Doctor Who 3x09 - "The Family of Blood"
 

Plot Summary - Written by Paul Cornell
The Family of Blood attack the school in an attempt to capture the Doctor's time lord spirit.

A fantastic episode! I'm giving a 10/10 for the whole story. :)

Better than last week's.

Last week was a perfect 10/10. This week it all came unravelled for me in a similar way to Evolution of the Daleks. It was all a bit random, in particular the ending. That WW1 stuff and closing monologues felt badly tagged on, Tim walking away from the TARDIS seemed the perfect natural place to end the story.

8/10

Agh, wasn't it all a bit loud? I found it a little rushed as well, too fast paced for my liking. I liked the way the scarecrows moved though, very authentic, and as ever, Gerald Horan (Ray Butler out of Frost and DC Yelland in Kingdom) was great as Mr.Clark. Latimer was a bit too ugly, sorry. Strange how he grew up into a George Bush lookalike though.

Indeed. I also appreciated the guest appearance from Al Pacino as old John Smith towards the end.

That was a trully exceptional episode. It was certainly the best episode of the series. That scene where the boys were fighting the scarecrows, I found that bit quite moving and it was well done.

The John Smith persona kinda struck me as a coward to be quite honest, I mean I can understand not wanting to shoot the girl but meh.

The WW1 and Remembrance Day stuff at the end was brilliant, I thought that was really well done.

10/10.

I knew Ross would like the war references :P

Much better than last week, and wat a touching ending with the The Doctor and Joan and Memorial service

What can I say, this truely was a brilliant piece of work, so moving and exciting. I actually thought the monologues where pretty good, it rounded of the episode quite well. I thought the ending was chilling.
Only thing is, the tape I was recording on ran out at the final minute (really) and I was frantically trying to change the tape, I lost about 15 seconds, so I might just rerecord it tomorrow.

10 out of 10. Truly, a thing of beauty.

10/10 A brilliant episode. Each episode gets better and better.

Agreed, it was well placed.

God, this one's got loads of Brilliant votes. But hell, it deserves it, best I've seen in ages.

Im pretty sure this would be a candidate for best episode of the new Doctor Who.

I'm with MI7, the stuff after Tim walked away from the TARDIS seemed a bit unnecisary, but it was still a fantastic episode. The plot was great, but poor Mr. Smith. :P

Ah, kinda stinks being caught up. That trailer was really teasing and I have to wait a whole week!

I loved the ending -- very moving. It wasn't at all unnecessary.

The ending of the actual storyline was unnecessary. It wouldn't be if it wasn't rushed but that's what happens nowadays. It's either all quality, no quantity, or too much in too little time.

How would you have reworked those scenes so that they could have stayed in but felt less rushed?

The Doctor dancing in a pair of hotpants. That probably would have slowed down time for anyone watching.

... no really, I have no idea. I didn't actually think it was rushed myself... at least not as much as the Lazarus Experiment or 42, which were still good. Wore me the heck out though.

Simple, spend less time faffing about at earlier stages of the episode. :P

I wouldn't have kept them in. I would have either cut them, ditched Tennant's monologue from them and/or cut some of the wandering-through-No-Man's-Land baggage from the WW1 scene.

I see I'm in the minority here but they really didn't work for me. The story had ended and was being dragged on to fill time, and what they did put in seemed ridiculously Hollywood and schmaltzy with the Doctor N' Martha Poppy Crew. Just a shot of Tim at the War Memorial and the Doctor and Martha standing off to the side without all this other stuff that belonged on a Remembrance Day episode.

But then the flashes from the watch to when he jumped clear of the artillery shell would have been completely meaningless.

Also, Id doubt it was No Man's Land they were wandering through, it was probably some rear area and Tim was helping whatshisticket back to an aid post.

The flashes of the watch at first seemed to reflect not only the futility of the whole thing as Tim and Hutchinson were only to die in battle after the events was over (Tim says as much in that they survive to Hutchinson) and also to reflect the horror of the First World War as Tim was so young yet still in the firing line. And of course the most straightforward explaination that the scene was there to simply show that Tim could use the watch to see the future...the whole first flashback scene would have made perfect sense without revisiting it at the end.

If he was going back to a rear area then Tim and Hutchinson would most certainly have used one of the service trenches connecting the front and rear lines rather than walk over the top in the field of fire...hell they nearly got hit by a shell nevermind being shot at. Isn't picking at my use of historical terminology rather than addressing my comments about the episode being the teeniest bit pedantic anyway?

Yeah but that's just what im like. :P

I dont think they were being shot at. Also, artillery has a very, very long range. The planks which are seen in the background wouldn't have been put in No Man's Land by either side, as it would make it easier for the enemy to cross and attack their lines. When I was talking about a "rear area" I didn't necessarily mean as far forward as being in the trench system at all, but rather behind the lines. There were normally at least 3 trenches connected by support trenches and then it was open country(although not really much prettier due to shelling) and then the logistics dumps, aid posts and stuff, it seems they were somewhere between the trenches and there.

Anyways, yeah im beginning to see what you mean that was a bit pedantic. :P

By the fast the best this series has written so far, in response to last weeks episode, this goes one better, and is therefore the first 10 out of 10 i award this series. It was scary in parts, quite touching, and for a minute i thought John Smith has surrendered the Doctor, and those flash forward to a proposed future, and the World War 1 scenes were so moving, i nearly cried, and the emotion swelled up inside. This was almost flawless, a bit of ironing out here and there i feel. But this definatley is one of the best episodes of the new series. I predict the final 4 will see at least 3 10 out of 10's from me and everyone else.

<raises glass> heres to next week :)

<raise glass> Cheers! , Great episode! Can't wait for next weeks, Looks really good! :D

Best episode ever.I felt so sorry for John Smith and the ending was stuff of legend.