Doctor Who 2007: The Family of Blood

[Fast Learner]

Truly fantastic, I agree.

One question: who was the boy? Was he in another episode? I know I know him, and his dark black eyes haunt my memory.

 

[Huw]

Best of this series yet!

Anyone get the feeling that Martha's being set up for a fall? By the writers I mean, not the Doctor. There've been several moments when the Doctor has:

a) Placed his life in Martha's hands

and

b) Been nasty to Martha

All it would take is a mention of what happened at Canary Wharf, a list of the dead (which officially includes Rose), and maybe subtly edited film of the Doctor pulling the earPod from Martha's cousin's ear, and she might switch.

Just a thought

 

[Fast Learner]

Ah, I know the boy (Thomas Sangster) from Love, Actually, though others might from Nanny McPhee.

 

[ddvmor]

I think he played the kid with the camera in one of the Harry Potter films (the second one?). Also, If I remember right he had a Malcolm in the Middle style series on UK kids tv.

I thought they were setting him up for a larger role, too - what the the psychic powers and all - but then they didn't use him. He just handed the watch back and all was well. Might have been nice if he'd tagged along for a couple of episodes as a companion. There's still scope for him to turn up again though - in a post war episode next season, perhaps.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Another interesting possibility might be

[sblock]
That all his looking into the watch has given him the time-lord like ability to regenerate (the family certainly thought they could get the ability to live for ever from something in the watch).

So we could yet see a scene where the old man dies, and then regenerates (much to his surprise) into another body, having sorta become a 'new' timelord.

[/sblock]

Admittedly I can't really see it happening, but it might be an interesting possibility.

 

[sniffles]

I think he played the kid with the camera in one of the Harry Potter films (the second one?). Also, If I remember right he had a Malcolm in the Middle style series on UK kids tv.

I thought they were setting him up for a larger role, too - what the the psychic powers and all - but then they didn't use him. He just handed the watch back and all was well. Might have been nice if he'd tagged along for a couple of episodes as a companion. There's still scope for him to turn up again though - in a post war episode next season, perhaps.

I thought he had quite a large enough role - the character, I mean, not specifically the young actor. The scene of the elderly Timothy Latimer at the WWI memorial ceremony was quite moving.

I thought this episode was simply brilliant. I was entranced by the performances and story. David Tennant is awesome.

I loved how they used this story to point up how alien the Doctor really is. I was so impressed when "John Smith" exclaimed with horror at Martha's revelation that the Doctor hadn't even considered the possibility of falling in love. And Joan's final statement to the Doctor was both very effective and true. I was particularly impressed by the expression on David Tennant's face in the reaction shot in that scene.

Wednesday evening we're showing both 'Human Nature' and 'The Family of Blood' to friends. It will be great to see their reactions to both episodes seen back-to-back.

The teaser for next week was nastily non-specific, though. So I guess I'll just have to content myself with being excited about next week's Confidential. It looks like it will be a lot of fun.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

I think I am alone in not really caring for this two-parter. It was okay, and there were definitely some good moments (the memorial scene, the Doctor's turmoil to an extent). I didn't buy into the whole romance storyline- it was just too rushed, the characters didn't seem to have any real chemistry to me. While I did enjoy the scarecrows, I thought the other antagonists- the Family- were kind of lame. They just didn't seem all that menacing to me. I disliked strongly the whole "mother of mine", "father of mine", acknowledgements, and the performers kind of grated on me (I especially couldn't stand the constant sneering on the face of Son of Mine- made me think he had some kind of rictus, which if so, I don't want to sound like I'm making fun of it, but it was just distracting to me. Same thing happens anytime I see Meg Ryan in movies these days, with her ridiculously Collagened lips.)

I wish they'd have done more with the Tim story- there were a few too many plotlines going on for me to feel that there was any sense of satisfaction in any of them.

Like I said, though some good things. I liked the vengeful Doctor at the end.

Not sure I'm looking forward to the next episode. While I rather enjoyed last season's "non-Doctor" episode (Love and Monsters, was it?), this one looks kind of bland, but mostly I don't know that I like the notion of every season having a "non-Doctor" episode. As an occasional experiment it's fine, but not as a recurring event.