I've never been a huge fan of The New Adventures. Most seemed like a really good idea shoe-horned into the Doctor Who universe or The Doctor shoe-horned into a really good idea. Nonetheless, I am aware of how these books have influenced the rebooted series and how they changed the face of fandom as we know it now. And more than a couple of them were fantastic.
This one, as you probably know, was adapted by the author into a two-part story in the new show's third season. Quite a bit was changed but the essential story remained the same. It's a great idea and a cracking yarn with a lot to say about "important issues" and it does a good job of getting its setting and milieu right. My problems with it are that it does get bogged down with "issues" and it doesn't - and this is a purely personal thing, so feel free to disagree - quite get the Doctor right, either, although - as this is a situation the Doctor has never been in before - I could well be wrong.
When Cornell concentrates on the story, though, it is a great read.

I have to admit it: I'm a HUGE Doctor Who fan. That said, I have not thought too much of the handful of books I've read that accompanied the series. Human Nature, on the other hand, was just brilliant. I admit it still had it's pulpy bits in the story, but in general it was as well written as many of my favorite novels (well, maybe not Gibson or Stephenson quality, if we're talking modern scifi, but quite solid nonetheless).

I'll be seeking out other books by Cornell. It should also be mentioned that this book was loosely used as the basis for the episodes Human Nature and The Family of Blood in the 3rd seasons of the new Doctor Who series. These were easily among the very best Doctor Who episodes ever, so getting this book (it was a present from my darling wife) was a real score.

I read this shortly after having watched the Doctor Who episode of the same name, and I can't really separate the two in my memory.What does stick in my memory is the way that the two completely different characters (Martha and Benny) skew the vision. And that the novel has a lot more violence and death than I remember in the episode. And that I hope interesting things have been said about perceptions of race, and how stories set in historical settings explore this (Martha is black, Benny presumably white)

This was an enjoyable read with a much better Human!Doctor than the TV show episode. I loved that the minor characters were fleshed out as much as possible and Bennie in particular was a very interesting companion. All in all, this was a good story with a lot more useful details implemented in the right places.

I always loved Human Nature/The Family of Blood, and the idea of Doctor, being a human, although I didn't like his human character, he was someone who Doctor wouldn't be proud of. But still I loved that story and the speeches they gave about how The Doctor is and all that the fury of the timelord thing and the way he defeated his enemies and hello...David Tennant! EPIC!
But this book is waaaay better. I mean, no surprise. Books are always better than the adaptation. Almost always.
I loved this version of John Smith and how he knew Doctor would be against war and killing people and how he came to this decision to let the Doctor back. I loved Tim's character arc and I loved Bennie. She was awesome. Alexander and Richard? LOVED THEM!
Also, can we talk about how cat friendly is TARDIS? More cats in TARDIS, please.

Dieser Roman wurde 1995 im Rahmen der „Virgin New Adventures“ geschrieben, Protagonisten sind der Siebte Doktor (Sylvester McCoy) sowie seine Companion Bernice Summerfield. Bernice wurde als Companion speziell für diese Buchreihe entwickelt, kam später aber zu weiteren Ehren in den Big-Finish-Hörspielen.

Wesentlich bekannter dürfte die Handlung den meisten aber mit dem Zehnten Doktor (David Tennant) sein, da das Buch für die TV-Serie als Zweiteiler verfilmt wurde und dort zu einer der populärsten Folgen avancierte (Hugo Nominierung).

Der Doktor befindet sich als gewöhnlicher Mensch mit dem passenden Namen „John Smith“ im England kurz vor dem Ausbruch des Ersten Weltkrieges - und zwar ohne jegliche Erinnerung an sein Leben als Time Lord. Er ist Lehrer an einer Eliteschule und verliebt sich eine Kollegin. Dieser Plot führt zu sehr anrührenden Szenen, insbesondere als klar wird, dass die unvermeidliche ausserirdische Bedrohung eine Rückverwandlung zum Doctor notwendig machen.

Ich habe ja mehrere Anläufe mit den Doctor-Who-Novelisations gemacht, so richtig warm bin ich nie geworden, und so hält sich auch hier die Begeisterung in Grenzen. Ich würde trotzdem der Aussage eines Goodreads-Kritikers zustimmen, dass man, sollte man nur ein Who-Buch lesen wollen, zu diesem greifen sollte. Deshalb von mir 3,5 Punkte, die ich auf 4 aufrunde, nicht zuletzt auch weil ich großer Fan des TV-Zweiteilers bin, der basierend auf dieser Vorlage geschaffen wurde.

Honestly, if you're going to read a Doctor Who novel, this is the one.

Human Nature has just overtaken Prisoner of the Daleks as my favourite Doctor Who book. It was really spectacular in every possible way and somehow it was even more beautiful and moving than the TV episodes.

For one thing, there was much more time to explore the characters in-depth and, in fact, one of my favourite scenes was the humanisation of the thus-far awful headmaster. There are also many more characters than we meet in the TV series, including Alexander, Hadleman and Constance. Not only the humans, but the family itself was a lot more fleshed out in both character and motive. The vague ‘they want to live forever’ is much more complex in this novel, coming from a race whose lives are empty and meaningless so they just conquer. The futility and idiocy of war is nicely paralleled with this truth about their species.

A lot more happens in the book as well. There’s 8 hours of material, as opposed to the hour and a half we get on screen. I still love the condensed form of the story, as it is a lot pithier, and there were certainly some unnecessary parts of the book, especially at the start, as it was being tied over from the previous story in the series. However, there was a much better sense of scale with all the extra scenes. The book gives more of a picture of how John Smith and Bernice have built up lives in this community and the romance between John and Joan is given the appropriate time to blossom, though that scene with the cat at their dinner date was highly strange and unnecessary…

One of the things I loved about this book in comparison to its TV counterpart was that Timothy was not just a little psychic, but quite manic, affected by the pod (the fob watch of the book) so that he became otherworldly and almost Gallifreyan himself.

This was my first encounter with Bernice and I have to say that I loved her. She was intelligent, sarcastic and very capable. I listened to this as an audiobook and Lisa Bowerman’s performance brought her very much to life for me and I wish she were a companion for the TV series. Lisa Bowerman was also brilliant with all the other characters. Often with audiobooks, especially Doctor Who ones, the narrator can be a bit hit and miss, but she perfectly acted every single character and not once was I confused about who was talking. I often forgot it was a cast of one, as Lisa Bowerman’s voices for each of the characters were so individual.

I also liked the hints to Benny being queer. I looked it up and apparently ‘ambisexuality’ (or omnisexuality) was the norm in her culture. It was fairly subtly referenced and could easily go over the heads of some readers, but she seemed to be quite enjoying a woman’s advances on her and immediately jumped to the conclusion that she was gay (assuming that by ‘coming out’ she meant it in our current sense of the phrase and then being surprised when the answer was yes to her asking whether the character had a boyfriend), though she said that the advances had come at the wrong time, as she was mourning the death of her lover, and rejected them. Not only this, but later on in the story it became evident that another couple of characters were gay/bisexual, which was still subtle for most of it, but became explicit by the end.

This was all part of a larger theme of romantic love in the book, which forms a large part of the Doctor’s motive for becoming human, rather than him already being on the run as on TV. Other themes it explored were race (in reference to one of the school boys), feminism (including the suffragette movement and other restrictions on women), politics (the story had a strong socialist leaning), the stiff upper lip mentality of the time and the masculinity expected of all the men, war and, subtly, queer stuff as well!

The story was also a lot darker than the TV episodes, with much more death and a lot more focus on some of the moral issues involved in a war, including examining the choice not to fight and the idea of being a conscientious objector.

A really excellent book and I would especially recommend it in its audiobook format.

P.S. Also, no scarecrows! They were an easy shortcut for the TV episodes, but it was a surprise that one of the most iconic elements of that story wasn’t even in the original book.
P.P.S. Oh, and the ‘I hate pears’ line that we all love so much was actually on the original list of things for Bennie to not let the Doctor do!