| HUMAN NATURE by Paul Cornell |
| Story 38 Synopsis: The Doctor brings Bernice to a sleepy English village in 1914, and undergoes a transformation to be wholly human. As Dr John Smith, he teaches at a military academy for boys. Bernice has to protect him from anyone who should try to steal his Gallifreyan heritage. A small family of murderous aliens, the Aubertides, arrive to do just that. The Doctor's true biodata is stored in a Pod, but Bernice finds it's missing. She fails to convince Dr Smith of his true identity, and anyway, he's fallen in love. The Aubertides attack the school, but Smith, Bernice and most of the boys escape. One of them, Tim Dean, found the Pod, and has been changed a bit by it. The Aubertides capture Bernice, but she escapes. To try and force Smith to find the Pod, they kidnap his beloved. Dean gives him the Pod, having shown him what will happen if he just hands it over to the Aubertides. Smith uses the Pod, tricks the remaining Aubertides into a trap, and rescues the woman he now no longer loves. She is heartbroken, but entrusts him to look after her cat, Wolsey, as she will have to leave Farringham. |
| Review:- Cornell's 4th New Adventure is in some ways a summation of his style, and has often been voted the Best New Adventure. It isn't, of course (far from it), but nor is it a total failure. The central idea of the Doctor having a holiday from himself and trying out what it's like to be human, is rather slight, and so there is the drama of the Aubertides and their ruthless plans of conquest. To fill the rest of the book, we have endless smug dialogues about war, and occasional glib comments about sexism, racism and homophobia. Which is pretty tiresome to read. Smith's romance with Joan Redfern is built steadily, and makes a warm contrast to the rather heartless nature of the rest of the book. They even get to so a "Smith and Joan" gag. That Joan is seen by Bernice, and therefore presumably the reader, as a sour old racist bag, means that the inevitable doomed nature of the affair is shown to be justifiable. But this is simply trying to have it both ways. The gung-ho nature of Hulton Academy for Boys, building good little soldiers, is rather relentlessly ridiculed, especially with the foreknowledge of the imminent First World War on the horizon. The idea that the Doctor should be a man of peace who often associates with men of war (eg UNIT) is something that seems to rankle with many writers of these books, and rather like the Doctor's sudden and otherwise pointless distaste for pears, it's dealt with in a self-satisfied way, that does nothing to change minds. The Aubertides all have catchy names, and seem oddly over-prepared for a fight. You name it, they've a weapon for it, and this seems almost parodic after a while. The humans have no useful weapons to retaliate with, and therefore need to play clever to win the day. Another unsubtle point about warfare is thus made. Some of the incidental characters are quite engaging, especially Alexander Shuttleworth, who proves a worthy friend and ally in adversity. Tim Dean, the unexpected recipient of the Pod, and victim of rather extreme bullying at Hulton, is painted in just enough to make him sympathetic. His coda at the Somme is rather smug, especially when Hutchinson dies immediately beforehand. Then he appears again as a very old man. What this is all says about closure is anyone's guess. The setting is rather nice, and the pace of adventure is handled so that one hardly notices that pretty much the whole bulk of the adventure takes place on a Saturday afternoon. Were it not for its many faults, this would be one of the better New Adventures, but as it stands, it's aged badly, and merely passes as "below average". ADDED: Of course, its over-rated status led to its being adapted for television in 2007 (see Human Nature/The Family Of Blood) with a few changes... |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy of this book. |