I've decided to combine the two-part flesh episode into one post because again, my comments for the two are so similar.
First of all, I'd like to point out that S5E5 was called Flesh and Stone, and S6E5 is called The Rebel Flesh. Is it a requirement that all of Moffat's fifth episodes need to have "flesh" in the title somewhere?
So The Rebel Flesh starts out with the Doctor, Amy, and Rory landing on a 22nd century Earth where acid is mined and pumped to the mainland. Because the acid is so dangerous, flesh is used to create dopplegangers, or Gangers, of the actual workers. The humans control the Gangers, which are essentially virtual people. However, the Doctor arrives amid a solar storm, and when a power surge goes through the building, the Gangers become completely separate entities and absorb the memories and personalities of their real-life counterparts. When the Gangers are discovered, they freak out and scream things like, "I'm real!"
Very quickly, the humans and the Gangers turn against each other, while the Doctor keeps trying to maintain peace. When he creates his own Ganger intentionally, things become even more interesting. (When the Ganger is coping with figuring out which regeneration he is, he says, "would you like a jelly baby?" in Tom Baker's voice. I know that it's Tom Baker's voice, but the change in pitch is TERRIFYING!!!) Two Matt Smiths is almost overwhelming, but I think Smith's more restrained performance made it bearable to watch. The Doctor's shoes became destroyed when he tried to enter the TARDIS, which sank in the acid, so one Doctor is wearing his shoes, and the other is wearing a borrowed pair. Amy uses the shoes to tell which is the "real" Doctor, and she says that she trusts him implicitly, and only him; the Ganger Doctor is not real to her.
Meanwhile, Rory has become bonded with one of the Gangers, Jennifer. In fact, he is very protective of her from the beginning, before he knew she was a Ganger. He spends the entire episode running around trying to save first her, then the real Jennifer. The Ganger Jennifer tricks Rory and locks all of the humans in the room with the acid. When the Doctor phones one of the workers' sons, the Gangers realize that they don't want a war after all, and rush to save the humans. However, not all of the humans survive.
By the way - whatever accent Jennifer has is creepy to begin with and gets worse when she's a Ganger. I wonder where she comes from - I'm never going there!
In the end, when everything is at stake, the Doctor and his Ganger reveal that they switched shoes, and the Doctor whom Amy thought was real was really the Ganger all along. She shows some more love for the Ganger ("you're twice the man I thought you were!") and makes us all want to puke.
As the Doctor, Rory, and Amy leave the remaining human and Ganger to try to find a resolution between the two groups, we discover that Amy has been a Ganger herself for a very long time. The Doctor melts her down, and the real Amy wakes up in some kind of sterile room, where she is in labor.
Repeat Idea:
1) In the middle of the storm, the Doctor climbs up to the weather vane to disconnect the power. This is highly reminiscent of The Idiot's Lantern and Vampires of Venice, when he has to do essentially the same thing. In addition, the Fourth Doctor apparently dies when he falls off of a transmitter tower. At least Ten references that before he climbs up another on in The Idiot's Lantern!
2) This series has quickly become All About Amy again. Last series it was the crack in HER wall. This series it's all about HER pregnancy/child. At what point are they just going to give in and put Karen Gillan's name first in the opening credits? This is getting old! It was one thing when Dumbass Donna was the "most important thing in the Universe!" But then the very next companion became the "most important thing in the Universe!" And now it's all about her AGAIN?!? Really?
Dislikes:
1) For a two-parter, things happen almost too quickly. The Gangers are against the humans almost immediately - they don't really give the humans time to figure out how they feel about the Gangers, they just assume that no one will accept them. Because of this, I didn't feel like the conflict had time to develop, it was just forced upon everyone.
2) When they first arrive at the monastery, we see a big pipe with the words - "Danger Corrosive" on it. After examining it with his screwdriver, the Doctor proclaims that they contain something corrosive. Great job, Captain Obvious!
3) The flesh is white. So does that mean that it can only copy Caucasians?
4) The lighting in the entire episode makes Matt Smith look like a corpse.
5) At one point towards the end of The Rebel Flesh, one of the workers puts a board in front of the door to keep the Gangers out. At the beginning of The Almost People, there is a different take of that shot. Sloppy!
6) At one point the Doctor (who Amy thinks is the Ganger) grabs Amy and screams at her that all he hears is "WHY? WHY? WHY?" (which is what Jennifer says the flesh all say as they die). So wait - the Doctor is psychic now? I know he's always had psychic tendencies, but I didn't realize he was like, PSYCHIC. It's important to note that it's in this scene that Amy tells the Doctor, who she thinks is the Ganger, that she's seen the Doctor's death, and that he invited them to witness it. So he knows.
7) Rory finds two Jennifers together, each claiming to be the real Jennifer. They fight, and one Jennifer lands in a puddle of acid. It melts, so we think that the surviving Jennifer is the real Jennifer. But no, they're BOTH Gangers! How on Earth did the Ganger Jennifer make another Ganger? She had to put her hand on the thingamajingie that allows them to connect to the flesh pool, and it told her she wasn't human. This is reinforced later when she puts Rory's hand on it, since it doesn't recognize her. Again, sloppy.
8) The actor that played the worker's son was horrible. He creeped me the hell out.
9) When the TARDIS falls through into the bowels of the factory, it drops down backwards. At least - there are no signs on the door in the first shot, but then when they run to it, the signs are miraculously there. SLOPPY.
10) Now there are three more companions! Poor Sexy. They should rename her Slutty, the way that people go in and out of her so often.
11) Apparently Karen Gillan doesn't know where her uterus is. Whenever she has labor pain, she's clutching her stomach, not her lower abdomen.
12) My biggest problem is this whole "Ganger Revolution" that Jennifer wants to start. It's my understanding that the Gangers became sentient because of the lightning strike. I'm guessing that all the Gangers in the world aren't their own conscious beings. But she seems to think they are. The whole talk about Ganger rights should be completely unnecessary. Yes, the discarded flesh is sad and traumatic, but that type of thing should only be occurring in the monastery.
Likes:
1) I like how the episode starts out in the factory. It has a very classic feel. I would like it more if it didn't have so many obvious problems.
2) The exchanges between the two Doctors were pretty funny.
Here's your palate-cleanser:
No comments:
Post a Comment