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 In a major plot twist, it revealed that Amy Pond had been replaced by a Ganger some time before.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 with their Gangers to overcome a monster of their own making?

Plot
The Ganger Doctor begins screaming and says something the First Doctor saidd. The Doctor realises his Ganger is fastforwarding through his past lives to catch up to him. As his Ganger says things said by the Third, Fourth, and Tenth Doctors, the Doctor tries to calm his Ganger down an encourage him to hang on as he is nearly done. After his Ganger stablises, the Doctor then notices that the other Gangers are using acid to break into the chapel. While everyone else forcuses on the door, the two Doctors talk to themselves and discuss the situation and what they can do; both find it amusing they know what the other is thinking. They get everyone's attention while Amy notices Ganger Doctor has shoes based on the Doctor's before they got burned by acid. Both Doctors decided they need to establish protocal to help stop confusion as the Doctor notices a airduct leading out. Ganger Doctor questions his reaction to finding it, but the Doctor tells him they're under stress and to leave it. They quickly enter the vent and shut it as the Gangers succeed in breaking in.

They go 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. Both Doctors maintain that they are as good as equal. Amy and Cleaves don't believe it, despite two Doctors continually completing each other's sentences like twins. Rory, meanwhile, has tracked down Jennifer and another Jennifer. At first he cannot distinguish between them, One Jennifer attacks the other and is thrown into an acid puddle. The other Jennifer was a ganger. The remaining Jennifer and Rory head to the thermostatic control room to deal with the choking acid filling the air.

Ganger Cleaves and the other gangers contemplate what to do. The real Cleaves transmits to the mainland, asking for evacuation, intending to leave the gangers to die. Ganger Cleaves intercepts the transmission, but the real Cleaves types a codeword, to verify if it is the genuine Cleaves they are communicating with in future transmissions. Ganger Cleaves cannot see the codeword and comments that they're/she's clever.

The Doctors realise Rory and Jennifer should be tracked down. Gangers and humans cause a slightly different response in the sonic screwdriver. Amy shows her preference for the "real" Doctor and disdain for the Ganger Doctor. The Ganger Doctor steps outside, seeming distracted. Amy follows him, and tries to apologise for what she said. She partially explains about the Doctor's impending death - could it have been the Ganger Doctor? The ganger suddenly, shoves Amy against a wall and says 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 his twin. Ganger Doctor is sent to track down Rory and Jennifer with Buzzer, using his counterpart's sonic screwdriver. The real Jennifer dies just as Ganger Doctor and Buzzer arrive. Buzzer knocks out Ganger Doctor on Cleaves' orders, appologising.

Rory and Ganger Jennifer make it to the thermostatic control room. Jennifer has Rory shut off the thermostatic regulators, which unknown to him, work only for humans and is the reason "Jennifer" needed him. Heading back to the rest of the group, Jennifer points out a pile of discarded gangers, still semi-conscious although only partially still 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 stretches her jaws wide, groaning, and advances on a horrified Buzzer, who screams as she kills him.

In the control room Cleaves realises that the coolant systems are offline, which unknown to them was done by Rory and Ganger Jennifer; this will make the facility explode. The Doctor gives the estimate time of exploison "five minutes, an hour; somewhere in between". Cleaves starts to give the evac transport a safer landing site but the radio dies, forcing Cleaves to decide they have to go to the acid storage room to try and prevent a cataclysmic reactions. Meanwhile, the other Gangers find Ganger Doctor and inform him that he is one of them. In the acid storage, the Doctor finds he cannot stop the acid reaction and makes a bad joke to Jimmy about being "all ears" if he has a better. Jennifer locks them in. Amy looks out the window to see Rory, who says he has seen what happens to old gangers, and wants to stop it. Amy and the Doctor point out that Jennifer is dead - he has been tricked by her ganger, much to his horror. As Jennifer takes Rory away, Cleaves reminds her Ganger it shares the blood clot in her brain with her, managing to get a cheap laugh.

The gangers gather with Rory in the control room. Ganger Cleaves completes the real Cleaves' request to the evac transport, guessing the codeword "Badboy". The evac transport is told to land in the courtyard instead of the tower. As Rory tries to leave the gangers, the holographic phone 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. After feeling his namesake's love for his son, Ganger Jimmy bolts to go find the boy's real father, showing Ganger Jennifer - who has been trying to enlist the others in a revenge mission - that gangers and humans can, in fact, get along. Ganger Jinnifer wails that Ganger Doctor tricked Ganger Jimmy into being weak; Ganger Doctor only says it was an act of humanity, enthiszing on the word "act". Ganger Jinnifer flees, believing this will happen to her too and the other Gangers if they are given momentos of their namesake's feelings.

Ganger Jimmy unlocks the acid containment room to see the real Jimmy get hit in the chest by spitting acid. The Doctor scans Jimmy with the sonic screwdriver, but sadly informs everyone that the acid has gone straight through Jimmy's heart. As 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 go 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 tell 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 find Ganger Jennifer blocking their way, now comepletely insane. She mutates into an elongated, insect-like version of herself and begins advancing on them. They manage to find the passage, but the door to keep Jennifer out is stuck Dicken stays behind to shut the door and manages to door so as Jennifer kills him. However, the Doctor and Ganger Cleaves manage to hold a secondary door shut as Jennifer tries to barge in. Meanwhile, the TARDIS has fallen through the ceiling.

Amy tells the Doctor to come into the TARDIS. Ganger Doctor asks Amy is she thinks he should stay instead. 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. 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 dematerialises. Ganger Doctor opens the door, saying that the sonic can destabilize the Flesh and they may come back from dying. He uses it against Ganger Jennifer, causing all three to collapse into raw flesh.

Exposure to the TARDIS engines permanently stabilizes the Gangers, and Ganger Jimmy is dropped off to see his son on the mainland and celebrate his birthday. The Doctor gives Cleaves medicine to remove the blood clot in her head, saying it tastes like burnt onions. He leaves Cleaves and Ganger Dicken at a press conference about the incident, telling them to not let the deaths that occured to have been in vain. Amy worries about what will happen, and the Doctor again tells her to breathe. She is confused, then suddenly doubles over. The Doctor says that she is contracting, and about to give birth, as Rory and he drag her back into the TARDIS. Safely in the control room, the Doctor tells Rory to step away from Amy. Rory refuses - the Doctor's temper begins to flare and Rory complies. The Doctor explains that he needed to see the Flesh in it's early stage to stop a signal. Amy is confused and asks what signal it is - the Doctor says it's a signal to her. Rory 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. He points his sonic screwdriver at "Amy" and activates it. She collapses into raw Flesh.

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

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

 * 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.
 * This is the fourth time the actor playing the Doctor has portrayed a different characters 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, Meglos The Enemy of the World, Journey's End)

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," 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).
 * "Hello, I'm the Doctor," as the Tenth Doctor did (DW: The Christmas Invasion)
 * 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
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.