309: The Family of Blood

309: The Family of Blood

This is is one of the best stories of the third season. 2nd part of Human Nature really ties up any lingering questions. I really liked the ending of this one. The way the family came to the realization that the Doctor had been showing them mercy by evading them was a really nice touch.

Also enjoyed the montage of what might have been, and the telling of Latimer's vision about the war and how he survived.

It's funny, I could see in this set of episodes what the 7th Doctor stories were supposed to look like. There was a lot of the same type of imagery (the little girl who always has a balloon and skips a lot, for instance) but done with a real budget.

I may not have noticed it if not for my awareness of the book, but still...

I didn't like this one. It's stupid that the Doctor would turn himself into a human with no knowledge of being a Timelord. It would've worked better if it was an accident. Since the Family was defeated so easy, I agree with the Nurse that all he accomplishe was getting a lot of innocent people killed. They didn't explain how he was suddenly able to give them immortality; they should've all died when the ship blew up or all been thrown into a black hole. The voice over explaining WWI was unneccessary. The Scarecrows looked neat but didn't do anything; maybe they could've gotten death rays too? I did like the Son's cock-eyed smile.

As with most episodes of the new series, all aspects of one show do not make complete sense until a few episodes later or season's end. Not going to give anything away, that's what the spoiler section is for, but keep in mind that while stories can stand on their own, the general direction of the season requires certain "story devices" be incorporated into each episode that follow the overall arc.

As for how they were granted immortality, the impression I got from it was that this was part of their punishment from the silent fury of the time lord. Left in different forms of suspended animation through the rest of time, but powerless to do anything with their immortality except suffer.

Not looking for a word war here, but the idea of the voice over as unnecessary is a pure matter of opinion, it should be considered with the purpose it was intended. While it's true we fought in that war, it wasn't on our home soil, we didn't have the bombings and we didn't have the losses Britain did. In the UK Rememberance Day is their version of Veteran's Day or more current comparison would be the memorial's that take place on Sept 11th.

Before I saw HNFOB, I read Cornell's novel... I was such a lucky sod I had it in my book collection and shame on me I never read it...until this year. I have to say I enjoyed reading the novel and enjoyed seeing the adaptation on t.v.

If any episode best describes the Doctor and what the world would be without him- this is the one. Tennant acted his eyeballs out on this one...Blink and HNFOB are my favorties
for this year.

hmm just rewatched this on my ipod and noticed something...
when the doc is getting his watch- on the shelf...is that the blue crystal from metebelis 3? Or am I just seeing things?

Pretty good. Not one of my favorites to say the least.