TV Review: Doctor Who, Episode 6.6 – “The Almost People” (Part 2 of 2)

The Episode:

6.6 “The Almost People” (Part 2 of 2)

Picking up from part-one, the two Doctors and the factory workers must contend with the ‘ganger uprising.  Meanwhile, Rory gets his friends into trouble whilst trying to protect Jennifer.

Guy’s Take:

Two-part episodes of Doctor Who should be special.  The increased running time allows the show to flesh out characters and themes that may otherwise come up short.  Ninety minutes is not nothing.  That essentially, is a movie.  With that in mind, I always look for a step up in quality in these stories and usually, they’re found wanting.  “The Almost People,” similar to its first part, is a fairly good episode that’s a few drafts and niggles away from being great.

First and foremost, let’s address the quality of the supporting cast.  Aside from Raquel Cassidy (Cleaves, miles better than last week), the standard is very weak.  Sarah Smart (Jennifer) particularly, seems out of her depth here – her role is key to ensuring that the ‘gangers’ story works and she never really convinces as a murderous villain or rather unfortunately, a believable human being.

It’s fair to say that this episode suffered from some shaky set-up in “The Rebel Flesh.”  The mutiny of the ‘gangers against the humans felt rushed and unearned last week – like it came about purely because of a need for conflict in the story.  Consequently, we’re less engaged in their plight here and when we find a big old mess of decomposing ‘gangers abandoned in the corner, it doesn’t affect us half as much as it should.  Indeed, after praising the special effects in my last review, it stands to reason that this episode offered up some of the poorest CGI we’ve seen on the show in a while.  The flesh-puddle of discarded ‘gangers and the freak show Flesh-creature that Jennifer turned into, really let the side down this week.

But why concentrate on the negative aspects when there’s still much to like here?  One of the best aspects of this episode is the Doctor and Amy’s arc.  When two Doctors appear in an episode, you can more or less guarantee that it’s going to be fun and we aren’t disappointed here.  Although the dialogue between the two could arguably have been sharper, the shape of their journey together was very nicely plotted.  Amy, as ever, stood in for the audience here, initially being somewhat cliquey with ‘her Doctor’, only to find out that he’d switched with his ‘ganger earlier in the episode.  It was a powerful reveal that lent an added poignancy to the scene in which Amy and the ‘ganger Doctor joke-around, as our dejected Doctor watches on from the sidelines.

Perhaps most impressive here, was the final few minutes of the episode.

It takes a certain amount of skill to surprise an audience who know they’re about to be surprised, but Moffat (who you can guarantee wrote this sequence) nailed it.  For the past four weeks he’s dangled Amy’s possible pregnancy in front of us, and we’ve been so distracted that we didn’t see this twist coming – the Amy we’ve chummed around with in the last few episodes (or more) is ‘ganger.  As if having the Doctor destroy her isn’t enough, we’re immediately taken to the real Amy, who’s being kept in a sterile medical facility, being overseen by the infamous Eye-patch Lady.  We join her just as she’s about to give birth.

I really enjoyed how unashamedly sci-fi this twist was and you’ve got to say, it packed a punch.  It was all pretty unnerving and for me, the next installment can’t come soon enough.  Bring it on.

End Credit:

“The Almost People” gets extra credit for some tidy pieces of business.  Most notably, Tom Baker’s voice coming out of the ‘ganger Doctor.  Also worth a mention, is Amy’s line to the Doctor: “I never thought it possible… you’re twice the man I thought you were”.  In the wrong hands that line could be cheesy, but Gillan makes it sing.  See you next time for Episode 7, “A Good Man Goes To War.”

Rating: 6.9