The Hippest Kids In Town

Misdirection - a form of deception in which the attention of an audience is focused on one thing in order to distract its attention from another.

There’s nothing I love more in fiction than a good plot twist, something that forces you to re-evaluate everything that came before it, and makes you see that what you thought was happening was actually something else. From The Mayor of Casterbridge, a book brimming with delicious plot twists, to films such as The Usual Suspects, Fight Club, and Memento, they all have a place in my “all-time-favourites” list because they trigger that shiver down your spine moment when you realise you’ve been duped, but in a good way.

Doctor Who delivered it’s first shiver down the spine moment of the series in The Almost People, as we discover that the Amy we have been watching for the last several weeks is not the “real” Amy, and is in fact made of the Flesh. While I’ve been too busy focusing on River Song, the Little Girl, and the Doctor’s death, I have been quick to ignore Amy, or at least underestimate her importance to the overall plot.

Episode 6 Review - Clone Wars

After what I found to be a disappointing episode last week, I was hoping that the second-part would drastically improve and make up for the unnecessary amount of exposition and running around in The Rebel Flesh. The Almost People suffered from the same negatives, lots of running about, and underdeveloped characters, especially in the case of Buzzer and Dicken, but the actual plot was a lot more engaging, and it featured some really cool scenes, one of which was the Ganger Doctor in a state of metamorphosis, struggling to cope with it’s past regenerations.

In this scene we hear lines of dialogue from previous Doctors:

“One day we will get back…yes, one day.” (which I believe was William Hartnell in the very first episode The Unearthly Child)
“Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow.” (Jon Pertwee)
“Would you like a Jelly Baby?” (Tom Baker, actually spoken in Baker’s voice)
“Hello, I’m the Doctor.” (David Tennant, in Tennant’s voice)

I thought this scene was very clever, and probably had all the hardcore Whovians squealing. I also liked that after we heard Tennant’s “Hello, I’m the Doctor”, Matt Smith then said “No, let it go. We’ve moved on!” - was that a dig at those fans still desperately clinging on to the tenth Doctor?

“Amy and Rory might not trust us both…” “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” The two Doctors (sounds like a good name for a pub) must have swapped shoes very early on, and I believe it was in this scene where they are both together, while Amy and the factory workers are barricading the door.

If Matt Smith hadn’t already proved his worth this series, he got to prove it double-time here, and excelled as both the “real” Doctor and the Ganger Doctor. The Doctors’ plan is to try and save both the humans and the Gangers, but the moment isn’t quite right to form a peace-treaty, the Gangers are still set on revenge, so the Doctors and co escape through an air-vent in to an underground tunnel system, and head to the Evacuation Tower to send out a message to the mainland, as well as scanning for Rory and Jen.

There is a strong civil rights subtext running throughout the episode, and the abuse of these rights is seen in the treatment of the Gangers. Everybody is equal is the message, and the link between human and Ganger is best demonstrated with the two Jimmys (name of a Scottish pub?) who both remember their son’s birthday at the same time. Likewise, both Cleaves are linked by a blood clot, which they can both feel the pain of.

“The eyes are the last to go, and there’s only one question in those eyes - Why?” Jen’s Ganger is different in that she can remember all of her deaths, she remembers how many times she has been melted, and therefore is the most set on revenge.

In the Evac Tower the Doctor’ get the power back up and running, and they call for the evacuation shuttle. Amy demands to know which is the original Doctor, and once she is told she gives the cold shoulder treatment to “Ganger” Doctor. “She definitely feels more affection for you than she does for me.” “You might as well call me Smith!” I loved that line. Of course this is all a dastardly plan by the Doctors because they have swapped shoes, and are posing as each other.

And just to make things more confusing for Amy, the Eye Patch Lady decides to pop in to say hello. The “real” Doctor tells Amy there is nothing to worry about, it is just a “time memory”, and to let it go.

In one of the episode’s most intense scenes Amy tells what she believes to be the “Ganger” Doctor that she witnessed the death of the “real” Doctor. This is sure to have massive implications for the upcoming episodes, because now the Doctor is aware of his future demise. This is the most out of character we may have ever seen the Doctor, especially when he slams Amy against the wall and is screaming “Why?” in her face. Is he doing this to convince her that he is the “Ganger”? Most likely, but his anger felt so real, perhaps he was genuinely angry about finding out about his death and used this to be more convincing.

Amy is not the only Pond being tricked, Rory is being strung along by Jennifer. With two Jen’s claiming to be the “real” one, they end up in a fight, and Sarah Smart gets to do some crazy Laura Palmer eyes, and ends up pushing what appears to be the “Ganger” Jen in to a puddle of acid, melting her.

The “real” Doctor assigns the “Ganger” Doctor to go and search for Rory and Jen, who are heading for the thermostatic chamber, and Jen fools Rory in to turning off the cooling vents, which will cause the acid to rise, and blow up the whole island.

The pile of discarded Flesh that Jen and Rory find is disturbing, and reminds me of a similar scene in the underrated film Triangle. It is another symbol of the disregard for civil rights, as broken Gangers are left to rot, some of them still semi-alive. “Who are the real monsters?” Jen says, I’m not sure if that needed qualifying, but as she is a Ganger herself, it made it kind of ironic coming from her mouth.

“Ganger” Doctor finds the real Jen, dead, and confirms that Rory is indeed in trouble. Buzzer knocks out “Ganger” Doc, following the boss’s orders, but that proved to be a fatal mistake because he then had no one to protect him when he got a mouth-load of Ganger Jen. This literal jaw-dropping has nothing on the episode’s cliffhanger however.

The Gangers try to recruit “Ganger” Doctor, “You’re one of us Doctor, join the revolution,” Sarah Smart delivered that line with perfection. But the Doctor always has a plan, and makes a hologram call to Jimmy’s son Adam. “You’ve tricked him in to an act of weakness,” says Jen, “No, I’ve helped him in to an act of humanity,” replies the Doctor. With this the Gangers turn against Jen, they prefer the act of humanity, rather than the act of revenge.

The “real” Jimmy is killed by the acid, but in death he passes on fatherhood to his “Ganger”, proving there is no difference between them, they both share the same feelings and memories. With the Gangers and humans united, it is almost time to sign that peace-treaty, there is just a maniacal Jennifer to deal with first.

Ganger Jen, with no army behind her, goes all John Carpenter, and sets upon a killing rampage, conveniently disposing of the duplicates, it did become a little horror movie cliche at this point, I mean Dicken didn’t even know what side of the door to stand on!

While Cleaves and the “real” Doctor hold the door shut, the Doctors finally reveal to Amy that they had swapped shoes, and the Doctor she assumed was the “real” Doctor was in fact “Flesh”, and the “Ganger” Doctor was the real thing - got that? Good. “It was vital we knew about the Flesh and we could only do that through your eyes.” The Doctor was still holding something back, he knew more, and has known more all along, and it explains why last week he kept making references that hinted of prior knowledge of the Flesh. “Push Amy, but only when she tells you to,” oh, he definitely knows more!

And it is confirmed that it was indeed the real Doctor that Amy revealed his future death to, when the Ganger Doctor states “Well, my death arrives I suppose,” and the real Doctor responds “But this one we’re not invited too.” And we may also have had a hint on how he plans to go about that impending death, when he tells Ganger Doc that his molecular memory can survive this “…it may not be the end.” That keeps my theory that the real Doctor kills clone Doctor in The Impossible Astronaut theory alive, for now!

Jurassic Park Jen is dissolved in to a slimy pile of mush, and in doing so, the same happens to Ganger Cleaves and Ganger Doctor. The Gangers that survived are now stabilised in human form by the TARDIS energy, and the Doctor also happens to have some magic potion to get rid of Cleaves blood-clot. Jimmy returns to his son, while Cleaves and Dicken head to a press conference to reveal the truth about what is happening to the Flesh. It would have been nice to know who exactly is behind the Flesh, who invented or discovered it, but I guess we can’t have everything at once.

But then comes the mind-bendiness.

Amy is having trouble breathing, and the Doctor tells her that she is going in to labour. It is time for the grand reveal:

“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.” - confirming that he did have prior knowledge about the Flesh, and didn’t end up at the factory by accident, yeah, accident.

“I needed enough information to block the signal to the Flesh.”
“What signal?”
“The signal to you.” - the Doctor knows something about Amy, and drastic action needs to be taken.

“Given what we’ve learnt I’ll be as humane as I can, but I need to do this, and you need to stand away.” - this isn’t going to be easy for the Doctor, but needs must.

“I’m right here.”
“No, you’re not. You haven’t been here for a long, long time.” - uh-oh!

And with that, the Doctor kills Amy! Well, he kills a “Flesh” Amy, but it still shocked me and I had to take a couple of minutes to process what I had just witnessed. Once the “Flesh” Amy is dissolved, the real Amy wakes up.

The real Amy is in some sort of futuristic hospital, and is most definitely preggers, and about to give birth. And confirming many people’s theories, it appears the Eye Patch Lady is indeed Amy’s midwife - “Puuuuusssshhhh”.

Right, questions…

1. Did this satisfy as a twist? I think so, although I can see how people might think it is a bit of a cop out seeing as we were only introduced to the Flesh in the last episode, but I know people have been questioning Amy for some time now, with some believing it was all in Amy’s head. The reveal that the Amy we have been watching wasn’t in fact the real Amy was very shocking to me, and it will make re-watching even more fun.

2. Was the Doctor right to kill “Flesh” Amy? After we had two episodes of the Doctor championing equality between humans and Gangers, and trying his best to keep both alive, was he right to dispose of Ganger Amy? What you have to remember is that there are two types of Gangers, those that are controlled by humans in harnesses, these “driven” Gangers have no life of their own, and then there are “free” Gangers that for whatever reason have have lost their controller (caused by the solar storm in these episodes). The “free” Gangers are autonomous.

The Ganger Amy was a “driven” Ganger, she wasn’t independent, she was being controlled by the real Amy from the hospital bed (where ever that may be). This is what the Doctor was trying to learn about, he needed to see the differences between “free” Gangers and “driven” Gangers and find out which one Amy was. The events of the episode proved to him that the “Flesh” Amy had no independent thought, and was under the control of the real Amy, who is still alive somewhere. He killed her to separate the link, and perhaps to save the baby, because who knows what complications could have been caused if the Ganger Amy was still alive during the birth.

3. How long has Amy been “Flesh” Amy? My immediate thought was that Amy was “swapped” when she was kidnapped by The Silence, but I then realised that she had seen the Eye Patch Lady before that, meaning she must have become “Flesh” prior to that point. And then I went back and read my previous blogs, and something that I had written jumped out:

“The three month gap leaves me a little uncomfortable, because that seems a hefty chunk of story to simply wash over. I’m not sure if it was just a plot device to advance the story on more quickly, or if we will return to those missing three months later in the series. Judging by all the tally-marks, Amy, Rory, and River must have had plenty of encounters with The Silence, and it would be interesting to know what effect this had, especially on Amy, who was acting kind of strange in this episode - I’ll come back to that.” - The Day of the Moon Review 

Now, since I wrote that I’ve kind of let my Amy theories fall to the way-side, but if I had to predict when real Amy was swapped for “Flesh” Amy, I’d say it was during those missing three months at the beginning of The Day of the Moon. I’m not sure if it was The Silence that are responsible, although I do think we will see those suited monsters again.

I don’t think “Flesh” Amy goes any further back than this series, although the word “lie” can be found in the name “Amelia”. “Amelia Pond, sounds like a name in a fairytale,” what if the Amy we have been seeing all along has been just that, a fairytale, made-up, fictional? That would certainly be shocking, but I think there would be too many plot-holes, and I tend to believe that Amy was real up until The Day of the Moon.

It sets up next week’s mid-series finale perfectly, and if this was the cliffhanger we got this week, then I can’t even begin to imagine what is in store for us in A Good Man Goes to War. I love me a good a twist!


by Martin Holmes

The Impossible Astronaut Review: http://bit.ly/esSJmD

The Day of the Moon Review: http://bit.ly/iMyZ1f

The Curse of the Black Spot Review: http://bit.ly/iTFn59

The Doctor’s Wife Review: http://bit.ly/kdpoD3

The Rebel Flesh: http://bit.ly/k6qbKl