Doctor Who: the Rebel Flesh

[miss_s_b]

As is usual, I'm not going to make a final proclamation on this till the second part airs, but provisionally, I rather enjoyed it. It kicked off lots of reference detectors in me - The Thing, obviously, but also Star Trek, and even Welcome to my Nightmare (Cleaves channelling Vincent Price's mad curator was utterly awesome) - which might lead some to call it too derivative, but I don't think it crossed the line from multiple nods to rip-off.

Clearly, the most interesting thing about this is the fan theories it has sparked off.

• I don't think that this is an auton origin story, because it is set in the 22nd century, and there's no evidence that they can time travel unless they are in an alliance with other races who can (c.f. Pandorica Opens).


• I very much like sir_guinglain's theory about Amy springing from this episode.


• My own theory which I thought of which is a theory and is mine is that the Doctor who dies at the beginning of Impossible Astronaut is the real actual Doctor, but the series will continue with Clone!Doctor.

I am quite relieved that this episode not awful; the writer has entries on each side of that ledger. I liked the characters, although Marshall Lancaster didn't seem to have gone too far from Chris Skelton in his performance. I loved Cleaves and Jennifer, and the fact that clone!Jennifer seemed to be the "strong" one and clone!Cleaves the reasonable one, whereas the originals were the other way around. I loved Rory's nursey empathy, and Amy's reaction to it - basically a nod of permission. I still think Amy is poly: Got my boys, got my space ship...

And yeah, the cliffhanger was signalled a mile away and wasn't really a surprise, but it was still fun.

I want to know how they are going to get Idris Sexy the Tardis out of her acidhole...

Comments

[rankersbo.wordpress.com]

Being a fool to myself, because the post hasn't quite got out to Germany with this week's episode...

We watched the confidential from week one, and Moffatt was insistant that the 1103 year old Doctor we saw die in TIA was the real one, and he really did die. Now I know the Doctor Who showrunner has a history of "telling lies" to protect the surprises in store, but this seems a pretty direct statement to be that sort of misdirection.

ponygirl72's theory seems to combine the two, it *was* the real Doctor, but they changed events subtly enough to save him without destroying the Web of Time.

I forgot to say...

[rankersbo.wordpress.com]

Oh and yes, this also fits with Miss S-B's theory too.