Can you believe it? I almost forgot to write a post today! How weird is that? Over fourteen months on this ridiculous project, and this is quite literally the first day I have spaced out and not done it. I was just about to go to bed, when I remembered.

So here goes.

The Family of Blood

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

The back half of this story is every bit as good as the front. The boarding school comes under attack by the Family, and John Smith rises to the occasion in order to help the students defend it. Ultimately, though, he is faced with the reality of the Doctor and must decide whether to give up his life with Joan Redfern and become the lonely and terrible creature of his nightmares. It is powerful, powerful stuff. The scenes between David Tennant and Jessica Hynes are riveting. 

Of course in the end he becomes the Doctor again, and the Doctor's fury is unleashed.

He never raised his voice. That was the worst thing. The fury of the Time Lord. And then we discovered why. Why this Doctor, who had fought with gods and demons, why he'd run away from us and hidden. He was being kind.

He wrapped my father in unbreakable chains, forged in the heart of a dwarf star. He tricked my mother into the event horizon of a collapsing galaxy to be imprisoned there forever.

He still visits my little sister once a year every year. I wonder if one day he might forgive her, but there she is. Can you see? He trapped her inside a mirror, every mirror. If ever you look at your reflection and see something move behind you, just for a second, that's her. That's always her. As for me, I was suspended in time. And the Doctor put me to work standing over the fields of England, as their protector.

We wanted to live forever, so the Doctor made sure that we did.

The real payoff of the story, though, is not the defeat of the Family (as powerful as that is). It is the series of denouements that follow. First with the Doctor inviting Joan to join him on the TARDIS, and her stopping him cold. She makes it very clear, in no uncertain terms, that John Smith was a far braver man than the Doctor will ever be, because the Doctor chose to hide whereas Smith chose to die. Then she pointedly asks whether all of those people would have died if the Doctor hadn't decided on a whim to come to this place. Ouch.

The boy Lattimer, who played a pivotal part in the story, gets two following scenes: first just a few years later during the Great War, saving his classmate from  bombardment in France, and then Decades later at the funeral of the same classmate while the Doctor and Martha watch from afar. It is beautifully done.

I just can't say enough how much I love this story, it perfectly encapsulates everything that is wonderful about the Doctor as well as everything that is terrifying and tragic. It is a masterful bit of writing from start to finish, supported by exemplary casting, acting, and set and costume design. In ninety minutes of run time there is not a wasted shot or line of dialogue. This right here, to me, is as good as it gets. 

Tomorrow, then, I get to my favorite standalone story. Where the one I finished today requires a good knowledge of the show to fully appreciate, tomorrows is the perfect story to show someone who has never seen a single episode before.

STATS:

Doctor(s): Tenth
Companion(s): Martha Jones
Episode(s): The Family of Blood
Steps Walked: 7,594 today, 2,816,034 total
Distance Walked: 4.04 miles today, 1,468.52 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 100 today, 1,614 total
Sit-ups Completed: 50 today, 210 total
Is the Doctor So, So Sorry?: The Doctor isn't even present until the end, not really
Weight: 249.84 lbs (five day moving average), net change -57.46 lbs