Doctor Who Review - 6x06: The Almost People

Dialogue Triumphs

Amy: “I’m sorry, what I said about you being almost the Doctor. It’s just really hard because we’ve been through so much with him. I’ve even seen… I’ve even seen the moment of his… can you die? If you really are the same, then you can die… can be killed… and I might have seen that happen.”

Ganger Doctor: “Why?”

Amy: “Why? Because you invited us to see it… your death.”

***

Amy: “Hang on…”

Cleaves: “You cannot let him go, are you crazy?”

The Doctor: “Am I crazy, Doctor?”

Ganger Doctor: “Well, you did want to plug your brain into an entire planet just to hold its orbit and win a bet.”

***

The Doctor: “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.”

***

Ganger Jennifer: “You’ve tricked him into an act weakness, Doctor.”

The Doctor: “No, I’ve tricked him into an act of humanity. Anyone else like the sound of that? Act of humanity.”

***

The Doctor: “Push, Amy… but only when she tells you to.”

***

Rory: “Doctor! What is happening to her?”

The Doctor: “Contractions.”

Rory: “Contractions?”

The Doctor: “She’s going into labor.”

Amy: “Did he say…? No, no, of course he didn’t…”

Rory: “You’re going to have to start explaining some of this to me Doctor.”

The Doctor: “What? The birds and the bees? She’s having a baby. I needed to see the Flesh in its early days, that’s why I scanned it, that’s why we were there in the first place. I was going to drop you off for fish and chips first, but things happened, and there was stuff and shenanigans… beautiful word, ‘shenanigans’. I needed enough information to block the signal to the Flesh.”

Amy: “What signal?”

The Doctor: “The signal to you.”

***

Amy: “Doctor, I am frightened. I’m properly, properly scared.”

The Doctor: “Don’t be. Hold on. We’re coming for you, I swear, whatever happens, however far, however hard, we will find you.”

Amy: “I’m right here.”

The Doctor: “No, you’re not, you haven’t been here for a long, long time.”

***

Hatch Lady: “Well dear, you’re ready to pop, aren’t you? Little one’s on its way. Here it comes… puuuuuuuush!”

Dialogue Disasters

Ganger Doctor: “Reverse the jelly baby of the neutron flow.”

***

Jennifer: “Rory!”

Rory: “What’s wrong?”

Jennifer: “This wheel, it’s just too tough for a girl to turn. Are you feeling strong?”

Rory: “I’ll break out the big guns.”

Double Entendres

Amy: “But, hang on, you said the TARDIS was stuck in acid, so won’t she be damaged?”

The Doctor: “Nah, she’s a tough, old thing.”

Ganger Doctor: “Tough, old, sexy.”

The Doctor: “Tough, dependable, sexy.”

***

Ganger Cleaves: “Shuttle, the codeword is ‘bad boy’.”

The Review

In the conclusion to last week’s episode, two Doctors, one the real deal, and the other a replicate, work together to save humans and Gangers alike from destruction, as the acid mine falls apart all around them. However, none of that is half as interesting as the reveal to why The Doctor was so interested in the Flesh technology to begin with… but, as River Song would say, spoilers!

Although the developments in this episode don’t quite vindicate the overall drabness of “The Rebel Flesh”, it did, surprisingly, answer a lot of the questions that season six had been raising for awhile. Namely, we finally figure out why Amy kept having visions of the Hatch Lady, and why the Doctor’s medical scans kept giving a scrambled report as to her pregnancy status. It’s interesting how this Doctor plays his cards so close to his chest, very reminiscent of how the Seventh Doctor did things.

Seasonal arc plot points aside, the main plot of these two episodes were still kind of a mess. I still found the characters to be shallow, and capable of pulling off the most bizarre 180s. Ganger Jennifer goes off the deep end, going from a sweet, likeable character, to complete monster in little-to-no-time. It’s briefly explained that her memories of being “decommissioned” had awakened, leading to this mental breakdown, but I found that to be a little weak. Meanwhile, the real Foreman Cleaves also has an about face that seems just as illogical, given it was her irrational, remorseless actions that started the mess in the first place.

Really, it’s the interaction between the two Doctors, and their interaction with Amy, that keeps this episode going at a nice pace. The twist at the end, when it is revealed that at some point the two Doctors switched shoes, so that the real Doctor could test Amy’s reaction to who she thought was the fake Doctor, was interesting, though confusing. So, when exactly was the switch made? Was the Doctor’s purpose behind this have something to do with his investigation into the Flesh? I don’t know, it’s rather hazy, but it was all fun to watch, which is more than I can say for “The Rebel Flesh”, I suppose.

Anyway, now that this two-parter is over with, all that is left is the mid-season finale “A Good Man Goes to War”, at the end of which Moffat has promised a cliffhanger that will be a “game changer”. Considering the impressively mindblowing cliffhanger at the end of “The Almost People”, my fellow Doctor Who nerds, it looks like it’s going to be a LONG summer after next week’s episode is over, and the season picks up again in the Fall. A long summer indeed…

Next time…. “A Good Man Goes to War”…