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The Family of Blood Format Reviewed: TV Review The Family of Blood concludes the big mid-series two part story started the previous week with Human Nature. More discussion in the fan community seemed to come from this two part story than most others in the new television advintures of Doctor Who. Most of this was excitement and anticipation of this story, and there was a lot of praise for both parts. One negative theme did surface though and that was a desire to not have all the references to classic Who. This was by no means a universally held thought, but one that I argued with other fans. The Family are in the vilage hall at the dance and the Doctor and Martha manage to delay events, getting everyone out of the hall and back to the school. There, defenses are set up and the teachers and pupils arm themselves to prepare from an attack by the Family and their army of animated scarecrows. This comes with the Familys daughter infitrating the school and providing intelligence to the family that a boy has the watch with the Time Lord essence in it. Eventually, with the defenses at the school breached, Martha gets the Doctor and Nurse Redfearn out where it has to be worked out whether the Doctor will remain as John Smith or become a Time Lord again. EWventually, the Family return to their ship where the Doctor tricks them and overloads the ships power. The Family are captured and the Doctor vengefully dispatches each member of the Family of Blood in different and appropriate ways. The first indicator, given the discussions about harping back to classic Who was whether the many references would continue. This wasn't the case, and it was left to tell the story as best as possible.The other main factor as to whether this story is a success or not is whether it manages to carry the atmosphere forward from the previous episode. In most other two part stories in the new series, the first part has generally been much the better episode with the second not really living up to the expectation. Here though, I would say that the this episode is better than the previous, as I was totally engrossed from start to finish, never really given to the small niggles of Human Nature. The cast here is naturally the same as the previous episode and largely the performances are equally as good as in the previous episode. There are two though that stand head and shoulders above the others. The performance of Freema Agyeman as Marthe was really a delight throughout, but Harry Lloyds portrayal of Baines really was such a joy. Lloyd lights up the episode with some fine delivery of dialogue, and he really is the star of the show. In the rest of the cast, David Tennant does well as The Doctor, handling the change from John Smith back to the Doctor very well. Jessica Hynes also comes off well here as Nurse Redfearn playing largely opposite David Tennant. The real draw of this story is the atmosphere created. This is enhanced by the main action happening overnight, giving a close, dark feeling to the action. The atmosphere is tense and nervous throughout, and this really grabs the viewer and keeps them on the edge of their seats. It not universal praise though for this story. Firstly, I am not convinced exactly why The Doctor exact his revenge in quite the way he does. It strikes me as being out of character for the Doctor to kill people or even place them in perpetual torture deliberately and vengefully. Also, I am as yet unconvinced why The Doctor didn't just face the enemy in the way he has hundreds of times in the past. Sure, there is a time factor involved, but it just seems slightly contrived and manufactered for him to genetically modify the Time Lord out of himself just to wait out a threat, especially given the implication that anyone could have a Time Lord genetically modified into them via the same method.. Despite these points though, the episode is wonderful and, I suspect, will stand up very well to repeat viewing over years. Overall, The Family of Blood is a wonderful story, capping off the opening part of this two episode story excellently. The atmosphere is tense and dark throughout, and despite some possibly dubious decisions on the plot, The Family of Blood and its predecessor Human Nature will stand apart as a great example of how good Doctor Who can be on television.  |