sense to know that it wasn't right. In a way, this makes it even less likely that he'll return Martha's feelings, which I'm perfectly fine with.

I also adored Latimer to little pieces and I'm glad that he got to escape his death. He was a lovely character. If I try to think about the changes in the time-line or the potentiality of a self-fulfilling prophecy my brain will explode, which is why I chose not to think about the physics of Doctor Who :-) I do wonder whether Latimer was had just a bit more of that low-level telepathic field the Doctor was talking about than normal - Joan and Martha didn't seem to feel anything from the watch, yet Latimer seems to have absorbed a lot of the Doctor's history as well as being able to see his own future when he touched it.

This was one of those episodes that left questions for me even after it was all wrapped up. That's fine, that's what fanfiction is for.

In various places the episode gave me shivers. The Doctor's imprisonment of the Family was reminiscent of his treatment of the Raknoss: implacable and unmerciful. The voice-over for that part, and our glimpse of scenes from The Runaway Bride earlier in the episode, made me a little frightened for the Doctor. Despite Martha, he seems to have lost some of the humanity he'd regained when Rose was travelling with him. He reminds me at times of the Seventh Doctor.

I'm sure that I'm leaving out dozens of things that I really wanted to note. The reminders of the oncoming war drove some of the atmosphere of the episode. The scarecrows were much scarier than some of the really flashy effects we've had in previous episodes. Baites had the form of a human, but felt thoroughly alien and it was all done with subtle changes in posture and tone of voice.

I really felt for John Smith at the end and it was almost a shock to see the Doctor again. I can't put my finger on why, though.

At the end, this was an excellent episode with a very strong plot, great acting and lovely characterisation. I think this two-parter will be going down as one of the best stories DW has done, almost rivalling The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances - which still my favourite story of the new era!

Comments

[gaspodex.livejournal.com]

I suspect the echoes of the 7th Doc are more down to Pauls adaption of the book, but that said - Ten has been playing the doc darker. Even from the first Christmas special with the 'No second chances' and his distruction of Harriet Jones (who as CE he had said went on to serve more than one term - which he just changed which is against the rules - theres no way RTD will let that slip .. there will be repercussions of that I suspect, but I digress).

And Paul so wanted to refer to Him as 'The Oncoming Storm' lol the various family speeches danced around the words a lot - always been my favorite name for the Doc ...

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

:) Agreed. I really liked this one, and it's on a par with season 1's two-parter. Funny how they both had to do with war. ;)

[historyterry.livejournal.com]

I did wonder whether Tim might turn out to be the Doctor's son, in a time-slip kind of way. Or indeed if he actually was the Doctor, as a child. It'd be great to see that character back again.

Tx

[selenay]

I've downloaded the "Human Nature" book from the BBC website to see how it compares :-)

Ten has been a darker Doctor than CE's and he seems to be getting darker as he progresses, something that I've been wondering whether RTD will address. I'd entirely forgotten that Ten had changed the time-line with his actions to Harriet - now that you've reminded me, I hope it gets addressed, too!

"The Oncoming Storm" is also one of my favourite names for the Doctor. It fits him so well. He doesn't cause things, but he only tends to appear when something is about to happen. For some reason, that nickname reminds me of Gandalf in Tolkein though - I can't remember the exact quote, but I think Grima or Theoden calls him "Storm Crow" (among other names). They both appear as a portent of oncoming disaster and war.

[selenay]

It's a theme that seems to work particularly well for Doctor Who, which is odd because often he's trying to stop the bloodshed.

[selenay]

I hadn't thought about those options, but they're definitely intriguing. I'd love to see the character back again and maybe find out why the pocketwatch spoke to him so much clearer than to anyone else. It's too intriguing a hook to just let go, FCOL!

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

Perhaps that's the point. The message is getting a little repetitive though, but this time, there was a harder edge to the Doctor than we're used to seeing.

On a totally different subject

[historyterry.livejournal.com]

You didn't catch my LJ entries from Monday, did you?

Re: On a totally different subject

[selenay]

Sorry, I didn't. I logged in yesterday long enough to reply to comments and then in the evening to post an update notice. Haven't even glanced at the f-list! I'm off to check your journal now...