WRITER: Paul Cornell DIRECTOR: Charles Palmer
CAST: David Tennant (The Doctor/John Smith), Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones), Jessica Hynes (Nurse Joan Redfern), Harry Lloyd (Jeremy Baines), Thomas Sangster (Tim Latimer), Tom Palmer (Hutchinson), Pip Torrens (Rocastle), Rebekah Staten (Jenny), Gerard Horan (Mr Clark), Lauren Wilson (Lucy Cartwright), Matthew White (Phillips), Sophie Turner (Vicar) & Lucas Jacobson (Jason Smith)
John Smith refuses to accept his destiny as a Time Lord as The Family descends on the school...The conclusion to Paul Cornell's two-part adaptation of his own novel fails to disappoint on any level, proving to be an effective, dramatic and poignant climax to last week's set-up.
John Smith continues to struggle with the news he's actually an alien time-traveller, forced to choose between a loving human existence and his true nature as the universe's protector. This indecision forms the crux of the episode and David Tennant is a revelation, deftly creating a believable alternate character and making Smith's situation emotionally truthful throughout.
Jessica Hynes was somewhat perfunctory last week as love interest Nurse Redfern, but she really shines here. Her scenes with Tennant are very powerful, particularly the moments together in the school and the scenes spent agonizing over whether Smith should transform back into The Doctor.
Elsewhere, the episode crafts marvellous moments of tension and violence as The Family instruct their scarecrow soldiers to attack the school, leading to a haunting moment where young schoolboys are forced to slaughter these "straw soldiers" with machine guns. Director Charles Palmer does a great job of milking the emotion, with the scene played in slow-motion as straw flies, boys sniff back tears and John Smith looks on in horror at the carnage.
In fact, the parallels to World War I soon come thick and fast, particularly once the episode's denouement shows schoolboy Tim Latimer avoiding death in No Man's Land thanks to The Doctor's watch and a subsequent scene with Latimer (now an old man on Remembrance Day) catching sight of an unchanged Doctor and Martha wearing poppies. It's dangerously close to being heavy-handed and schmaltzy, but the episode has earned leniency and the scene works well.
The production values are very slick. I've mentioned before how Doctor Who always seem in its element when the fantastical meets the old-fashioned. The costumes, sets and location shooting is all brilliantly handled and the performances from the supporting cast are great, particularly Harry Lloyd as lead villain Baines; a wonderful creation. The way the script despatches the Family brood is also inventive, creepy and the perfect solution. It'll certainly have children nervously glancing at scarecrows and peering into mirror for a few weeks!
Overall, I really can't fault this episode to any great degree. There are a few irritations with some of the younger performers, but nothing beyond that. This is magical storytelling from writer Paul Cornell that will hopefully inspire further adaptations of the tie-in novels, but it really flies on the performance of David Tennant, who is simply remarkable.
