Mark Watches ‘Doctor Who’: S06E05 – The Rebel Flesh

In the fifth episode of the sixth series of Doctor Who, a solar tsunami sends the TARDIS to Earth during the 22^nd Century, where a group of humans have found a method to use matter to “program” living humans, and then everything is either really confusing or really creepy. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Doctor Who.

Well, that was fucking weird, wasn’t it?

First off, it must be said that I was so incredibly excited to see Marshall Lancaster’s face in a Doctor Who episode and then, just minutes later, see Matthew Graham’s name attached to the writing credit. Not too long ago, I decided to binge through Life On Mars along with my friend Jessica, who had seen the show many times and knew I’d enjoy. Actually, hell, this is how awesome of a friend she is: She made sure that I watched the original episodes as they aired so that they included the proper songs that were initially intended to air, instead of the newer version that replaces many of the songs. (THIS MATTERS, FYI, IF YOU ARE GOING TO WATCH THIS SHOW.)

Now, I’m not setting this up as some sort of piece about how much I loved Life on Mars and how much I was disappointed by this episode, as that’s not the case at all. But I am still about confused about how I feel in general. However, after sleeping on the story, I think I’m able to express what I’m feeling about “The Rebel Flesh” a lot better than the incoherent thoughts that ran through my brain all night. It’s important that I bring up Life on Mars, too, as it relates to this episode (and probably the next one) a lot more than people might think.

I’m not going to discuss any of the details or even the premise on Life On Mars because the surprise and shock that comes from learning even the most basic ideas about the show are so wonderful that I don’t want to ruin it for anyone else. (Please, please, please do not ruin it for anyone else in the comments, either. If you’d like to discuss the show, start off your comment with LIFE ON MARS SPOILERS BELOW so that you can warn those that will inevitably start watching this series because IT IS A REQUIREMENT TO LIFE. Thanks!) I did want to say that what saved this episode for being an eerie but ultimately listless episode was Matthew Graham’s injection of morality (and how it relates to our perceptions of reality and identity) into the script.

For a show that is about a man who can travel through space and time, sometimes I feel like the Doctor spends too much time on Earth, but it was nice that this time, it was well enough into the future that it all felt like a show about time travel. In addition to that, the cold open is just flat-out disorienting, and the way that information unfolded throughout “The Rebel Flesh” gave the story an odd, disconcerting pace and tension. I simply could not understand why no one was upset that someone just got dropped into a tub of acid, as Jimmy was far more upset that they lost an acid suit than the fact that Buzzer just died. What.

The concept of “The Rebel Flesh” is an interesting one indeed, as I initially believed two things would be revealed:

1. At first, I thought this would be an episode about clones, and it’s not. By definition, they’re not technically clones, are they?
2. I then guessed that the liquid matter stuff would be revealed as the Nestene Consciousness, which we hadn’t seen since “Rose” and that would have been exciting.

I was wrong about a lot of my guesses, and the dynamic of this particular story got really fucking weird incredibly fast. As the Doctor, Amy, and Rory land on this particular little island that’s housing all that acid, it seemed pretty clear that the issue that this episode would focus on would have more to do with the solar tsunami than anything else. Well, that changed as soon as Amy realized they were standing in a room with doubles of the very people that they were talking to. That’s interesting to me because I did not expect any of these people to be so aware of what was going on. I thought the “copying” would have been this malicious thing, done against the will of those in the harnesses, except YEAH. NOT RIGHT AT ALL.

I told you this was going to be strange, didn’t I?

It’s not that unfamiliar of a theme for Doctor Who, in hindsight, of humans using technology that they barely understand and certainly cannot completely control. We’ve seen it plenty of times before. (My brain immediately goes to “42” as an example and, while I love Matt Smith forever and ever, it doesn’t make me miss David Tennant just a little bit.) We’ve also seen the idea of a civil war, too. (“The Doctor’s Daughter,” for one.) So I don’t want this review to paint “The Rebel Flesh” as some ~unique special snowflake~ of an episode that is perfect and does nothing wrong and is better than “The Doctor’s Wife” (IMPOSSIBLE FOREVER oh god I watched it for the FIFTH TIME on Saturday what is my life). This is territory we’ve seen before, but Matthew Graham does a few things here that make this such a strange and different episode than what we’ve seen before.

I LOVE LISTS I AM SO PREDICTABLE.

• THIS EPISODE IS CREEPY AS HELL

Part of that is due to a few things. First, the “almost people,” as the Doctor refers to them, can move their bodies in ways we can’t. I thought Jennifer’s scene in the bathroom with Rory was a bit too over the top for my tastes (and yes, her head with an extended neck was way too weird), but the concept still felt so eerie to me. Seriously, she could extend her neck like Stretch Armstrong. I kind of don’t want to see what else they can do.

On top of that, a lot of the tension and fear comes from the fact that until the end, you literally cannot tell the difference between a Ganger and their original. I’ll bring up the concept of identity in a bit, but that is a terrifying idea to me. How do you know who you’re talking to? How can you trust a person? This is used beautifully a few times. For example, the first time when you realize there are other people in that castle (when the Dusty Springfield song starts playing in another room) is sufficiently horrifying. Then the Doctor does that brilliant thing with the heated plated and Cleaves and UGH THAT IS SO FUCKING CREEPY.

But there’s another aspect to this scene that must be discussed. WE WILL GET TO IT, WHOVIANS!

• THE GANGERS ARE NOT EVIL

Sorry, they’re not. They are the most confusing villains I’ve ever seen because, by their very nature, they are not villains and they are not really antagonists. If Matthew Graham had written this episode and not included the crucial detail that the original people had transferred their entire memories and experiences and thoughts, I absolutely would not have enjoyed it as much as I did. That detail is pivotal to how this episode starts off with a bunch of familiar tropes and then dismantles them all. And then everything is so confusing and uncomfortable.

• RORY IS FINALLY USED MORE THAN AMY

Finally! Right???? I love that, despite making a few mistakes with the Jennifer ganger the second time, he takes the same side as the Doctor, but entirely independent of the Doctor. We’ve seen Rory’s constant reluctance to get involved, and I think it’s not said enough that his strong moral center is what keeps him so grounded. His interactions with Jennifer are a sign that he feels something about the way the gangers are being spoken about is inherently wrong, that these are not people who are “experiments” or “mistakes,” as Real Cleaves refers to them near the end of the episode.

How that affects Amy and Rory is interesting, too, as Amy’s body language suggests that she’s not as certain as he is about what is the right thing to do in this situation. I think that Amy represents what a lot of us felt for the most part, that this incident is massively confusing, that some bits and pieces of what either side is doing are most certainly not moral actions, yet the whole idea of legitimate copies of people just makes our brains hurt. I hope that Graham’s not setting up Amy and Rory to choose opposite sides, though, because NOOOOOOOOOOO thank you.

• MORAL AMBIGUITY IS SO CONFUSING

And that is meant entirely as a compliment.

Utilizing the scene I referenced earlier, the Doctor is the first to purport the idea that the Gangers are not to be feared, that these are not mere clones or baseless copies of humans. The liquid flesh, that vat of programmable matter, is producing real humans, with real experiences and thoughts and desires and that to destroy them is to kill another human being. As I said before, that small detail makes all the difference to the story. Without it, it’s an episode we’ve seen before, at least in terms of archetypes and narratives that have already been told.

This relates directly to Life On Mars, which, at heart, is a show about identity and our perception of it. In “The Rebel Flesh,” there’s a deep philosophical question running throughout the plotting and twists and dramatic turns: Are the gangers real people? If they have a fully-formed identity, even if it is identical to that of the orignal source it was copied from, does that make them a person, too? If so, then how the hell do the two of those exist alongside each other?

What I’m drawn to in this story is the fact that I can not discern even the slightest answer from the question posed to us. I feel that Cleaves was wrong to kill ganger Buzzer, and the Doctor was correct to assert that she essentially just ruined everything for all of the “humans.” But at the same time, I feel just as conflicted as Amy does here: If we accept the gangers as real people, then how the hell can they coexist?

Ganger Jimmy’s recollection of his son’s birth is just another twist in an already-complicated situation, and it’s that scene that made me realize what sort of story that Matthew Graham had given us. Both Ganger Jimmy and Real Jimmy had genuine memories of their son, yet there’s only one son. It’s not as simple as sending the “real” Jimmy home and allowing the Ganger to live on the island. Emotionally, that would have the same effect as if they switched places: one of the men would feel heartbroken and trapped.

Even at the end, Graham totally fucks with the Doctor’s certainty, as the Doctor was the most adamant about reaching some sort of agreement between the two groups. Now, how I missed the fact that the Doctor had touched the liquid flesh and that the flesh had said, “Trust me,” before the final reveal is beyond me, but I was genuinely surprised that a Ganger Doctor appeared, and then, in hindsight, realized that I had to be the worst television-watcher ever not to catch the BLATANTLY OBVIOUS SIGNS.

Still, the point stands: How the hell is the Doctor going to continue to maintain his position if there’s also another Doctor that is probably very much a living Time Lord as well?

I’m confused. And I have to say that that is a very refreshing feeling.

THOUGHTS

• So, including “Journey’s End,” this will now be the second time that there are two of the same Doctor in one episode, right? Has this happened in any other way before? (You can answer that.)
• Dear all future Doctor Who writers: Stop having the Doctor climb to the top of a tower during a storm. Seriously, please ban that concept from all future episodes.
• Does anything count as Rory nearly dying in this episode? I’ll accept any stretch of logic just to insist that Rory dies in every episode ever.
• So I wasn’t bothered by Muse appearing in the cold open, but then I remembered that they have a song whose intro sounds just like the show’s theme. Is it just me or does that one song totally sound like the Doctor Who theme? (I don’t know the name of the song, as I don’t own that Muse record.)
• So, science nerds, do most types of acid actually operate in the manner shown here? I can’t remember ten years ago when I took Chemistry and we spoke about acidic compounds at length, but I seem to remember that acid didn’t actually eat away matter in the way it is shown here. PLEASE EDUCATE. omg acidsplain this to me.
• who the fuck is that woman with the eyepatch. I just feel like Moffat is just teasing us for some sadistic joy at this point.
• “For want of a better word: Ow.” I love you forever, Rory.
• Sorry, must do this: CHRIS SKELTON <3<3<3<3<3<3
• Ok, so this is one of those episodes that I liked in my own nerdy way, but I honestly don’t feel like I should defend it to anyone. Like….if every comment below this was like, “MEH WASTE OF AN EPISODE” or “YAWN,” I wouldn’t try to convince anyone otherwise.
• “My mom’s a massive fan of Dusty Springfield.” “Who isn’t?”
• Ok, so…can the TARDIS not be eaten by acid, but the Doctor’s shoes can? I suppose this isn’t that important, because it does give us the wonderfully awkward moment when the Gangers and the original people are in the same room and the Doctor insists on asking if anyone has a size ten shoe for him to wear. Bless.
• Why does Dicken keep sneezing?
• “I thought I was going to die.” “Welcome to my world.” Are the writers far more aware of Rory’s constant dying than we give them credit for???