purplecat

There is a lot of John Smith that is, if not admirable, than recognisable. He comes across as a good man of limited ability, but nonetheless with many parallels with the Doctor. (I'm not sure what Joan sees in him - a 'good husband' who will confirm and add solidarity to the pattern of her life? Or is it, as Martha suggests, that it's the otherworldiness, the echoes of the Doctor in the man he has left behind?) He's established in the first episode as a rather unimaginative product of his society, someone disturbed by his dreams, which are at odds with the person he believes himself to be in his day to day life, but kindly and prone to flashes of ingenuity. The challenge of facing the attack of the Family coincides with an attack on his identity itself, so when we see him mishandle the defence of the school, it's part of an attempt (perhaps) to dig a defensive trench around his own sense of identity. When this proves inadequate, all he can do is run and perhaps hope that the fact that he seems to be the target can draw the Family away from anyone else; but he is increasingly self-absorbed by this point.