The Almost People (TV story)

The Almost People was the sixth story in the sixth series of Doctor Who. In a major plot twist, it revealed that Amy Pond had been replaced by a Ganger some time before. It saw the real Amy Pond reappear and the nature of the "Eye Patch Lady" revealed.

Synopsis
As the solar storm rages, Jennifer, a Ganger driven mad by the memories of being “decommissioned”, is seeking revenge. She can remember every excruciating second of every “execution” and is determined that the humans will pay. She isn’t just talking war; she’s talking revolution. As the crumbling factory fills with toxic fumes and drips lethal acid, the “Originals” wait desperately for the shuttle from the Mainland to rescue them. Jennifer, however, has other ideas. Can the Doctor convince the terrified factory workers to embrace their own humanity and work together with their Gangers to overcome a monster of their own making?

Plot
The Ganger Doctor finalizes his shape, but finds difficulty coping with and fast-forwarding through past regenerations. The Ganger shouts things said by past Doctors, and briefly emulates the voice of the Fourth Doctor while asking, "Would you like a Jelly Baby?" The Ganger Doctor eventually stabilises. While Amy is horrified, the Doctor quickly takes a liking to himself - Ganger Doctor doing the same. Both cannot believe how brilliant it is to be able to talk to each other - furthermore, unlike the others, Ganger Doctor appears more friendly towards non-Gangers. With two Doctors, the group finds an escape route out of the chapel - which supposedly had only one entrance - through a maintenance duct in the wall.

The group makes its way to the control room, where it is established that the "real" Doctor can be distinguished from the Ganger Doctor as he had changed shoes since the Flesh scanned him. However, both Doctors maintain that they are as good as equal. Both Amy and Cleaves find this difficult to believe, despite the two Doctors continually completing each other's sentences. Cleaves eventually makes the decision to evacuate, leaving the gangers behind, and then burn the factory down.

Rory, meanwhile, has tracked Jennifer down. When he does, he finds that there is also another Jennifer. At first he cannot distinguish between them, but eventually he realises that one is limping. The intact Jennifer attacks the injured one. After a brief struggle, the injured Jennifer throws the other into a puddle of acid. As it dissoves, it is revealed that the other Jennifer was a ganger. The remaining Jennifer and Rory head towards thermostatic control room, where they can give the oxygen a stir to remove some of the gas coming off the boiling acid, which is causing the inhabitants of the factory to choke.

Ganger Cleaves and the other gangers contemplate what to do. The real Cleaves transmits to the mainland, asking for evacuation. Ganger Cleaves intercepts the transmission, but the real Cleaves types a codeword, which Ganger Cleaves cannot see. This will be used to verify if it is the genuine Cleaves they are communicating with in future transmissions.

The Doctors realise that before they head to the evacuation tower, Rory and Jennifer should be tracked down. The real Doctor finds out that he can track them with the sonic screwdriver, since Gangers and humans cause a slightly different response from the tool. Amy meanwhile openly shows her preference for the "real" Doctor and some disdain for the Ganger Doctor. The Ganger Doctor steps outside, seeming distracted. Amy follows him, and somewhat apologises for what she said. She maintains that he isn't the Doctor however, and partially explains about the Doctor's impending death - wondering if it may have actially been the Ganger Doctor. The ganger reacts suddenly, shoving Amy against a wall and stating that all the Flesh can say upon deactivation, or rather execution, is "Why?" Frightened, Amy returns inside the control room. As the calmed Ganger Doctor re-enters the control room, the "real" Doctor confirms that he also heard the telepathic "Why?" from the rest of the flesh - but not as strongly as did the Ganger Doctor. The group now has a stronger mistrust of the Ganger Doctor. After the Doctor verifies his Ganger is as sane as he is, Ganger Doctor is sent to track down Rory and Jennifer with Buzzer, using his counterpart's sonic screwdriver. The real Jennifer is lying in the courtyard, but she dies just as Ganger Doctor and Buzzer arrive. Buzzer incapacitates Ganger Doctor with a blow to the head, apologizing as it was Cleaves' order.

Rory and Ganger Jennifer make it to the thermostatic control room. Claiming that it will get rid of the poisonouis gas, Jennifer uses Rory to shut off the thermostatic regulators - which unknown to him, only work for humans. Upon heading back to the rest of the group, Jennifer points out a pile of discarded gangers, still semi-conscious although only partially stil in human form. Rory says that this is wrong, since they still feel pain, and decides to help Jennifer stop this from happening. After Rory leaves, Buzzer soon finds Jennifer comforting the dying Flesh. When Buzzer angrily tells Jennifer that the real Jennifer is dead, Ganger Jennifer tells him that she is stronger than the Real Jennifer, and that she can grow. She promptly stretches her jaws wide and advances on Buzzer, who screams as she kills him.

In the control room Cleaves realises that the coolant systems are offline. This will eventually cause the facility to explode. Not knowing how much time is left, Cleaves prepares to give the evac transport a safer landing site than the evacuation tower, but the radio dies before she can give the codeword. The group heads to the acid storage room to try and prevent any cataclysmic reactions. In the meantime, the other Gangers have found Ganger Doctor and inform him that he is one of them as he had been treated badly just like the rest of them. In the acid storage, the Doctor finds that a chemical reaction is now occurring, one that he cannot stop. Jennifer locks the group in, and Rory says he has seen what happens to old gangers, and wants to stop it. However, Amy and the Doctor point out that Jennifer is dead - he has been tricked by her ganger. As Jennifer takes Rory away, Cleaves takes a cheap shot at her Ganger as it shares the same blood clot in her head as she does. Ganger Cleaves and Ganger Jennifer arrive back in the dining hall with Rory; the other Gangers and Ganger Doctor are present.

In the control room, Ganger Cleaves completes the real Cleaves' request to the evac transport, correctly guessing the codeword "Badboy". The request goes through and the evac transport is told to land at the courtyard instead of the tower. As Rory tries to leave the gangers, Ganger Doctor turns on him, pushing him away, while saying "Ring ring!". The holographic phone then goes off - it is Jimmy's son. Ganger Doctor answers and, after rambling about what to do on a birthday, invites Ganger Jimmy to answer. Instead, Ganger Jimmy bolts away to go find the boy's real father, proving to Ganger Jennifer - who has been trying to enlist the others in a revenge mission - that gangers and humans can, in fact, get along. Jennifer flees, believing that Ganger Doctor had instead made Ganger Jimmy weak and will do the same to the rest of them.

Ganger Jimmy unlocks the acid containment room, just in time to see the real Jimmy get hit in the chest by spitting acid. Before he dies, Jimmy asks the ganger to answer his son's call and be his father now. The Doctor and the remainder of the group head to the dining hall, where Ganger Jimmy answers his son's call - and the Doctor promises Jimmy's son that he will see his dad today.

Rory then informs them he found an escape route under the crypt, a route not in the schematics. The two Doctors realise that that passage could lead to just under where the TARDIS had been sinking. They head towards the passage, where they are intercepted by Ganger Jennifer, who uses the Flesh's ability to duplicate to transform into an elogated scorpion-like version of herself. Ganger Cleaves and the Doctor hold the door, separating Jennifer and the group, plus the TARDIS, which fell through the ceiling, shut. Realizing the door further ahead won't lock, Dicken runs into the hallway to close the door at the end of it. Locking it from the other side, he's quickly killed by Ganger Jennifer, to the horror of Ganger Dicken.

Amy, having become increasingly hostile towards Ganger Doctor, tells the Doctor to come into the TARDIS, and Ganger Doctor realises that Amy thinks he should stay. The Doctor says that he is staying to hold the door shut. Ganger Doctor explains that he, in fact, is the real Doctor and the Doctor holding the door shut is the ganger. Amy at first does not believe the Doctors, but Ganger Doctor says they swapped shoes. Amy had been hostile towards the Doctor all along, and has been defending Ganger Doctor. She and Cleaves realise that the Doctor's point had been proven - the two races can get along after all. The Doctor gives his ganger a sonic screwdriver, and takes Amy, Rory, Ganger Jimmy, Cleaves and Ganger Dicken into the TARDIS and it dematerializes. Ganger Doctor opens the door, saying that the sonic can destabilize the Flesh. He uses it against Ganger Jennifer, causing her to collapse back into raw Flesh; he then holds it long enough to collapse himself and Ganger Cleaves back into raw flesh as well.

Exposure to the TARDIS engines permanently stabilizes the Gangers, and Ganger Jimmy is dropped off to see his counterpart's son on the mainland to celebrate his birthday. The Doctor leaves Cleaves and Ganger Dicken at a press conference about the incident while giving Cleaves medicine *(which tastes like burnt onions) to remove the blood clot in her head. Amy worries about what will happen, and the Doctor tells her to "breathe" and she suddenly doubles over - the Doctor says she is contracting, and about to give birth, prompting both the Doctor and Rory to drag her back ito the TARDIS. Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor tells Rory to step away from Amy. Rory refuses - the Doctor's temper begins to flare up, and he comes closer and closer to shouting. The Doctor explains that he needed to be close to the Flesh to properly stop the Flesh's signal to Amy. Rory at last backs away from Amy, and the Doctor tells Amy to hold on and they will find her. A confused Amy protests that she's right here. The Doctor grimly replies that she's not and she hasn't been for a long time. The Doctor points his sonic screwdriver at "Amy" and activates it - she collapses into raw Flesh.

Amy wakes up in a hospital gown, on a metallic table. A panel in the ceiling slides away, and a woman with an eye patch, whom Ganger Amy had been seeing occasionally during her recent travels with The Doctor, says that she is ready. Amy looks down - she is very heavily pregnant. As the contractions continue, the mysterious woman tells Amy to push, Amy screams in pain.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
 * Rory Williams - Arthur Darvill
 * Jimmy - Mark Bonnar
 * Buzzer - Marshall Lancaster
 * Jennifer - Sarah Smart
 * Miranda Cleaves - Raquel Cassidy
 * Dicken - Leon Vickers
 * Madame Kovarian - Frances Barber
 * Adam - Edmond Moulton

Crew
to be added

Story notes

 * While the episode premiered in the UK on 28 May, the US premiere was delayed one week to prevent a drop in viewership over the Memorial Day Weekend. A Good Man Goes to War also aired one week late as a result.
 * This two-part story is thematially similar to the Series 5 two-parter, DW: The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood. In both stories the Doctor attempts to broker a peace between two lifeforms on Earth, only to have the truce shattered by mistrust on both sides.

Ratings

 * 6.72 million

Myths

 * The TARDIS will be cloned. This was proven false.

Filming locations
to be added

Production errors

 * When the TARDIS falls through the ceiling, the doors are facing away from the camera. The Ganger Doctor then comments on how "she does like to make an entrance." However, when cut back to the TARDIS (at the same angle as before), the doors are now facing the camera.
 * The Flesh can duplicate clothes, but when Miranda's Ganger melts, her acid suit melts with it. This suit was not put on until after she was duplicated and therefore should not melt as it's not part of the Flesh.

Continuity

 * While The Flesh was attempting to stabilize Ganger Doctor, he began shouting:
 * "One day, we will get back. Yes, one day," same as the First Doctor did (DW: An Unearthly Child).
 * "Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow," a phrase used only twice in its entirety by the Third Doctor and then commonly associated with him. (DW: The Sea Devils, The Five Doctors) It was said twice in full by the Fifth Doctor (DW: Castrovalva, Mawdryn Undead) and once by the Tenth Doctor (DW: Music of the Spheres).
 * "Would you like a jelly baby?" in the manner and voice of the Fourth Doctor (DW: The Robots of Death).
 * "Hello, I'm the Doctor," in the Tenth Doctor's voice (DW: The Girl in the Fireplace), before declaring in his own voice "No, let it go, we've moved on!", a nod to the extreme popularity of the Tenth Doctor among fans.
 * To test his copy's memory, the real Doctor asks the Ganger Doctor to describe Cybermats. This may be a minor nod to the reintroduction of the Cybermats later in the year.
 * Amy tells the original Doctor about her viewing his death 200 years in his future. It was clear that she told the real Doctor due to a line he says to his ganger counterpart just before he enters the TARDIS.
 * When Rory and the Ganger Jennifer lock the Doctor and the others in the acid room, the Doctor shouts at Rory angrily through the window, calling him "Roranicus Pondicus". This is a reference to Rory's Auton duplicate, whom Amy called "Roranicus" when he told her his name (DW: The Pandorica Opens).
 * In earlier episodes of Series 6, the Doctor's TARDIS was unable to confirm if Amy was pregnant or not. Considering it was scanning Amy's Ganger rather than Amy herself, this gives an explanation for why it was confused about her pregnancy. Although the real Amy was pregnant, the Ganger Amy was not but could still feel the real Amy's pregnancy due to them being the same person. This also explains why Amy never showed any signs of being heavily pregnant in earlier episodes.
 * The Ganger Doctor briefly considers calling himself "John Smith", an alias often used by the real Doctor.

Home video releases
Released as Series 6 Part 1 with The Impossible Astronaut, Day of the Moon, The Curse of the Black Spot, The Doctor's Wife, The Rebel Flesh and A Good Man Goes to War on 11th July 2011.