Doctor Who: Ranking the top 10 David Tennant episodes

10. “Human Nature”/”The Family of Blood” Season 3, Episodes 8 & 9

Being the Doctor isn’t easy. With each new regeneration, the Doctor has to grapple with their existence. Sure, space travel is fun and all, but what does life actually mean to you when your brain(s) are mushed with hundreds and thousands of memories spanning millennia?

With that in mind, let’s look back at Season 3’s “Human Nature” and “The Family of Blood.” This two-part arc really changed things up, transforming the Doctor from a Time Lord into a human. That left his companion Martha (Freema Agyeman) to deal with a very pressing and dangerous ordeal all by herself. Shout-out to Martha for being the real MVP of these episodes, by the way.

In order to avoid the Family of Blood eager to get their hands on the Doctor’s semi-immortality, both Martha and the Doctor settle down in the early 20th century. But there’s just one slight change: the Doctor has no memory of who he once was. How so? He becomes human! A human who has dreams of this mysterious “Doctor” and all the adventures he would take.

So, instead of a time-traveling space nerd, the Doctor assumes the identity of a married English man named John Smith, with the help of Martha, whom he believes to be his maid. She basically has to create a story for his life and place him into it, all the while having to deal with his memory loss.

What I admire about this episode is Tennant’s ability to go back and forth between two characters. We already know he’s wonderful at playing the Doctor, but during this arc, he also had to play the role of a normal guy. Tennant had to switch gears to give this new character his own identity.

How does one play the Doctor while not playing the Doctor? Tennant pulled it off.