Doctor Who-The Family Of Blood

                  While Martha tries to hold off the aliens addressing themselves as the Family Of Blood,the school and the village dance are completely evacuated as the Family themselves go about on a spree of killing anyone who happens to be in their way of getting to the life force of the doctor. This,however is now in the hands of Tim Latimer, who himself is on the lamb from the Family because the doctor is speaking to his superior brain through his own life force-and urging him to hold out on presenting the watch containing his life force to John Smith. While hiding in the home of one of the people taken over by the Family, Martha is forced to reveal to Smith who he actually is-that the Family are mainly after him because they have a limited lifespan and the doctors life energy will serve to make them eternal. She insists if he holds the watch, he was remember who he is.  John  then finds he is caught in a conundrum between his burgeoning love for Joan Redfern and what he now knows is his true mission.

            This is interrupted when the Family begin using the weapons on their ship to destroy the nearby towns until Smith surrenders the doctors life force. At that time Latimer shows up and gives Martha the watch containing the life force of the doctor. At first wild with racing thoughts of his true identity, John inevitably choose to hold the watch. A few moments later when the Family think John has surrendered the doctor to them,in fact the deed has already been done. The now reformed doctor destroys the ship forcing the Family Of Blood into retreat. They are placed in the cosmos,mirrors and in scarecrows before the doctor invites Joan to join him as a companion. When she rejects the offer, Martha and the doctor retreat in the TARDIS-giving Latimer his watch as a thank you present. Their last visit to Latimer is when he is an elderly war hero-the only survivor of his WW1 troop thanks to the watch's unique sense of time.

          A sprawling and epic story, both in writing and scope this episode explores the more philosophical aspects of the doctors character then either its predecessor or perhaps any other Doctor Who story. Because the doctor is represented hear more as an energy force than a physical being, we are led to wonder if time lords even perceive sentience in the same manner as any humanoid being does in the least bit. Not only that but John Smith's identity crisis when learning who he really is makes one wonder if time lords don't also have completely duel consciousnesses beyond human perception. This is also illustrated in his insistence to Joan Redfern that who John Smith was is a part of his own conscience. Still it was a heartwarming ending for the doctor and Martha to visit the elderly hero Latimer when he received his heroes honor.