Doctor Who Club of Australia

[dave]

I thought this conclusion to this two-parter was also excellent. Plenty of action intermixed with some very emotional scenes, which I thought Tennant carried very well. Mr Smith's anguish throughout most of the episode was very well done.

I thought the Doctor's solution at the end for the problem of the Family was a bit heartless, and the revelation that he'd gone into hiding to prevent a nastier fate for the Family certainly makes sense considering what he ended up doing to them. I'm just curious as to whether he couldn't have jsut let them die rather than punish them with a form of eternity.

It was great to see so many Jack-Straws. They were a truly creepy addition to the pantheon of the Doctor's foes, and I wouldn't be averse to seeing them again one day.

Still, it was nice to see the Doctor back to normal by the end of the episode. Mr Smith was a bit of a sap at times.

Can't wait for the next episode, it looks great!

[arturo]

Well put Dave

I think this was an amazing episode, a great conclusion to one of the best two parters ever. it actually sustained the excitement and emotion built up in the first part and the sonic screwdriver was not used to solve the cliffhanger. Loved seing Martha in action!

The Jack Straws were awesome. Surely a terrifying thing for kiddywinkles everywhere. Loved the family's alienness too.

Was almost choking back a tear at the end, was sad to see poor Joan have to face the Doctor after all she had been through and was also shocked by the severity of the Doctor's treatment of the family.

I think Paul Cornell is the closest thing we have to a contender for Steven Moffat's crown.... Speaking of which..... is it a coincedence you're excited by next weeks ep Dave???

And my fiance gave it 4 stars.... bit harsh i reckon.

[dave]

No coincidence at all, Pete. Mind you, this two parter will be hard to top. I think Cornell's just become my second favourite new series writer.

[meglos]

Fantastic. I loved the Doctor's ruthlesness with the Family. The bit at the end with old Tim was a tear jerking moment for me.
Next week looks good

[FredDag]

I wanted to wait to episode 2 before I made any comments about this story. As a whole it's pretty good, actually very good. The only thing that turned me off it was that fact that Doctor was a bit ruthless near the end of the story. This seemed a bit out of character or has the Doctor just got that old a weary?

I would of liked to seen the scarecrows be more of a threat, specially when they were shot (how can you kill something that's already dead). I would of loved to of seen the scarecrows get up and keep moving after they were shot.

The old man at the end brought a tear in my eye. At first I thought the young kid might turn out to be Mr Saxon being that he can see some points in time, but this was not the case in the end. The story is one of the better ones of the season.

[Tegan]

I was right last week, this one was even better than Human Nature, and that was wonderful. I was glued to the screen for the full episode.

Dave has basically said everything I was going to write, and like Arturo I was choking back tears at the end. For The Fallen always does that for me.

The way they handled the whole "cadets with guns" thing was excellent, dragging children into war...

I think the Doctor needed to be ruthless with the family. It continued to display the dichotomy in his character and balanced the sappiness of John Smith when the going got tough. John Smith was shown to be not as sweet as one would think. OK, he was a 1913 school teacher, but shown to be as flawed as all humans are.

[Greg]

After the disappointment of Evolution of the Daleks, it was good to see a second part that lived up to the promise of the first half.

I'm uncertain about the Doctor's punishment/reward of the family at the end. He's certainly been ruthless in the past, but this seemed more cold-blooded. However, it seems a sensible extension of his decision to kill the Sycorax leader back in The Christmas Invasion - he's that kind of Doctor, on some occasions at least.

I was expecting the role of the watch to be a little more cliched in Tim's life after the body of the story. What I'd expected to see was the watch stopping a piece of shrapnel that would otherwise have been fatal, but what we got was far better - Tim being a better person for the influence of the Time Lord essence.

They should have Paul Cornell write more stories than he does.

[Sec]

I personally think this was the best two parter of the new era.

For the first 60 minutes it was like watching a whole new show, but at the same time feeling like a Doctor Who episode from the Tom Bake/Davison Era.

I think this was the shining diamond in what I feel has been a lacklustre season, hopefully it goes up from here.

[Hiruma]

Decent Episode, although at times I felt the Alien in charge (the one in the form of the student) was hamming it up a little, with that Peter Costello style smirk. It irritated me after a while. Apart from that it was a good episode, its not often a Dr Who story deals with the aftermath of the Doctors actions.. so the final scene at the memorial was good.

All in all a good episode. It also went to prove that the scarecrows could be menacing without actually seeing them kill anything.Sometimes I feel that this limits Dr Who a bit, but in this case it worked.

Its hard to believe that we are are already nearly towards the end of the season!

[Sulp Niar]

I'll admit I never really liked the book Human Nature (cue a hail of bricks from irate Virgin fans - hey, I liked Virgin too, I just thought this book was overrated), but the episode was absolutely fantastic. There's little I can add to what's been said (here and everywhere), but ironically, after my cousin saw this, he said, "This is the best episode for Tennant yet," and that's when it hit me - he was more correct than he knew. Tennant had a great run of acting in this story, and that's because he mostly wasn't the Doctor. It's noticeable that, excluding the morbid ways of defeating enemies at the end, he was his usual loud and slightly boring self as the Doctor.

However, it was still utterly superb - and in fact, "Go on then, RUUNNN!!" has become this week's favourite quote for my teensy Who club. I just wonder how on earth they're going to top this for the finale.

Although I feel I should mention - no offence to Billie Piper, but it's noticeable that Smith's drawing skills are obviously not representative of reality. Joan looked like a gorgeous woman (when she was deliberately normal), but meanwhile the supposedly extraordinary Rose Tyler was drawn to look like Miss Piggy from The Muppets.

[SharazJek]

Tennant's acting was almost of the calibre of Eccleston in this ep......almost....

[uhumanite]

A very well written episode by Paul Cornell( I loved Fathers Day) and very well acted by all guest stars but the medals go to David Tennant and Freema Ageyman as The Doctor/ John Smith and Martha Jones- so far my favourite TARDIS team since the 4th Doctor and Sarah Jane

The "he was being kind" part was rather shocking and showed me the darkness of The Doctor.

ooo i just realised if the matron married the doctor she'd be joan smith( a perfect alias for a feamle doctor if we magicaly get one..bring on Joanna Lumley! )

10/10 from me

[Sulp Niar]

[Theta Sigma]

A very good conclusion to the story started by Human Nature.
I felt for Smith as he had to decide whether to turn back into the Doctor.
The explosion of the Family's ship made of think of the explosion of the Zygon ship in Terror of the Zygons not to remind the ship being invisible does sort of remind me of the one in Shada.
I wasn't expecting to see an overview of Tim's life which I think was done beautifully.

[Speckled Jim]

Hmmm ... looks like I'm going to be the first grey cloud to blow in on this one.
I loved Human Nature, and it built up a great head of steam that ached for a fantastic conclusion - but Family of Blood left me wanting. The bulk of the episode consisted of the kind of script filler that just irritates; ie, lots of running around, locking doors, avoiding laser blasts, getting stuck in Mexican stand-offs and then inexplicably escaping them, etc. And I understand that the nature of this story involved what it means to be human and to love, but honestly, could the scene where Mr Smith is about to open the watch in the farmhouse have been any more sappy and overwritten? So much cheese, so much corn ... by the end of it I wondered if I'd switched over accidentally to the Hallmark channel.
Suspension of disbelief became a real challenge here. Someone's already mentioned the scarecrow warriors being cut down by machine gun fire - how? Why? It was awfully lazy, and all to prove some nauseous moral argument about war.
And I just felt the ending was terribly rushed. If the Doctor was in such a tizz fleeing from the Family in the first place (ie in the first scene of Human Nature) and they proved themselves to be such awesome foes with terrible weaponry, how did he just stroll in to their ship, blow it up casually and then imprison them without their so much as swinging a fist back at him? As for the induction of the energy flow into the primary heat converters etc etc etc solution to destroying the ship ... please! Why not just reverse the polarity and be done with it?
Sorry, but Family of Blood just didn't cut it - particulary considering the first episode of the two-parter was such a brilliant set-up.

[SharazJek]

[Speckled Jim]

[Davesake]

I thought this two parter was a real, propper doctor who story. The new series so far has been brilliant beyond belief but somehting has been lost in the transition (and i don't mean the inclusion of real emotions or the companion's back story continuing).
The old series had something strong to it, like waiting an entire week (or in my case an entire day, as i watched it on the ABC) to see what happens makes it all the more epic. And this is one of the first time we've seen a mid series two parter with a powerful cliffhanger.
What's more in Family of Blood we get to see Martha at her finest. She really gets in there and takes charge. I thought the reltionsip between John and the Matron was heartbreakingly beatiful, and the whole thing about John being an invention and Martha's love for the real thing being more real then the Matron's love very powerful even if it wasn't explored in great detail. I loved just about every aspect of it.
God i hope they have more stories like this.
And for those who have seen the series via youtube, the way they tie in clues to the finale in this one (the Fob watch) is just brilliant. Because we don't expect such a good story to be so connected to the climax, especially as the Lasarus experiment (the story that was supposed to be the start of the "trap") was so average.
six stars out of five. And a little prayer to the gods of Who (Moffat, Cromwell and Davies... in that order) that more stories like this grace our screens.

[montypython]

I thought this was just fantastic. David's acting just blew me away, and the story had me at the edge of my seat. Surprisingly, I didn't even get close to crying, which is really weird for me. I've cried in Ugly Betty!

Isn't anyone else a little bit pissed that Martha admitted her love for the Doctor? I thought all you guys hated the whole romance thing!

[Tegan]