Human Nature (Doctor Who episode)

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For the Doctor Who novel of the same name, see Human Nature (Doctor Who novel).
189a – "Human Nature"
Doctor Who episode

Smith shows Joan his A Journal of Impossible Things, containing stories about Daleks, Cybermen and his previous selves.[1]
Cast
Doctor David Tennant (Tenth Doctor)
Companion Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones)
Guest stars
Production
Writer Paul Cornell
Director Charles Palmer
Script editor Lindsey Alford
Producer Susie Liggat
Executive producer(s) Russell T. Davies
Julie Gardner
Phil Collinson
Production code 3.8
Series Series 3
Length 1 of 2 episodes, 45 mins
Originally broadcast 26 May 2007
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by →
"42" "The Family of Blood"
IMDb profile

"Human Nature" is the eighth episode of Series 3 of the revived British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is the first episode of a two-part story written by Paul Cornell (who also wrote "Father's Day"), adapted from his 1995 Doctor Who novel Human Nature. The episode was first broadcast on 26 May 2007.

In 2008, along with The Family of Blood, it was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.[2]

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

England, 1913. An ordinary schoolteacher called John Smith is disturbed by extraordinary dreams of adventures in time and space — and a mysterious blue box. However, when mysterious lights in the sky herald the arrival of "The Family", Smith's maid, Martha, has to convince him that he alone can save the world, that he is The Doctor, the man he dreams about.

[edit] Plot

Thomas Sangster as Timothy Latimer.
Thomas Sangster as Timothy Latimer.

The story is told partly in flashback to scenes in which the TARDIS is being pursued, under attack using some kind of energy beam weapon. The Doctor tells Martha that those who are pursuing him could trace him across the universe, and he must undergo a transformation to turn him into a human. His pursuers are dying, the Doctor says. His plan is to transform into a human for three months, by which time those beings should all be dead. His Time Lord configuration is stored in a fob watch and Martha is charged with guarding it.

As a human, John Smith, the Doctor becomes a schoolteacher in Farringham School in England before the Great War. The story picks up two months into his human life. Smith is unaware of his previous life as a Time Lord, and his character is quiet, a little timid and introspective. He has dreams of being a Time Lord and sometimes sketches them in a notebook, his "Journal of Impossible Things". Martha (who is aware of what is happening and remembers everything) is his maid.

His pursuers, who refer to themselves as the Family, show up on Earth in an invisible spaceship and take over the body of a school prefect who stumbles upon their ship while digging up a hidden cache of beer. They have scarecrow-like creatures as their henchmen, who round up more victims, a young girl holding a balloon and a farmer, to use as vessels.

Smith is cajoled by the school nurse, Joan Redfern, to attend a dance. Martha is distraught as she realises that he has fallen in love with a human, particularly someone other than Martha herself. The Doctor left recorded instructions telling her what to do in nearly any eventuality. One of these was "Don't let me abandon you". But his instructions did not foresee that he might fall in love.

Meanwhile, one of Smith's pupils, Timothy Latimer, who has previously demonstrated extrasensory perception in an encounter with other students, finds and takes the fob watch, having heard the Doctor's thoughts despite the perception filter the Doctor had placed on it. When he briefly opens the watch, the Family sense that the Time Lord they are hunting is located somewhere within the school. Capturing and possessing a friend that Martha has made whilst working as a maid, one of the Family attempts to question Martha, but she escapes. Martha realises she must bring the Doctor back, but the watch is gone, without which she cannot restore him. Shocked by Martha's bizarre claims (and a slap to the face), Smith fires her.

The climax comes at the dance. Martha retrieves the sonic screwdriver and rushes to find Smith there, hoping the familiar object from his other life will help convince him. Meanwhile the Family arrive, one of them having overheard Martha trying to convince Smith he is the Doctor. They kill two people and then take Martha and Joan hostage, demanding that Smith "change back" into a Time Lord. Still believing he was born human, Smith does not understand the Family's words. In a cliffhanger ending, he is further horrified when they tell him to choose whom they should kill: "Maid or matron, your friend or your lover. Your choice."

[edit] Continuity

The journal as it appeared on the Doctor Who microsite for following episode. Left-to-right; top-to-bottom: First page: Tenth and Ninth Doctors; Second page: Fourth, Third, Second, Seventh, Eighth, First, Sixth and Fifth Doctors.
The journal as it appeared on the Doctor Who microsite for following episode. Left-to-right; top-to-bottom: First page: Tenth and Ninth Doctors; Second page: Fourth, Third, Second, Seventh, Eighth, First, Sixth and Fifth Doctors.

[edit] Comparison with the novel

The novel featured the Seventh Doctor and Bernice Summerfield, with their roles replaced on television by the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones.

The key plot difference between the book and television versions is that, in the novel, the Doctor seeks human form to better understand humans, whereas in the television version, he is hiding from the Family of Blood.

The villains in the novel are a family of Aubertide shapeshifters, who provide the device that transforms him. Their plan is to gain his abilities by stealing the "biodata module" while he is relatively helpless. The Family's possession of Lucy Cartwright is a nod to the character of Aphasia, an Aubertide who likewise takes the form of a young girl with a balloon, although in the book, the "balloon" is a semi-sentient being Aphasia can send to attack people.

Bernice's cover story is that she is John Smith's niece, who has just finished university education and is staying in the village. She meets her uncle weekly in the pub. Martha's position as a maid reflects the position of ethnic minorities in the period, as well as a need to be nearer the Doctor, since she knows he may be in danger. This also necessitates another change; the replacement of Bernice's friend, the suffragette Constance with another maid at the school, Jenny. There is also no equivalent to the character of Alexander Shuttleworth, Bernice's landlord, who learns the truth and agrees to help her.

Other character changes include Joan Redfern becoming the school matron rather than a widowed science teacher, although in both she is Smith's love interest and opposes teaching the boys to fight. Hutchinson, as Captain of House and leader of the boys who bully Timothy, is also a more significant character in the book. In a very minor change, Tim Latimer is named Timothy Dean in the original. In the novel Tim absorbs some of the Doctor's memories and personality, taking on a Doctor-like role, whereas his acts of bravery in the TV story seem to be his own. Timothy Dean's experiences with the Doctor lead Timothy Dean to become a conscientious objector, whereas Tim Latimer becomes a combat medic.

In the novel, Benny has a document listing nine things she should not let the Doctor do while in human form. In the television episode, Martha has a video recording with a much longer list of at least 23 directives. Both characters note that falling in love is not mentioned, although Benny adds "Don't let me fall in love" in biro. In both versions, attempts to persuade Smith he is the Doctor without the memory store result in his concluding the companion is mad.[4]

In the episode, Smith mentions learning to draw on Gallifrey, which he assumes is in Ireland. The same assumption occurs in the book. He also recalls his parents, Verity and Sydney. In the book, Verity is Smith's lost love, and he has many flashbacks to her. She is actually a trigger to remind him when he needs to become the Doctor again.

The TV episode is set primarily on 11 November 1913, a date that would later be Armistice Day, but the novel is set in 1914.

Smith's journal clearly has 'Maius intra qua extra' written on one page — Latin for what is inside is greater than what is outside, which is a reference to the TARDIS, but is also the school's motto in the original book (the motto in the episode is 'Audaces Fortuna Juvat' — fortune favours the brave). In the book, however, Smith fails to understand the motto, saying "It's written in a foreign language." The journal itself is equivalent to a children's story Smith tries to write in the book, which described a Victorian scientist bringing laws and police boxes to the primitive planet of Gallifrey, before escaping the order he had created.

[edit] Production

Human Nature was Paul Cornell's fifth original novel, all having been Doctor Who stories for Virgin Publishing, and the thirty-eighth New Adventure. The plot was developed with fellow New Adventure novelist Kate Orman and the book was well received on its publication in 1995. Several years later, the revived Doctor Who television series included several people who had worked on the New Adventures. For his second story for the television series, Cornell adapted his novel.

Despite Julie Gardner's position as executive producer since "Rose", this episode marks the first time since Verity Lambert's 1965 swansong, "Mission to the Unknown", that a woman was the credited producer of an episode of Doctor Who. However, it is not producer Susie Liggat's first production job in the Doctor Who universe: in 2006, she produced "Invasion of the Bane", the first episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures. Thus, only she and John Nathan-Turner have produced episodes from two different programmes set in the Doctor Who universe.

The physical prop of John Smith's journal notebook was created by artist Kellyanne Walker, and incorporates text provided by writer Paul Cornell.[5] Much of the episode was filmed at St Fagans National History Museum, an open-air museum near Cardiff, and Treberfydd, the Victorian Gothic mansion which served as Farringham School, located near Llangorse Lake in south Wales.[6]

The Doctor's list of 23 directives, much of which is sped through in the episode, is presented at normal speed in a deleted scene released on the BBC DVD. In place of the nonexistent unheard requests, David Tennant breaks the fourth wall to speak humorously about a love for The Housemartins and also spout gibberish to pad out the time before returning to character for the 23rd and final directive. Another instruction, about not letting Smith eat pears, appears in both the deleted scene and in the novel Human Nature.[3][7]

[edit] Historic and cultural references

  • Latimer is forced to translate Latin homework, poems of Catullus.
  • Smith gives a lesson on the Battle of Waterloo early in the episode.
  • A doorman takes up a charity collection for "veterans of the Crimea" (1854–56) outside the village hall.
  • The recent Second Boer War and the subsequent British occupation of South Africa is referenced frequently in this episode and the following one: Hutchison's father writes that he may be posted there (in the letter which Latimer guesses), and Latimer's uncle had a posting in Johannesburg; Redfern's husband died at the battle of Spion Kop, hence her antipathy to the machine gun practice; the book Latimer is picking up from Smith is a "Aitchison-Price's definitive account of Mafeking"; and in the following episode, the headteacher reveals that he served during the war.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Human Nature". Writer Paul Cornell, Director Charles Palmer, Producer Susie Liggat. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One, Cardiff. 2007-05-26.
  2. ^ 2008 Hugo Nomination List. Denvention 3: The 66th World Science Fiction Convention. World Science Fiction Society (2008). Retrieved on 2008-03-21.
  3. ^ a b c Doctor Who - Fact File - Human Nature
  4. ^ Paul Cornell. eBooks - Human Nature - Adaptation. Doctor Who - the Classic Series. BBC. Retrieved on 2007-06-07.
  5. ^ Doctor Who - Fact File - The Family of Blood
  6. ^ "Human Nature" podcast
  7. ^ Cornell, Paul (1995 (original paperback)). Human Nature. BBC eBooks, pg 68. ISBN ISBN 0-426-20443-3. 

[edit] External links

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[edit] Reviews

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Doctor Who series 3 episodes