Doctor Who:
The Rebel Flesh/ The Almost People
By Matthew Graham
"Don't be. Hold on. We're coming for you. I swear it. Whatever happens, however hard, however far, we will find you."
When I heard the news that
Matthew Graham was writing an episode for Doctor Who a two parter in fact I was
eager to see this story by the Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes creator and writer
but then
my memory recalled back to the
David Tennant episode Fear Her and then I was a bit hesitant on seeing the
Rebel Flesh. So far after watching part one my fears were succumbed by an
excellent episode. So far this season
Steven Moffat has crafted a season with dark and scarier episodes with a lot of
weird stuff thrown in. I tend to like
those episodes the scarier the better.
Matthew Graham has delivered your
typical old school Doctor Who episode where there is a sentient race that wants
to continue existing and will stop at nothing to get it including killing the
humans. But this one is slightly
different as it is a race of clones that get sentient from a cosmic storm
accident that makes the clones permanent.
That's when things get really intense and pretty scary as the clones are
now out and about and want to make the humans disappear.
I really liked this story as it
was pretty easy to follow and like I mentioned already it had the feel of an
old style Doctor Who story. The effects
were pretty good as there was some good scenery of the castle with some nice
CGI effects of the storm wreaking havoc in the sky. It was good to see that Rory actually had
something worthwhile to do besides getting killed. So far this season his character seemed to be
regulated to 2nd fiddle. So it was good
to see him be the main companion and see Amy be regulated to the bullpen.
This part of the story was pretty
well done but there is still the second part of the story to go and well it
kind of doesn’t hold up. The Rebel Flesh
did have a pretty cool cliffhanger. How
many of you were shaking your head in amazement at what was revealed as the
doppelganger of The Doctor was revealed.
The second part of this two part story is The Almost People and
unfortunately it won't be remembered for its good storytelling or character
development or the weird looking CGI creature that one of the Gangers turns
into. No unfortunately it will be remembered
for what happens in the final 5 minutes.
Now I really enjoyed The Almost
People but not as much as the Rebel Flesh.
I thought the Almost People kind of dragged on in parts. Yes I thought it was good to see the Gangers
struggle with their new found humanity but thought a lot of that went on a bit too
long. Still it was an important part of
the story that needed telling and would also determine how things got resolved.
The best part of The Almost
People was watching the two Doctors interact with each other. These scenes were
actually pretty funny and helped break up the scary scenes in The Almost
People. You actually get to see how good
of an actor Matt Smith really is when you see the Ganger Doctor having mental
problems trying to cope with being a Time
lord duplicate. Keep your ears
open for Tom Bakers voice at this part.
Most notably when Amy goes out to help him and the Ganger Doctor, or is
it, just snaps due to being able to hear the Fleshes thoughts. The Almost People truly is one of Matt
Smith's best performances to date.
Arthur Darvill's Rory finally
gets to do a lot more than just die and be resurrected. Rory for one gets to do some adventuring for
himself and we get a hint of what type of character he is. Since he is a nurse we learn that Rory is on
the side of the Gangers and wants them to live and not be melted. Especially when he sees the Ganger rejects
dump pile. Imagine seeing a whole pile
of Ganger Flesh in a big pile with eyes staring at you. My son found that scene pretty scary.
I was pretty much enjoying this
story as it has continued on with the scary and creepy and spooky elements that
have been the norm of this season so far.
I liked the old fashion Doctor Who aspect of it as it is that familiar
Doctor Who theme of humans oppressing its workforce and not seeing that it is
sentient and it's up to the Doctor to set them free. But what was kind of silly was when the
Jennifer Ganger all of a sudden morphed into a flesh creature or something. Just like in the Rebel Flesh when she was
able to make her neck stretch out and attack Rory this time she morphed into
this killing super creature. I thought
the creature looked pretty lame and wished that they came up with something
better.
Now for the part that the fans
were talking about at least until A Good Man Goes To War. Well it appears that in the linking part of
the episode that leads into next week’s episode is that Amy is not actually Amy
but in fact she was a Ganger. The real
Amy is most definitely pregnant and about to deliver a baby in some sort of
prison with the eye patch lady looking on from behind the door.
What a good cliff hanger one that
I was not expecting at all. It is a
credit to Karen Gillan acting ability to see the turmoil in her Gangers final
moments before the Doctor melts her.
Back in 2011 the speculation was
going crazy as to when was Amy taken away from the Doctor but my guess was when
the Silence kidnapped her back in Day of the Moon. But who knows at the time it was fun
speculating on it until we found out in A Good Man Goes to War.
Grade B -
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