In the two part storyline "Family of Blood"/"Human Nature", the Doctor is forced to hide himself as a human in the middle of a boy's school in 1913 England. Fleeing The Family of Blood, who seek to take the Doctor's life force for their own, he siphons his Time Lord identity into a pocketwatch and tasks Martha with making sure that he doesn't forget who he is. However, as he lives as a human named John Smith, he doesn't remember he's a Time Lord and falls in love with a human woman. At the end of the storyline, the Doctor must of course return to his Time Lord form and become the character we know. The choice is not any less heart-wrenching for all that we want the Doctor back. Over the course of the story, we see what could be. We see what the Doctor would be like if he was able to have a normal life. We also see his failings in a new light, including the Tenth Doctor's tendency toward arrogance and being a know it all. Most importantly, we see what the Doctor sacrifices to be the Doctor. We see what it means to be the Doctor. It's fascinating to watch John Smith struggle with the decision to become The Doctor and it really makes us think.
I'm a journalist with more than five years of experience writing for newspapers and I'm a graduate of University of California, Berkeley. I graduated in December 2012 with a B.A. in English Literature. I have previously written for Bloomberg Businessweek online, the Coalinga, California Coalinga Recorder newspaper and the UC Berkeley Daily Californian. I currently live in Central California
