Dr Who 6x06 - The Almost People
The feeling of general disappointment is continuing, and I wish I could my finger on why. It just doesn't feel as sparky, clever, exciting and funny as last series? I guess? Anyway, on to this ep (thoughts randomly as they come to me)...
1) I have things to say about Amy, but the reveal at the end makes it all a bit 'Er, actually I don't know whether this is relevant after all'. But, for one thing, how come she's not all 'Arrgggh!' at Rory when he slopes back after taking another woman's side (and indeed following her around, acting all protective, etc - and by that path abandoning his wife and putting her in danger, etc)? Quite apart from plot-relevant stuff, I'd be fuming if James did that! (Plus, she is sort-of pregnant!)
2) Did Amy reveal to the actual real Doctor that she'd seen his death? Erm... oops?
3) It was rather obvious the Doctor had swapped shoes with Flesh!Doctor, but I still think that was a nice touch. Amy iteracting with the Doctor x 2 was nice. But, if it was Real!Doctor that was outside with Amy when they were on their own, and swapping shoes was all a big experiment to see how someone would react to a Flesh person just because they knew they were a Flesh person (and a double of a real person they knew), then how come Real!Doctor went all grrr and collar-grabby at her? (NB I was very happy to see Shouty!Doctor!) Didn't he wreck the experiment a bit by doing so? Um?
3b) And, um, surely there was more to it than a psychological experiment. Swapping Doctors allowed Real!Doctor to infiltrate the Flesh people group. (And maybe, implicitly, he trusted his real self more than his Flesh self to do this??)
4) Doctor-on-Doctor huggy action right at the beginning was nice. But later Doctor/Doctor interaction fell a bit flat (they finish each other sentences, etc, etc). Not so well scripted, I think.
5) Generally, I thought the script was a bit weak. The action was a little muddled. If I rewatch maybe I'll become happier with it, but I do prefer it when you think something is awesome the first time round. I expected more from Matthew Graham, I have to say.
6) My guess is that Flesh!Doctor is not finished - as hinted at at the end when he and Matilda (NB, I could buy them as an OTP!) vaporised themselves along with psycho-Jen (or whatever they did). (Speaking of which, did they need to do that when the whole place was about to be wiped out or whatever??)
6b) So I'm thinking that either Flesh!Doctor is the 1100-year-old Doctor who dies in the first episode, OR he regenerates into creepy Impossible Astronaut Child... or something else. (But NB I just saw a massive unmarked spoiler for something next week, and I won't tell you what that is, but it may have a bearing on this. If you're going to mention it in comments, please do so in a way that will not result in people's eyes falling on it by accident!)
7) Why didn't they give Marshall Lancaster more lines?
8) The ending all felt a bit convenient. There was one real survivor and two Flesh survivors who went on to step into their real counterparts' lives. (I guess you're supposed to think about whether you find this creepy or not. And if you do find it creepy, what does it say about you?)
9) I noticed one or two lines of dialogue that echoed lines from last series very closely (maybe exactly). But I forgot what they were. Help?
10) So if the Amy who got disintegrated at the end was made of Flesh, what version of Real!Amy was she made from? How long has Flesh!Amy been around? A long time, according to the Doctor. (And I won't even treat the question of where the hell Real!Amy is because I'm sure plenty of people are already speculating on this and I don't have any good ideas just yet...)
So, you can tell from the nature of the comments that I'm feeling a little bemused, maybe a little disappointed... I don't mind these feelings so much, but it would have been nice to end up feeling euphoric, excited, anxious about what's happening to the characters. *shrug* Anyway, please do give me your thoughts, and you might help me to snap out of it!