Episode 5 of Series Six sees the first installment of another two parter, The Rebel Flesh. This episode was written by Mathew Graham so fans purely of Doctor Who could be forgiven for approaching this episode with some caution as Graham also wrote the appalling 'Fear Her' - arguably the worst episode since the series returned. However there was no need for such worries as Graham was also involved in the masterful Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes which makes him beyond reproach in my eyes.
So this story begins with the Doctor, Amy and Rory landing at a monastery on 22nd Century Earth where a group of chemical workers are using doppelganger avatars to deal with lethal chemicals. The avatars are created from an entity called The Flesh which seems to have sentient life within its genetic make up.
The Doctor seems to already know about this entity and is also concerned about an approaching solar tsunami which sure enough strikes the monastery and ends up bringing to life the avatars with all the thoughts and memories of their human counterparts transposed. The Doctor then spends the rest of the episode trying to make the humans understand rather than fear the avatars as they are sentient life in just the same way as the earthlings. However he fails and the Gangers declare war on the humans...rather quickly.
This episode pays homage to many films of the past, perhaps most noticeably The Thing and Bladerunner, neither of which is ever a bad thing. The morality debate over whether the Gangers are true people is interesting, although it is harder to take when the special effects of their true faces really kick in, especially in two bizarre moment where the Gangers elasticity is shown with one rotating her heard 180% degrees and another stretching out like Mr Fantastic from the Fantastic 4!
What is perhaps more interesting is Rory becoming very prominent in this story by developing an affection for Jenny, the one Ganger whose character is really fleshed (sorry!) out. His defense of her leaves Amy sidelined and hopefully brought down a peg or two. Is Rory like this because of all those years he spent as an Auton? Can he identify with the Flesh?
The direction is lovely and the various castles and remote surroundings are used to great effect. The duplicate Doctor at the end was somewhat predictable (an early trailer spoilered this for those with a keen eye) but it does pose the question, is this the Doctor killed by the Astronaut in 'The Impossible Astronaut'? Or is that too obvious? We shall see.
Overall another good story following the wonderful 'The Doctor's Wife', albeit a much more traditional one but I think the series needed that. The episode involved a lot of set up and had morality issues similar to last seasons two parter Silurian story, although this was done much much better. We also had the season long story arcs of Amy's on/off pregnancy and Eye Patch lady involved although the latter is beginning to feel very shoe horned. This type of drip drip storyline was done much better in the aforementioned Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes. Hopefully its conclusion will change all that but in the world of Steven Moffat who knows when that will be.
Overall enjoyable once again and looking forward to next week!
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