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Human Nature Format Reviewed: TV Review Human Nature is the first part of a two part story, notable because it has been adapted from a book in the Virgin 'Missing Adventures' range of Doctor Who novels in the 1990's. This story was originally written for the Seventh Doctor and Ace, but has been changed for the Tenth Doctor and Martha in its adaptation for television. The book Human Nature is very highly regarded by Doctor Who fans, and has been voted the best Doctor Who book of all time in a poll. I have however never read the book, so I come into this adaptation of the story with no preconceptions. Human Nature starts with The Doctor and Martha haring back into the TARDIS under fire from an unknown assailant. The Doctor then realises that to escape 'The Family' he must lose his Time Lord powers, become Human and hide himself away until the coast is clear. This he does, and stores his Time Lord essence in a pocket watch. He then takes a job as a school master at a posh boarding school, with Martha employed as a maid. The Doctor only knows of his real self in dreams, which he records in a notebook. Whilst finding himself falling in love with the school nurse, Joan Redfern, the Family have arrived and are seeking the Doctor. They don't know what he looks like and eventually overhear Martha talking about the Doctor whilst they take over some Humans to give themselves form in this reality. Martha then tries to return the Doctor to his real self, but finds the watch gone, it has been taken by a boy with clairvoyant foresight. Everything comes to a head at a dance where the Doctor and Redfern are confronted by Martha, and the Family arrive in their Human hosts, with an 'army' of animated scarecrows. As the first episode of a two-parter, Human Nature relies on a number of things being successful to work as an episode. Firstly, the tension has to be built prior to a decent cliff-hanger. Here, Human Nature scores in spades as the episode really does reach a crescendo before the cliffhanger at the dance. Secondly, the story should have enough going on that it can fill a two part story. Here, again, we seem to be onto a winner as there certainly appears to be enough going on to do this, and possibly more besides. It is quite difficult to achieve this second point though, as when you think about it a two part story basically needs to be a feature film as it is an hour and a half in length, but have the versatility to be split in half for the purposes of television. Lastly, a two part story needs to be able to get the viewer excited for a whole week leading up to the concluding part. Once again, Human Nature ticks this box and leaves the viewer with some real anticipation of how the story is going to play out. For the second time in his tenure, David Tennant gets to show his versatility by portraying a different character. Far from the campness of Cassandra though, here he is a school master, but a dreamy one. He pulls off the confused but slightly blusterful character quite well. It is of course very similar to his portrayal of the Doctor, but probably should be considered as a different character. The growing reputation of Freema Agyeman as Martha is for me again enhanced here, as she does a fine job, especially as a black woman in what essentially would have been a very difficult time for black people in general. Of the guest cast, the main characters are Joan Redfern, Baines and Jenny, played by Jessica Hynes, Harry Lloyd and Rebekah Staton respectively. All three for me do a good job of supporting Tennant and Agyeman, especially Lloyd who manages to be the consumate public school boy, then a very creepy alien. Having been very positive earlier about this story, there is one facet that weighed very heavily on me as a viewer. The story constantly harped back to elements of the shows history, and was in real danger at one stage of becoming an horrible pastiche of classic Doctor Who. Quite aside from the more obvious references, such as the cricket ball being thrown, subtle points such as the girl with the baloon skipping along to music used in Rememberance of the Daleks. Granted, only old and wizened crones like myself are likely to have picked up on such things, not the family audience the show is actually aimed at primarily, but the fact that the references are even in the show at all makes for a real annoyance with me as it seems that we're being either taunted or bought off with a few cheap tricks. Whilst this is quite a cynical view, I think it is true to a greater or lesser degree and the references do detract from what was a good episode besides. Overall, Human Nature is an excellent story that has been well realised on screen. How close it is to the original novel I have no idea, but the Family and their scarecrows made for an interesting adversary, alongside the plotline that Time Lord powers can be removed to leave a Human, thereby implying that Time Lord powers could be bestowed to a Human is a remarkable talking point for fans. The show builds tension marvellously towards the cliffhanger, and is only really let down by constant references and images from the classic series that detract from what is a good effort.  |