Sunday, May 29, 2011

Doctor Who: The Almost People

Spoilers ahoy!!!



So, did the Doctor's shoes dissolve when he sonicked fake Amy? Because he'd swapped them with the fake Doctor's earlier and as far as I could see he didn't swap back.

More importantly why did he sonic fake Amy? After an episode which tried to show that flesh versions of people were really no different to the regular people - so much so that a couple of flesh versions took over the lives of the regular humans at the end - the Doctor's melting of fake Amy seemed a little... harsh.

Anyway, I guess this episode of Doctor Who - the second part of the Rebel Flesh - will mostly be remembered for the last five minutes or so which was something of a game changer for this season (and which I've already spoiled above). Yet the rest of the episode was pretty decent too. Nothing wonderful, and it felt a little padded out, but reasonably thrilling, scary with a intriguing delve into what makes a human. The physical effects were pretty good although some of the CGI, such as when fake Jennifer turned into her monstrous form, were a little iffy. Some great characters and acting too - I especially like Cleaves, the leader of the group.

Still, it's that last little revelation concerning Amy that really ramped this up from an above average episode to an excellent one. It also means this "filler" episode was actually strongly linked to the series long storyline. So when was real Amy swapped for the ganger? When the Silence captured her? Or prior to that when Amy and Rory were on Earth sans Doctor? And why has the Eye Patch Lady taken Amy and so interested in her baby?

Next week it's the mid season cliffhanger and then a break over the summer. Unfortunately (well, sort of) I'll be on holiday so I won't see it until the week after. Eeek! I may have to steer away from spoilers until then.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

it was considered sort of alright because she was still being controled by a seperate concious while the rebel flesh had broken free and were left with there own minds, I think anyways.. Im guessing someone had kidnapped her put her on one of those tables to control a copy of herself to distract the doctor without her nowing while they try to steal her baby? but who knows theres been alot of twists.

S Bates said...

Yeah, that's my interpretation too.

Although the Gangers in this instance were special due to gaining independence after the solar storm (or whatever), it was inferred that even the standard remote-controlled gangers had some sort of consciousness. They all thought "Why?" just before they 'died', for instance. I thought that that was what Cleaves and the other bloke were going to tell the company that used the gangers - that they weren't just puppets but had a sort of life of their own.