The Rebel Flesh Doctor Who

As last weeks review of the Doctors wife, got so many hits. Why not try again
Last weeks episode can be read here
 http://malchera.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Doctors%20wife.%20Doctor%20who
This is the second two part episode of the season.
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS

DON’T YOU LISTEN TO RIVER SONG?
Spoilers
Spoilers

There is no health and safety in the future. We see a trio of workers in space suits. Carrying pikes, walking down a corridor. They come to a room. Which  the set designers were told to describe as Industrial. There are  analogue displays, and pipes on and a large vat. One of the workers stands on the rim of the vat. Chatting casually to each other. He falls into the acid. The Acid dissolves him, the two continue talking. One of the workers. An older man. With a Scots accent. Complains about the cost, of acid suits.
As a man drowns and dies
His indifferent co workers walk off. The scot complaining about the cost of an Acid suit. No stereotype there. I remembered most Blazing saddles. The Cowboys rescuing a hand car from quick sand.
In the corridor, we see a drowned man, alive and well, and raising the question of workman’s compensation.
Oh so its acid. Not space. Okay that is different
Its the bad guy from Pyschoville.

There is also Chris Skelton from Life on mars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Skelton
  Sadly there was no nod to the camera? No wink and and a crafty allusion to Life on Mars? You remind me, of a friend I had.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0799591/
There is a dart board in the Tardis.  Amy and Rory are playing, while the Doctor is still scanning Amy, who has achieved a medical first. Amy is well a little bit pregnant

UPDATE:

The Song, playing in the Tardis is here. While Rory and Amy play darts

Its Supermassive Black hole by Muse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tugqHunwDA


``Who wants fish and chips? ‘’ The Doctor plans to drop Rory and Amy off, and do something
There is a solar storm. Now I don’t really talk about science. As its not my bag, and its Doctor Who. Which plays fast and loose. However we have seen the Tardis manipulate Black holes, and draw the entire planet earth back into its rightful place in the galaxy. It just seems small beer. Last week the Tardis left the universe.
So our heroes arrive in England somewhere outside a monastery.
Rory’s mom liked Dusty Springfield.   This is the first time she has been mentioned. We have seen Amy’s family. Her Aunt, and her parents at the wedding. We have seen Rory’s friends. No mention of his family. You would have thought Amy might have picked that up, rather than Rory. Would not little Amelia pond, the orphan have warmed to Rory’s mom. Well it was just a thought
Medieval monastery is huge. Reminds me of the Name of the rose.  Wait is it Lindisfarme? The medieval monastery rather than the band. It would be in the right place.
The Time travellers set off some Alarms, and are confronted. The Doctor uses the old Psychic paper gambit
Contractors. Rather than Army. That's interesting. Is that a nod, to the cousins?  You don’t diss the forces, however the boys from Blackwater are fair game.
Also, a pike? Why do they have pikes? Beyond stirring the acid? A full pike, is a very effective weapon. Half pike, 2m rather 4m, would be more useful for security purposes.
The Doctor and his companions, have arrived on an Island. Where a team, is working on a special project. They are working with very dangerous acid. The type of stuff you want to plumb a medieval monastery. So they have used gangers. Clones or rather avatars. I guess most of you will have seen the movie that will put James Cameron's great grandchildren through college. Well they hook you up and a
A ganger, short for Doppelganger. A ganger is also a railway worker. 
( Why do the Germans have a word for that? Is that a problem in Germany. This question was raised in Blossom, and has not been answered. It would explain why there are places in Germany called Bad Muchegladbach)
On second hand, maybe the Military contractors are up to no good. They are despoiling heritage sites. The Powers that be in the future will be that corrupt.
Plumbing in,is the word used. Thought that was nice. Earthy, and British. Darts and Fish and chips too.
Body and an outfit, are produced by the process. So the living flesh, also produces materials.
Solar router in the shape of a weather vane. Is that to be incognito. Is it
``three lefts, a right and a left’’. Three lefts are a circle surely?
Nice graphic of the solar storm. However would there be a solar storm of that magnitude visible on Earth. Would not the Atmosphere, and the Ozone layer shield the effects?
``A lot can go wrong in an hour’’ A good turn of phrase
My record. The Music being played when, everyone is in the same room Oh its an actual record. So someone persevered a record player. Yet the pump acid under medieval monasteries.
Wait maybe there was a massive reaction to time team. It wasn’t a good one
Isle of Sheppey. A ganger killed his operator. Islands and Rumours. Sheppey is Essex. Not an episode for the Metropolis (Correction, it is in Kent. H/T Rhys George)
The Doctor cooks a microwave meal. It looks like a curry. He passes it to Cleaves the leader of the team. She takes the plate and than suddenly drops it. She does not realise it is hot. The Gangers did not have nerve endings. This won’t work on my dad. His nerves on his hand were severed by a circular saw
``trust me’’ The Doctor Who version of Come with me, if you want to Live?
Oh wait. Rory was an auton…. He was living plastic. Will they finally address it. Will he find common cause, with the gangers, Knowing what it is like to have a set of memories in your head. To remember a world, that never was. Oh no. We won’t do that.
When I was a little girl. I got lost on the moor.  Ganger Jennifer struggles with integrating her memories, and feelings, to the fact that she is plastic. Earlier she had confronted Rory, with her neck stretched like Plastic Man. If you can do all that, why not walk under the sea, back to the mainland?
The girl, (Jennifer) flirting with Rory. She noticed his eyes first. Which is all very well, but Amy, has arrived on an Island, with three men, who have seen no other women aside from there boss, and Jennifer for a while. I commend the professionalism, of the gangers and there human counterparts. Put an attractive person in your work environment and see the stir
Acid leaks over the Island. The Tardis sinks, as the soil is stands upon is corroded away by a leak. The Doctor boots are another casualty
The woman with the eye patch, which we saw in the pirates . Appears again. Amy opens the door, as she is trying to make her way down, a dark and dangerous corridor. I know its foreshadowing. Seeing the Woman twice and having her not say anything, is a let down. We want to be teased. Give us a little more
The Doctor meets the gangers, and there human counterparts. He makes fun of the North of England accent. Interesting. The Doctors dress, and accent, are quite southern, almost Oxbridge, or at least a good southern redbrick university no?
The Doctor has the same shoe size, as my brother. Size ten, and very wide feet. Its very difficult to find, wide shoes.  What is also difficult, is that my Mother buys him, shoes for Christmas. That are normally a size too small.
These are not copies.  The two Scots, talking over the birth of their son. Both of them remembering the details. Who would go and see the son, on his next birthday.  The writers had the Human and ganger versions of themselves chat and complain about each other. Very nice touch
They killed Chris Skelton. You Bastards!
``Us and them’’ Its almost the same thing that happened in the hungry Earth.  Okay, so the Gangers have the memory of there hosts. They want to get home, but they must realise they are different. They can move their heads 180 degrees. These are not people they don’t know. They are killing themselves, and there friends. Now people do commit suicide, and they do kill there wives and children. Why the sudden hostility. Why can the Gangers not stay on the Island.  Why can they not follow the lives through Face book. There is an earlier joke about Lawyers advertising compensation claims, via Holovision, or some such. There are so many solutions. Does Jennifer have a husband? Why does the Doctor just not take her away on the Tardis, once the Tardis is dug out of the ground

I suppose being military contractors the Workers may be disposed to violence, contradicting the dialogue earlier, but still. The storm will pass. There Island is not the World. Why the murderous fury. Yes I have heard, human beings do not like near copies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
The Gangers are able to look more human .they look just like your co workers. Your friends Why do you want to murder them?
Rory and Amy and discussing, the events over the body. Just audible. There actually not discussing. There bickering. Rory is justifying himself. Just like couples do.
With the death of D Skelton, relations between the Gangers and the Humans break down.
Rory runs after Jennifer. Because that’s what Nurses do. No attempt to save DC Skeleton
The pikes again. Did the Humans have problems with the Gangers, that they did not mention earlier. A pike of that length is an interesting weapon of choice
The Doctor and Amy and the Humans barricade themselves into the Chapel. The Doctor is drawn to a voice
A Ganger Doctor….
``Duh de duh der der duh’
**********
PS. Of course there are no archaeologists in the future. That is why River Song is in Jail!!!
****
An interesting episode. I didn’t enjoy it as much as last weeks episode. Less of a wow factor.  If last weeks episode, was centred on the doctor. This is a work a day episode. This is the Doctor dealing with ordinary people. Who drink too much tea, when there nervous. Who worry about the price of things and listen to Dusty Springfield. Ordinary people, who are pressed into dealing with something extra ordinary.
This is one of the strengths of the series. Star trek suffered from the fact that the characters in the Next Generation, never wanted for anything. They were only motivated by the highest of principles. Never basic human desires. Such as getting a good seat on the train. Earning a little more money, or coming home to Pork chops.
If last weeks episode, was a computer episode. The plot was resolved, by thinking of the Tardis as a computer. If you understand a little about Computers, you would have understood the episode.The plot had the Doctor deleting, and backing up rooms of the Tardis.
This episode was archaic. Analogue displays on the machines, records. No mobile phones, or computers. Yes there is the problem in SF that there are two many solutions the further you go into the future. However you also notice the absence
The foreshadowing, with Amy and the grander plot. I hope makes more sense, when the two episodes are viewed as one. Also the Doctor has been aware of Amy's off and on pregnancy for a while. Should he not be reacting to it?
The question of why the Gangers and the Humans would fight was not answered to my mind, in a satisfactory way. Yes, they have the same memories. Yes they could fight over the remains of there lives. Though there families are distant. Yes, Human beings are instinctively violent. Yes we have turned on each other in the past. We still do, and alas we will do in the future. Them or us, is a rational decision, when there is no chance of sharing. No where else to go. I don't think that was true here. You don't fight over a loaf of bread. If there is a supermarket.

The episode did more with Rory. Having Jennifer notice him, and flirt with him. Its nice that Amy did not feel threatened by this. I guess it follows on from last week, with Idris referring to Rory as the pretty one. However, again I am reminded of the events of the Big Bang. Rory was plastic for a while. He has the memories of two thousand years. Would it not have been cool, to have had remember the monastery.

I will wait for next weeks episode. It felt like this seasons the Hungry Earth, or the Daleks in New York story from a few years ago. Nice, but not spectacular

Comments

rhys george said…
great review but the isle of sheppey is in kent, i should know i live there :) but great review although it seemed more like an episode walk through
Anonymous said…
I thought it looked more like Edinburgh Castle.

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