Doctor Who: Human Nature

by Paul Cornell

Book Overview

Hulton College in Norfolk is a school dedicated to producing military officers. With the First World War about to start, the boys of the school will soon be on the front line. But no one expects a war - not even Dr John Smith, the college's new house master...

The Doctor's friend Benny is enjoying her holiday in the same town. But then she meets a future version of the Doctor, and things start to get dangerous very quickly. With the Doctor...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1849909091
• ISBN13: 9781849909099
• Release Date: June 2015
• Publisher: Ebury Publishing
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 13 to 16 years
• Grade Range: Grades 8 to 11

Customer Reviews

If You Read Only One Doctor Who Novel Let This Be The One

This is Human Nature: The basis for the revived TV's series two part story Human Nature / The Family of Blood. Written by Paul Cornell and published back in May 1995, this novel has earned a reputation as one of the best Doctor Who novels ever. Having read quite a few of them I'm willing to go one step further: Human Nature is the best Doctor Who novel ever written. Human Nature is (to paraphrase a famous quote from the series) far more then just another Doctor Who story. It is a strong story about love, war, and what makes us human. One of the reasons for this is because it's a novel full of real characters, not just one or two dimensional cut outs. This is especially true of the malevolent seventh Doctor, who becomes a human being and leaves his companion Professor Summerfield having to save him. While the novel features a fair amount of action and typical science fiction material, the story has a love story running through it. That is the love between the humanized seventh Doctor (Dr. John Smith) and Joan Redfern that while it might initially seem out of place, Cornell makes it fit. Cornell creates a realistic relationship between the two and whenever they're together the pages really do light up. In fact, Smith and Joan are the literal heart and soul of Human Nature. It is there relationship, and its climax that really make this novel standout. The novel's only real flaw is it's villains who are a bit of a joke for the most part. The Aubertide shape shifters are clumsy to say the least and very rarely (if at all) to they have menace. That said they have a great moment in chapter six, but for the most part Cornell drops the ball in terms of the villains and in turn creates the novel's only real problem. Don't let that flaw deter you though. This novel is what science fiction is at its best: a morality tale in a very different dressing. To put it another way: If you read only one Doctor Who novel let this be the one you read.

Time Lord Nature

(Note: This book is available as a free e-book on the BBC's Cult website.)When I first read HUMAN NATURE back in 1995 or 1996, I thought it was quite good. Not perfect, but quite good. Since the mid-90s, the book's reputation has done nothing but skyrocket. Finally declared as the greatest New Adventure in various polls and reviews, I fully expect to see it posited as the supreme work of English fiction by sometime in the next century.Rereading it today (well, last week to be specific), I found that my opinion hadn't changed all that much. It's still a really good book with some outstanding sequences and genuine emotion. But it also contains some fairly blatant missteps. It's a shame that Paul Cornell didn't quite make his villains as interesting as his heroes, given that both factions are given huge amounts of screen time.The storyline is very simple, very traditional in all but one major area. The Doctor decides to take a vacation. Weary with the weights and responsibilities of being the Intergalactic Man Of Mystery, he decides to create an artificial persona for himself (the hints of where his false memories come from are great fun), and places his consciousness into the human body of Dr. John Smith (his own body, after undergoing a gobbledygook process to temporarily rid it of its Gallifreyan heritage). While his own thoughts, experiences, and Time Lord know-how are placed into a container, a group of alien baddies arrives on Earth intending to steal the Doctor's essence for their own nefarious schemes.Everyone who discusses this book eventually gets around to criticizing the alien Aubertides. I will not be breaking from convention. They really are pathetic adversaries. Actually, it would be more accurate to describe them as depressingly ordinary. While the Smith/Doctor storyline captivates and enthralls the reader, one is instantly jolted back to banality every time we're forced to continue with the Adventures Of The Irritating Aliens. And the biggest problem of all is that they're present and nauseating for so much of the book. Had they just appeared from time to time to remind us of the main Doctor Who practices, they wouldn't have been quite so annoying. (Unfortunately, Cornell would not learn from this lesson. Cavis and Gandar of SHADOWS OF AVALON somehow manage to be much, much worse.)Cornell also cheats a bit with his plotting. Fortunately, he's a strong enough writer to be able to keep the story moving fast enough, so that most of the stretches aren't quite as damning as they would be had they come from the pen of a lesser. Even so, there are some absolutely insane coincidences, people acting stupid just to move the plot along, and places where the action stops completely dead for some silly and preaching moralizing.I apologize for having spent so much time taking about the portions of HUMAN NATURE I found to be irritating, because overall, even with its flaws, this is still a damned good book. The progression of D

The ultimate "Doctor Who" novel.

If you want to know why "Doctor Who" is so special, read this book. If you still don't understand, you never will. Paul Cornell has written a brilliant explanation of the series for those to whom no explanation was possible, and done it in the context of a wonderful novel to boot.