A controversial opinion I know, but hear me out on this. Ask anyone online and they will tell you that Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks is one of the worst Doctor Who stories ever made whilst Human Nature/Family of Blood is universally regarded as one of the greatest Doctor Who stories ever made.

Personally I just don’t understand this? I hate to say this but I think a lot of it is received wisdom among fandom. Something gets a reputation for being great and lots of people will tend to go along with it and say its the best and overlook any of its faults. Similarly if it becomes received wisdom that something is bad then everybody will tend to focus on its faults and make out its worse than it actually is.

I feel this definitely applies to Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks and Human Nature/Family of Blood. A lot of the things that people slate the Dalek two parter for is not only true for Human Nature but to a far greater extent.

Don’t get me wrong I am not saying that Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks is the best Dalek story or a classic. Its okay it has some great ideas some bad ones, but overall its a far, far, far better story in my opinion than Human Nature/Family of Blood.

Neither story is deserving of the reputation it has and hopefully you will see that here as I run through the reason the reviled Dalek two parter is better than the sappy love story with Scarecrows.

1/ People slate Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks for its scientific inaccuracy.

One of the most common criticisms you will see online of the Dalek story is the way that radiation appears in the form of lightening at the end of the story.

Obviously this is nonsense, but really it doesn’t bother me that much. It would hardly be the first time that Doctor Who got something like that glaringly wrong would it?

Take a look at the Silurians. Its riddled with scientific inaccuracies. The Silurians themselves are inaccurate. Everyone knows that they couldn’t have come from the Silurian era, which was long before the age of the Dinosaurs which the Silurians obviously came from as they have pet Dinosaurs. In The Sea Devils they do try and rectify it by calling them Eocines. Only problem is that would mean they come from long after the age of the reptiles. The Silurians should be called Mezozics if anything.

As long as the stories are okay I don’t mind the odd scientific fault. Its science fiction after all.

However in Human Nature/Family of Blood the Doctor suddenly gains magic powers!

He is suddenly able to trap people in mirrors, turn them into scarecrows, and create unbreakable chains?

Why does this not bother fans but radiation as lightening in Daleks in Manhattan does?

Seriously people being trapped in mirrors with no explanation at all is fine, but a minor scientific goof is unacceptable?

The ending of Family of Blood bugs me because it turns the Doctor into a wizard. He might as well get magic powers in that story in fact he does!

Also I think tossing someone into a dying star would destroy them rather than trap them forever. Also how would tying someone up in unbreakable chains keep them alive forever anyway?

All that would happen is that they would die of starvation. Also remember the family were dying anyway. So how did these chains keep him alive forever? Unless they were enchanted chains there is no explanation that makes sense.

Bottom line is I find it extremely hypocritical when I see the Dalek story get ripped apart for not being right about radiation when the story everyone loves turns the Doctor in a bloody wizard who can trap people in mirrors, wrap them in magic chains that keep them alive forever and can toss people into dying stars that don’t kill them?

2/ People slate Daleks in Manhattan for having ridiculous monster. The Pig Men!

Now I agree that the Pig Men do look stupid, however in all fairness I think they are just a classic case of a reasonable idea let down by poor effects. They idea of Daleks creating human animal hybrids to serve as a slave labor force is fine, and the Pig men at least do have a certain B movie charm about them.

The Scarecrows however are a poor idea and poorly realized. To start with how scared are you going to be of a bag of straw? Seriously at least a homicidal pig man with tusks bearing down on you might be a cause for concern, but something made of straw. I’d just take it apart. How is it gonna apply any force to my neck to choke me?

Also its stupid the way there are hundreds of them. There is like one scarecrow normally in one giant field. So how the hell are there hundreds at once? Also why do they all look alike too? What did each farmer design their scarecrow exactly the same way?

Also how is that shooting them with bullets is enough to kill them, but putting your hand through one of them earlier did nothing?

The Scarecrows not only look stupid (whenever I see them shovel after people I just laugh) but they are a ridiculous idea too.

3/ People slate Daleks in Manhattan for making the Doctor unlikable

Now you will often see people criticize Evolution of the Daleks because it has the Doctor willingly hand over several humans for the Daleks to use in their experiments.

Thing is it is explicitly stated that the human beings minds have been wiped and that there is no way to return them to who they were.

Thus the humans are effectively dead.

Whether or not the humans can be restored is the first thing that the Doctor asks Dalek Sec and when he finds out that they can’t only then does he agree to help Sec.

Now you might find the Doctors actions a little bit iffy. After all the people whose bodies were used in the experiment’s families will have no idea what happened to them however I still think his actions can be justified at the same time.

Here the Doctor has a chance to change the Dalek race. The Daleks are the most advanced race in the universe, but unfortunately they are also the most ruthless. Sec however has found a way to harness Dalek intelligence but with human compassion and empathy. Why wouldn’t the Doctor want to help him? Think of what a benevolent Dalek race could accomplish.

Also would the Doctor not always if there was another way, rather help a species than drive it to extinction?

Finally what the Doctor is doing here it could be argued is better for the people being used in the experiments too. If he doesn’t agree to help Sec then their bodies will just simply rot down in the caverns beneath the Empire State Building.

However the Doctor is now giving them a second chance at life as even more intelligent creatures. Thus whilst his actions might seem somewhat callous he is actually working towards a greater good.

It wouldn’t be the first time that the Doctor has done something unethical for a greater good. In Rememberance of the Daleks he wiped the Dalek race from existence and destroyed an entire planet!

I might add in The Unquiet Dead the Doctor is willing to let the Gelth inhabit the corpses of the recently deceased as well in order to save them yet no one has a problem with that?

Still people slate Evolution of the Daleks because apparently the Doctor goes to far. At the same people praise Human Nature/Family of Blood for how dark it makes the Doctors character.

Ironically I find Human Nature/Family of Blood’s take on a dark Doctor to be far worse. Unlike Evolution of the Daleks there is no justification for his heinous actions.

He tortures aliens for no reason other than sadistic cruelty. Its not comparable to what he does to Borusa. With Borusa there is no other way to stop him and he doesn’t so much inflict it upon Borusa, just lets him wander into himself.

With the Family however he actually goes out of his way to torture them. Since when is the Doctor a torturer? Anybody listened to Masters of War? Its an audio story set in an alternate canon where the Doctor is played by David Warner.

Warner’s Doctor refuses to allow the Daleks to torture one of their captives. The alien that the Daleks wish to torture is a brutal monster that wishes to exterminate the Thals. Its so evil that the Doctor, The Daleks and the Thals have teamed up to stop it! The Doctor however still refuses to allow the Daleks to torture the alien and comes up with a way of making it talk without causing it any pain whatsoever.

What a shame that a What if audio story gets the Doctors character right more than one in the actual show. Warners Doctor seems more like the Doctor in that moment than the petty little sadist that the Tenth Doctor is at the climax of The Family of Blood.

Also the criticisms people level at Evolution of the Daleks apply to The Family of Blood too.

The people the family of blood possesseds’ relatives are not going to know what happened to them. The little girl who became the host of Daughter of Mine will never know what became of their little girl. They will never have a chance to bury her and will spend the rest of their life wondering if she is dead or not.

And why so that the Doctor can torture a child alien? Its not like Evolution of the Daleks where you could at least say that the Doctor is helping to redeem his worst enemies and making sure the people’s minds weren’t wiped for nothing.

In The Family of Blood the Doctor is not letting people bury their relatives or friends just so he can be a sadist.

Also I might add that the Doctor doesn’t even bother to check if the humans the aliens have taken over are still alive. They told Martha earlier that they weren’t but we never saw Martha tell him that and unlike in Evolution of the Daleks we don’t see him enquire about it.

So for all the Doctor knows those people could still be alive!

Finally I find this story also makes the Doctors human self John Smith into a complete cretin too. John Smith remember is meant to be created from the Doctor. He represents what the Doctor would be if he was a human and he is awful.

He is a racist who treats Martha like dirt, he also falls in love with a racist bitch Joan. And to top it all off he is okay with children being beaten over the most minor of things.

Now I know that John Smith is just meant to be a man of his time, but since when is the Doctor meant to be someone who just goes along with what everyone else thinks. That was the point of the character he fled from Gallifrey because he couldn’t stand the injustices and corruption of their society. In The Deadly Assassin we see how he is fed up of their nonsense.

Thus the human Doctor would be the same regardless of whenever he was born. He would be someone who stood out from the rest, someone who didn’t allow children to be beaten or people to be treated as inferiors just because of the color of their skin or gender.

Overall this story butchers the character of the Doctor turning him into a racist and a sadist. Why it doesn’t bother Who fans but the Doctor helping Sec does I’ll never understand.

4/ People Slate Daleks in Manhattan for its setting being pointless

Again this is another criticism I see online of this story that its setting is pointless. I disagree however I think that its setting is fitting for the story. The Daleks at this point are at their most desperate. They are lost, nearing the end of their time and even beginning to question their whole purpose in life.

Thus yes the depression era seems like quite a good place to set the story as it matches how the Daleks themselves are at that point. Also as the people are more desperate it allows the Daleks to exploit them too as is the case with Mr Diagoras.

This is one of the things I like most about the story is that everyone from the Daleks to the likes of Tallulah all feel lost and hopeless to some extent.

Once again however in Human Nature/Family of Blood this criticism is far more apt.

The setting in this story is not only pointless, but actually a huge plot hole too.

The Doctor is on the run from killer aliens and he is going to turn himself into a human and thus render himself completely defenceless if the aliens find him. Sure all he needs to do is open a watch, but if this watch goes missing (which it does) he is fucked.

So where does he choose to land. He has all of time and space remember. He could go to the year five billion. A time when mankind is easily able to defend itself and Martha wont get any racial abuse. Instead he decides to go to early 20th century where not only will Martha have to endure racist and misogynistic abuse, but the humans will have no way of defending themselves.

The Doctor looks like a complete moron for landing in 1912. It makes no sense for him to land at that point in time. The only reason he does is so that they can exploit the tragedy of the war for scenes that are supposed to tug at the heart strings.

Call me cynical but to me that’s all those scenes in Family of Blood about the war are there for. They make no point about the first world war other than “wasn’t it bad?”

Ironically Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks has more of a point to make about the great depression. We see how certain people thrive in desperate times like Mr Diagoras because they only look out for number 1. They are willing to do anything to get by, stab anyone in the back, exploit people who are desperate and keep whatever wealth they have for themselves. Others like Solomon meanwhile however who are willing to share and do all they can to make sure everyone is treated equally struggle more for those very reasons. This is even reflected in the Daleks themselves as we see how Sec tries to convince the Daleks to treat others equally and struggles to do so. Both stories present a very bleak image, but ultimately present us with some hope as both Solomon and Dalek Sec are presented as the way forward, good men who have to struggle in the face of overwhelming odds.

Family of Blood however like I said is just “War is bad”. It just shows us big scenes from the first world war to get us to cry and it does, simply because the first world war was a horrible event. That doesn’t mean that the story is moving itself. Anyone could show us something horrible from the past and make us upset. Unless you have something to say about it or unless there is a reason for setting the story in that time then to me its just sentimentality porn and that’s all Family of Blood is.

It has no reason to be set in that period of human history, in fact its a huge plot hole that it is, and it certainly has no point to make about the horrors of the first world war.

Yet among fandom Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks gets slated for its setting, whilst Human Nature/Family of Blood is praised for its?

5/ Daleks in Manhattan often gets slated for its ridiculous villains

Dalek Sec is often a source of ridicule among Who fandom. In all fairness he does look a bit silly. He looks like he has oily penises attached to his head. Still its not like Doctor Who has ever had a silly looking monster that’s let down a story is it?

Whilst Sec may have a stupid appearance he is a far more well rounded character than any of the villains in Human Nature/Family of Blood.

Sec is a great character. He is the reverse Davros. He is the Daleks one chance for redemption in all of eternity. There have been other Daleks that have inherited human qualities or seen the error of their ways, however these Daleks have never before or after Sec been capable of helping them.

The Metaltron was too disgusted at itself it destroyed itself. The 2nd Doctors humanized Daleks, Rusty, Dalek Caan and the Oswin Dalek meanwhile saw the Daleks as truly evil and tried to exterminate them.

Sec was the only one who embraced his humanity but actually believed that the Daleks were capable of changing and deserved a second chance.

There will never be another like him he is their once chance to in the Doctors words be lead out of the darkness that Davros dragged them into and they end up killing him for no reason.

Sec shows how truly beyond reason and hope they are. Even when it would be obvious to any remotely intelligent creatures that Sec’s plan was the only way they could survive the Daleks still cling to this ridiculous notion of conquering other races.

The Daleks themselves are brilliant in this story too. We see a combination of what makes them scary in both old and new who. We see how only a few of them are able to slaughter hundreds of people, but we also see a more sneaky manipulative side such as in their dealings with Diagoras. The story also captures their ruthlessness and unbelievable arrogance too.

Diagoras himself is also a good villain. A slimy , self server who came from an impoverished background, but who vows to never be in that position again at the expense of others.

I also love the way Diagoras fulfills the role of the devious human who works alongside the Daleks for his own ends only to usually be betrayed by them.

This was a feature of Classic Who Dalek stories that sadly has not been present in New Who apart from this story.

In The Daleks Masterplan we have Mavic Chen, In The Power of the Daleks its Lesterson and Bragen, in The Evil of the Daleks we have Maxtible and Waterfield, in Day of the Daleks we have the controller, in Frontier in Space the Master, in Death to the Daleks we have Galloway, in Genesis and many other classic who stories its Davros and in Resurrection we have Lytton whilst in Rememberance we have Mr Radcliff.

With Diagoras Evolution of the Daleks revives this wonderful trait of Dalek stories, and my only real problem with Diagoras is that he is not in it long enough. I wish more New Who Dalek stories would give us a Chen, Controller, DIagoras type character for the Daleks to play off of.

Stories like Doomsday, Asylum of the Daleks whilst brilliant feel as though they are lacking something without these types of characters.

Thus as you can see the villains in Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks are somewhat fleshed out and quite interesting in spite of Sec silly looking penis head.

The titular antagonists in Family of Blood meanwhile are just boring one note monsters. Seriously what is there that is even remotely interesting about them? They do have a motivation to steal the Doctors life, but there is no real reason for them to be as evil as they are. Why after they get what they want are they still going to kill John Smith? Why do they just kill people who have nothing to do with it and thus give the Doctor a warning that they are coming?

They are just cardboard cutout evil villains who laugh and snigger and kill children and puppies for the sake of it. I’d take Diagoras or Dalek Caan over them any day.

6/ Daleks in Manhattan gets slated for being unoriginal

People will often say that Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks is an inferior remake of Evil of the Daleks. Its true that there are some similarities between the two stories. Both feature Daleks attempting to humanize themselves as they have come to believe that human beings in some ways are superior. Human beings always despite their alien intelligence triumph over them. Both are also Dalek stories set in the past and both also feature the apparent end of the Daleks too.

However still I think that Evolution of the Daleks is able to put quite a new spin on the old idea of Daleks becoming humanized.

One could argue that The Parting of the Ways emulates Revelation of the Daleks just as much as both revolve around humans being turned into Daleks.

Human Nature/Family of Blood meanwhile are in my opinion gigantic cliches. How many times have we seen that plot. A  non human hero loses his powers and becomes human and falls in love with a woman and is happy he can finally live out a normal life with here. But oh no! Baddies show up and want to take over the world. What is he gonna do he has to choose between doing the right thing and living his happy life. Que “What the world needs now is a shining hero” speech from somebody. Either the woman he loves, a bystander or worst of all a child.

This is basically the plot of Superman 2 and the Angel episode “I Will Remember You” This story has been done to death a billion times and to be honest its always really cheesy and rubbish whenever they do do it. Superman 2 is the exception, but even then those bits are the worst in the movie to me.

Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks may borrow some elements from previous Dalek stories, but Human Nature/Family of Blood is to me a cheesy cliche.

Conclusion

As you can see a lot of the most common criticisms of the Dalek two parter not only apply to, but are actually more true of Human Nature/Family of Blood. Personally I think that its really just down to received wisdom that both stories have the reputations that they do.

Daleks in Manhatten/Evolution of the Daleks certainly is not even close to being one of the worst Doctor Who stories as far as I’m concerned.

Now I have been putting this one off for a while as I have mentioned the comparisons between Doctor Who and the Buffy franchise many times in the past as have many others.

Ultimately however you can’t not mention Buffy’s influence when talking about series that have helped shape the time lords adventures.

Overall Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin off Angel are probably the two biggest influences on the 2005 revival.

In this article we will be examining just what it is that the revival of Doctor Who owes to Joss Whedons classic series. At the same time however we will also be looking at what both Buffy and Angel took from the original Doctor Who series too.

Buffy and Angel’s Influence on Doctor Who

As we have explored in the past Russell T Davies really modeled the revival of Doctor Who on American genre series such as Smallville and Xena The Warrior Princess.

However Buffy and Angel his two favorites were always the largest influences overall and their influence can even be seen in the Moffat era.

The characters of Rose, Captain Jack and the Ninth Doctor all to some extent owe a little something to Buffy and Angel.

The Ninth Doctor much like Angel is someone who seeks to redeem himself for his past sins. Angel for the horrors he committed as Angelus the Ninth Doctor for the time war.

Both have similar dark, brooding personalities and both even dress the same way in a long dark coat.

Both the Ninth Doctor and Angel also fall in love with a blonde feisty teenage girl, Rose and Buffy.

Now obviously Rose and the Doctor owe a lot to Xena and Gabrielle too as I explored previously. However one should still not underestimate Buffy and Angel’s influence on them too.

Both Buffy and Angel and Rose and The Doctor are love stories that revolve around a cursed immortal in a long black coat who has done terrible things and at times is on the brink of going bad again who falls in love with a young blonde teenager. Both explore how their relationship on the one hand benefits the other but also how it leads to problems for them as well.

The second season of both series even sees one of them trapped in an alternate universe away from the other.

Thus whilst there is a lot of Xena and Gabrielle in the Doctor and Rose there are also elements of Buffy and Angel in there too.

The character of Rose certainly is created in the mold of Buffy. In many ways Rose could almost be seen as a British Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Like Buffy she is an everyday teenager that most people seem to think of as slow and vapid who is thrust into an unbelievable situation and proves how strong and resourceful she is. Both also are created to be more relatable characters who still go through everyday problems despite regularly saving the world from monsters. Even in terms of appearances the fact that they are both little blonde teenagers, normally the most helpless role in horror and science fiction movies is deliberate as both obviously reverse this idea and give the helpless little blonde girl a better image, as both regularly kill Vampires, blast Daleks, cut Demons heads off etc.

Captain Jack meanwhile again also owes something to Angel too. Much like Angel he is an immortal character with a dark past who later goes on to star in his own darker spin off series.

Captain Jack Harkness even when he was evil used to travel with a man played by James Marsters AKA Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, with Spike having been an old companion of Angel when he was evil.

Marsters even voices this Spike like character in the same cockney accent he used for Spike!

There is even a scene where Marsters character John Hart captures and tortures Jack Harkness that is similar to when he as Spike captures and tortures Angel.

Same scene with the same actor!

Its not just simply in terms of characterisation however that the revival owes a lot to Buffy.

The whole structure of the show is similar to how Buffy was structured.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer featured story arcs. Now obviously it was not the first to do this, but Buffy really created the Big Bad formula. This was where the story arc would revolve around one villain who emerged usually near the beginning of the season and became the main threat. This Big Bad would often be behind most of the story arcs that season and many other lesser enemies would often be mere minions and lackeys of the Big Bad.

Eventually this big bad would be defeated in the season finale and usually killed after which in the following season a new big bad would emerge and take their place and the formula would repeat itself all over again.

The revival of Doctor Who has followed this formula every single year. In series 1 the Daleks are obviously the Big Bad. In series 2 its the Cybermen and the Daleks again. In series 3 it is The Master. In series 4 it is Davros. In the specials it is Rassilon, in series 5 it is The Alliance. In series 6 it is The Silence. In series 7 it is The Great Intelligence. Finally in series 8 it is Missy.

The New series also mixes more soap operaish elements, such as Rose and Clara’s home life together with larger than life fantastical ideas which was a trait of Buffy the Vampire Slayer too.

Other classic fantasy and science fiction series like Star Trek, Xena The Warrior Princess, Babylon 5 and of course the original Doctor Who could never really be described as a soap opera. However Buffy at various points could, such as in the episode “The Body” which revolves around the death of Buffy’s mother through natural causes and only features one Vampire almost as a throwaway at the end.

Similarly New Who has featured many episodes where the soap opera elements are somewhat dominant. The most obvious example was from the latest season “The Caretaker” which revolved almost entirely around Clara’s work life, with the science fiction element being a simple robot that’s barely thought out and feels almost like its thrown in there.

Even the way many of the lead characters talk is similar to Buffy. New Who uses a lot of Buffy speak with the most obvious example being Moffat’s “Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey”. Anthony Stewart Head a prominent Buffy actor guest starred in an episode of the revival of Doctor Who and spoke in Buffy speak saying “kill the shooty dog thing”.

In terms of specific moments and storylines in the New series that come from Buffy well there are many to choose from.

The ending of “The Parting of the Ways” the first season finale of New Who is very similar to the ending of “Primeval” the penultimate episode of series 4 of Buffy. Both see the main heroine gain control of a virtually limitless power and use it on the main villain.

Both instances see the villain with their scientific weaponry become completely helpless in the face of the ancient power the heroine wields. Rose even gets the same weird eyes Buffy does.

The third series of both shows also features a villain who masquerades as a politician. The Mayor Richard Wilkins and Prime Minister Harold Saxon who is really The Master.

The Rift which debuts in Doctor Who and later became a prominent aspect of the spin off series Torchwood is very obviously inspired by the Hellmouth.

The Hellmouth in Buffy the Vampire Slayer is an portal built beneath Sunnydale that links our world with other hell dimensions. As a result Sunnydale is a hotspot for supernatural activity as not only do creatures from within the hellmouth pose a threat, but it also naturally draws in other supernatural creatures too.

The Rift meanwhile is a portal built beneath the city of Cardiff. It acts as a gateway between our world and multiple other realities. As a result of this Cardiff is a hotspot for paranormal activity with several creatures being drawn to and emerging through the Rift.

The first season finale of Buffy sees a villain open the Hellmouth and unleash an ancient Demon trapped within. The main character Buffy even dies, but ultimately comes back and saves the world. The first season finale of Torchwood similarly sees a villain open the Rift and unleash an ancient Demon trapped within. The main character Jack is even killed stopping it but he comes back nonetheless, of course he does its Jack!

In the second season Captain Jack meanwhile is buried under the ground by his brother. This is similar to Angel being buried under the ocean by his own son Connor at the end of Angel season 3.

Both instances involve a loved one torturing the main hero by trapping them somewhere where no one will find them.

I am not sure who gets it worse? On the one hand Angel goes mad and starts hallucinating from a lack of blood, whilst Jack would have died over and over again from starvation, dehydration and asphyxiation.

Another similar gruesome fate we see pop up in both series are what happens to Matthias Pavayne and The Family of Blood.

In the Angel episode “Hellbound” we are introduced to Pavayne played by one of my all time fave actors Simon Templeman. Pavayne is the ghost of a mass murdering psychopath who is able to avoid going to hell by sending other souls there in his place.

He soon sets his sights on Spike who at that point is a ghost and spends the entire episode torturing him both physically and mentally for fun before trying to send him to hell. Spike manages to escape from Pavayne’s home made torture chamber however and is later able to defeat him by knocking him into a device Angel investigations had tried to use to make Spike flesh again. Spike gives up his one chance to live again in order to save Fred whom Pavayne is choking in the process. Pavayne is rendered human again and is thus easily overpowered by Angel.

Angel can’t kill Pavayne as if he does then he will become a ghost again and they will never be able to stop him. So instead he has Pavayne imprisoned in a cell where Pavayne can not move, speak, feel or even blink, but he will be still be aware and he will live forever no longer needing food or water.

Thus Pavayne finally goes to the hell he so richly deserves.

In “Human Nature/The Family of Blood”  The Family are evil aliens who try and steal the Doctors life span in order to live forever. The Doctor later decides to punish them by condeming each of them to eternal torment. One of them, Son of Mine much like Pavayne is rendered unable to move, speak, or interact with the rest of the world forever.

Both villains punishments are eternal and are ironically inflicted upon them by the main hero. Both also have a somewhat delicious irony to them, with Pavayne finally going to the hell he has avoided for so long without even actually dying and the Family finally getting the eternal life they sought for so long.

Now it is true that the novel “Human Nature” was actually written years before Hellbound. However though the villains endure eternal torment their fates in the novel are still different. It is not the Doctor who deliberately inflicts their eternal damnation upon them. It happens by accident

Russell T Davies however who performed a huge rewrite on the tv adaptation of “Human Nature” has admitted that he drew from Pavayne’s horrific fate for the Family’s.

The Silence also look very similar to the Gentleman from Buffy too, something which has been commented on by fans of both franchises.

Finally a comparison can be drawn between the Daleks in the Davies era and the Old Ones in Buffy. Both the Daleks and the old ones were once the most powerful and evil creatures in all of creation. Their power was beyond what we could even conceive.

In both cases they vanished completely and faded into legend but now they are returning and if they do no one and nothing can stop them. If the Daleks rebuild their fallen race in the Davies era then not even the Doctor can stop them, which is why he is almost willing to destroy them in “The Parting of the Ways”. In Buffy meanwhile if the Old Ones manage to escape the hellmouth then not even Buffy can stop them they will tear everything down.

Thus both cases involve a villain who is so powerful that its not a case of how to stop them when they come back its a case of if they come back then nothing can stop them so the hero has to prevent that from happening.

As you can see the revival of Doctor Who borrowed quite a lot from the Buffy and Angel. Again though this is no secret as Russell T Davies has regularly cited both Buffy and Joss Whedon’s works overall as a huge influence on his career, particularly on his work on Doctor Who.

Davies has said that he feels Joss Whedon raised the bar for every writer on television not just genre writers through his work on Buffy.

Thus it has always been known that Buffy and Angel were big influences on the revival of Doctor Who. Of course  again it would be wrong to say that the new series of Doctor Who stole its ideas from Buffy as ultimately it managed to carve out its own identity but still it is definitely true that new Who particularly during Davies’ era owes a huge debt to the Vampire Slayer.

Doctor Who’s Influence on Buffy The Vampire Slayer

The original Doctor Who series was one of the many influences on Buffy The Vampire Slayer itself.

Joss Whedon the creator of Buffy has said that he was never a Who fan, however many other writers on the show were. David Greenwalt for instance a prominent Buffy writer was a massive Who nerd. Many prominent actors even who appeared in the franchise were Who fans. Anthony Stewart Head, James Marsters and Eliza Dushku.

Thus not surprisingly a few little bits and pieces from Classic Who as well as a few homages to the series popped up throughout both Buffy and Angel.

The most obvious similarity between the two series was the fact that both series have a recurring villain called The Master who dresses in black, has hypnotic powers and seeks to end the world.

Masters of all matter!

In the episode “Go Fish” the Gil men resemble the Silurians. The final scene where they return to the ocean is based on the sequence where the Sea Devils emerge from the ocean.

The Buffy season 3 episode “Choices” features a box of Doctor Who references in the box of Gavrok.

Gavrok is the name of the main antagonist in “Delta and the Bannermen”. Also the box is bigger on the inside than the outside like the TARDIS. Finally the giant spiders that live within are based on the Spiders from Jon Pertwee’s final story “Planet of the Spiders”. There is even a scene where one spider jumps on Buffy’s back that is a direct homage to the scene from “Planet of the Spiders where a Metebilis Spider jumps on Sarah Jane’s back.

Once again Buffy reverses a classic damsel in distress moment as whilst Sarah screamed and paniced at the sight of the spider Buffy remains calm and uses her weight to crush it to death.

In the season 6 episode “Smashed” Doctor Who is directly referenced when Andrew tells Spike he has seen every episode of Doctor Who, but not Red Dwarf as its not out on DVD yet.

In the second ever episode of Buffy “Witch” the villainous Catherine Madison is transformed into a living statue forever which is similar to Borusa’s a time lord who seeks immortality’s fate, when he is transformed into a statue.

In the Angel episode “Hero” we are introduced to the Scourge Demons who despise all of humanity and any Demons that are infected with humanity. They are based rather obviously on the Nazi’s and their leader resembles Davros the creator of the Daleks greatly. He even talks in a similar fashion to Davros and develops a weapon that can exterminate anything with even a hint of human blood, which is remincent of Davros’s hypothetical virus that he discussed with the 4th Doctor.

The Ilyria story arc in season five also has some similarities to the classic story “The Hand of Fear”. In “The Hand of Fear” we are introduced to Eldrad an ancient and powerful alien. Eldrad was once the most feared member of his kind but his people turned on him and killed him. His mind however survived and remained buried underneath the earth for millions of years until it is released and takes over Sarah Jane Smith the Doctors young companion. Eldrad after rebuilding its body eventually makes its way back to its home planet where it believes its army are waiting for it only to discover that in the millions of years it has been away its army and its entire kind have died.

Ilyria meanwhile is an ancient Demon who was once the most powerful member of her kind before they turned on and destroyed her. Her corpse was buried deep beneath the earth but her spirit survived and later manages to take control of Fred a friend of Angels millions of years later. Ilyria later returns to her home dimension where she believes her army are waiting to help her conquer the world only to discover that in the millions of years she has been away they have all perished and she is alone.

Queens of Nothing!

Incidently two Buffy comics would feature direct references to the revival of Doctor Who as well. One issue features the Tenth Doctor and Rose whilst another features the Vampire Harmony coming onto David Tennant at a party in London.

Joss Whedon’s Opinion of Doctor Who

Sadly Joss Whedon did not seem to think much of Doctor Who. He mentioned in a recent biography that contrary to popular belief he did not watch any British Science Fiction series such as Blake’s 7, Doctor Who or Red Dwarf.

This came as a shock to many of his fans as many had drawn comparisons between Blake’s 7 and his other series Firefly.

However Whedon’s harshest words were reserved for Doctor Who. He stated that he watched a single episode of it and thought it looked like it was filmed in his basement. He also described it as cheesy.

However it appears that he may have been won over. He has stated an admiration for Russell T Davies for bringing the show back and also when asked if he would be interested in writing for Doctor Who stated “The Doctor is dope” but then said that he had wanted to take a break from writing other people’s characters.

It should be noted that Whedon was only referring to science fiction series that he watched when he was younger so he may have become a Whovian in his later years or at least developed some respect for it.