DW 6x06 - The Almost People

[caz963]

This is kind of a difficult review to write because the episode itself wasn't really all that much to write home about, was it? So here are some brief thoughts before I head off into other territory, because I have a rant brewing.

NB - Spoilers for the next episode beneath the cut.



Episode thoughts.

It was all a bit confusing, I thought. My eight-year-old daughter (who is pretty sharp and on the ball) kept asking us which was the real Doctor and I'm sure I lost track pretty quickly myself! Okay, so it all turned out that it didn't really matter which of them was the "real" Doctor because they'd swapped places anyway, but it was still pretty hard to follow.

(I take it that the Doctor who scared the shit out of Amy was the "real" one because she told him that she'd seen his death and he made the comment towards the end about not having been invited to this one, or something to that effect. I suspect he's had an idea of what they weren't telling him all along, but has been trying to work out the details).

I suppose one could describe the theme of this two-parter as "what is it that makes us who we are?" - which was to an extent also explored in the "other" clone episode of nu-Who, The Doctor's Daughter. In each case, the answer is somewhere in the area of "memory, experience and emotion" rather than where - or who - we come from. One of the things I thought the episode got right was the fact that, despite knowing that the Doctors were identical, Amy still naturally gravitated towards the one she believed to be "real", which is, I think, a natural reaction and one that we'd probably all have in the same situation. (Or - hang on - was it meant to show that she had a connection with ganger!Doctor because she was one herself?) But the inconsistency in the way that the gangers were portrayed weakened the story overall, I think - one minute they're all "them and us" and the next they're embracing their new-found humanity. Also, it was established in TRF (I thought) that the gangers were exact copies - physically and mentally - so why was it that where original!Jennifer was a perfectly ordinary, nice girl, her ganger was a homicidal maniac?! There's evolution for you, I suppose.

We ended up with two of the Pinocchios becoming real boys - one of them even became an instant dad - and I suppose, with them going to the company HQ to speak out against all the bad things that were being done, we're supposed to assume that in its remorse, the company put it all right.

Pfft. Corporations don't work like that. They'd just sit there, look concerned and make appropriate noises and then carry on as before. Or perhaps I'm just being too cynical.

Anyway, I don't have much more to say about the episode itself, because what happened in the last five minutes has sort of wiped the other forty from my brain. Perhaps I'll have more to say after I've seen it again.


Ranty thoughts.

Earlier this week, I posted this wherein I posited that the Amy we've been watching so far is a clone. Quite a few of us called that one and the fact that the real Amy is preggers and the clone isn't is what accounts for the yes/no results of the Doctor's scans. Also about the fact that eye-patch woman is "bleeding through" from real Amy's consciousness into the clone's. I thought that she'd probably been kidnapped by the Silence in DotM, but from things that the Doctor said in the episode and a comment in the DWC that the Amy we've seen having adventures with the Doctor and Rory (accompanied by a clip of her getting off the bus in the desert in TIA) wasn't the "real her", it appears that she's been clone!Amy for longer.

And a couple of weeks ago, I posted here that the pregancy storyline is making me rather uneasy. I really thought that we wouldn't go there - the idea of an X-files / V / Rosemary's (alien) Baby scenario seems too much for Doctor Who and I just couldn't believe that's where we were headed. And I just... I can't help it, but I feel really strongly about it and I don't like it one little bit. Anyone who reads my thoughts on DW regularly will know that while I'm not Moffat's biggest fan, I acknowledge that he's a talented writer who knows his DW and have enjoyed the series-and-a-half we've had from him so far, even if I don't love it as much as I did under RTD. But this isn't an anti-Moffat thing. I'd hate this as a direction regardless of who'd written it.

The final images of this episode were of Amy, absolutely terrified, being held somewhere against her will and quite possibly pregnant against her will. God knows, I'm not Amy's biggest fan either, but I found that to be a highly disturbing image and it sickens me just to think about it. I don't like her as a character and will be glad when we get a new companion but honestly, I wouldn't wish what's happening to her on my worst enemy. And again, here she is - serving the demands of the plot rather than being her "own" character.

Perhaps I'm being over-sensitive. But this is supposed to be a family show and I don't think that seeing the heroine and someone that I suppose a lot of the young girls watching look up to being traumatised and terrified while about to give birth is especially suitable for the target audience. If it was on TW, I'd probably have the same reaction to the images, but that's aimed at an adult audience and is somewhat "grittier" than DW and while I might not like it, it would be more in keeping with the tenor of that show.

SPOILERS FOR EP 7.

The trailer and prequel for the next episode are up at the website and it seems this part of the plot hinges on a "child" and whose7 child it is. I suppose we're to assume it's Amy's, but what if it's not? I also suppose we're meant to assume that the child is somehow related to the Doctor (presumably the same one we saw at the end of DotM) but again, what if it's not? I can't believe it's the progeny of Amy and the Doctor because - ick. Unless it's happened the same way it did in TDD (because I think originally, both Ten AND Donna were going to have their hands stuck into the machine, so Jenny would have been theirs rather than just his).

It seems that we're finally going to find out who River is next week, or that at least, we'll be on the way to doing so. There's speculation that she turns out to be Amy's daughter... but I'm not sure about that one.

So - as I said in my cut text, I'm not sure what the hell to make of DW at the moment. I'm not against doing something because "it's never been done that way before", but I really am uneasy about the direction of this particular storyline. Moffat is going to have to work bloody hard to convince me this is still Doctor Who.

ETA: Here's a really good explanation as to why the Doctor was "okay" with melting ganger!Amy at the end of the episode, after having spent almost two hours explaining to us that they were sentient and deserved to live. I'm not sure where I stand on it because, for me, it's rather a secondary dilemma compared to the whole baby thing. But it's an interesting read.

Comments

[chloris67.livejournal.com]

But this is supposed to be a family show and I don't think that seeing the heroine and someone that I suppose a lot of the young girls watching look up to being traumatised and terrified while about to give birth is especially suitable for the target audience.

Exactly. I am EXTREMELY unpleased about this.

[caz963.livejournal.com]

I'm waiting for the howls of outrage from the media. Usually my response to that would be that there's an "off" switch, but not this time. I'm really not allowing my other issues with the way SM is running DW to cloud my judgement on this; I actually felt some sympathy for Amy, for god's sake! - and I'm not a prude, I just find this plotline to be very unsavoury and I don't think it's age-appropriate.

[kilodalton]

What bugs me most is how he dissolved ganger!Amy at the end. I really, really hated that. But I agree with everything you said. This season is starting to upset me.

[caz963.livejournal.com]

I agree that it was strange, given the way the whole two parter was telling us that the gangers had the same feelings and emotions as their human counterparts - but then I seem to remember that the Doctor did say something to the effect that this version of Amy wasn't the same - that the clone was a "vessel" for Amy's consciousness and that "she" wasn't independent in the same way as the gangers were. That would certainly account for his comments about his having encountered an eariler version of the Flesh in the first part, wouldn't it? Because the earlier version is the Amy he's been travelling with and she's not so highly developed as the gangers we've met.

Personally, I was cheering when she exploded into gloop! It's just a shame she'll be back :( Can't we just have Rory with a bit of River thrown in now and then? *g*

[lemony69.livejournal.com]

Personally, I was cheering when she exploded into gloop! It's just a shame she'll be back

:D
I've given up hope that Amy will ever turn into a character I like.

[lemony69.livejournal.com]

Hello, I wandered over from who_daily. I’m totally with you. Like you I enjoyed DW more under RTD, but I liked series 5 for the general plotline and the mystery. But the last episode really, really put me off. This is supposed to be a family show? The series is getting darker and more disturbing every week. Over the last 2 episodes the Doctor kept telling everybody that the Gangers were real people with emotions and feelings just like humans. And then he kills Ganger-Amy without even trying to find another way? Not to mention seeing the real Amy terrified and screaming somewhere alone about to give birth. I’m fed up with character-clones being killed just for the shock effect. Maybe all of this will be resolved at the end, but at the moment I’m not sure that I’m going to watch this any longer. For me it’s all a bit too timey-wimey and too complicated that I even lost interest in figuring out what’s really going on.

[caz963.livejournal.com]

Feel free to wander in any time! (Don't we know each other from the DT comms?) I don't mind dark in DW - god knows, Ten went to some pretty bad places in his time, but this just feels... wrong. For one thing, it's happening to someone else. Okay, so the Doctor loses people all the time and moves on because he has to, but I think that's different. Is being killed worse than having a baby? Possibly not, but I don't think that's the point. It seems pretty clear that the baby isn't Rory's ^** which means that Amy could have been impregnanted against her will and without her knowledge and that, in ANY show is pretty high on the squick factor for any woman, I'd have thought, but in Doctor Who, with its emphasis on the family audience?

I hesitate to use the term "rape" because it's such an emotive word and I don't like using it "lightly" because I feel it diminishes its significance, so perhaps I can say that she's been violated in some way and that certainly doesn't sit right with me and, I imgaine, a large part of the audience. I'll be very surprised if there's not some kind of media backlash from this.

I'm going to keep watching because, despite the fact that I don't personally think that Moffat's the best thing since sliced bread (as a large proportion of the fandom appears to do) I can't believe he'd pull something like this without a bloody good explanation. Perhaps I have too much faith, but then I do tend to err on the "glass half-full" side of things!


** I say this because it's implied that the Amy we've been seeing in all the S6 episodes so far is clone!Amy and if that's the case, I imagine she was kidnapped sometime between ACC and now, possibly around the time of the Comic Relief episodes. If it's Rory's baby but has been effected by the timey-wimey-ness of the TARDIS, well, she's not been IN the TARDIS for that to happen, has she?

[lemony69.livejournal.com]

Yes, I’m sure we have met here and there. :)

I find the whole pregnancy-arc highly disturbing and I also think that she was violated and used in some way. Regardless what explanation SM pulls out of the hat, the fact remains that something terrible is happening to Amy. Amy is the human companion thus the person the audience is supposed to identify with. And it’s horrible and traumatic for Rory as well. It also is another example of Amy being used as a plot device. I don’t get why Amy fans aren’t outraged about the way she is treated. I was totally pissed of about what Rusty did to Donna.

Yes, there was always some darkness in Doctor Who and with Ten or Nine (I’m only familiar with New Who) it also wasn’t all rainbows and fairies but somehow the darker themes and the silliness were a bit more balanced. But now it’s all very bleak and the whole mood is more dark and sinister. But possibly that’s just my imagination and the mood just seems to be darker because I don’t really care for the characters now?

Another thing I don’t like is that it is apparently another series about how Amy is the best companion ever and sooo special. And I fear that what makes her so special this time is the fact that her baby is somehow half-Timelord or something along those lines. Well, I’m going to watch the next episode as it is the last before the break (who came up with this stupid idea anyway?) and then we’ll see. But probably I’ll be too curious and to really stop watching. ;)

[ogew.livejournal.com]

IF her body was already affected when she became pregnant - that might have had a bearing. At this juncture we really have very little feedback on what happens to the children of companions. Especially when/if they become pregnant so recently after traveling with the Doctor.

[papilio-luna.livejournal.com]

Hello, here from the Daily!

I agree with you and I think I just am going to accept that this is ~a thing~ for me and it's not for the majority of other people. Or rather, there are two things:

1. Sci Fi pregnancies are never something I am okay with. Lots of bad things happen to lots of companions and I've always been accepting that that's just what happens when you travel with the Doctor, but bringing pregnancy into it, it's like a bridge just too far for me, especially when the episodes are written by men. Being pregnant is something that only happens to women, and for a dude to turn that into a horror scenario is something I've always had a problem with, even when my favourite shows are doing it (which they often do argh). Which brings me to #2...

2. If you're going to do it, the only way I can roll with it is if the show already has built up enough good will with me that I can just kind of coast on that for a bit. The current series hasn't done that for me personally, so instead of the momentum of that good feeling carrying me over the squicky DNW of a sci fi pregnancy, it has pretty much stopped me dead. None of this is helped by the positioning that I feel of it as just another ~~~mystery~~~ to be solved rather than OMG HOLY SHIT THIS VALUED CHARACTER IS EXPERIENCING MASSIVE UNBELIEVABLE TRAUMA NOOOOOO!!! When things like this happen to characters, I want it to be a serious emotional fulcrum, not a rubik's cube.

[caz963.livejournal.com]

bringing pregnancy into it, it's like a bridge just too far for me, especially when the episodes are written by men. Being pregnant is something that only happens to women, and for a dude to turn that into a horror scenario is something I've always had a problem with

THANK YOU for saying that. I've been reading some of the reviews that who_daily has linked to, and I'm utterly gobsmacked that there is - so far - NO outrage or even much comment about the squickiness of this scenario. I've pretty much sat om the fence on the whole "Moffat is a sexist bastard" issue in the past because I like to think the best of everybody and I accept that the comments that are frequently brought up in such discussions have probably been taken out of context. But there's no escaping the fact that the pregnancy is being used as a Plot Device and not in a good way and the more I think about it, the more angry I get.

It may be due, in part, to the fact that I have kids and I object to the idea that a bany or a child is going to made use of in this way - and also, presumably this child is going to have to die at some point because I can't see the Doctor setting up a baby-gym in the TARDIS and then (if this speculation is right) end up killing him in the future. Of course, as I've said elsewhere, he might just nip back in time and fix it all before it happens because now that Time Can Be Rewritten, there's no reason for him not to.

[papilio-luna.livejournal.com]

I don't have kids myself but I think this is all much the same reason why I don't like babyfic (or one of the reasons I don't--there are many!). The notion of using a pregnancy as a way to generate peril or drive a plot just bothers me on sort of a fundamental, irrational level. But it seems like every sci fi show I watch goes there eventually, though I was really hoping that Doctor Who would be the exception.

And to me it's not going to make that much of a difference if it's a normal pregnancy that has been co-opted by Whoever, or if it's a full-on Rosemary's Alien Baby forced-pregnancy scenario. The latter is more squicky, but the former upsets me nearly as much. And I don't know why everyone seems to think that it's so obvious that it's the former, not the latter. With the current information, they both seem equally probable.

I am really surprised that there's been no outcry over just the imagery being way inappropriate for children, let alone the ideas. I was quite shocked by it. Though I also found some of the ganger special effects to also be really, really disturbing and way too scary for children. Am I just turning into a prude in my old age?

[caz963.livejournal.com]

I am really surprised that there's been no outcry over just the imagery being way inappropriate for children, let alone the ideas.

*nods* My eldest daughter (who's going on twelve) was out at a friend's last night and didn't see the episode and I had some reservations about letting her watch it, actually. But she did, and she didn't react horribly - perhaps the majority of the kids who watch DW are still too young to be able to see how horrible the story is.

I can't quite articulate what it is about the pregnancy storyline that squicks me without sounding all preachy and "earth-mother-y2 (and I'm certainly NOT like that at all!). Pregnancy is an amazing thing which can also be pretty scary. And I feel that the idea of nurturing and bringing a new life into the world shouldn't be trivilalised, you know?

The thing is, pregnancies are used in plenty of shows as plot devices and I don't feel the same way then. I don't know if you watch Fringe, but there was a pregnancy scenario in that recently that was a bit squicky (and meant to be) and I didn't get as upset by that as this is making me. It's not that I'm averse to the show going in a different direction or taking risks or whatever... it's just this one thing that feels completely WRONG.

I just posted another rant if you're interested.

[eviltigerlily.livejournal.com]

o why was it that where original!Jennifer was a perfectly ordinary, nice girl, her ganger was a homicidal maniac?!

I think she mentioned something about remembering all the deaths that came before (though I don't know how that would work, is the vat of flesh connected to the copies it makes?). That sort of thing could drive you axe crazy. There was also more than one copy of her (somehow), perhaps sanity deteriorates if copies are made from other gangers (who are already unstable)?

[develish1]

I still haven't posted a proper reaction post to the ep, for two reasons. One, which I have posted about, and is very minor but gave me a hell of a headache and I wont go into now as my head can't take it.....and the other is pretty much the same concern as yours.

I sat speechless at the end of the ep, thinking much as you did, in that yes Torchwood could maybe get away with this type of storyline, but DW?

The thing that bothered me the most though, and gave me yet another reason to dislike Eleven (and that list is getting damn long now, sadly) is this;

The Doctor had clearly known for some time that the Amy with them was not the real deal. Yet instead of trying to find out where she actually is, and go rescue her, he spent all that time trying to find out how to block the signal between her and the ganger so he could dissolve ganger-Amy.

By all means someone correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I could tell, dissolving ganger-Amy achieved one thing, and one thing only. It meant Amy woke up, and saw where she really was. So all he's actually achieved is to terrify her, instead of leaving her blissfully unaware till he could help her.

Why is that a good thing?