I don't think that Matthew Graham was actively aping Chris Chibnall when he wrote this story; it's more that they both have similar ideas and similar old
Who stories in their DNA, particularly the work of Malcolm Hulke. But it does mean that this episode, like the last, feels familiar -- and there are little in the way of surprise moments to really wow us.
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| The two Doctors. ("The Almost People") ©BBC |
The best part of the episode is easily the presence of two Doctors, one the original and one a Ganger who nevertheless proves that the Gangers are just as much the people they're copies of as the originals, once they've stabilized. The interaction of the Doctor with himself is handled well -- none of your Troughton/Pertwee bickering here -- and the small tell of the different shoes is used to great effect. The first time around, when you see the Ganger Doctor isolated from the rest of the group because of his nature and then you see him lose control and rage --
rage! -- against Amy because of the fates of all the Gangers who were slaved to their hosts, being "decommissioned" and wondering "Why?", is powerful, and it's painful to watch Amy's prejudice against what she deems to be an inferior copy. The second time around, after you learn that the Doctors changed places (probably while behind that communications console) and it's the
original Doctor who feels the Gangers' pain, while the Ganger version remains calm and collected, this becomes much more intense. It's one thing to see a cloned Doctor lose control; it's altogether more powerful when it's "our" Doctor, and the treatment he undergoes at the hands of the humans is more uncomfortable than it already was. But that's the point; if even Amy can't actually tell the difference between the two, how can anyone judge the Gangers as being somehow less than people?
That's the core of the story, and they do a nice job of teasing it out without being overbearing about it, but sadly we have to go through a fairly generic story on the way there. There are some nice moments along the way, such as the Ganger Cleaves pointing out that Jennifer was "a sweet kid. Look at you now. The stuff of nightmares," the fate of all the Gangers that didn't quite come out right, and the resolution of the story, where the Gangers essentially say, "Stuff this, what's the point?" and stop trying to kill the humans.
But everything else feels, if not exactly comfortable, at least fairly routine. We've seen this sort of thing before, and "The Rebel Flesh" / "The Almost People" doesn't have much new or interesting to say. As I said, there are flashes of greatness, and I like how the story ends with a commitment to change things, rather than for all the Gangers to die, but this frequently feels like a typical runaround. Still, we're leaps and bounds ahead of "Fear Her", so that's something at least.
Oh, and there's the cliffhanger into the next story, with Amy revealed to be a more sophisticated Ganger who the Doctor destroys (which goes against the whole point of the story, but never mind), while the real Amy is about to give birth (hence the "pregnant"/"not pregnant" readings the Ganger Amy was giving off).
TO BE CONTINUED, the ending tells us, evoking the language of a show that's going to resolve things in a few months, rather than the following week. But I suppose they were excited about their cliffhanger and wanted to show off.
