Doctor Who: The Family of Blood...

[fajrdrako]

"The Family of Blood" was a suitable ending to the "Human Nature" story. Or, rather, a suitable series of endings, layered on top of each other.

The part I liked best was the scenes of the Doctor's wrath. I love all scenes of the Doctor in his vengeful mode, all power and judgement and anger. I loved it that the events of the story all happened because he wanted to be merciful, to let the Family live out their natural (short) lifespans. So instead... he gives them immortality. Chilling.

Other notes:

1. Wonderful the way it was all an anti-war story - pacifist in tone but with understanding and sympathy for those who go to war. No accident, then, that it was set in 1913 - if it was 1903 it just wouldn't be the same.



2. I adored Martha throughout. Loved the scene where she holds a gun on the Family - she made me think of Jack, and that's a high compliment!



3. The relationship between the Doctor and Martha remains interesting on numerous levels. I liked the way Martha was embarrassed about the thought that he remembered her saying she loved him - as if he doesn't know exactly how she feels! There are so many references (from Martha's point of view) to how she loves the Doctor and he doesn't love her that I see no room to squeeze in hetfic, worse luck, but I also love the way it's playing out. I have no doubt that the Doctor loves her, whatever comes of it.



4. In terms of the story, I liked the relationship between Nurse Joan and John Smith, but I really never came to love Joan or even to like her much. I loved it that the Doctor didn't just say "good-bye", that he offered her a place on the TARDIS to "see what happens", because that's his way of dealing with life, and people. Perhaps he hoped that she would come to love him as a totality, not just the John Smith part of him; or perhaps he felt it was a way of doing tribute to the part of him that as John Smith, giving him a little life still.
   
   Of course I equally loved it that she turned him down: she'd be a really bad fit on the TARDIS, a fish out of water. As far as I could see, she had very little sense of curiosity or adventure.



5. I loved the way Martha was not jealous of Nurse Joan, but sympathetic to her. They were, after all, in the same boat, in different ways. Martha knew she would still have the man she loved afterwards, and that the man Joan loved would be so totally subsumed he would disappear.



6. The scenes of John Smith's future: besides just the psychological satisfaction of the scene from his point of view, I'd like to think that this is an alternate future that actually happens in some reality. But how? Perhaps the Family do die a natural death, and the Doctor doesn't need to return, and Tim never showed the watch to the Doctor. Or perhaps the symbolic psychological reality is enough. I felt sorry for the Martha in that reality - trapped in a time that would always be difficult for her. However happy her life with John and Joan would be, she would always be a servant, and remember how things once had been.



7. I loved it that John Smith didn't want to die, and fought for his own existence.



8. I was glad to be wrong about Tim being sinister. Just a precognitive kid who gave into temptation to steal the teacher's special watch. His war scene was good.



9. Martha gets more heroic all the time. So did Rose - I loved that, too - but I feel an interest and identification with Martha that I didn't feel with Rose. Here, I loved not only her ongoing heroism, but the way she never really kowtowed to the racism of 1913 or let it get to her.



10. I also liked the heroic end of the Headmaster, who couldn't bring himself to be anything but protective of a little girl.



11. It was particularly scary to me that Sister of Mine was trapped in a mirror, as I have a bit of a mirror phobia. Chilling! I loved it that the Brother narrated that part of the story. I liked his fate.



12. I thought the battle scenes at the beginning perhaps went on too long. They were the least interesting part of the story.

Comments

[atheneunknown.livejournal.com]

Its funny that you should say Martha reminds you of Jack in this episode, because she's always reminded me of a less worldly version of him.

Thats actually how I described her personality to someone once. I said if Jack were a woman, and trapped in one place, he'd be her. And I like that. She's resourceful, and intelligent, and only limited at the moment by her own lack of knowledge.

And the whole 'I love him' thing struck a few people I know as a bit premature...but my arguement is that if someone shows you as much as he did her, and expands your horizons in such a way...would you even be able to NOT fall in love with him?

I didn't like the nurse. She reminded me constantly of a human representation of the close mindedness of the era they were in. I liked the fact that John Smith fought for his life. Goregous acting on the part of DT. If I didn't love that mans acting ability before, I would now. God that was a heart wrenching scene.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I said if Jack were a woman, and trapped in one place, he'd be her.

So I'm not the only one seeing the resemblance! She's a lot less troubled than Jack, she hasn't had the complicated life he has had - but in many things, including intelligence and courage and devotion to the Doctor - they are alike. It will be fun to see them meet.

the whole 'I love him' thing struck a few people I know as a bit premature...

I don't think so, but then I believe heartily in love at first sight. And what's not to love? Loving the Doctor is something I can easily understand and relate to.

She reminded me constantly of a human representation of the close mindedness of the era they were in.

Yes. A bit eager to run John Smith's life for him, a bit quick to put Martha in her place... I kept trying to charitably like her and kept failing. At the end, I thought her attack on the Doctor most unkind. Yes, I understand her resentment of him, I understand that she was disappointed that the man she loved was gone and that it was his fault. But the Doctor had every right to claim his own life, and to blame him for the local deaths was unfair: his plan had gone wrong, he had saved lives, and would it have been better in the grand scheme of things if it had been other people, elsewhere, who had been attacked by the Family?

Yes, DT is a wonderful actor.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

I didn't like the nurse. She reminded me constantly of a human representation of the close mindedness of the era they were in.

What I really didn't like was the scene where Nurse Joan couldn't or wouldn't see Martha as an intelligent human being or believe she was training as a doctor. There were certainly many women doctors already in that era, even though prejudice was still rampant.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

What I really didn't like was the scene where Nurse Joan couldn't or wouldn't see Martha as an intelligent human being or believe she was training as a doctor.

Yes. That was the sort of thing I was thinking about. I have read many biographies of people of that era who were broadminded, sexually 'flexible', socialist reformers, and so on - Nurse Joan seemed to represent a certain conservative segment of middle-class conformity. I wouldn't have minded that if I'd liked her better otherwise.

John Smith was of a similar type - by design, of course - but he treated Martha better and was generally more likeable.