From MadCap's Couch - "Doctor Who: The Family of Blood"

"Foolish Doctor! I have not yet begun to HAAAAAAM!!!"

Last time, John Smith was battling the forces of Insane Troll Logic. Martha Jones was held at gunpoint as was Joan Redfern and it seemed like there was no way out.

...so, naturally, there is a way out, because two-parter.

After a short recap, we return to the Dance Hall. Alas, instead of a ballroom blitz, we get Timothy using the watch to distract the Family long enough for Martha to get Mother of Mine's gun and channel the spirit of Dirty Harry a full seventeen years before he'd even be born. This gives Joan and John the opportunity to get everyone out so that the BBC doesn't have to pay the extr-I mean, get everyone to safety. Yeah, that's it.

Outside, John tries to get Timothy to go back to the school, but he flees saying he's as bad as the Family is.

Mother of Mine accesses some of Jenny's memories and finds that Martha was always heading somewhere to the West of the school. Father of Mine takes scarecrows to go investigate while Son and Mother head to the school proper.

At the school, John marshals the boys to prepare for battle. The Headmaster is, understandably, upset by having his beauty sleep ruined but is all onboard once there's defending King and Country to be done. He heads out onto the lawn to face Son of Mine and Mother of Mine. Because World War I is coming up, Son of Mine gets to ham it up glorious while mentioning that said war is coming up in a way that definitely doesn't break time into tiny little pieces.

Don't know if I mentioned the Scarecrows.
If not, the Scarecrows are friggin' great!

In a legitimately good scene, Son asks him if the students will thank him for teaching them that killing and war are glorious things. He stands his ground up until Son kills one of the extras. The school mobilizes none the less, Timothy being pulled up by Hutchinson from his hiding place. Son commands the scarecrows forward and the battle seems inevitable. However, Daughter of Mine has infiltrated the school and tells them to hold back - the Doctor is playing a trick, it seems.

Martha and Joan go looking through the John's room to look for the watch. Joan expresses some disbelief that Martha could be a doctor, much less even training to be one, and Martha finally gets to shut down the racist attitude in a way that doesn't feel hamfisted for the sake of righteous moral indignation about things in the past that nobody among the living in the present had any control over.

@Chris Chibnall.

Oh, who am I kidding? He doesn't read criticism...

Joan goes to assist with the boys, she and John getting a scene of drama where John is able to tell her facts and figures about his existence, but not any of the actual meat of it. Joan likens it to reading from an encyclopedia, not someone's life and experiences. John Smith knows about his life, but it's like he didn't live his life. Joan does chastise him for making the boys fight, telling him that she knows the man she fell in love with would know it was wrong. Never mind the Doctor.

Outside, Timothy tells Hutchinson about the vision he had - the pair of them fighting in World War I - to tell him that they'll survive this. He thinks he was given the watch to help, and heads off as he agrees with Hutchinson's insistence that he's a coward. This gives him just enough time to run into Sister of Mine and, in a confrontation, opens the watch and exposes her to the full power of a Time Lord. The power of David Tennant stock footage causes her to flee.

SHINING, FINGER, WAAAAAAAAAATCH!!!

Unfortunately, this also alerts the Family to the truth. Son of Mine orders the scarecrows to "ATTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!" as another bit of reality gets gobbled up by him. The boys gun down the scarecrows, and John has a moment of crisis as he watches the trauma the boys are getting put through. The revelation comes after, though, that the Strawmen are just straw, and no one died.

The Headmaster sees Sister of Mine and, believing her to be completely benign, ignores all protests and tries to get her to come to his side...and she vaporizes him for his trouble. John orders them to retreat, and Son of Mine tells the boys to "RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!!!!"

Yes, I am enjoying typing his over the top moments in SUPER ITALICIZED ALL-CAAAAAAAAAAPS, why do you ask?

Everyone runs into the school, bunkering down. The Family catches several, trying to find Timothy, who distracts them with the Watch long enough for their captives to escape a horrible death by either disintegration or scarecrow beatdown.

Outside, John, Martha, and Joan see the Family with the TARDIS...and John begins to completely break down. Damn if you don't feel for him given David Tennant's acting. His entire sense of identity has been completely stripped away, and he's crippled beyond his ability to handle it. He is, truly, a broken man. Joan takes them to a shack in the middle of nowhere while the Family arms their ship to bombard England with artillery to drive the World War I parallels home.

As they try to sort everything out, John asks Martha what exactly it is that she does for the Doctor. Martha tells him that the Doctor is lonely. This does not help matters.

However, help does come in the form of Timothy, who brings the fob watch. John is resistant, so Timothy tells John what he saw in the watch...

"He's like fire and ice and rage, he's like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun. He's ancient and forever. He burns at the center of time and he can see the turn of the universe. And...he's wonderful."

Chilling! Kind of the same Moffat-era-esque badassery that we're going to be seeing a lot of coming up in the next few Series. Almost, again, as though the Doctor is some sort of powerful and ancient being that the human mind cannot begin to hope to fully grasp.

Don't know where we'd be getting that impression from, huh, Russell?

John Smith is less than pleased by all of this, thinking that he has to die. He accuses Martha of just being around to execute him. Martha insist that it was never going to end any other way and admits, point blank, that the Doctor has become everything to her. She needs him. Remember this when we get to Last of the Time Lords and discuss the theme of Martha's faith in the Doctor throughout Series 3.

When John proposes just giving the Family the watch, Joan reads from the Journal that it will end in destruction. The Family will breed and conquer and wage an endless war across the universe. Joan asks Martha and Timothy to step outside, and John and Joan have a quiet moment where they reaffirm their love and they share visions of their potential future together - marriage and children, living and growing old together, John Smith on his deathbed asking if their children and grandchildren are safe. When Joan tells him that they are, John thanks her before peacefully passing away.

"What will we call him?"
"Ian? Steven? Ben? Jamie? Harry? Adric? Turlough?-[this goes on for some time]"

The Time Lord can have such amazing adventures, Joan says, but never a life like that. It's a genuinely poignant moment that is carried by a fantastic performance by David Tennant, a man who no longer has that choice open to him...

And why, yes, I did feel more for John and Joan in these two episodes than I felt in literally the entire two years that Russell T. Davies brute forced the relationship between the Doctor and Rose with all the subtlety that his horrific excuse for writing skills allowed with a-

Editor's Note: We had to hit MadCap with a morphine syringe here so as to avoid a snafu like last week. We here at From the Mouth of the Munchkin would like to say that we do appreciate Russell T. Davies' contributions to Doctor Who, even if we do not 100% agree with his creative choices. - Rick

...what was I writing? Oh, here we are. Thanks, Rick, I must have zoned out there for a second.

John arrives in the Family's ship, "accidentally" touching a few levers on the wall. He begs them to stop and they do so. Stumbling through an explanation, and stumbling into some more devices, John gives them the watch. Triumphant and glorious, the Family opens it...and there's nothing in it. The essence of Time Lord has completely left it.

The deception revealed, the Doctor tells them a bunch of technobabble that essentially translates to "lol, gonna blow your ship up! Get wrekt, scrubs!" and advises them to run...which they do. The ship explodes, and Son of Mine narrates the next scene. He speaks of the Doctor's fury, how the worst part was that he never raised his voice. The Doctor then proceeds to give the Family exactly what they wanted...immortality.

Father of Mine is wrapped in unbreakable chains forged in the heart of a dwarf star.

Mother of Mine is sealed within the event horizon of a collapsing galaxy.

Sister of Mine is trapped inside a mirror, every mirror. If you ever look at your reflection and see something, just for a second, it's her. It's always her.

And Son of Mine becomes one of his Scarecrows, set up by the Doctor to watch over England's fields for all eternity. All of them wanted to live forever, Son of Mine says, and the Doctor made sure that each of them did.

The Lonely God has passed judgment

It's absolutely chilling and a great end for the Family of Blood, although I don't really think it's the same coldness we'd see from the Seventh Doctor. Seven would have likely manipulated them right from the beginning for them to kill themselves off, then laughed heartily as he made his way back to the TARDIS with Ace.

The morning comes and the Doctor has resumed his usual get up. He has a moment with Joan where he offers her a chance to travel with him, saying that he's capable of all the things that John Smith was and wouldn't mind trying again. She asks him, however, if such tragedy would have befallen them if the Doctor had never chosen this place to hide. It's an armor piercing question that the Doctor, very rightly, can't deny.

Unlike with Elton Pope and his mother, you can't even really say that the Doctor is completely blameless in this situation - he chose this time knowing what could happen, and even left instructions for Martha in case something did happen.

She also makes a statement that I agree with - John Smith was braver than the Doctor, in the end.

She is also left with John Smith's Journal of Impossible Things...remember this. It's going to hurt later.

Outside, the Doctor meets up with Martha again. At first, she wants to go back to comfort Joan, but the Doctor tells her that it's time to move on. Martha refutes everything she said before, insisting that she was just trying to get him to change back.

I'm pretty sure even the Doctor doesn't believe you this time, Martha.

But he thanks her and they share a hug before Timothy comes up to say goodbye. Timothy affirms that World War I is coming and that he feels he has to fight. The Doctor gives him his fob watch as a good luck charm, now that it's only a watch. The TARDIS disappears to Timothy's delight as he heads off to meet his destiny.

And meet his destiny he does, in the trenches in France. Alongside Hutchinson, Timothy's vision comes to pass and he's able to save both himself and Hutchinson from a brutal death by an artillery barrage. With relief, Timothy thanks the Doctor and pulls Hutchinson to safety. Flash forward to 2007, where an aged Timothy is wheelchair bound at a Armistice Day celebration, still carrying that pocket watch. He sees the Doctor and Martha in the distance, neither seemingly aged a day since he saw them almost one hundred years ago, and sheds happy tears.

One old soldier pays his respects to another

The Family of Blood provides a good conclusion to this two-parter. The themes carried on from Human Nature are present here as well, such as World War I being on the horizon, the meaning of personal identity, and - of course - choices as we see with both John Smith's decision to open the watch and become the Doctor again and Timothy's choice to fight in World War I in spite of the danger.

We have Son of Mine being gloriously hammy, David Tennant giving a tour de force performance as John Smith as the man's life crumbles around him, and genuine good bits of pathos. We also get the scenes of each of the Family's punishments done very well, the Tenth Doctor projecting that air of great vengeance and furious anger that one would expect from the Lonely God dealing out death and judgment. Or, in this case, just judgment.

But at last, my dear readers, we have come to a high water mark for the show, beyond those that we've already discussed. Blink is a fan favorite episode, considered one of the best episodes ever made of Doctor Who - Classic Series or Revived -and with very good reason.

It's damn good.

Damn, damn, damn good.

But just how good is it? The answer to that, my friends, comes next week. Don't blink!

Doctor Who is the property of the British Broadcasting Corporation.

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