Review: 'Doctor Who' - 'The Rebel Flesh': What is life?
Clones develop minds of their own in the first half of a two-parter
Matt Smith in "Doctor Who."
I figured that the upfront week time crunch was going to prevent me from doing a full-length "Doctor Who" review this week. As it turns out, I'm not sure I'd have had much to say about "The Rebel Flesh" even in a normal week, since A)It's the first half of a two-parter, and B)It was a fairly flat episode. A few quick thoughts coming up just as soon as I tell you about my wide feet...
Though I liked Matthew Graham's "Life on Mars," I haven't been crazy about either of his "Doctor Who" scripts to date ("Fear Her," from the first David Tennant season, was the other one). "The Rebel Flesh" dealt with a familiar but always provocative sci-fi question - at what point do you consider a clone (or, in this case, a flesh-pod, or whatever you want to call it) to be its own living entity? - but didn't do it in a memorable way, struggling to give distinctive personalities to any of the factory crewmembers (not even to "Life on Mars" alum Marshall Lancaster), when this kind of "Doctor Who" episode depends largely on making us quickly care about the people in jeopardy. (In that way, it reminded me of last season's two-parter with the Silurians, where the humans in jeopardy were too sketchy for any of it to work.)
What did everybody else think?
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Login or create a HitFix account Login Signupklg19
May 21, 2011 at 10:15PM EST Reply to CommentWow. That was really...boring.
webdiva Yeah. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz ...
May 24, 2011 at 8:29PM ESTSwearin
May 21, 2011 at 10:15PM EST Reply to CommentI miss River Song already. And because of next week's Memorial Day marathon, we won't get to see her again for at least 3 weeks? Ugh.
Look, I get you this show does "monster of the week"-style stories, but I'm of the school that likes serialized storylines and dull episodes like these, especially two-parters, just make me yearn for more, solid background on Amy's pregnancy, River's mysterious origins, the Doctor's death, the Time Lord girl, the Silence all the more.
May 23, 2011 at 7:44AM EST
May 21, 2011 at 10:17PM EST Reply to CommentI am waiting to see if Rory' past life as an Auton will play into the second part. I'm more interested than Amy's apparent jealousy of Jennifer's affections toward Rory.
As Alan said, it's part 1 of 2, so hard to really examine in a complete artifact.
And having the TARDIS knee deep in acid and earth is no way to treat the old gal after last week's heartbreaking episode. :>
May 21, 2011 at 10:33PM ESTrachelmed I thought of Auton Rory too. That is probably why he felt so connected to Flesh Jennifer so quickly.
May 22, 2011 at 12:12AM ESTdan I am betting this is an auton/Nestene consciousness origin story, from how the Doctor talked about it ("early version of the technology" or whatnot).
May 22, 2011 at 4:20AM ESTTracey @Dan: I was thinking that too, and I kept wondering why they didn't mention Auton Rory at all, though perhaps it's just that the Brits give their audience more credit for intelligence.
May 22, 2011 at 5:50AM ESTKyleBlowers @Mark Coale -- that surprises me... I felt Rory's actions were clearly driven by his past as an Auton... I don't, at all, see his actions this week or last week not being motivated in some part by the mental toll wrought by 2,000 years as the Lone Centurion. It seems to me more what @Tracey says, that they're alluding to Rory's demons without overtly admitting them... Part-2 I'm certain will change that though, agreed.
May 23, 2011 at 9:09AM ESTAlso, I'm confident the writers are aware and have a master plan... In "Day of the Moon" he and the Doctor recalled memories of being present during the Fall of Rome, but since the Universe re-banged(?) itself (that part of) his mind turns on and off... like a door?... No doubt this weirdness is tangled up there with Amy's on-and-off pregnancy/reality?... All of these threads aren't coincidental or unrelated. They're moving pieces into position for something much more grand in scale...
@Tracey "perhaps... Brits give their audience more credit for intelligence" -- I agree with you, but differently... For a show as convoluted as WHO often is, it's refreshing to not exposition & hanging plot threads be spoon-fed from week-to-week... this seems less Brits-for-Brits exclusivity than 'Who-for-Who' appreciation: higher-investment can yield deeper appreciation & nuance but still enjoyed on all levels without pandering... so if that's what you meant? I'm completely there w you :)
Also @Dan good call on this as a Nestene origin... had a waffle iron mishap and must've missed the "early tech" quote... seems a good fit and def plausible with this 'living flesh' business.
Tracey @Kyle: I didn't mean it as a Brits-for-Brits thing, just that American television writers tend to assume the audience has mush for brains and spells everything out. British television tends to assume that the audience (whether British, American or Chinese) has the intelligence to figure it out without putting every detail into the dialog.
May 24, 2011 at 1:02PM ESTKyleBlowers Reply to comment...
May 26, 2011 at 6:58AM ESTKyleBlowers ^^ Hit respond to quickly.. (>_<)
May 26, 2011 at 8:31AM EST@Tracey: Oh okay, sweet! We're in agreement! Wish more US shows would give similar consideration to their core audience and have higher expectations for the casual viewer...
Related tangent: Do Brit shows generally have "Previously Ons" from episode-to-episode?? LOST was almost always spoiled for me until I avoiding the "Previously"s and "Next Time"s. US Recaps are LOADED w Spoilers. WHO's i don't mind since they're largely just cryptic & spooky
darthoprah
May 21, 2011 at 10:23PM EST Reply to CommentI'm kind of wondering what could possibly happen next time to justify this being a two parter; it felt pretty draggy.
Bitsy
May 21, 2011 at 10:32PM EST Reply to CommentYAAAAWWWWN
nic919
May 21, 2011 at 11:29PM EST Reply to CommentI liked it better than "Fear Her", but then again that is my second least favourite episode of new Who.
There were some good elements that may turn out in the second part, but Rory's behaviour wasn't really making sense. This clone doctor may give us a solution to the dead doctor from the first episode. He would have all the memories from this current Doctor, enough to fool Amy, Rory and River. And maybe there is TARDIS dust that made it look like a regeneration, but it really is not. I am not thrilled about Space taking a break next week too, especially since this weekend is the Victoria Day long weekend and thus having no new episode on a regular weekend here is ridiculous.
r1pvanw1nkl3 I think Rory's behavior makes perfect sense, considering that he went through the same thing in last season's finale when he became an Auton.
May 22, 2011 at 12:29AM ESTTracey Yeah, I was thinking that this clone could be the Doctor who was killed too. They indicated that these clones have fully human biology -- the Doctor talked about the clones having hearts. But I'm still leaning toward the notion that a time paradox created two time lines, including the other Doctor and a pregnant Amy (in addition to the non-pregnant one we're following), and that the other Doctor's death may be a necessary part of reuniting the two time lines.
May 22, 2011 at 5:45AM EST
May 21, 2011 at 11:31PM EST Reply to CommentIt wasn't a great episode, but there was something totally classic and throwbacky in it's structure and pacing. Could have been a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th Doctor episode, easily.
GuanoLad I agree. It was very old school. I think they must have recognised it, too, as the music had that familiar ring as well.
May 22, 2011 at 12:21AM ESTIt seemed to me that scenes of the characters getting to know each other were edited out for time, but I wish they hadn't as they were crucial for us to feel empathy.
May 22, 2011 at 1:20AM ESTJ Exactly. This was solid and old-fashioned and acceptable for that. Sort of like "42," etc. etc.
May 22, 2011 at 1:36AM ESTIt will probably turn out that the two-parter would have been better as a one-parter, though I assume they'll find stuff to do between the Doctor and Doctor Goo, that they'll make some sort of emotional bond, then have some teary farewell as Goo slips into the acid to retrieve the TARDIS. Hopefully there's something to the future existance of the Goo that they hinted at that'll carry some sort of payoff.
Am happy the world didn't end after this, though. Not the best one to go out on.
webdiva This might have felt old-school Doctor to some, but I found nothing in this episode worthy of, say, Pertwee or Tom Baker. You'd have to go back further than that ... and I did think that many of the Troughton episodes left me feeling the same way: Mehhhh ...
May 24, 2011 at 6:42PM ESTwebdiva In fact, not only did I find it relentlessly boring, except for the Rory arc (and yeah, like several others I think this is his Auton stuff coming to the fore), and I found Matt Smith particularly boring in it. GEEZ, does this guy make me want either of his two predecessors back! I'd even take Sylvester McCoy back (but I draw the line at Colin Baker - feh!!! - or *his* predecessor; one has to have standards).
May 24, 2011 at 6:47PM ESTr1pvanw1nkl3
May 21, 2011 at 11:53PM EST Reply to Commentnot bad. way better than the silurian episode we got last season. had some good scares in it. hopefully the 2nd episode will prove to be more interesting with the two doctors. the trailer they cut was awful though, maybe they had to choose scenes with minimal dialog not to spoil anything? eh.
The_Corsair
May 22, 2011 at 1:13AM EST Reply to CommentPredictable resolution to offing DoppelDoctor; Amy will tell ganger that the Doctor's going to die, ganger will sacrifice self to save everyone else.
Agreed about the auton connection and Rory.
Yawn.
Random
May 22, 2011 at 2:44AM EST Reply to Comment/shrug It was better than a sharp stick in the eye.
As others here have already said, it felt very old-school to me (kinda Tom Bakerish maybe?)
One thing I will say, being an American, is that I had to watch it twice to understand what some of the actors were saying. Not a bash or anything, but the BBC might want to consider subtitles in the future. =D
mDoval Does your tv not have a subtitle option?? I been having to watch the episodes early Sunday mornings. So Subtitles are my friends @ 2 am..
May 22, 2011 at 4:19AM ESTTracey Hee hee. I also use the CC option to follow the accents, and also because sometimes the dialog is a bit quick to follow!
May 22, 2011 at 5:39AM ESTErin I always watch with CC, too. :)
May 22, 2011 at 11:07PM ESTwebdiva Naaah: Tom Baker would have carried this lame script to a higher level. Matt Smith jut made me want him to get off the screen. This was his weakest episode ever, and he's had a few weak ones.
May 24, 2011 at 8:29PM ESTTracey
May 22, 2011 at 5:38AM EST Reply to CommentThere just wasn't much going on here. A lot of it seemed like filler, perhaps to stretch a good 90-minute episode into a 2-hour, two-parter. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking and the second part will have as little plot as this one.
The most impressive part of the episode, I thought, was the bit where one of the clones is talking about how he remembers "his" child being born, and the reaction on the real per son's face as the clone tells all the little details. But really... not much going on here.
The Doctor Who Insider (which was played twice) talked about how clever it was to have Rory going after another woman or some such thing, but I just didn't see it. When they first showed the Insider, I thought, "well, yeah, maybe, kinda..."
I'm not happy that they're dragging this weak two-parter over two weeks, and then there's going to be one more episode (possibly another cliff-hanger) before we get a long break (ep 8 will be on Labor Day).
May 22, 2011 at 7:46AM EST Reply to CommentI just deleted Doctor Who from my DVR rotation. The last two episodes (after River Song left) were just horribly written. Like they were bad filler.
B I would agree about the pirate episode and this one but the Idris episode badly written filler? Huh?
May 22, 2011 at 8:20AM EST
May 23, 2011 at 1:08PM ESTMatthewL
May 22, 2011 at 9:58AM EST Reply to CommentThe thing I found most interesting was the moment where (I think it was) Jennifer referred to dying repeatedly, and then Rory said something about "Welcome to my life." Up to that point I never really thought it was an actual deliberate pattern of them killing Rory - to be honest, I never would have noticed it if it hadn't been pointed out to me, particularly since in many of the deaths (Amy's Choice, Day of the Moon, The Doctor's Wife) he was was never actually at risk. But after that line, I'm now convinced that there is some purpose to it and Moffat wants us to notice that he keeps dying. Will be interesting to see what that is.
KyleBlowers It's arguable if it was ACTUALLY Rory dying in "Doctor's Wife"... I understood it as House manipulating Amy and Rory's minds through the TARDIS telepathy yadda-yadda...
May 23, 2011 at 5:13AM ESTThat aside, I think you're very right. Rory is taking a MUCH more significant role this season and he's been showing more initiative as a companion.
May 23, 2011 at 1:09PM ESTbakija
May 22, 2011 at 10:56AM EST Reply to CommentNot the most exciting episode ever, but still entertaining enough. And as noted, very much a call back to old school, like, 1970's stories (pacing included :-)
I thought it was wildly appropriate that, at least on BBCA, during the episode there was an advertisement for the Sunday night BBCA showing of Blade Runner.
It strikes me as very significant that this episode ends with, ya know, a doppleganger Doctor showing up, what with the season starting with, well, the Doctor being killed.
Dave Difficult to see how the doppleganger doctor could be the one who was killed at the season start. That doctor had had later adventures with River. I think the doppleganger doctor is a red herring as far as that is concerned.
May 22, 2011 at 1:03PM ESTbakija Yeah, that is probably true, what with the almost regeneration and all. But he certainly does have a sense of being Chekov's Clone.
May 23, 2011 at 8:22AM ESTtrout
May 22, 2011 at 10:14PM EST Reply to CommentSeeing how the Doctor's bodies age and die like mortal human bodies, i don't see how the Doctor can age 200 years and not show it UNLESS of course he is a plastic replica.
Moreover, the real Doctor cannot be dead or River would not have known his future incarnations.
Hopefully this whole episode was just elaborate set-up for the Dr. Vs. Dr. smackdown to follow.
bob "Seeing how the Doctor's bodies age and die like mortal human bodies"...
May 23, 2011 at 5:40AM ESTReally? How do you know that? The Doctor has had 11 regenerations in 900-odd years. That's an average of around 80 years per regeneration, but he doesn't regenerate as a baby and live until he's an old man. He regenerates into a body that is (x) years old and appears to still be roughly (x) years old when trauma forces a regeneration.
The first Doctor was mentioned as being several hundred years old, but only looked like a man in his 60s or so. In short, you can not hang plot points - such as his lack of age look between ~930 and ~1130 years old in the season premiere - as canon ideas to discern current plot points.
The series has also implied that his regeneration ability keeps his current form looking about the same age. When the Master made him into a shrivelled old gnome by "suspending his regenerations" they made that pretty clear.
Dave Have to agree with Bob. In the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) adventure "The Tomb of the Cybermen" the Doctor's age is given as 450.
May 23, 2011 at 6:22AM ESTSee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_(Doctor_Who)
and the section entitled "Age"
webdiva You're misunderstanding this: to River Song, the Doctor's 'future' is David Tennant. She's experiencing his life more or less in reverse. The Doctor knows how River will die (in the Library, by entering the computer). Every time River sees him, she's younger -- but she knows how she first met him, but that particular event hasn't happened yet in his life (the first time he met her was the last time she met him: in the Library). This is why she keeps a journal to keep track of where his life is -- but the journal gets thinner as The Doctor ages, because as he goes forward, her life goes backward.
May 24, 2011 at 8:51PM ESTAnd don't forget how she told him she went to prison because she killed a man, the very best kind of man. Which was probably him, but she won't tell. Spoilers ...
Dave " You're misunderstanding this: to River Song, the Doctor's 'future' is David Tennant. "
May 25, 2011 at 4:26AM ESTYes I think most people understand that.
However River's diary as at the start of this season included a meeting with the doctor on Easter Island with someone called Joe the Fish which the Doctor who was killed also recalled whereas the "current" doctor doesn't recall (though I suppose there is the small possibility that he is lying). Assuming he is not lying the current doctor will have a later adventure with River (which to her is an earlier adventure) which the doppleganger will have no knowledge of since it presumably duplicates his current memories.
Hence the doppleganger cannot be the doctor who was killed unless he pretty much replaces the current doctor and careers around time in the Tardis and has the later from his point of view adventures with River.
May 23, 2011 at 1:05PM EST Reply to CommentToo Chris Chibnall-like, which is the exact opposite of a compliment. I couldn't stay awake during this one, which makes me sad because Doctor Who should keep me on the edge of my seat, due to either suspense or wonder. I guess Neil Gaiman is the greatest living sci-fi writer, and no one else even comes close. Which I find hard to believe. How can Doctor Who not attract the best writers available? Surely many are fans willing to write for next to nothing, just for the privilege?
webdiva For the umpteenth time, Doctor who is ***NOT*** a sci-fi show!! Just the act of placing a scene in the future does NOT make a story/show science fiction. Doctor Who is a fantasy show with few pretensions to science. Neil Gaiman writes 'sci-fi-esque' fantasy, but fantasy nonetheless. Same goes for Douglas Adams. You want science fiction in your Doctor? They'd have to hire the likes of Ben Bova, Vernor Vinge, Robert J. Sawyer, Gregory Benford, Greg Bear, or Kim Stanley Robinson ... none of whom would likely write a DW script anything like current or past writers for the show have done.
May 24, 2011 at 8:06PM ESTAnd bear in mind this show began as children's programming, even though it has stretched way beyond that now, for the better. There's a reason that little kids don't read Asimov's Foundation trilogy, for example: little kids are too young to handle the particulars of science fiction, but they handle the fantastic just fine ... which is why kids often edge into reading sci-fi by reading Jules Verne, which by is now more fantasy than sci-fi, but only because we know a lot more scientifically today than folks in Verne's day did and his plots are less scientifically possible. Remember: sci-fi often deals with the unlikely but still scientifically possible, whereas fantasy is the realm of the completely impossible/unproven. And Doctor Who, having not so much as one real scientific idea plausibly depicted, is clearly fantasy. Delightful fantasy that I enjoy, but not sci-fi.
ed w
May 24, 2011 at 5:46AM EST Reply to CommentI finally got a chance to see this and afterwards read Alan's review and the comments here. I have to agree with the consensus that it was a bore and a misfire.
The Silurian episodes last season were not as bad as the this, they at least had a visually interesting setting, a standout character of the boy (this doctor is always interesting with kids) and there was not this hectic running around for no reason other than to superficially seem exciting that permeated this episode and most episodes so far this season other than The Doctor's Wife.
My impression is that Moffat, whose work I've enjoyed since Coupling, is overstretched right now. When his Sherlock series came out I wondered how he could have time to handcraft that while keeping Dr Who as great as it was last season. Well we know how he can't.
ed w Now not how. I wish I had a sonic typo corrector.
May 24, 2011 at 5:50AM EST