Human Nature was the thirty-eighth novel in the Virgin New Adventures series. It was released as an ebook on the BBC's website in November 2002. Its good reception prompted Cornell to rewrite it for the third series of BBC Wales' Doctor Who. It was split into a two parter with the titles: Human Nature and The Family of Blood.
Publisher's summary
'Who’s going to save us this time?'
April, 1914. The inhabitants of the little Norfolk town of Farringham are enjoying an early summer, unaware that war is on the way. Amongst them is Dr John Smith, a short, middle-aged history teacher from Aberdeen. He’s having a hard time with his new post as house master at Hulton College, a school dedicated to producing military officers.
Bernice Summerfield is enjoying her holiday in the town, getting over the terrible events that befell her in France. But then she meets a future Doctor, and things start to get dangerous very quickly. With the Doctor she knows gone, and only a suffragette and an elderly rake for company, can Benny fight off a vicious alien attack? And will Dr Smith be able to save the day?
Characters
Main Characters
Other Characters
In the beer tent
The boys at Hulton Academy
- Timothy Dean
- Hutchinson
- Alton (a Time Lord)
- Phipps
- Anand
- Captain Merryweather
- Abbot
- Andrew
- Clive
- Ian
- Hadleigh-Scott
People of Farringham
- Jill and Jenny (two housewives)
- Mrs Windrush (housewife)
- Mr Hodges (greengrocer)
- Constance Harding (suffraget)
- Mr Sangster (runs the art shop)
- Alec (works at the Museum)
- Sergeant Abeland (police officer)
- Constable Bickerston (police officer)
- Nathan Bottomley (black smith)
- Horace (telephone box operator)
- Richard Hadleman
School teachers
- George Rocastle, MBE (headmaster)
- Mrs Denman (biology)
- Mr Challpner
- Mr Moffat (bursar)
- Miss Robertson
Soldiers outside the time barrier
References
Anatomy and physiology
Astronomical objects
- The Aubertides state that Earth is in the arm of Mutter's Spiral in the Stellarian Galaxy, whilst Gallifrey is at the core.
Biology
- Timothy Dean gets infected with the Doctor's Time Lord DNA and gains two hearts and a respiratory bypass system. He is hanged by his classmates. The respiratory bypass system saves him.
Foods and beverages
Individuals
- Bernice Summerfield is now thirty-two years old. She's pretending to be Smith's niece so she can keep an eye on him.
- Benny isn't convinced she'll ever have children.
- Benny's still struggling with the loss of Guy de Carnac though she doubts she loved him.
- Joan gives Wolsey to the Doctor so he'll never be alone on his travels.
- John proposes to Joan.
- John's (faked) credentials claim he is from the Flavian Academy of Aberdeen.
- John has some cricketing skills.
- Joan Redfern's husband, Arthur, died in what was likely the Boer War.
- Alexander Shuttleworth is Benny's landlord. They sometimes have lunch together.
- Greeneye pretends to be the tenth incarnation of Doctor.
- Timothy Dean dies in 1995 with many children and grandchildren.
- Hutchinson is senior school captain.
- Alton is a Time Lord, undercover as a student to make sure things don't go too far.
Languages
- Cruk is a swear word (which Benny uses often).
Literature
- John writes children's stories such as: "The Old Man and the Police Box" about a world called Gallifrey and a strange inventor who teaches about police boxes.
Occupations
- John Smith and Joan Redfern work at Hulton College School.
- John Smith is a history teacher. He's forty-eight, from Aberdeen.
- Joan Redfern is a Science teacher. She doesn't like teaching at the school.
Organisations
- Interventionists are mentioned by Greeneye. These are members of the Celestial Intervention Agency.
Personifications of concepts
- Death collects Smith as a life owed by the Doctor.
Species
- The Aubertides are from the planet Aubris. They're shape shifters and reproduce asexually via buds on their backs.
Religion
- The Doctor takes the pod to the Monks of Felsecar.
Time Lords
- Time Lords dream of what it is to be able to fly or be a different sex or to have a child.
Notes
- A television adaptation of this story appeared in the 2007 series of Doctor Who. (see also Human Nature (TV story)).
- In fandom the canonicity of this story has been queried. However the differences generally outweigh the similarities. See also Human Nature (novel) Talk page.
- A prelude to this novel was published in DWM 226.
- There is a sequence where Greeneye meets Bernice whilst pretending to be the tenth incarnation of the Doctor, just not the Tenth Doctor portrayed by David Tennant.
- This novel was the second novel (The Dying Days was the first) to be re-released by the BBC on their website in ebook form in November 2002 it was accompanied by extensive background notes from author Paul Cornell and new illustrations from artist Daryl Joyce. The ebook has been unavailable since late 2010.
Continuity
- Death takes Smith as the life the Doctor promised her (for Ace's) in NA: Love and War.
- In DW: Doctor Who (1996), the Doctor kisses Grace twice; in Human Nature he kisses Joan six times.
- Benny is still thinking of Guy de Carnac's death in NA: Sanctuary.
- Wolsey departs the TARDIS with Benny in NA: The Dying Days.
- John Smith tells his students about Boudica's failed revolt against the Roman Empire in Roman Britain in 60. The Fourth Doctor and his companion Leela encountered the Iceni queen shortly before her army's attack on the Roman capital city of Camulodunum in the midst of the rebellion. (BFA: The Wrath of the Iceni)
Illustrations
- Includes seventeen illustrations from the e-book by Daryl Joyce, originally published on the BBC's website.
Associated Images
E-Book cover. In style with the Past Doctor Adventures. Artwork by Daryl Joyce.
