Series 3 (2007)
Episode title: Human NatureFeaturing: Tenth Doctor
Companions: Martha Jones
First shown: 26 May 2007
Related articles: Family of Blood
Guide: This episode is mainly flashbacks while the Doctor and Martha are in the TARDIS, pursued by some sort of energy beam weapon… The Doctor’s plan is to transform into human for three months, in which time the pursuers would be dead. His configuration is stored in a fob watch, which Martha is to guard.
John Smith, the 10th Doctor as a human, is a schoolteacher in Farringham School in England. He is unaware of his previous life as a Time-Lord and he is quite and timid. He dreams of being a Time-Lord and keeps a journal filled with sketches of his dream. Martha, his maid, is aware of what is happening and remembers everything.
His pursuers, also known as ‘The Family’, appear on Earth in an invisible spaceship and quickly took over the body of a young girl, a farmer, and most importantly, a school prefect.
Smith is then tempted to attend a dance with the school nurse, leaving Martha distraught. Martha had realised he had fallen in love with a human, especially someone who wasn’t herself. The Doctor had given her instructions to follow beforehand, one of them being, “don’t let me abandon you”. But instructions on what to do if he fell in love were not given.
One of Smith’s pupils stumbles across the fob watch, and briefly opens it. Immediately, the Family senses the Time-Lord’s presence in the school. Martha is captured and questioned, but she escaped and realises that she must bring the Doctor back. But with the watch gone, she cannot restore him, so she uses words… and a slap. Bewildered and angry, Smith fires her.
The dance was at it’s climax, and Martha, who managed to find the sonic screwdriver, rushes into the dance to find Smith. She hoped that the familiar object from his other life might awaken and convince him. Meanwhile, the Family arrives and overhears Martha trying to convince Smith he was the doctor. Two people were killed and Martha and the school nurse were taken hostage. Smith was ordered to ‘change back’ into a Time-Lord, but still believing he was born human and is confused.
As a cliff-hanger ending, he is horrified as the Family tells him to choose which of the two women to kill. Martha or the nurse: “Maid or Matron. Your friend or your lover. Your choice.”
This is the first of a two part story. Read the second part here.
Written by Kkytha.