It's really hard to pinpoint the kidnapping, but if I had to guess, it would be somewhere in that three month gap between The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon.
According to Beth Willis in the Confidential the clone's been with us since episode 1. The shot they used to illustrate this was the shot of Amy and Rory getting off the bus, so either it was Amy in the first scene with them at the house getting the invitation and she was nabbed on their trip to Utah or I'm reading too much into this and it was before the season started like I thought all along.
MY TINY BRAIN MOFFAT, WHY MUST YOU MESS WITH IT SO
At any rate, figure six to eight weeks before the start of the season plus three months and like you said, it's only about four months the episodes have to cover. That's still a long damn time between episodes compared to a show like Buffy or Heroes but it's not the "whaaaa" I was originally going to grump about.
Alternately, the Forces of DOOOOOM might have a way to speed a pregnancy so it hasn't been the full nine months, maybe only six or seven?
As for this episode... I thought it was all over the place. Occasionally awesome, occasionally boring. I dunnno. A solid "Meh".
Yeah, I was pleased to see finally some messing about with clones and clones of clones (Ganger!Jennifer growing another Ganger, the confusion over the Doctors) but at the same time the confusion over the Doctors felt a bit cheap, particularly as it turns out they swap on us . . . when exactly did they have a chance to pull that off?** Plus, the ending was so. damned. CONVENIENT. It's not even how handy it was that Jimmy and Dicken died that bugs me -- it's the miracle cure for Cleaves's blood clot and the TARDIS magically stabilizing Ganger!Jimmy and Ganger!Dicken that pissed me off. Lazy writing.
** I rewatched, keeping an eye on the footwear, just to see if I could figure out exactly when they swapped, and I can't really. The two Doctors are together and in full view of the rest of the team until they head behind the console. Then they come out from behind the console, and one Doctor remains seated at the console, in clear view of the team, and the other Doctor (in the black shoes) is the one that has the freakout and the conversation with Amy about the Doctor's death, and then is seated on a barrel, again in clear view of the team. Then the Doctors split up for a large chunk of the episode and are reunited while Ganger!Jimmy's making his phone call. After that, they run, again, together and in view of the team, and then there's the reveal that they swapped shoes and the Ganger is the one that's at the door; the real Doctor is the one that makes the remark about "not being invited to this death."
So there's really only two places where they'd be out of view and have time to swap shoes -- either while they were working behind the console, or in that brief period where they were reunited in the mess hall. If it's behind the console, it means they were swapped the entire time, which means it's the real Doctor who freaked and ran, heard Amy's confession, and attacked her, which is . . . well, I hate to say uncharacteristic as the Sixth Doctor went after a companion once (it was Peri, though, so I figure he had an excuse) but it is bizarre. It's also bizarre that the real Doctor would hear the Flesh more strongly than the Ganger!Doctor, who is, after all, made of Flesh. If it happened while they were both in the mess hall, they're only together and off-screen for 35 seconds and it defies belief that they could both get boots unlaced, off, back on, and laced, and have the Ganger have enough time to pass on that bit about what Amy said in 35 seconds***.
So basically the options result in a weirdly OOC Doctor or setting a speed record for tying shoes, and both seem a bit of a cheat. I guess there's a third option, which is that at some point while they were offscreen in the evac tower they excused themselves to take a leak and swap shoes, but that's even MORE of a cheat.
*** I suppose you could presume that just as Amy clearly had a connection with her Ganger, the Doctor had a connection with his and so the Ganger passed that wee tidbit mentally BUT STILL THE SHOES.
My objection is to the TARDIS stabilizing Ganger!Jimmy and Ganger!Dicken but not Ganger!Amy (who has spent a LOT longer in the TARDIS).
Good point. I guess I can fanwank it away as the Doctor told the TARDIS to stabilize Jimmy and Dicken, but left Amy so he could splat her. But even that's more damn magic bullshit.
Also, apparently the Ganger-control tech works throughout time and has a range that exceeds the boundaries of the universe, but y'know, timey-wimey, not so bad.
I just realized something, everything about this makes more sense when you replace the words "Ganger" and "Flesh" with "Magic Bullshit". So of course the Magic Bullshit tech works throughout time and in other dimensions. It's Magic Bullshit!
It's not even so much that "The Almost People" is a bad episode, but it's built entirely to service the reveal that Amy is a clone, and those last ten minutes just warp the narrative of the rest of the episode out of the bounds of reality. There's not actually time for the Doctors to swap places? Never mind that, we've got to demonstrate that you can't tell a Ganger and the original apart! Too many guest stars left by the end? Oh hell just splat them and move on! Turning Dicken into a human undermines the point the episode is trying to make about Gangers and humans living together? WHO CARES WE'VE GOT A REVEAL TO DO HERE PEOPLE!
According to Beth Willis in the Confidential the clone's been with us since episode 1. The shot they used to illustrate this was the shot of Amy and Rory getting off the bus, so either it was Amy in the first scene with them at the house getting the invitation and she was nabbed on their trip to Utah or I'm reading too much into this and it was before the season started like I thought all along.
MY TINY BRAIN MOFFAT, WHY MUST YOU MESS WITH IT SO
At any rate, figure six to eight weeks before the start of the season plus three months and like you said, it's only about four months the episodes have to cover. That's still a long damn time between episodes compared to a show like Buffy or Heroes but it's not the "whaaaa" I was originally going to grump about.
Alternately, the Forces of DOOOOOM might have a way to speed a pregnancy so it hasn't been the full nine months, maybe only six or seven?
As for this episode... I thought it was all over the place. Occasionally awesome, occasionally boring. I dunnno. A solid "Meh".
Yeah, I was pleased to see finally some messing about with clones and clones of clones (Ganger!Jennifer growing another Ganger, the confusion over the Doctors) but at the same time the confusion over the Doctors felt a bit cheap, particularly as it turns out they swap on us . . . when exactly did they have a chance to pull that off?** Plus, the ending was so. damned. CONVENIENT. It's not even how handy it was that Jimmy and Dicken died that bugs me -- it's the miracle cure for Cleaves's blood clot and the TARDIS magically stabilizing Ganger!Jimmy and Ganger!Dicken that pissed me off. Lazy writing.
** I rewatched, keeping an eye on the footwear, just to see if I could figure out exactly when they swapped, and I can't really. The two Doctors are together and in full view of the rest of the team until they head behind the console. Then they come out from behind the console, and one Doctor remains seated at the console, in clear view of the team, and the other Doctor (in the black shoes) is the one that has the freakout and the conversation with Amy about the Doctor's death, and then is seated on a barrel, again in clear view of the team. Then the Doctors split up for a large chunk of the episode and are reunited while Ganger!Jimmy's making his phone call. After that, they run, again, together and in view of the team, and then there's the reveal that they swapped shoes and the Ganger is the one that's at the door; the real Doctor is the one that makes the remark about "not being invited to this death."
So there's really only two places where they'd be out of view and have time to swap shoes -- either while they were working behind the console, or in that brief period where they were reunited in the mess hall. If it's behind the console, it means they were swapped the entire time, which means it's the real Doctor who freaked and ran, heard Amy's confession, and attacked her, which is . . . well, I hate to say uncharacteristic as the Sixth Doctor went after a companion once (it was Peri, though, so I figure he had an excuse) but it is bizarre. It's also bizarre that the real Doctor would hear the Flesh more strongly than the Ganger!Doctor, who is, after all, made of Flesh. If it happened while they were both in the mess hall, they're only together and off-screen for 35 seconds and it defies belief that they could both get boots unlaced, off, back on, and laced, and have the Ganger have enough time to pass on that bit about what Amy said in 35 seconds***.
So basically the options result in a weirdly OOC Doctor or setting a speed record for tying shoes, and both seem a bit of a cheat. I guess there's a third option, which is that at some point while they were offscreen in the evac tower they excused themselves to take a leak and swap shoes, but that's even MORE of a cheat.
*** I suppose you could presume that just as Amy clearly had a connection with her Ganger, the Doctor had a connection with his and so the Ganger passed that wee tidbit mentally BUT STILL THE SHOES.
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
Good point. I guess I can fanwank it away as the Doctor told the TARDIS to stabilize Jimmy and Dicken, but left Amy so he could splat her. But even that's more damn magic bullshit.
Also, apparently the Ganger-control tech works throughout time and has a range that exceeds the boundaries of the universe, but y'know, timey-wimey, not so bad.
I just realized something, everything about this makes more sense when you replace the words "Ganger" and "Flesh" with "Magic Bullshit". So of course the Magic Bullshit tech works throughout time and in other dimensions. It's Magic Bullshit!
It's not even so much that "The Almost People" is a bad episode, but it's built entirely to service the reveal that Amy is a clone, and those last ten minutes just warp the narrative of the rest of the episode out of the bounds of reality. There's not actually time for the Doctors to swap places? Never mind that, we've got to demonstrate that you can't tell a Ganger and the original apart! Too many guest stars left by the end? Oh hell just splat them and move on! Turning Dicken into a human undermines the point the episode is trying to make about Gangers and humans living together? WHO CARES WE'VE GOT A REVEAL TO DO HERE PEOPLE!
Reply
Leave a comment