The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People |
BBC The Rebel Flesh |
|
| Story No. | 237 | 
|
| Production Code | Series 6, Episode 5 | |
| Dates | May 21 2011 |
|
With Matt Smith,
Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill
Written by Matthew Graham Directed by Julian Simpson Executive Producers: Steven Moffat, Piers Wenger, Beth Willis. |
| Synopsis: On a remote island, duplicate workers are mining acid. |
The Rebel, Rebel Flesh by Charles Simon and his four year
old daughter, Molly
2/11/11
I have a feeling that most people didn't like this episode. I happened
to enjoy it a fair amount, but I think there was so much Gaiman fan-boyism
from the last episode that no one really paid attention to the lack of
character development and interest to see that Gaiman really just wrote a
Gaiman story and not a Doctor Who episode. And now, with a story
with development, pacing and moral decisions to be made (in other words,
classic Doctor Who), most fans forgot what an episode was supposed
to be like and instead pined over random good quotes about biting being
like kissing with a winner.
I hope that isn't true. But I somehow think that there won't be much
love for this episode because it followed Gaiman's tribute to Gaiman.
The episode was penned by Mathhew Graham, who co-created "Life on Mars"
and "Ashes to Ashes". He also wrote the really shitty second series
episode, Fear Her, but found much more of a place
with this script.
It is a two-parter episode and I usually like non-Moffat two-parters.
The classic Who episodes were serials and often had cliffhangers
(just as predictable as this one's) as we needed to wait until next week
to find out what was going on. Moffat's two-parter's aren't bad, but are
very rarely consistent in theme and mood and might as well be two
different stories.
But the cold opening of the episode was nice. It really was a
brilliantly disturbing scene to see how casually everyone dealt with the
death of one of the workers. This also set up the attitudes that will
propel the story later: these are things, casually discarded as carelessly
as worn gloves by the workers.
Anyhow, the Doctor plans on dropping off Amy and Rory for a little
while (to get some fish and chips) as he has business to do. A solar
tsunami (really?!) blows them to this location, however. And we find that
there is a living plastic "flesh" that the workers use to create
doppelgangers (or gangers) of themselves to work in dangerous conditions
with. Well, of course, things go wrong and the gangers seem to be able to
live on their own, keeping the memories and personalities of their
counterparts. So, the morality here is, are they alive? What is alive? Are
they soulless machines with just some AI that lets them believe they are
alive? Or are they sentient beings? And what exactly does being alive
mean? The gangers have just as vivid memories and attachments to their
counterparts in every way, including a bond with their counterpart's
children.
Of course, things go wrong and some clod of a character starts a war
and the episode ends with the Doctor having a ganger of his own,
making his decisions on life and identity more personal leading into the
next episode. But that's just how Doctor Who works.
Anyhow, less about the plot and more about a few specific things:
First of all, as much as I've been railing about the Amy/Rory jealous
stories as intellectually lazy, there was a prime chance to play it up in
this episode and they didn't. There was an attraction between Rory and
Jennifer and Amy didn't freak out or whine. In fact, it made sense.
Firstly, Rory is a nurse. It stands to reason that he'd be drawn to help
the vulnerable character, even as the Doctor chastises him and tells him
not to. This is character development, folks. Rory is finally getting some
personality other than dying every week to make Amy's plight seem worse.
But secondly, Rory spent 2000 years as a plastic Auton, convinced that,
because of his memories and feelings for Amy, that he was human and his
identity was valid. It stands strongly to reason that he would be drawn to
defend Jennifer and the plight of the gangers. And you know what the best
part of this is? It was all played without Amy being jealous (at least so
far, there is a second half that could fuck this up).
Second, I am wary about something meta-plotwise in this episode. First
of all, the Doctor knew about the living flesh before arriving. It stands
to reason he was intentionally going there. Was this where he was planning
on going after dropping off Amy and Rory? If so, I am really very cautious
about making a ganger Doctor to go and die in his place (from The Impossible Astronaut). That would
just be too lazy of a way around the season's story arc. There are a lot
of reasons why it doesn't seem to work (memories; all of the future
off-stage experiences that he had with River would have been as a ganger
thus demeaning their relationship; the similarities to the intellectually
lazy way of creating a Doctor Mark II sex doll to give to Rose to end that
storyline), and I hope that they do not go there. But I am worried.
Third, why the hell (other than plot convenience) does the next
century's military need to mine for acid? I mean, does acid become really
incredibly useful? That just seemed like such an odd thing to have such an
intense factory mining operation to be built around.
Molly: (Molly is next to me as I do this. Because of her age, her
portion will be as a Q&A format and I'll type what she says as she says it
and format it later.)
Chuckie: So, what did you think about the episode, The Rebel
Flesh?
Chuckie: No, the Rebel Flesh. That was what the episode was called.
Chuckie: Yes, well, this episode of Doctor Who was called The
Rebel Flesh.
Chuckie: So, what did you think of it?
Chuckie: What did you like about it?
Chuckie: What games were they playing?
Chuckie: You mean darts?
Chuckie: You liked that they were playing darts in the TARDIS during
the opening?
Chuckie: Was there anything else that you liked about the episode?
Chuckie: (laughs) Wow. You remembered me talking about crap in other
episodes, huh?
Chuckie: What happened in this episode?
Chuckie: Wow. Is that it?
Chuckie: Yeah. But can you tell me a little about the gangers?
Chuckie: Well, one of them is a ganger, right?
Chuckie: But tell me about the gangers. What do they want?
Chuckie: Yeah, okay.
Chuckie: What do you mean?
Chuckie: Oh. Do you think Amy should be jealous?
Chuckie: Well, no, but they're married.
Chuckie: Oh. You should let mommy know that. Daddy's been arguing that
with her for a while now.
Chuckie: Okay, sweetie.
Chuckie: So, who should Rory be with?
Chuckie: And what about Jennifer, the other girl?
Chuckie: Then she shouldn't kiss Rory?
Chuckie: Well, this is coming from a girl with five boyfriends.
Chuckie: Sorry. Anyhow, what happened at the end of the episode?
Chuckie: What do you think will happen in the next episode?
Chuckie: Well, hopefully. So, Pixie, how would you rate this episode?
Chuckie: Wow. That's a lot. You're starting with moons and not stars?
Chuckie: Okay. Out of how many?
Chuckie: Okay.
Chuckie: Out of how many?
Chuckie: Okay, anything else?
Chuckie: I guess so. Out of how many?
Chuckie: You know that you gave more stars, moons and suns than it was
out of, right?
Chuckie: Out of the episodes you've seen this season, where do you put
it?
Chuckie: Very good, Sweetie. Daddy likes to get the whole story first
too.
Chuckie: Yeah. So, anything else that you wanted to say about this
episode?
Chuckie: You really don't like to go out on a ledge, do you, Pixie?
Chuckie: Fair enough. Is that it?
Chuckie: Yeah, you've got it down how it works, don't you?
So, that's our review. I thought that this was more of a return to
classic Doctor Who episodes, even if it did steal a bit from "the
Thing". Graham did much better this time around than with Fear Her and it was nice to see Chris Skelton banging
about, even if it wasn't Ray or Gene bossing him around. Since it's a
two-parter, I have some reservations since the story could always go to
crap, but I am actually rather hopeful this time around. I'm just hoping
that this isn't a silly means of wrapping up the "Doctor dies" storyline.
I give it three and a half stars out of five. There was character
development that made some semblance of sense as well as an intentional
aversion to the cliched marriage-jealousy storyline which could have
easily been a factor in this episode. We'll see how the next episode goes
though. I could see it knocking this rating up or down a half-star
depending on how it pans out. But mostly I was happy to see a return to a
more classic Doctor Who storyline.
Molly: What's a rabble flash?
Molly: No, it's called Doctor Who.
Molly: Oh.
Molly: I liked it.
Molly: Um, that... that... that... um, well... that... um... um...
that they was playing games.
Molly: That one like were you throw that fuzzy thing with the point on
it at the circle with the black thing on it.
Molly: Mm-hm.
Molly: Yeah.
Molly: No. It was full of... (She pauses, then reaches up and pulls my
head to her ear to whisper the next word to me) ...crap because they
didn't explain anything.
Molly: They didn't explain why they was goop.
Molly: Um, well, they couldn't control the TARDIS and they were
traveling with no control of anything and they found a new world and there
was acid in the tubes and there was people like, then there was an alarm
and they said "Don't move" and then the Amelia Pond talked to them and the
people were on the machines that made their arms stick out and they found
that girl and they, um, like, Rory and her went into the bathroom and she
broke the mirror and she turned into a snake body and then, um, Rory ran
and he got out of the place and she said, "Rory, where are you? Rory,
where are you?" and she, um, Rory was behind the place and she went and
looked and she said she was stronger than me, well, the me with the same
name and she looked in the mirror.
Molly: Mm-hm. I knowed a lot, right?
Molly: Oh, and I kind of forgot about this stuff... and they, well,
the Doctor touched the goop and like hard goop and the gangers made new
people and the Doctor like the other people now is two people.
Molly: Mm-hm.
Molly: They, um... the girl ganger?
Molly: Rory.
Molly: (She grabs my head and pulls it down to her mouth to whisper in
my ear.) She wants to kiss him.
Molly: Not Amy. Amelia Pond. And no. They both like him. It's not like
they're boyfriend and girlfriend.
Molly: So? You can be married and still have a girlfriend.
Molly: They both like him!
Molly: And it's not like Amelia Pond and Rory walked down a red
carpet. And she called him stupid head.
Molly: Amelia Pond.
Molly: She can get one of the boy gangers.
Molly: No. That's still okay.
Molly: Daddy! The cats can hear you.
Molly: There was a ganger of the Doctor. And we have to wait for the
next episode.
Molly: They'll tell us what's happening and it won't be full of crap.
Molly: Um, eight million ninety-nine moons.
Molly: Start with moons.
Molly: Out of six.
Molly: Sixty-six stars.
Molly: Out of ten.
Molly: Um, eight-sixty-six suns. Then it would be very bright outside.
Molly: Out of ten.
Molly: Mm-hm. Because I liked it very much.
Molly: In the middle. Well, wait. I don't know yet. There was some
crap in it, but there was also some not crap in it too. But there's going
to be a next one. I'll need to find out the next one then I'll know how
much crap was in it once it's all over.
Molly: You mean, do what I did?
Molly: I think the people who watch Doctor Who would like this
episode.
Molly: No. I don't want to fall.
Molly: We have to find out if Amelia Pond is pregnant or not pregnant.
I think we'll find out in the last episode.
Molly: Mm-hm.
Molly gives it eight million ninety-nine moons out of six, sixty-six
out of ten stars and eight sixty-six suns out of ten. She also would have
thought that this would be a middle-of-the-pack episode for this season so
far, but she wants to wait to see the conclusion to see if there is either
crap or not crap involved in the story resolution.