The Almost People (TV story)

The Almost People was the sixth story in the sixth series of Doctor Who. This episode saw the Doctor team up with himself again, but this time it isn't various different incarnations, but a true duplicate of his current self. In a major plot twist, it is revealed that Amy Pond had been replaced by a Ganger some time before The Impossible Astronaut. It also saw the real Amy Pond reappear for the first time since A Christmas Carol and reveal the true nature of the "Eye Patch Lady" Ganger Amy has been seeing.

Synopsis
As the solar storm rages, Jennifer, a Ganger driven mad by the memories of being “decommissioned”, is seeking revenge against the humans responsible. 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 with their Gangers to overcome a monster of their own making? Or will this be the day the Doctor fails to save a single life other than his companions?

Plot
The ganger Doctor begins screaming in pain, prompting the original Doctor to assertain what is wrong. Ganger Doctor begins quoting some of the Doctor's past incarnations. This makes the Doctor realise the Flesh is having a difficult time dealing with his past regenerations, which is causing his Ganger a great deal of difficulty in stablizing into his current one. The Doctor encourages him to calm down, as the process is nearly over, while Amy assists the factory workers in barricading the door. Eventually, the ganger stabilizes, though the Doctor begins quizzing it to ascertain that it is definitely "the Doctor."

Smoke begins seeping through the door -- the gangers are trying to force their way inside by using acid. The two Doctors discuss the situation, amused that they can tell what the other is thinking; getting everyone's attention, they establish protocol -- simultaneously warning Amy to "breathe" -- and deduce that they will be able to escape through an air-duct. They quickly climb into the vent, escaping just as the gangers succeed in breaking into the room.

They make their way up to the monastery evac tower; from there, they can phone the mainland for help and track down Rory and Jennifer, who are still missing. Amy deduces that the two Doctors can be told apart from one another by their shoes -- the Doctor changed his shoes after the Flesh originally scanned him. Meanwhile, Gangers Cleaves, Dicken, and Jimmy go to the factory control room, where they are able to listen to Cleaves send a transmission to the mainland from the evac tower; Cleaves requests immediate evacuation for herself, the Doctor, and the humans, and orders the gangers' incineration. Ganger Cleaves tries to intercept the transmission, but the real Cleaves cuts off this line of approach, typing and sending a password that she explains must be used in all future tranmissions so that the mainland may be able to verify that it is her and not her ganger. Ganger Cleaves comments on how clever she is.

The Doctor's group tries to track Rory and Jennifer on the factory computer, but fail. Amy continues doubting both Doctors are real, commenting the ganger is "almost the Doctor," which infuriates him. Abruptly, the woman with the eyepatch appears again; Amy finally confesses the woman's presence to the Doctor, who insists that she is nothing more than a "mirage," and encourages her to breathe again. The Doctor's ganger leaves and Amy follows, apologising for her earlier comments but remarking she has been through a lot with the Doctor, having even seen his death, which she admits to him. She wonders aloud whether or not the ganger could have been the Doctor who was killed at the lakeside when, suddenly, he violently shoves her up against a wall and repeats the word that each ganger says when it's decommissioned (or, rather, executed): "Why?" Frightened, Amy returns to the control room and orders the ganger to be kept away from her. As the now-calm ganger follows her back into the room, asking the Doctor if he heard it as well, The Doctor confirms that he also heard the telepathic "why," but not nearly as strong as his twin. Ganger Doctor tries apologizing to Amy, but she is adamant about staying away from him.

Meanwhile, Rory has tracked down two different Jennifers, both of whom claim to be the human Jennifer; one shows off a wound on her leg that she claims the Flesh is unable to replicate. Ultimately, the two fight, with one Jennifer dissolving the other by pushing her into a puddle of acid. Rory and Jennifer rush off to the thermostatic control room, where Jennifer insists they will be able to deal with the deadly choking gas -- caused by the acid -- that is filling the corridors.

The factory computer picks up a visual of Rory and Jennifer on their way to the thermostatic room, which greatly confuses Cleaves. Knowing they need to be rescued and brought to the evac tower, the Doctor gives the sonic screwdriver to his ganger and sends him off to accomplish this mission with Buzzer's supervision. When both Cleaves and Amy argue that the ganger should stay behind, the Doctor insists that they must trust him. Exploring the monastery, the Doctor's ganger and Buzzer discover the real Jennifer's body, deducing that she'd died shortly before their arrival; when the ganger has his back turned, Buzzer knocks him unconscious - Cleaves' orders. Buzzer is subsequently killed by Jennifer's ganger when he discovers her comforting a pile of discarded Flesh.

In the thermostatic chamber, the machine does not recognise Jennifer as human, and so she uses Rory to shut off the thermostatic regulators. In the evac tower, the computer registers a rise in temperature; Rory and Jennifer have shut off the underground cooling vents, which will boil the acid and incinerate the factory in less than an hour. The mainland contacts the factory and requests a safer landing site; before Cleaves can give the codeword, the transmission dies. Ganger Cleaves, who has telepathically deduced the code word, reroutes the transport to save herself and the gangers, leaving the Doctor and his companions to die in the impending factory explosion. In the evac tower, the Doctor deduces that a blood clot in Cleaves' brain is slowly killing her. They decide to leave the evac tower and travel to the thermostatic room, where they can hopefully reboot the cooling vents. Meanwhile, the other gangers discover the ganger Doctor and convince him that he is one of them and should join in the fight.

The Doctor's group reunites with Rory, who informs them that Jennifer has discovered a secret tunnel beneath the crypt -- which also doubles as the acid room -- which they can use to escape to the TARDIS. When they reach the acid room, however, Rory and Jennifer's ganger lock the group inside; Rory is oblivious to Jennifer's true intentions, merely hoping to convince the group of the gangers' right to live. As Rory becomes more uncertain of what they're doing, Jennifer reveals herself to be a ganger and drags him away before he can release the others. With the acid tanks threatening to boil over, Jimmy struggles to hold the lid of the tank down, despite not having an acid suit. In the dining hall, Rory tries to leave the gangers and get back to the others; however, he is ordered by the Doctor's ganger to stay still just as the holographic phone rings. Jimmy's young son, Adam, is calling to speak to his father. In Jimmy's absence, the Doctor encourages Jimmy's ganger to answer; emotional, the ganger runs off to release the boy's real father, infuriating Jennifer, who accuses the Doctor of having tricked him into being weak. When the Doctor explains that this was only an "act" of humanity, Jennifer flees; the other gangers, however, also experience a change of heart.

Jimmy's ganger is too late, however; unlocking the door of the crypt, he is horrified to see Jimmy get hit in the chest by acid spitting out from beneath the lid of the tank. The Doctor scans Jimmy with the sonic screwdriver and sadly informs the group that the acid has already reached his heart. As Jimmy dies, he asks his ganger to answer his son's call and be his father now. The Doctor and the remaining group follow Jimmy's ganger back to the dining hall, where he wishes Adam a happy birthday; he is also delighted when the Doctor informs Adam that Jimmy will be coming home that day.

The group takes off running through the monastery as the roof begins to cave in; they are pursued by a mutating Jennifer, who has taken the form of an elastic Flesh monster. Though they manage to find a safe chamber, the door at the end of the passage will not shut, and so Dicken sacrifices himself to close it. The Doctor and Cleaves's ganger use their bodies to barricade the second door as the TARDIS crashes through the ceiling behind them. Cleaves, Jimmy, and Dicken's ganger are ushered into the TARDIS by Rory. Amy calls for the Doctor to return to the TARDIS, with his ganger suggesting that perhaps Amy thinks he should stay behind instead; the Doctor maintains that he is staying behind to keep the door shut and reveals that he is, in fact, the ganger -- he and the Doctor switched shoes a while back as a means of proving that the two races are not so different after all. The Doctor gives his sonic screwdriver to the ganger, who exchanges an emotional farewell with an apologetic Amy; they return to the TARDIS and depart. Gangers Cleaves and the Doctor realise that, by using the sonic to destabilize the Flesh, they will also die; however, the Doctor optimistically hopes for return. Opening the door, they activate the sonic and all three Flesh beings collapse.

Exposure to the TARDIS engines permanently stabilizes Jimmy and Dicken, turning them into true human beings. Jimmy is dropped off at his home, where he reunites with his son. The Doctor gives Cleaves medicine to cure the blood clot in her brain, and drops her and Dicken off at an Army press conference about the incident; he encourages her to spread the word about the gangers, and not to let their deaths be in vain. Amy worries about what will happen to them, but the Doctor merely tells her to breathe. She is confused, but suddenly doubles over in pain; Rory and the Doctor bring her back to the TARDIS, where the Doctor informs the couple that she is going into labor. The Doctor orders Rory to step away from her, which he reluctantly does. As Amy looks on, terrified, the Doctor explains that their trip to the factory was not entirely unintentional: he needed to see the Flesh in its early stages so that he could learn how to stop the signal -- to Amy. As he insists that no matter where she is, they will find her, he activates the sonic; Rory watches in horror as Amy dissolves into a puddle of Flesh right before their eyes.

Amy wakes up to find herself imprisoned in a medical capsule, dressed in a white hospital gown. A panel in the ceiling slides away, revealing the woman with the eyepatch, seen by her Ganger, who informs Amy that she is nearly ready to pop and that the "little one" is on its way. Looking down, Amy is horrified to see that she is heavily pregnant and due to give birth at any minute. The woman cruelly instructs her to push as Amy screams, going into labor.

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

Story notes

 * The episode's working title was Gangers.
 * 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 thematically 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.
 * This is the fourth time the actor playing the Doctor has portrayed a different character in the same episode. This previously happened with William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Tom Baker and David Tennant. (DW: The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, The Enemy of the World, Meglos, Journey's End, respectively)

Ratings

 * 6.72 million

Myths

 * The TARDIS will be cloned. This was proven false.
 * Whilst the Ganger-Doctor is stabilising, he briefly adopts the Fourth Doctor's voice. It was believed that this was recorded specially by Tom Baker, at the time recording a series of audio dramas for Doctor Who, but this was proven incorrect.

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.

Continuity

 * While the Flesh was attempting to stabilize Ganger Doctor, he began shouting:
 * "One day, we will get back. Yes, one day," 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, but which became commonly associated with him. (DW: The Sea Devils, The Five Doctors)
 * "Would you like a jelly baby?" in the manner and voice of the Fourth Doctor (specific audio clip from DW: The Robots of Death).
 * "I'm the Doctor," as the Tenth Doctor did (specific audio clip from DW: The Girl in the Fireplace).
 * Also, the Doctor's dislike of looking back on his lives is shown by his Ganger after quoting the Tenth -"No, let it go. We're past that; we've moved on".
 * To test his copy's memory, the real Doctor asks the Ganger Doctor to describe Cybermats.
 * Amy tells the original Doctor (thinking it be the Ganger Doctor) about her viewing his death two hundred years in his future. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut)
 * 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". Amy called Rory's Auton duplicate "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 Doctor (posing as the Ganger Doctor) begins calling himself "John Smith", an alias often used by the Doctor. (DW: Spearhead from Space, et. al.)

Home video releases
This story was 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 11 July 2011.