Information
Writer: Paul Cornell
Director: Charles Palmer
Script Editor: Lindsay Alford
Producer: Suzie Liggat
Executive Producer(s): Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner, Phil Collinson
Originally Broadcast: 2nd June 2007
Duration: 45 mins
Viewing Figures (in millions): 7.21m
Production Code: 3.9
Monsters/Villains: The Family of Blood, Scarecrows
Year Set: 1913
Location: Farringham School, Norfolk, Earth
Synopsis
It's 1913 in England and war has come a year in advance as the terrifying Family hunt for the Doctor.
But, while John Smith refuses to accept his destiny as a Time Lord, the women in his life, Martha and Joan, have to take terrible measures to save the whole of history.
Cast
David Tennant – The Doctor
Freema Agyeman – Martha Jones
Jessica Hynes – Joan Redfern
Harry Lloyd – Jeremy Baines
Thomas Sangster – Tim Latimer
Tom Palmer – Hutchinson
Pip Torrens – Rocastle
Rebekah Staton – Jenny
Gerard Horan – Mr. Clark
Lauren Wilson – Lucy Cartwright
Matthew White – Phillips
Sophie Turner – Vicar
Monster File: The Family of Blood
Home Planet: Unknown
Life Form: Incorporeal group mind
The Family of Blood were green, gaseous entities that could inhabit and control Human bodies. Before taking human form, the members of the Family of Blood were kept in small, spherical receptacles. They had very short-lifespans, lasting only 3 months. The members that were chasing the Doctor were made of a mother, father, son and daughter. While in Human form the Family could telepathically communicate together from a distance. They also had incredible sense of smell, tracking The Doctor with his scent. They also had access to the Host's memory, though they had some difficultly pretending to be Humans. The Family had a spaceship, with various features. They used technology to render their craft invisible to Humans. The Family also had scarecrow-like soldiers created by the son and placed into various fields. The Family encountered the Doctor and Martha Jones in 2007 and chased them throughout time and space with a stolen Time Agent vortex manipulator in order to steal from the Doctor some means of ensuring that they would live a longer lifespan. The Doctor was forced to turn himself into a Human using the Chameleon Arch in his TARDIS in order to escape them. The Doctor changed himself into John Smith, a teacher at a boy's school in England in 1913. The Family's quests for immortality ended when the Doctor was returned to his Time Lord state with the help of Martha, school nurse Joan Redfern and the telepathic Timothy Latimer. He fooled the Family with an olfactory misdirection and destroyed their spaceship by moving several switches in an act devised to look like an accident, destroyed the ship.
Preceded by: Human Nature - Followed by: Blink
