Spoilers for "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood" below:
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>I really enjoyed these two stories, which allowed for a different kind of tale to be played out against a very distinctive backdrop.

I agree. I always enjoy when they go to the past. This two parter was filled with all sorts of fun things. So many good episodes this season!



>This was an example of a grand idea being assisted by lots of little touches - John Smith's journal,


I heard there are pictures of the drawing with all the Doctors on it. Pictures floating around on the net. I could go to those sites Kirk gave me but I don't want to spoil things. I also heard it confermed that the movie Doctor was cannon.


>the understated romance, the attitudes of the time,

I could never survive in that era.



>excellent perfomances from the Family of Blood,

Chilling. And I always enjoy an evil looking little girl.


>the Doctor's chilling revenges,

NOW I get that Youtube video Kirk posted! He can be pretty bad when he wants to.



>the closing moment at the war memorial.


That was very well done. I liked how the older version looked over at the Doctor and Martha and saw that they were the same. That old man looked familiar.

The boy did a great job. I liked him more in this than in Nanny McPhee. I realized that if a Annabelle movie was being filmed last year/this year, that boy would be perfect for Roland.


>I got flashbacks from the school setting, not too different from my own education. Yes, at my school we also got drilled with rifles (although by my time it wasn't a compulsory subject, but most of us took it) so we could keep Johnny Foreigner in place. The dark overtones of the coming war that contrasted with the jingoistic rubbish fed to the boys gave the story extra bite.

Ok, hold on. You've got to explain further. You've mentioned going to a school like that before. I live in a different world. I went to public school with seven different classes, awkward teenagers of both sexes, lame and great teachers, a football team I cared very little for and a drama club I loved. After x amount of hours there, I would return to the bossom of my family (such as it was). I can't imagine anyone getting sent away at such a young age, far from thier home, to come back when they are adults. Wouldn't they feel like thier parents didn't care? Did they go home every summer like Harry Potter did? You slept at school? I guess I just don't understand.
I get that it's a tradition that spans hundreds of years over there, but I didn't realize it is still around.
You're in your 40's, right? That would mean you went to a school like that in the Eighties. When Reagan was Prez over here and Boy George and Micheal Jackson were top of the charts and Jim Shooter gave us Secret Wars. They had old time fancy schools in the modern Eighties? I never knew that. Do they still allow the rude older boys to beat any kid who messes up, even if they misunderstood? I mean, old rules still apply? Even though it's the age of computers and cell phones now?



>I was also affected by the possible future for the Smith and his nurse. It's a tribute to the actors and the production team that they packed so much emotion into such brief shots.

Very well done.

>And full marks for the moment where the Doctor returns - confident, brilliant, deceitful, amusing - and powerful. Beware the mercy of the Time Lord.

That seems to be a big part of this year. I suspect we'll see those baddies again.


>Martha once again shows herself to be a first class travelling companion, and once again shows herself to be hopelessly infatuated with the Doctor. Some think he's treating her badly, but by his lights he isn't really. She's in the "friend" zone. But this story marks a turning point in that relationship, I think, as Martha begins to understand that her and the Doctor is never coing to happen.

I suppose, but I really feel bad for her.


>The Family of the Blood made for a wonderful visual, by the way. My son Alex perfected the head tilt very quickly and he and his friends were quite spooky wandering around together doing it in unison. He nearly got sent to bed for calling Sally "Mother of Mine" one time too many.

I think Alex and Sara would get along swimmingly. She's doing the same thing.


>All in all the story I enjoyed most so far into this season - but my favourite, "Blink", is next up.

I can't wait!

Scott NIGHT CHILDREN: THE BLOG. Come see!

Can't say I liked much of what I saw, though. Sorry.

Really, I find the Doctor to be kind of an annoying character, given that we constantly hear that he's this brilliant scary dude no one should eff around with, but honestly, the ways he beats his enemies puts me in mind more of Bugs Bunny outsmarting Elmer Fudd (who ain't exactly MENSA Material), except his one liners aren't as good. He beat the "Family" (who were more goofy than creepy) but playing dumb and flipping a few switches. Its not exactly the stuff of legends.

Just my .02.

Ahh, but that wasn't really the point. And the cold, cruel, Gaimanesque fantasy punishments he gave each of them were sublime.

This one was one of the best episodes they ever did, I think.

[ I wasn't really hooked on the cliffhanger.. I did like the episode and the boy with the watch was interesting.]




[And now she's in every mirror!]

[Me too]

Scott NIGHT CHILDREN: THE BLOG. Come see!

It improved as it went along. The rest of the series is pretty strong.



Well, since an image of that incarnation appeared prominently with the others it confirms what the BBC have always said, that the movie was in continuity; although referring to David Tennant as "the tenth Doctor" was the other clue.

The only element of the movie which has been quietly dropped was the one-off assertion by the eighth Doctor of having a human mother, something that strangely never came up in the 38 years of broadcasting before and was a retcon of Byrneian proportions.


I suspect it's what you're brought up to.


She did very well. Here in the UK there's a midweek children's programme called "Totally Dr Who" which features interviews with the cast and crew etc., and that child actress appeared on an episode.

By the way, track down the cartoon episode of the 10th Doctor and Martha called "The Infinity Quest".


Cruel and unusual.


It was a touching scene, and it captured well one the feel of the thousands of services like that we have on Remembrance Sunday here in the UK.


He seems like a very dedicated actor. He's probably got a future.


My school was founded in 1552, and this year it's going co-educational. It's a fee-paying school, costing around £8000 ($16000) for each of three terms a year, except for a few pupils who win paid scholarships (as I did). I don't know if they still use the cane and expect senior students to wear gowns now, but they did up to the point I left in 1981.


A few public (which means private) schools still have a "fagging" system, where junior boys are assigned as batmen to seniors, but I think things are much more regulated now that they were even thirty years ago. Any beatings now are purely off the record.

Many of the ancient public schools had great records of brutality in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but they turned out ruthless and tough young men who forged an empire and allowed a nation smaller than New York state to rule over a third of the world.



Noted.



I think we're meant to.


I'll comment on that one when you've seen it.

> Well, since an image of that incarnation appeared prominently with the others it confirms what the BBC have always said, that the movie was in continuity; although referring to David Tennant as "the tenth Doctor" was the other clue.

That would do it.

> The only element of the movie which has been quietly dropped was the one-off assertion by the eighth Doctor of having a human mother, something that strangely never came up in the 38 years of broadcasting before and was a retcon of Byrneian proportions.

Maybe that regeneration messed his mind up?

> By the way, track down the cartoon episode of the 10th Doctor and Martha called "The Infinity Quest".

Will do.

> My school was founded in 1552, and this year it's going co-educational. It's a fee-paying school, costing around £8000 ($16000) for each of three terms a year, except for a few pupils who win paid scholarships (as I did). I don't know if they still use the cane and expect senior students to wear gowns now, but they did up to the point I left in 1981.

So different from here. Wow.

> A few public (which means private) schools still have a "fagging" system, where junior boys are assigned as batmen to seniors, but I think things are much more regulated now that they were even thirty years ago. Any beatings now are purely off the record. > > Many of the ancient public schools had great records of brutality in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but they turned out ruthless and tough young men who forged an empire and allowed a nation smaller than New York state to rule over a third of the world.

That's true. Wow. I thought those were long gone but I guess you can't mess with tradition.

I thought you met Shep in school and directed one of her plays. That was after, right?

> I'll comment on that one when you've seen it.

Hopefully we'll watch it today.

I met Shep at a party when I was around 14 or 15. The first play she was in was one I put on with a local church group and convinced her to be in. It was like giving Kerry her first box of matches. The last production she was in that I produced was when I was eighteen, the year she went off to dance school.

For school drama productions we teamed up with the all-girls school down the road. My favourite was a production of Billy Budd, where I got to play the villainous tyrannical Claggart who gets hung at the end. Apart from being able to massively overact I also had to have almost my entire body stained with tanning make up by the young ladies from the Girls School each night.

Jamie Bautista's excellent "Cast" comic book, set in a similar situation where a boys and girls school get togehter to do a play, really gave me some nostaligic moments. Read it if you can find it.

Sounds like fun and makes me miss Sarah.
So I guess school wasn't just boreing professors and school songs. Cool.

I joined drama in my senior year. I was in a few plays and went to various drama competitions.
Ah, the good old days.




> > I thought you met Shep in school and directed one of her plays. That was after, right?

> > I met Shep at a party when I was around 14 or 15. The first play she was in was one I put on with a local church group and convinced her to be in. It was like giving Kerry her first box of matches. The last production she was in that I produced was when I was eighteen, the year she went off to dance school. > > For school drama productions we teamed up with the all-girls school down the road. My favourite was a production of Billy Budd, where I got to play the villainous tyrannical Claggart who gets hung at the end. Apart from being able to massively overact I also had to have almost my entire body stained with tanning make up by the young ladies from the Girls School each night. > > Jamie Bautista's excellent "Cast" comic book, set in a similar situation where a boys and girls school get togehter to do a play, really gave me some nostaligic moments. Read it if you can find it. >

Scott NIGHT CHILDREN: THE BLOG. Come see!