"Human Nature" is the first part of Paul Cornell's two-part adaptation of his own novel
Human Nature -- one of the best received of Virgin's
New Adventures line, which continued the Doctor's adventures after
Survival. In the original novel it was the seventh Doctor and his companion was archaeologist Professor Bernice Summerfield, who posed as his niece instead of a servant, but the general plot beats are the same between the two (which, if you think the books are "canon" -- as much as anything in
Doctor Who is considered canon -- leads to some interesting conversations about whether this storyline had happened before the tenth Doctor put his Time Lord-ness in a Chameleon Arch).
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| John Smith and Nurse Joan Redfern. ("Human Nature") ©BBC |
What's most obvious about "Human Nature" is how good David Tennant is. He manages to make John Smith a distinct character from the Doctor, yet still one who still seems like he might have the Doctor in there somewhere. As such, his shy, awkward nature -- around Nurse Redfern in particular -- is quite entertaining to view. It's fascinating to get essentially a different take on how to play this character, and Tennant is clearly relishing the opportunity to do so. And while Tennant is playing at being human, Freema Agyeman continues to excel in the rather more thankless role of looking after him without trying to be too obvious about it. It's interesting to watch her deal with racism and looking "a little familiar" with John Smith, and Martha frankly does a good job of keeping her head about all this. These scenes are good, but my favorite ones might be when she heads into the TARDIS and views the video instructions the Doctor left her before he transformed -- the ones that give all sorts of instructions but utterly fail to describe what to do if the Doctor falls in love. (Even if the line about how the Doctor "had to go and fall in love with a human, and it wasn't me" rings a bit of a sour note -- yes, this is clearly the direction they want to take Martha, but it never feels right, for a multitude of reasons (least of all that it reduces Martha's role to that of pining hopelessly after the Doctor, which is a great injustice).)
I said the plot beats are largely the same between the book and the TV version, but that's not quite true; the televised version has a much better reason for the Doctor to change (here it's because he's being pursued by aliens; in the book it was because he was worried he was too out-of-touch with humanity, and the aliens showed up later), and the urgency that this lends events is really nice. It gives a much sharper purpose, and it gives us a lot more foreshadowing about what's to come that works well in this story's favor. The inclusion of the scarecrows as monsters is also a nice touch, and the way the Family of Blood all tilt their heads and sniff as they try to find the Doctor is simple yet effective. On the other hand, the MacGuffin that holds the Doctor's Time Lord nature is essentially stolen by Tim Latimer, which is a bit problematic in pure heroic terms. (In the book, Tim finds the MacGuffin outside.)
Still, it's a really well done episode of the show, even if it is pure setup until the cliffhanger. The question is, how will the second half hold up? The "next time" trailer after the credits certainly provides some interesting scenes...