Totally Frakked: "Doctor Who" And The Family Stone
Doctor Who
Title: "Human Nature"
First Aired (US): 08/24/07
The latest "Doctor Who" villain - a spooky group of aliens called The Family of Blood - hits a ten on the creepy scale. Between animated scarecrows, body snatching, and sniffing out their enemies, The Family makes for an episode that rivals some of the really good classic "X-Files" episodes for sheer freakout factor.
If that weren't bad enough, it's England in 1913 and The Doctor thinks he's a schoolteacher. The episode opens with The Doctor awaking from a nightmare of being pursued, but when Martha - dressed as a maid - comes in to check on him he asserts that he dreamed of being an alien, but he's as human as they come.
As we learn from flashbacks and other devices, The Doctor was being pursued by The Family, and since they could smell his Timelordiness anywhere, he had it removed. After using a remarkably convenient device he happened to have on hand, The Doctor is transformed into a human with human memories and deposited in England to hide out. He tells Martha that The Family is dying; all they need to do is lay low for three months and the problem will take care of itself.
While he's doing his human impression, his Timelord essence is stored in a pocket-watch. He leaves Martha a video with advice on how to deal with everything she might need to know, but you can't plan for anything. As the perfectly human John Smith starts to fall in love with the pretty school nurse, Martha bemoans the fact that he didn't leave her instructions on how to deal with that particular problem.
Of course, that's a much smaller problem than the fact that The Family seem to have found their way to the school. They possess one of the older students, who wanders around the school, sniffing creepily and looking for the Timelord. This is noticed by one of The Doctor's pupils, Timothy, who seems to be a little bit psychic.
Later on, while Timothy is borrowing a book from The Doctor, he notices the Soul Watch and rather stupidly pockets it. Why they left it just lying around, I'll never know. Timothy opens the watch a few times, which tips The Family off to the presence of a Timelord, though they can't get a lock on him. Through the watch, the disembodied soul of the Timelord communicates with Timothy, presumably telling him how to get chicks by using an eccentric genius routine.
Meanwhile, The Family possesses a few more locals, including a friend of Martha's who attempts, ham-handedly, to interrogate her. Martha figures out what's what and tries to bring The Doctor back to his senses, but she can't find his watch, so he just thinks she's out of her mind. After firing Martha, The Doctor and the pretty school nurse head off for the dramatically convenient school dance where the entire plot converges.
Martha follows The Doctor to the dance with his sonic screwdriver, trying to jog his memory, Timothy comes to the dance for no readily apparent reason, and The Family and their creepy scarecrow servants converge on the hall, looking for the delicious Timelord soul. While The Doctor tries to remember what a sonic screwdriver is, the credits start to roll. Better luck next week, Doctor.
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