Doctor Who 6x06: The Almost People

[kerravonsen]

Extremely quick reaction to the end:

Oh my goodness!

Full reaction later, I'm going out to tea.

---

LATER...

In a way, this makes me think of "Cold Blood", where the events of the last five minutes of the episode overshadowed everything else.


Whoa! Amy wasn't Amy! She was Flesh! That's why she's pregnant and not-pregnant, and why she kept seeing the one-eyed lady. That explains a whole lot. It also explains how Amy could be the little girl's mother after all, because the real Amy has actually been gone for months. I would assume, therefore, that when Amy was kidnapped by the Silence, she was in fact never rescued, but the person they rescued was Fake!Amy.

However, the timing of it all doesn't make sense, not unless the Silence had time travel, or that Amy was kidnapped by someone else at some other time instead. Mind you, people have already argued that the Silence did have time travel, that they had the same setup as from The Lodger, due to similarities of sets.

I'm still going "Blblblblblb oh my goodness!"

Okay, the other parts of the episode, anti-climactic though they be in comparison...

I knew the boots were significant! However, I have to give kudos to the author for inverting the trope; that the Doctor had deliberately swapped boots and then drew attention to to the boots. Very clever.

And very clever acting on the Doctor's part, when he was alone with Amy and going postal about the "Why?" I don't think Amy quite said that she'd seen the Doctor die, however. I'm not sure whether he would deduce it from what she said, or whether he had other things on his mind and didn't notice.

There was a certain amount of handwaveyness:
* magic cure for blood clot
* magic stabilization of the Flesh people (while not magically stabilizing Fake!Amy, mind you)
* Somehow, I doubt that one press conference would solve everything, but hey, it's a start.

I liked the "I'll do anything" "Be a Dad" deathbed exchange. Even though it was completely predictable. Hey, there are only five plots, or whatever it is...

Regarding Jennifer, what I think happened was that there were three Jennifers:
1) Real-Jennifer went outside and died
2) Friend-Jennifer was the original Ganger of Jennifer, who was closest to Jennifer's real personality; she made friends with Rory.
3) Revenge-Jennifer was actually one of the pile of discarded Flesh that was still alive, and she escaped when the power went down, and joined the other Gangers.

I like the remark of the Boss-Lady-Ganger that revenge would make them monsters and she didn't want to live in a world full of monsters.
Of course, being Doctor Who, they had to turn Revenge-Jennifer into an actual monster to drive the point home.

So, we have the potential of there being a Ganger-Doctor wandering around. I wonder if they will follow that up or not? If they don't, I'm sure the fans will. In fact, I'm sure the fans will follow it up whether or not TPBP do.

One thing I'm confused about:
* at the start of the episode, the Doctor wanted to sideline Amy and Rory
* at the end of the episode he says it was because he wanted to figure out how to break the signal (between Real!Amy and Fake!Amy)
* but that implies that the Doctor knew all about the Flesh already
* but it also seemed quite clear that they landed on that island by accident.
* Or is this another case of the TARDIS taking the Doctor where he needs to go?

Some remarks about SFX/Prosthetics/Makeup - the look of the melty-face Gangers was very similar in some ways to the possessed people in "The Waters of Mars" - did anyone else notice that? Something about the mouths and the eyes.
Secondly, the monster-Jennifer was very reminiscent of the monster-Lazarus in "The Lazarus Experiment". Maybe it was just that it was done by the same people.

Comments

[tptigger]

I'm not sure whether he would deduce it from what she said, or whether he had other things on his mind and didn't notice.
He makes a comment in the final scenes about the Ganger inviting everyone to the next death? Or something like that, I picked it up on the second viewing.

And the melty ganger faces reminded me more of Changelings from Deep Space 9.

[kerravonsen]

And the melty ganger faces reminded me more of Changelings from Deep Space 9.
Oh, you're right!

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

The one thing I haven't seen people discussing about this episode is how the Doctor repeatedly seems to know that things are going to happen before they happen--he makes a "telephone ringing" noise before the dude's kid calls, and there are couple other instances.

Have we ever seen him do that before? Maybe that's why he wanted to sideline Amy and Rory, because he somehow knew that's where the TARDIS was going to end up next?

[kerravonsen]

I'm not sure that that's what's happening. If you could recall what the other instances are, I would have more data points, but I'm certain that the telephone-ringing isn't a case of knowing things are going to happen before they happen - because he pre-booked that phone call himself, so of course he would know what time he booked it for.

That possibly begs the question, since we are then left with the puzzle of why he knew that phone call would be required at just that moment.

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

because he pre-booked that phone call himself,

I don't remember that bit, I must have missed. Rewatch time! :)

I think the other bits that twigged me were in the first episode, when he mentions the cockerel, and says something like "I never thought I'd get to say that again." And another one in this episode, but yeah, I shall have to rewatch to remember. But that made three instances where I thought he knew something he maybe shouldn't have, so I noticed it. Perhaps I was trying too hard to see patterns at that point.

[kerravonsen]

Another thing about the telephone-ringing is that, if you consider that he pre-booked it, then him carrying on about "do I hear a phone ringing" is a delaying tactic, because he knows that the phone call is booked for N minutes from now, which means he has to keep them all there until it comes.