Human Nature was the fourth serial of Season 35 of Doctor Who. It was written by Paul Cornell, directed by Richard Stroud and starred Hugh Bonneville as the Ninth Doctor & Beverley Cressman as Abigail Norwood.
Synopsis[]
April, 1914. The inhabitants of the little Norfolk town of Farringham are enjoying an early summer, unaware that war is on the way. Amongst them is Dr John Smith, a tall, young history teacher from Aberdeen. He's having a hard time with his new post as house master at Hulton College, a school dedicated to producing military officers.
Abigail Norwood is enjoying her holiday in the town, getting over the terrible events that befell her in France. But then she meets a future Doctor, and things start to get dangerous very quickly. With the Doctor she knows gone, and only a suffragette and an elderly rake for company, can Abigail fight off a vicious alien attack? And will Dr Smith be able to save the day?
Plot[]
To be added.
Cast[]
- The Doctor / John Smith - Hugh Bonneville
- Abigail Norwood - Beverley Cressman
- Joan Redfern - To be added.
- Alexander Shuttleworth - To be added.
- August - To be added.
- Greeneye - To be added.
- Laylock - To be added.
- Serif - To be added.
- Aphasia - To be added.
- Hoff - To be added.
- Jac - To be added.
- Sarah - To be added.
- Lucy - To be added.
- Timothy Dean - To be added.
- Anand - To be added.
- Andrew Abbott - To be added.
- Clive Alton - To be added.
- Hadleigh-Scott - To be added.
- Hutchinson - To be added.
- Captain Merryweather - To be added.
- Phipps - To be added.
- Jill and Jenny - To be added.
- Mrs Windrush - To be added.
- Mr Hodges - To be added.
- Constance Harding - To be added.
- Mr Sangster - To be added.
- Alec - To be added.
- Sergeant Abeland - To be added.
- Constable Bickerston - To be added.
- Nathan Bottomley - To be added.
- Horace - To be added.
- Richard Hadleman - To be added.
- George Rocastle - To be added.
- Mrs Denman - To be added.
- Mr Challpner - To be added.
- Mr Moffat - To be added.
- Miss Robertson - To be added.
- Major Wrightson - To be added.
- Stanley - To be added.
- Torrence - To be added.
Crew[]
To be added.
Worldbuilding[]
Astronomical objects[]
- The Aubertides state that Earth is in the arm of Mutter's Spiral in the Stellarian Galaxy, whilst Gallifrey is at the core.
Biology[]
- Timothy Dean becomes infected with the Doctor's Time Lord DNA and gains a second heart and a respiratory bypass system. He is hanged by his classmates, but is saved by his respiratory bypass system.
Foods and beverages[]
- The Doctor hates pears.
- Abigail refers to Mr Kipling pies. Bottomley thinks she is referring to Rudyard Kipling.
Individuals[]
- Herbert Asquith is the prime minister.
- Abigail pretends to be Smith's niece.
- John Smith claims to be thirty-five years old.
- John's faked credentials claim he is from the Flavian Academy of Aberdeen.
- John plays cricket.
- Joan compares John to Walt Whitman.
- Joan's husband, Arthur, died in a war.
- Alexander Shuttleworth is Benny's landlord. His uncle fought in the Second Boer War.
- Greeneye pretends to be the tenth incarnation of the Doctor.
- Richard enlisted in the army in 1914 and earned the rank of Captain. He fought in the Battle of the Somme in July 1916.
- Timothy Dean worked in the Red Cross during World War I and died in 1995 with many children and grandchildren.
- Clive Alton is a Time Lord, undercover as a student to ensure the situation remains under control.
- John and Joan often play whist.
Influences[]
- Paul Cornell was heavily inspired by Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces, in particular the stage known as the “apotheosis”, in which a hero gave up everything in order to gain enlightenment.
Languages[]
- Cruk is a profanity which Greeneye and Benny often use.
Literature[]
- A boy reads the magazine Boy's Own.
- Bernice finds copies of Le Morte D'Arthur and A Study in Scarlet in a bookshop.
- When speaking to Timothy about the morality of war, John quotes from Henry V.
- John writes children's stories, including The Old Man and the Police Box, about a lonely elderly man who invented a police box that was bigger on the inside. The man travelled to the planet Gallifrey and there encountered a primitive tribe and showed them many secrets of the universe.
Occupations[]
- John Smith and Joan Redfern work at Hulton College.
- John Smith is a history teacher.
- Joan Redfern is a science teacher. She doesn't like teaching at the school.
Organisations[]
- Constance is a suffragette and a member of the WSPU. She is modelling herself on Emily Davison.
- Richard Hadleman attends the local Labour group. He intends to become a local MP.
- Greeneye refers to Interventionists, members of the Celestial Intervention Agency.
- The Doctor takes the pod to the Monks of Felsecar.
Personifications of concepts[]
- Death collects Smith as a life owed by the Doctor.
Species[]
- The Aubertides are from the planet Aubris. They are shape-shifters, and reproduce asexually via buds on their backs.
- The Doctor has created a clay model of a Zygon.
Time Lords[]
- The Doctor claims that Time Lords dream of what it is to be able to fly, be a different sex or to have a child.
Titles[]
- Bernice describes herself as the current occupier of the Proxima University Chair Of Archaeology and holder of the Martian Gallantry Medal.
Notes[]
- Abigail claims John's brother Jonathan has returned to Gallifrey in Ireland. (TV: The Hand of Fear)
- John recalls knowing a Barbara in Rome. (TV: The Romans)
- John recalls a man with a beard who always upset his experiments. (TV: Terror of the Autons et al.)
- In the story The Old Man and the Police Box, John writes of how the people of Gallifrey can no longer have children. (TV: Lungbarrow)
- The Doctor claims that Time Lords dream of what it would be like to become the opposite sex. The Tenth Doctor would later temporarily swap bodies with Jean Robinson (TV: Wrong Lives) & the Twelfth Doctor would later meet a female incantation of The Master, indicating they could change sex during regeneration. (TV: The Resurrected) This was later confirmed when The Thirteenth Doctor would later state he knew the Corsair in both male and female incarnations. (TV: The House of Nothing) The Doctor himself eventually regenerated into a female body. (TV: The Last Life)
- John says that he is Merlin. (TV: Battlefield, Battleground et al.)
- John mentions living seaweed to Joan, much to her amusement. (TV: Fury from the Deep)
- When drawing on the Doctor's personality, John says "there's another way" (TV: Warriors of the Deep) and "throw away your gun". (TV: The Happiness Patrol)
Continuity[]
To be added.
Home video releases[]
VHS[]
- This story was first released on VHS.
DVD[]
- This story along with the other stories in Season 35 were released as Doctor Who: The Complete Thirty-Fifth Season in 2003.
Blu-ray[]
- This story along with the other stories in Season 35 were upscaled in 1080i50 high definition and were released as Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 35 in the UK.