Mark Watches ‘Doctor Who’: S03E08 – Human Nature

In the eighth episode of the third series of Doctor Who, Martha and the Doctor travel to 1913 in order to avoid “The Family,” a mysterious group of aliens who desire the Doctor more than anything. But in order to stay hidden, the Doctor chooses to become a biological human. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Doctor Who.

Identity is a funny thing, isn’t it? How many of you have spent time thinking about the uniqueness of your identity, who you’ve chosen to be and what has come to shape you? I think it’s one of things that’s hard to wrap your mind around once you try to figure out. What’s your own personal identity? What’s your social identity? How do the two relate? How do they conflict with each other? What is it about you that makes you you, as opposed to me or the person sitting next you?

In “Human Nature,” which includes a title with a double meaning of sorts, we see the very identity of the Doctor dissected before our eyes. Who is the Doctor if he’s been stripped of his intelligence, stripped of his Time Lord DNA, and stripped of his entire past? Will he be similar to who he was before? Will he remain friends with those he loved before?

“Human Nature” seeks to answer these questions (along with a few about the philosophy of identity) in one of the best scripts of the whole show, written by Paul Cornel and Russell T Davies. I love how this particular episode opens with such a jarring introduction to the situation. We see glimpses of The Doctor being attacked, Martha falling to the floor. He tries telling Martha that there’s something very important that she needs to do. And the image cuts away, as The Doctor wakes up from a dream. In fact, it may be the very scene we just saw. Martha, dressed as a servant, chats with the Doctor casually. We slowly learn that these aren’t actually the Martha and Doctor we’ve come to know. Has everything been a dream? WHAT IS GOING ON?

This story unfolds very slowly, amping up the tension and the creepiness, all the way barely explaining what’s going on. We soon find out that Martha is indeed herself, but just pretending to be a servant to John Smith. John Smith is…well, he’s John Smith. He is not the Doctor. How is that even possible? I wondered. How could he…not be the Doctor?

As we seem him interact with the students at the Farringham School For Boys, it’s clear that this is a completely different person. Gone is the flamboyant, fiery personality I was so used to, replaced with a quiet, sensible man with a love for teaching, a somber temperament. So changing the Doctor’s biology, his very DNA, turns him into someone we only recognize based on his physical appearance.

Given that, it’s really surprising and refreshing how much of this episode focuses on Martha Jones, who, for three months, is forced to live without the Doctor being himself. Even worse, she also has to spend those three months observing the Doctor be human, to experience the human condition completely. Unfortunately for her, that also means he has to watch him fall in love…with someone else.

It’s a frustrating story to watch unfold, and while I may have my own feelings about Martha’s desire for intimacy with the Doctor, it’s impossible to ignore the jealous and pain that she goes through here in “Human Nature.” How are they even going to be the same after this is over?

Well, I’m getting ahead of myself. The alien plot intertwined with the story of the Doctor, Martha, and Joan is no less interesting for once. Timothy, a strangely perceptive kid who attends the school the Doctor is teaching at, begins to pick up on the weirdness of the people around him. Some group called “The Family” is after the Doctor, hence why he hides in 1913, and these unseen entities are able to possess people and scarecrows. UGH WHY ARE THOSE SCARECROWS SO TERRIFYING. I know they’re not real and it’s such a hokey trope to use and STILL IT GETS TO ME. Maybe it’s their faces. LOOK I DON’T EVEN KNOW.

Suspicious that something terrible is going on, he inadvertently makes everything worse when he discovers the pocketwatch holding the Doctor’s identity and opens it, allowing some of his memories to creep out and into Timothy’s mind. When the Doctor walks in on him, he pockets it, setting up the disaster that is to come. The Family recognizes the presence of the Doctor and, that night, they descend on the school.

Poor Martha. Forced into a difficult, seemingly impossible situation, tries to confront the Doctor and snap him out of the trance he is in. When she can’t find the pocketwatch, she actually slaps him. It doesn’t work, so that clearly makes things a thousand times worse as the Doctor fires Martha for her insubordination. UGH I AM SO FRUSTRATED. I don’t mean that as a complaint, but in praise of this story: the Doctor is going to head to the dance and the Family will confront him and EVERYTHING WILL BE AWFUL.

But not before my favorite scene takes place. Martha, persistent as ever, shows up at the dance to spell things out to Joan. Doesn’t John Smith seem strange, as if there’s an entire world in his mind, as if he’s from somewhere else? Doesn’t he say things that make absolutely no sense? The Doctor returns, upset at seeing Martha again, and she pulls out the sonic screwdriver, demanding that he identify it. Surely that will trigger his memory, she thinks.

It doesn’t and it’s too late. The Family arrives and vaporizes two people. They’ve figured out that John Smith is the Doctor. Unfortunately for everyone involved, they believe the Doctor can simply change back to his Time Lord form, which they need for something. It creates an awkward cliffhanger: the Doctor is forced to choose between Joan and Martha, but neither one will give him happiness, nor will it give the Family what they want.

Shit is so real, guys.

THOUGHTS

• I appreciated that they didn’t ignore the rampant racism of the time in this episode. They skirted around it in “The Shakespeare Code,” but we’re dealt a few lines that are particularly difficult to experience.
• Man, fuck Baines. He was already terrible, but his “conversion” makes him a whole lot worse.
• How awesome is the art direction on Smith’s A Journal of Impossible Things? I would love to own that book. It looked completely real!
• AWWW OF COURSE ROSE WAS IN THE BOOK. Awkward Town, Population: Martha.
• I loved this episode a great deal, and I feel good about the next one, but I am not looking forward to a heartbroken Joan. She’s nice. 🙁
• THE OOD!! Oh god, I really hope we see them again sometime.
• “I sometimes think how magical life would be if stories like this were true.” Me too, John Smith, me too.
• THE DOCTOR’S VIDEO LIST HAD TWENTY-THREE ITEMS ON IT. Oh god, I love him so much. I wish we could have seen all twenty-three items.

Ok, so I mentioned it on my Tumblr and I’d like to make it a fun little event for us here. Tomorrow, at 8:00pm PST, we will be having a liveblog party for “Blink,” since I am about to arrive on the infamous episode. If you can watch along, fantastic. I wish there was a way to do it at a better time, but I don’t get home from work until 6:30-7:00pm most weekdays.

I’ll post the liveblog tonight so we can spread the word. It should be a grand ol’ time!