"For the Fallen"

"For the Fallen" is a title based upon conjecture.

Check the behind the scenes section, the revision history and discussion page for additional comments on this article's title.

At a Remembrance Day service attended by the Tenth Doctor, Martha Jones, and Tim Latimer, a Vicar recited an ode to the deceased of World War I. Its text included:

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again

They sit no more at familiar tables at home

They have no lot in our labour of the day time.

They sleep beyond England's foam

They went with songs to the battle.

They were young, straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow

They were staunch to the end against odds unaccounted

They fell with their faces to the foe

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We shall remember them

(TV: The Family of Blood)

Behind the scenes

• "For the Fallen", also known as "Ode of Remembrance", is a poem by Laurence Binyon, first published in The Times in 1914, just seven weeks after the beginning of World War I. It has become one of the most iconic "war poems" and is now heavily associated with mourning for the victims of war in general. It is never named in The Family of Blood, but enough of it is recited for it to be easily identifiable. However, the order in which the stanzas are recited is the "wrong order", relative to the real world. They are placed in this wiki in the order in which they were recited in Doctor Who, as per T:NO RW. Finally, in said recital, the first two lines of this poem were almost entirely drowned out by the music in the broadcast episode, however can be just about made out if one listens very closely or watches the unscored edit.
• The poem has multiple thematic meanings in the context of the story; referring to the fallen of the First World War, the ageless and imprisoned Family of Blood, and the Doctor and Martha, due to their status as time travellers, being ageless compared to those "who are left", and must experience time in a linear fashion. The thematic elements are bolstered by the visuals, with the greatly aged Tim Latimer looking on somberly at the still youthful attending figures of the Doctor and Martha, and the final shot of the story, with the elderly Tim Latimer holding out the Doctor's fob watch in a black gloved hand against a backdrop of bright red, was likely intended to resemble a Remembrance Poppy.
• During the Doctor Who: Lockdown! rewatch of The Family of Blood, author Paul Cornell retweeted a comment identifying the vicar who is heard to recite this poem with Reverend Annie Trelaw, who appeared in his Virgin New Adventures novel Happy Endings.