Doctor Who 6.06
I had a really crowded weekend, so didn't watch it until now. Crowdy events included a nephew's confirmaton and the reverend using the Beatles as an example of how being a musician and forming a rock group is the equivalent of becoming a part of adult Christianity, so that was fun. (Yes, he did work in John's 1966 "more popular than Jesus" quote.)
Now, on to the second part of Matt meeting Matt (now meeting Matt).
I'm saving the big one and the ethical implications of same for the end. Several things went as expected, others as hoped but not expected - for example, I had hoped the gangers would not, despite the cliffhanger of the first part, just uniformely want war. And indeed we see them making up their own minds, and only one, Jennifer, completely set on destruction, and Jennifer is amply motivated. (I'll get to the scene with the discarded "skins" in a while.) Nice individuality all around, though dialogue like "who are the real monsters?" was a bit too much - we'd have gotten the point anyway, Matt G., honestly.
One thing I hoped for never happened - Rory mentioning his Auton experience. The Doctor-Doctor interaction, otoh, was perfect, just golden, and the later revelation that the two Doctors teamed up from the start and switched shoes to make a point to everyone about trust, distrust and different treatments of Gangers was the ice on the cream. (Or the other way around?) I'll have to rewatch for those scenes alone, especially the one between Amy and the Doctor where she brings up watching him die. So many layers there: Amy thinks she's talking to Ganger!Doctor about him not being quite real to her and about having watched whom she thought then was Real!Doctor die, while Real!Doctor knows he's talking to Ganger!Amy and tells her something about watching "them" (companions? mortals in general? the gangers and humans in this situation?) die.
Continuity references for the win: Matt S. does the equivalent of Peter Davison's little actorly calling card in Logopolis where newly regenerated Five briefly channels various past regenerations. Ganger!Doctor channelling One's last words to Susan ("one day I will come back, yes, I will come back") as well as Three's trademark "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow" and Four's jelly babies was great.
Gangers and humans: I liked that the two Mirandas responded to the situation in different ways. Able to guess each other's thought process, yes, but Ganger!Miranda was both calmer and less paranoid whereas with Jennifer, from what briefly we saw of original!Jennifer at the start of part I, the Ganger(s) was far more aggressive and determined.
On to the big plot thing: Amy. You know, during the last week there was the occasional speculation about Amy having been replaced by a Ganger a while ago, with the eyepatch lady sightings being the equivalents of her briefly waking up, so that wasn't a complete shock, especially since the second part was even more pointed emphasizing Amy's distrust and lack of empathy for the Gangers, which by narrative law of this type of story had to mean she was one. The Doctor's behaviour towards her further added to that suspicion. So the big revelation was well prepared. However, the shocker in the tag scene isn't just the confirmation that the Amy we've been watching so far this season (probably since the orphanage scene in the season opener, if not earlier) was a Ganger while the original Amy is kept prisoner somewhere (and about to give birth), but that the Doctor, who is very firm on the Gangers being sentient life forms in their own right throughout this two parter and puts his own life on the line to prove it, dissolves Ganger!Amy. So here is me, chewing on that and coming up with several thoughts.
1.) Ganger!Amy, having been created before the Promethean-Frankensteinian lightning storm enabled the Gangers to function independently from their originals and develop their own lives, was a true avatar in the sense that the personality inside her was original Amy's, who did not know she was in the Matrix was kept prisoner.
2.) However, that doesn't mean Ganger!Amy had no life other than Original!Amy's. Both the Doctor's first contact with the Flesh in part I and the sight the discarded avatars in part II (all of whom were created and destroyed before the storm, which means they were the same type of avatar Ganger!Amy was) confirm that the Flesh was at least feeling something, if not yet sentient, before the factory workers poured their personalities into it. Presumably if Amy's mind had returned somehow to her original body without the Ganger body being dissolved, it would have become such a discarded skin, not quite living and not quite dead, suffering forever.
3.) Still doesn't make the Doctor destroying Ganger!Amy's body less dark. I mean, there are two obvious reasons: it would sent Amy's conscious back to her own body and wake up her up, and since whoever created Ganger!Amy to replace Real!Amy presumably used her to spy on the Doctor & Co., too, they would now not to be able to do so anymore and hence not know how the Doctor and Rory are planning to rescue Original!Amy. So it's not like I don't see the why. But it's still very, very cold, especially at this point in this two parter.
Lastly: since the two Doctors also mention the Flesh might be able to reconstitute itself, I assume this could happen to either Ganger!Amy, Ganger!Doctor, Ganger!Miranda or all three, though more likely the last two since they had independent life before.
Bring on the next episode! And please, do include a line from Rory about whether it wouldn't have been possible to disconnected Amy's consciousness from Ganger!Amy without killing the later. The answer is probably no, but I do want him to ask.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/682863.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
Now, on to the second part of Matt meeting Matt (now meeting Matt).
I'm saving the big one and the ethical implications of same for the end. Several things went as expected, others as hoped but not expected - for example, I had hoped the gangers would not, despite the cliffhanger of the first part, just uniformely want war. And indeed we see them making up their own minds, and only one, Jennifer, completely set on destruction, and Jennifer is amply motivated. (I'll get to the scene with the discarded "skins" in a while.) Nice individuality all around, though dialogue like "who are the real monsters?" was a bit too much - we'd have gotten the point anyway, Matt G., honestly.
One thing I hoped for never happened - Rory mentioning his Auton experience. The Doctor-Doctor interaction, otoh, was perfect, just golden, and the later revelation that the two Doctors teamed up from the start and switched shoes to make a point to everyone about trust, distrust and different treatments of Gangers was the ice on the cream. (Or the other way around?) I'll have to rewatch for those scenes alone, especially the one between Amy and the Doctor where she brings up watching him die. So many layers there: Amy thinks she's talking to Ganger!Doctor about him not being quite real to her and about having watched whom she thought then was Real!Doctor die, while Real!Doctor knows he's talking to Ganger!Amy and tells her something about watching "them" (companions? mortals in general? the gangers and humans in this situation?) die.
Continuity references for the win: Matt S. does the equivalent of Peter Davison's little actorly calling card in Logopolis where newly regenerated Five briefly channels various past regenerations. Ganger!Doctor channelling One's last words to Susan ("one day I will come back, yes, I will come back") as well as Three's trademark "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow" and Four's jelly babies was great.
Gangers and humans: I liked that the two Mirandas responded to the situation in different ways. Able to guess each other's thought process, yes, but Ganger!Miranda was both calmer and less paranoid whereas with Jennifer, from what briefly we saw of original!Jennifer at the start of part I, the Ganger(s) was far more aggressive and determined.
On to the big plot thing: Amy. You know, during the last week there was the occasional speculation about Amy having been replaced by a Ganger a while ago, with the eyepatch lady sightings being the equivalents of her briefly waking up, so that wasn't a complete shock, especially since the second part was even more pointed emphasizing Amy's distrust and lack of empathy for the Gangers, which by narrative law of this type of story had to mean she was one. The Doctor's behaviour towards her further added to that suspicion. So the big revelation was well prepared. However, the shocker in the tag scene isn't just the confirmation that the Amy we've been watching so far this season (probably since the orphanage scene in the season opener, if not earlier) was a Ganger while the original Amy is kept prisoner somewhere (and about to give birth), but that the Doctor, who is very firm on the Gangers being sentient life forms in their own right throughout this two parter and puts his own life on the line to prove it, dissolves Ganger!Amy. So here is me, chewing on that and coming up with several thoughts.
1.) Ganger!Amy, having been created before the Promethean-Frankensteinian lightning storm enabled the Gangers to function independently from their originals and develop their own lives, was a true avatar in the sense that the personality inside her was original Amy's, who did not know she was in the Matrix was kept prisoner.
2.) However, that doesn't mean Ganger!Amy had no life other than Original!Amy's. Both the Doctor's first contact with the Flesh in part I and the sight the discarded avatars in part II (all of whom were created and destroyed before the storm, which means they were the same type of avatar Ganger!Amy was) confirm that the Flesh was at least feeling something, if not yet sentient, before the factory workers poured their personalities into it. Presumably if Amy's mind had returned somehow to her original body without the Ganger body being dissolved, it would have become such a discarded skin, not quite living and not quite dead, suffering forever.
3.) Still doesn't make the Doctor destroying Ganger!Amy's body less dark. I mean, there are two obvious reasons: it would sent Amy's conscious back to her own body and wake up her up, and since whoever created Ganger!Amy to replace Real!Amy presumably used her to spy on the Doctor & Co., too, they would now not to be able to do so anymore and hence not know how the Doctor and Rory are planning to rescue Original!Amy. So it's not like I don't see the why. But it's still very, very cold, especially at this point in this two parter.
Lastly: since the two Doctors also mention the Flesh might be able to reconstitute itself, I assume this could happen to either Ganger!Amy, Ganger!Doctor, Ganger!Miranda or all three, though more likely the last two since they had independent life before.
Bring on the next episode! And please, do include a line from Rory about whether it wouldn't have been possible to disconnected Amy's consciousness from Ganger!Amy without killing the later. The answer is probably no, but I do want him to ask.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/682863.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.