Headscratchers / Doctor Who S29 E9 "The Family of Blood"

• Why, exactly does the Family of Blood deserve to receive a special, And I Must Scream punishment from the Doctor? Yes, they're monstrous, murdering, power-hungry individuals, but everything they did or planned to do over the story—seeking the Doctor as means of extending their life spans, invading Earth, killing people, taking over the bodies of others, intending to take over the universe—are all the same villainous M.O. of the numerous other enemies the Doctor has battled over the course of his adventures. Compared to the some of the heavy hitters of the Doctor's Rogues Gallery, the crimes of the Family are almost small potatoes. The Cybermen and Davros have the blood of trillions on their hands, the Master once destroyed a third of the universe, the Daleks once tried to destroy all of existence—and the Doctor's never locked them or any of the other villains he's faced in a prison for all eternity. They're not even the first or the last opponents to reject the Tenth Doctor's Don't Make Me Destroy You moment—all but one of his foes ignored that warning too, and in the case of the Family he never even it said it to them out loud. Why was it the Family and not any of his other foes that aroused such dark and dangerous feelings in the Doctor that he became afraid of his own wrath and decided the "kind" thing to do was to try and hide from them instead of fighting or warning them the moment he learned of their existence and plans for him? Why did he single them out for this punishment and not any of his other foes?
  • Might've been that he was making an example of them. It's heavily implied he knows at least something about them before he turns human (since he says they can sniff him out), so he may have known they'd never accept his option. Also, the Daleks and Cybermen are powerful enough he might not have been able to.
  • Additionally, even though he's no longer human, he still has all of John's memories. He was on the cusp of getting to live a normal, human life with the woman he'd loved (and the Doctor hasn't been in love for centuries—heck, maybe ever), he was going to have children and grandchildren (after the Doctor's lost his own, very probably not all that long before), and even though he'd given them a chance, they still insisted on coming after him and murdering innocents. It's entirely conceivable that he's really pissed that they forced him to abandon all that.
  • The way I see it, Ten's actions in regards to his opponents depends on (1) whether he or his loved ones have been crossed, and (2) his personal relationship with said opponent. In regards to #1, Ten kills a Sycorax king who tried to attack him from behind after losing a fair duel, but deposes Harriet Jones after she orders the Sycorax destroyed and justifies it on the basis that the Doctor can't always save the day. Jones crossed him, for arguably sympathetic reasons, and thus Ten sets in motion a series of events that denies Britain its golden age. Similarly, he freezes the Wire in a cassette tape after it tried to steal Rose's face off. In regards to #2, Ten tries to spare the Master and Davros for arguably selfish reasons, as the former was his best friend once and is his remaining tie to the Time Lords and, in the latter's case, he feels guilt over supposedly killing all the Time Lords and Daleks as the War Doctor. In the Family's case, Ten has no personal connection with them that would lead to him showing mercy (#2) and he has John's memories of seeing them try and kill Joan (#1), so he's much harder on them as a result. That and the show would be boring if the Doctor didn't fight his signature enemies, so he can't kill them permanently.
  • I've always interpreted it as the Doctor channeling John Smith's pain and rage at being unable to live his life. Perhaps he felt like he owed it to his alter ego, who is and was still a part of him.
  • Not just John's pain and rage, but also the Doctor's as well. Both of them wanted nothing more than to be John Smith and live that life.