"I might do something stupid like eat a pear."

As anyone who watches Doctor Who probably knows, the best episode in the history of the show is the Human Nature/Family of Blood two parter. This was written by one Paul Cornell, who also happened to have written a Doctor Who novel called Human Nature in 1995 about the seventh Doctor. I'm reading this book right now, and while it is very clearly about a different Doctor, it is entertaining for me to see the things that carried over to the television version of this story.

For example, here is the list the Doctor leaves for his companion Bernice in the book:
Things Not To Let Me Do
1: Commit suicide, if for some reason I want to.
2: Do physical harm to anyone, if you're aware of it.
3: Eat meat, if you can.
4: Eat pears. I hate pears, I don't want to wake up and taste that.
5: Leave the area, or you, behind.
6: Get involved in big sociopolitical events.
7: Hurt animals, especially owls.
8: Develop an addiction.
9: Anything impossible.


Compare that with the following amusing (albeit slightly out of character around the middle) video from the deleted scenes of the actual episode:


As you can see, they sadly left out the part about the owls, but the pears at least made it to the deleted scenes.

Paul Cornell, you are my hero. One of these days I'm going to read your original novels and your comic books. And I sincerely hope that you'll write more Doctor Who episodes.