Story Review: Human Nature/ Family of Blood

Human Nature/ Family of Blood is a two-part adventure from series 3 and I have often thought that it was just an episode like any other (I was only 8 when it first aired), but watching it again recently I have found that actually it is one of my favourite Who stories. I think it would quite easily make my top 5 stories.

Many regard series 3 as a whole to be quite ordinary, perhaps this is because Martha had been introduced after replacing Rose Tyler who is widely regarded as Tennant's main companion. I think there is more to series 3 though and this double episode holds such a special place in my heart.

I love this story because we get to see a completely different side to the Doctor - a human side; the Doctor being human is something that had never been explored before so it was great that they took 90 minutes to do just that. Paul Cornell, the writer of the episodes, had actually written a novel in 1995 called Human Nature  which was the same storyline but for the Seventh Doctor. Russell T Davies read the novel and was instantly hooked so in 2007 he asked Cornell to adapt the story for Tennant's Doctor and make it into a two-part episode.

I think one thing that worked in Cornell's episode really well was that there were so many characters that were brilliant; there was Joan Redfern, Baines, Latimer, Jenny and of course Martha and The Doctor/ John Smith. I have only welled up five times in Doctor Who: When Rose said farewell to the Doctor in Doomsday, when David Tennant said his final words "I don't want to go" in The End of Time, when Amy and  Rory got zapped by the angels in Angels Take Manhattan and the remaining two were in Family of Blood. The first was when John Smith was seeing his potential life with Joan and the second when Latimer was at the war memorial and saw The Doctor and Martha. 

I believe that this story will never be forgotten and I see it as maybe David Tennant's greatest hour (and a half) because we saw in this episode just how good an actor he is.

What did you think of this episode? Leave a comment...