Mark Watches ‘Doctor Who’: S06E06 – The Almost People

In the sixth episode of the sixth series of Doctor Who, everyone is forced to deal with the oncoming war with the Gangers, but a set of unbelievable twists makes this all a lot more complicated for anyone to deal with. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Doctor Who.

Um.

WHAT.

At best, I am entertained, and that is something I can say with certainty about “The Almost People” and the sixth series of Doctor Who. I have not had this much fun trying to “figure out” a show since I was deep within the LOST fandom, and it became a weekly thing to spend hours on the Internet reading some RIDICULOUS theories about that show. (Does anyone remember that spectacular, but ultimately COMPLETELY BOGUS theory about two worlds/two moons/moon matter/duality that was being passed around? My god, that was so fun to read but that dude was not even remotely close to being right.)

So, I want to say that first. I love Doctor Who. I am massively entertained by series six, including “Curse of the Black Spot,” which was at least a fun little side journey. (Though….shit, this particular episode may have just made that one absolutely necessary, too.) Emotionally, I’m fascinated by where our characters are at this moment, and the ridiculous difficult decisions they have facing them at the end of “The Almost People.” For once, I don’t think there is going to be a simple, joyous, victorious solution to the problems set forth, and while that terrifies me, it also brings a bit of excitement to my heart. I crave this sort of thing because it’s fairly rare these days, and I honestly believe what we’re about to see in the coming week is going to make us all explode.

There we go. So. Yes. Now. Shall we?

WHAT THE HOLY FUCKING SHIT JUST HAPPENED. whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

This is just….how do you coherently talk about an episode that reveals UTTER INCOHERENCY. The problem I am having with this review (which was completely deleted and now I’m on my second draft because my first review was just seriously awful) is that I simply do not understand what I just witnessed, and as I try to account for the ridiculous number of details dropped into my lap, it makes even less sense.

In that sense, I am ok with the fact that there are probably a ton of you who may not necessarily like where this has headed, or may not enjoy this sensation of being so confused that you can’t enjoy what just happened. I think I share some of that sentiment, too. Part of my frustration comes from the fact that I do not have all of the pieces and my brain is operating on a NEED TO KNOW basis right now.

So here’s what I’d like to do, and I’m hoping it will benefit all of us if we can do this as a community: I’d like to talk about some of the finer and not-so-finer points of this episode, but do so in a way that allows us to sort through the pieces of “The Almost People,” and how that relates to the rest of the season. I think a lot of us have so many questions jumping around in our brains and it might help us to just work through them and dissect what information we’ve been given.

As usual, if you are going to propose a theory about this episode, please begin your comment with THEORIES ABOUND in bold to warn those in this community who want to read comments, but prefer to avoid theorizing. And please make sure to do this if you have a normal comment and a theory at the end, as a few people forgot to in the past and it’s kind of rude.

Anyway, onwards I go!

THE ALMOST PEOPLE

What attracted me so much to “The Rebel Flesh” and helped save it from being too repetitious was the fact that there was this complicated sense of ethics attached to the situation. The Doctor and Rory were both very adamant about the fact that it seemed incredibly immoral to treat the Gangers as non-human, and that killing them was most certainly a bad thing to do. Here in “The Almost People,” that ethical sense is split neatly in two. Both Doctors operate to convince the Originals that killing the Gangers is a terrible thing to do, and the Ganger Doctor convinces the Gangers that wiping out the Originals as an act of revenge is also a horrific idea. In these moments, the episode beautifully lives up to the mantra set forth in the first half, and I was immensely satisfied by the humanization of the characters on either camp. This is a common act on Doctor Who and we’ve seen this before in “The Hungry Earth”/”Cold Blood” most recently: the Doctor believes that war can be made inevitable if the two parties simply work together. And, like that two-parter, one selfish character ruins that in a way for everyone.

Even with Ganger Jimmy, this idea of peace and acceptance continues, as Original Jimmy blesses his Ganger with the responsibility of taking care of his (their???) son, and the Doctor helps facilitate this, both through the birthday hologram message and dropping Ganger Jimmy off to be reunited with Billy. (Oh god, there’s something else we need to discuss regarding that scene in particular, too.)

And yet, there’s a dichotomy to this moral fabric. We now know that the Doctor specifically went to that island to study the Flesh “in its early stages” because he knew that Amy was actually a Ganger. (Which we will keysmash about in a bit.) And for all the prosthelytizing the Doctors do in this episode, I was quite shocked that he simply zaps Ganger Amy back into pure Flesh. That suggests one of two things to me:

1. The Doctor chose to disobey his own moral code for some important reason.
2. We are missing a second part to this, because Amy was not the same type of being as the Gangers with her own sense of self. Maybe she was more like a clone??? I DON’T KNOW.

So we’re either dealing with an error in moral continuity (TOTALLY MADE THAT UP RIGHT NOW) or we’re getting a hint. Hmmm.

AMY’S SECRET

The scene where Amy tells Ganger Doctor (or who she thinks is Ganger Doctor) that she witnessed him die was one of the most tense bits of all of “The Almost People,” and despite that it will probably pan out as an awful decision, I kind of understand why Amy decided to do this. To her, it was an opportunity to release a terrible weight from her heart. In her mind, these were not the same Doctor, and she assumed that this Ganger Doctor would be gone soon anyway.

During the reveal at the end, when we learned that the Ganger Doctor and the real Doctor had switched places, it suddenly dawned on me what Amy had done, and that was confirmed when Ganger Doctor stated that he was about to die, and the Doctor made a reference to not being invited to it.

Oh god. oh god. So what is this going to do? Didn’t River Song say that the Doctor could not know his own future? How is that going to effect the Doctor now? Christ, the possibilities for what this could do are impossible for me guess.

THE DOCTOR’S EXPERIMENT

I suppose this ties in with my first section, but I’d like to talk a little bit more about the Doctor’s intentional plan to come investigate the Flesh and then switching places with Ganger Doctor.

I rewatched bits of “The Rebel Flesh” when the Doctor first arrives at the island, and many of us picked up on the fact that the Doctor seemed to know way more about the Flesh than he was letting on. This is still slightly confusing to me, as I’m unsure why he knew so much and how he knew this was the place to go. (The TARDIS knew?) Regardless, I believe the Doctor intentionally placed his hand on the Flesh to create a Ganger of himself, and set in motion the events of this two-parter. The question still remains: Why? Part of this is explained towards the end. We know that this was a way to demonstrate to Cleaves that the Gangers and the Originals could get along brilliantly. But why use “Amy’s eyes” in order to demonstrate this?

I think this might be related to the Doctor’s desire to see the Flesh in it’s “early stages,” but that also makes little sense to me. Since Amy is a Ganger, and she has been for quite some time, why did she not ever reveal that she was one in the past five episodes? Is she a “later stage” of the Flesh?

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

THE DOCTOR’S OMNISCIENCE

Ok, I expect the Doctor to be far ahead of everyone else in the room. That’s just how his brain works, and it’s always been fun to see him three steps ahead of his enemies, revealing his master plan just at the right time. That’s what makes him such a fun hero, because even the most impossible situation can be figured out with an imaginative brain.

That being said…I cannot be the only one who felt that the Doctor knew way too much about the “future” in this two-parter. He predicted the phone call/hologram for Billy, he kept telling Amy to breathe and “only push when she says to,” and HOW THE FUCK DID HE KNOW THAT GANGER JIMMY WOULD BRING HIS SON A RED BALLOON. I honestly do not have even the most remotely coherent theory for this; I thought that the Ganger Doctor would end up being the Doctor we saw perish in “The Impossible Astronaut,” but the Ganger Doctor melts himself at the end of the episode.

I don’t get it. WHAT IS HAPPENING.

AMY’S TRUE NATURE

Goddamn it. I never see these things!!! It is now SO PAINFULLY OBVIOUS that Amy was a Ganger, but I did not figure it out until the scene in the TARDIS at the end. And really, of every reveal we witnessed in “The Almost People,” this has to be the most mind-melting one.

If Amy has been a Ganger for a long time, when was she kidnapped? We now know that Eyepatch Lady is indeed the woman taking care of her, but…oh my go, WHAT THE FUCK. It appears that Amy’s Ganger was linked in a way none of the other Gangers were, suggesting that they are not simply two copies of the same person. Does Amy share instantaneous memories with her Ganger? Is that the “signal” the Doctor references at the end, right before he melts her?

We’ve obviously been getting hints towards this. It explains the TARDIS’s inability to determine if Amy was pregnant or not and it explains the times that Amy doubles over in pain and discomfort. (Which….didn’t River Song experience the exact same sensation in “The Impossible Astronaut” when she encountered The Silence?) And yet…I can’t claim to understand it all.

I liked “The Almost People” in one sense, as it was entertaining and challenging at the same time, but, like “The Rebel Flesh,” it’s just a piece of the puzzle. It honestly feels quite incomplete, and in that sense, it’s not ultimately satisfying. I kind of feel like it cannot stand on its own because it is so intrinsically tied to the series arc.

Basically, all of us are so unprepared for next week.

THOUGHTS

• omg. How rad was the scene when the Ganger Doctor copes with his other regenerations and we hear Tom Baker and David Tennant and a quote from the First Doctor????? OMG I LOVE REFERENTIAL SHIT LIKE THIS.
• I think out of everyone, I feel the worst for Rory, who knew what it felt like to be a non-human human when he was an Auton for 2,000 years. He tried so hard to be a good person and trust Jennifer, believing he was doing right, only to be betrayed in the end. Sometimes, I feel like Rory is the most adorable puppy dog in the world and the writers just keep kicking him because they are evil people
• WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH ALL OF THE SCREWDRIVERS.
• Few things are more entertaining than two Doctors who finish each other sentences and are enamored with hearing their own voice.
• “Do we tend to say ‘Yowsa’?” “That’s enough, let it go. Okay? We’re under stress.”
• “And it’s apparent we both wear the same bow-tie, which is cool.” “Because bow-ties are…” “…and always will be.”
• GANGER JENNIFER MONSTER WAS FUCKING HORRIFYING. Oh man, that was a spectacular CGI effect. Just make her look creepy as shit. A++++.
• “If you have a better plan, I’m all ears. In fact, if you have a better plan, I’ll take you to a planet where everyone is all ears.”