| “ | He never raised his voice. That was the worst thing. The fury of the Time Lord. And then we discovered why. Why this Doctor who had fought with gods and demons, why he’d run away from us and hidden. He was being kind. He wrapped my father in unbreakable chains, forged in the heart of a dwarf star. He tricked my mother into the event horizon of a collapsing galaxy, to be imprisoned there forever. He still visits my sister— once a year, every year. I wonder if one day he might forgive her. But there she is! Can you see her? He trapped her inside a mirror. Every mirror. If ever you look at your reflection and see something move behind you—just for a second—that’s her. That’s always her. As for me, I was suspended in time. And the Doctor put me to work standing over the fields of England, as their protector. We wanted to live forever... so the Doctor made sure that we did. | „ |
| ~ The Son of Mine regarding the fates of the Family of Blood. |
The Family of Blood, also called "The Family", are a "family" of malevolent aliens who both followed and hunted the Tenth Doctor and the main antagonists in the two-parter episode, Human Nature and The Family of Blood in Series 3 of the Doctor Who franchise.
The members include Father of Mine, Mother of Mine, Son of Mine, and Daughter of Mine; despite the seniority implied by their titles, the primary commander of the Family appeared to be Son of Mine, as he directs most of the strategy and tactics.
History[]
The Family encountered the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones, and chased them throughout time and space with a stolen Time Agent vortex manipulator, hoping to steal from the Doctor some means of ensuring that they would live a longer lifespan. According to Son of Mine, on the Family's travels through time and space in search of the Doctor, they saw many things including the First World War.
The Doctor was forced to turn himself into a human using the Chameleon Arch in his TARDIS in order to escape them. The Doctor changed himself into John Smith, a teacher at a boy's school in England in 1913. The Family eventually came to there and landed nearby, and activated animated scarecrows to round up humans to possess as bodies. The possession seemed to erase the original minds of the bodies, thus the takeovers are in effect murders, too.
The Family's quests for immortality ended when the Doctor was returned to his Time Lord state with the help of Martha, school nurse Joan Redfern and Tim Latimer. He fooled the Family by pretending to still be John Smith and using an olfactory misdirection (said to be like "ventriloquism of the nose") to trick them into thinking that he was still human. Moments later, an act devised to look like a clumsy accident by "John Smith" resulted in the Family's ship overheating and exploding. The Doctor subsequently punished the Family by:
- Wrapping Father of Mine in unbreakable chains forged from a dwarf star alloy and imprisoning him in an underground chamber.
- Sending Mother of Mine into the event horizon of a collapsing galaxy (black hole), trapping her there for all eternity.
- Trapping Daughter of Mine within every mirror in existence, where the Doctor would still visit her once a year (she was said to be the strange movement seen out of the corner of one's eye when looking in a reflective surface). Her brother wondered if one day, the Doctor would forgive her.
- Imprisoning Son of Mine, now locked in time, in the body of a scarecrow to watch over the fields of England as their protector.
In a sense, the Family's quest for immortality was won, although not in the manner they wished. They also discovered from this why the Doctor decided to flee rather than fight the Family of Blood - he was showing them mercy, by allowing them the chance to live out their lives then die, rather than killing them or dooming them with immortality.
Trivia[]
- The nickname of the Family of Blood comes from the same alias of the real-life cult of killers known as the Manson Family.
- The Family of Blood are based on the Aubertides, the antagonists of the Doctor Who novel Human Nature, which was adapted into the TV story.
- This is directly referenced in the audio webcast Shadow of a Doubt, where the Aubertides and the family are said to be iterations of the same story.]
- It was rumored that Harry Lloyd, the actor of Son of Mine, would replace David Tennant as the Doctor. Ultimately, he lost out to Matt Smith.
- While it wasn't caused by the Doctor, the main antagonist of The Five Doctors, President Borusa also achieved immortality via a brutal irony, as he was transmuted into immobile living stone by Rassilon. Although, the Doctor still had an influence, as the First realised the cost of the immortality offered, and allowed Borusa to take it anyway.
