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Doctor Who: The Rebel Flesh

Doctor: 'Human lives are amazing. Are you surprised they walked off with them?'

Matthew Graham's first effort at a Doctor Who script ('Fear Her') was an anomaly in that, despite Graham's impeccable writing pedigree, it was absolute tosh. No writer, no matter how talented, can pull off a scribble monster. True, the minuscule (some may say non-existent) visual effects budget didn't help matters—but it was still pretty bad. Thankfully, tonight's episode went a long way toward making amends. It wasn't perfect, but I didn't herniate myself from weeping at it either—which is always a bonus.

'The Rebel Flesh' was always going to struggle, coming as it did after 'The Doctor's Wife' (AKA my new favourite episode ever!) The idea of using 'inferior' beings as slave labour isn't a new one—it was used to great effect in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, a film which also explored the issue of identity and what it means to be human. In the case of the Gangers, the matter was further complicated by them being exact replicas of their 'parents'. They were mirror images of their human counterparts—inside and out—making them indistinguishable from the real thing.

If the flesh, memories and personalities are the same, then what (if anything) sets them apart? What makes them less human? If Cleaves and Co had pondered on that, instead of reacting to the perceived threat, maybe they'd have realised the Gangers had as much right to live as they did. They weren't monsters—at least, no more than they themselves were. Maybe Cleaves realised that from the start, and that's what frightened her. The human's hatred of the Gangers felt somewhat akin to racism—there was just no rhyme nor reason to it. They feared them because they were different, and likewise the Gangers feared the humans because they'd inherited their parents' mental disposition.

The plot itself was a traditional base under siege yarn, the twist being, rather than escaping from some outside alien threat, the enemy was very much of their own making. In fact, in many respects, they were fighting against their own ignorance and prejudices. The enemy knew them as well as they knew themselves, so it'll be interesting to see who outwits whom. (Or even who outwits Who.) Would they have turned on each other so suddenly and so absolutely? I'm not so sure. Cleaves is clearly something of a bigot and a control freak, yet her doppelgänger seems more self aware, more sympathetic, and infinitely better at reading Cleaves than Cleaves is at reading her. She didn't react favourably to doppel-Jennifer's call to arms, either. Maybe doppel-Cleaves is evolving. She certainly seems the more human of the two.

Rory seems to have taken a shine to Jennifer, and Jennifer certainly wasn't shy in making her feelings for Rory known. Finally, someone who sees Rory for who he is. After Sexy calling him pretty last week, Rory's sex symbol status seem to have sky-rocketed. I'm not sure Rory fancies Jennifer per se, I suspect it's more his nursing instincts kicking in and an innate desire to protect the weak, but Rory was something of a revelation tonight. He put himself in the firing line to save Jennifer—he even risked his life leaving the chapel sanctuary to go in search of her. What will Amy make of that, I wonder? She didn't seem to know what to make of Rory's protectiveness tonight.

Which brings us to the Doctor. How did he know that the crew were using earlier technology? Earlier than what? (I know, earlier than later technology, but how does he know about the later technology—unless he's actually been later?) Despite, ostensibly being there by accident, how comes he knows so much about what's going on? And why did he try and dump Amy and Rory at the chip shop, before the TARDIS was 'unexpectedly' hit by the solar tsunami? It's almost as if he wanted to go alone. But why? Because the TARDIS always takes him where he needs to be—or was it something more premeditated?

Admittedly, the Doctor's doppelgänger turning up wasn't much of a surprise. (Although it was a surprise that he looked like Odo. ) Now that we've been introduced to the Doctor's Ganger (and the technology spawning him), can we start to speculate on what happened back in episode one? Was the Doctor who died a doppelgänger from the future? Or is that too simple for the Moff?

Other Thoughts:

—Was the Doctor's accent supposed to be Yorkshire? Isn't Marshall Lancaster from Macclesfield?

—Caerphilly Castle added a lovely Gothic charm to the story.

—Did the vats of living flesh remind anyone else of the resurrection technology from Battlestar Galactica?

—Eye patch woman had a brief cameo again this week. Weird!

—I wonder if the Doctor's boots rotting in the acid will have any future significance? His doppelgänger is still wearing his boots. Is that the only way we'll be able to tell them apart?

—Amy's pregnancy test is still swinging to and fro from positive to negative. Surely the Doctor knows what's going on by now?

—Wow.... that was some dodgy CGI. That head on a stalk looked decidedly shoddy. And the less said about Mr. Fantastic's arms, the better.

—Why did Dicken keep sneezing?

—Loved Amy kissing Rory's finger better. Awww.

—Since the Doctor and Rory seem to be Dusty Springfield fans, I'm guessing Amy's the Muse fan? Rock on, Amy!

—Why does a crashing TARDIS make the same sound as a crashing prop plane?

Quotes:

Doctor: 'Text book landing.'

Amy: 'Oh, we've gone all medieval.'
Rory: 'I'm not sure about that.'
Amy: 'Really? Medieval expert, are you?'
Rory: 'No, I can just hear Dusty Springfield.'

Rory: 'My mum's a massive fan of Dusty Springfield.'
Doctor: 'Who isn't?'

Doctor: 'There are people coming. Well, almost.'
Amy: 'Almost coming?'
Doctor: 'Well, almost people.'

Doctor: 'I can see why you keep it in a church. The miracle of life.'
Buzzer: 'No need to get poncey. It's just gunge.'

Amy: 'Doctor, Rory.'
Doctor: 'Rory?'
Amy: 'Rory!'
Doctor: 'Oh Rory... always with the Rory!'

Doctor: 'I've got to get to that cockerel before all hell breaks loose. I never thought I'd get to say that again.'

Jennifer: 'My name is Jennifer Lucas. I'm not a factory part.'

Rory: 'Are you sure you're feeling better? No more super-elastic punches?'

Doctor: 'Yes, it's insane. And it's about to get even insanerer.'
---
Also posted at The Time Meddler.

11 comments:

  1. I thought this was a good episode, but too creepy and icky for me! I have a terrible fear of acid too. Best writing for Rory I've seen yet though - and I hope he points out the whole '2,000 years as a plastic Roman' thing next week.

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  2. "It'll be interesting to see who outwits whom. (Or even who outwits Who.)"

    Paul, you are a prince among men. Objectively speaking, of course.

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  3. "And why did he try and dump Amy and Rory at the chip shop, before the TARDIS was “unexpectedly” hit by the solar tsunami? It's almost as if he wanted to go alone."

    I assume(d) the Doctor just wants to have the Ponds out of the way. That he wants to work on the pregnancy case without having to hide.

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  4. I thought Rory was written brilliantly last night. Of course, I like him so much better than Amy. (And the TARDIS agrees with me.) But, I was also hoping for a callback to him being a 2000 year old Plastic Roman soldier as well. We know that he remembers it.

    It's going to be a long two weeks.

    Kat

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  5. Well, it seems like my "two Doctors" theory just got confirmed. I bet they would both survive the next ep.

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  7. I called the Doppelganger idea for Episode 1 FROM Episode 1...Haha I win. Maybe that's just from playing a doppelganger in D&D for two years...

    I actually wasn't particularly fond of this episode, and not just because it was riding on the heels of one of the best episodes since 'Turn Left.' It was a little too choppy for my taste. It had too much and yet too little information, even for the first half of a two-parter. I do believe the sneezes are significant. I didn't get why Mad Eye Moody made a silent split-second appearance without even talking to Amy this time. Solar flares? Acid? Rory's suddenly as desirable as Captain Jack? Plus 'the enemy is human-made' sort of plot was a little mehh-ish (if you'll pardon the invention of a new word) for me. I liked it better the way it was presented in 'The Beast Below.'

    Then again, as you well know, I'm extremely picky about my Who, and I'm still not sold on Moffet-era being superior to Davies-era.

    By the way, did anyone notice how the armor of the doppelgangers looks like human-sized Sontaran armor? The dome-shaped heads, the giant shoulder shields, and the segmented abdominal shield? Am I just being paranoid?

    New proposition on Mad-Eye: she's the regenerated Little Girl from the second episode. Not sure of her motives for stalking Amy from a parallel dimension, though.

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  8. Wasn't my favourite episode but I did like the Confidential for it though.

    Good use of Rory in this one.

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  9. Hmm the siren took a tissue sample from the docotr (the black spot), there are two bodies made of sewn up time lord flesh on an asteroid at the end of the universe and there is a technology able to grow gangers. So even if the Doctor's gagner can't regenerate someone could make a perfect duplicate using the components from the previous two episodes. Also River told us in ep 1 that Time Lord DNA is highly desirable commodity. I sense a pattern. ;)

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  10. I have to say, I am beginning to prefer Rory over Amy as well...the sneezes - yup, too obvious to be superfluous...Patryk, interesting observations...Doctor: "I've got to get to that cockerel before all hell breaks loose. I never thought I'd get to say that again." - best quote. Loved his face when he said that, pure childish joy.
    I end up reading your reviews before I see the episode because I have to wait until they are available on-demand, and usually it is a good thing, because I miss a lot of the good lines due to me not quite being able to understand with the accents (accents to my ears, anyway)...so when I read the review first, I "get" the line!

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  11. While this 1st part of the 2 part story does work in the overall story arc of the season, it wasn't much fun to watch, although I agree with most here that Rory had some of his best lines ever in this one.

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