The Rebel Flesh (TV story)

The Rebel Flesh was the fifth story of the sixth series of Doctor Who. Like many previous stories, it saw the Doctor duplicated and it was the second time the Eleventh Doctor was copied following The Eleventh Hour.

It was notable for including the first use of motion control cameras since The Mysterious Planet, and for containing the first instance of motion control use on actors, rather than inanimate models, in Doctor Who history.

Synopsis
A solar tsunami sends the TARDIS hurtling towards a futuristic factory on Earth, where human doppelgangers are used to mine dangerous acid, as the time-travelling adventures continue.

A second wave hits and the "Gangers" separate. They can remember every second of their "originals'" lives and feel every emotion they've ever experienced. But are these memories stolen or have they been bequeathed? Are the Gangers merely faulty machinery that must be shut down or are they living, breathing, sentient beings? Can the Doctor convince the terrified humans to accept these "almost people" and prevent an all-out civil war before the factory explodes?

Plot
On an island in the 22nd century, Jennifer, Buzzer and Jimmy are walking around an abandoned monastery. They enter a room and open a large vat, making sure their acid suits are fully closed, to reveal a large amount of acid. Jennifer accidentally pushes Buzzer into the vat, but they seem more concerned with the loss of the suit than Buzzer, who is surprisingly content. As Jennifer and Jimmy leave, Buzzer enters the hallway they've begun walking down with no suit, though he is still seen melting in the vat of acid.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor is scanning Amy for pregnancy, and is still getting strange readings while she and Rory are playing darts. The Doctor asks them if they'd like to go for fish and chips while he takes care of something else; however, Amy protests to the idea as the TARDIS gets hit by a solar tsunami. This ends up throwing them onto the same island as seen earlier. The Doctor notices a supply pipe, and deduces that it's there to pump acid off the island to the mainland. They enter the monastery, setting off the alarm. They enter a room full of harnesses in which people are sleeping. They are quickly surrounded by exact doubles of the people in harnesses (including Jennifer, Buzzer and Jimmy). They pretend to be from the meteorological department, and warn them that a bigger solar wave than the one they just survived is on the way. The Doctor asks to see their "critical system".

Miranda Cleaves (apparently the leader) leads them to a vat of 'flesh'; fully programmable matter which they can manipulate to replicate any living organisms. They reveal that all the workers in the room (apart from Jennifer) are flesh, being controlled by the real people in the harnesses, as the site is too dangerous; they were losing a worker every week. With flesh 'gangers', they can mind the site without putting anyone in danger. The Doctor seems concerned with their low opinion of the flesh, stating that it is a 'living thing'. Jennifer leaves to create her ganger. The Doctor scans the flesh with his screwdriver and touches it, but quickly pulls his hand away as it was very hot. As Jennifer steps into the harness, the Doctor, Amy and Rory watch flesh pour into a tub. The liquid flesh drains, leaving an exact copy of Jennifer.

The Doctor reminds them of the solar wave, but Cleaves refuses to let the team leave the island while the Doctor notes that the factory runs on solar energy. This means there will be a huge power surge when the wave hits. Jennifer directs them to the monitoring station. The Doctor sees that the solar energy is absorbed via the weather vane, and heads up to the roof. While attempting to temporarily disable the solar energy collector, the Doctor is knocked back and unconious from the weather vane as the solar storm hits. Acid pipes begin to leak everywhere, including near the TARDIS, which begins sinking into the ground around it. As the power surge occurs, the gangers switch between their full human forms and their semi-flesh forms.

The Doctor wakes up on the roof to see the vane gone and the stump smoking. Rory and Amy, also having be knocked unconscious, wake up. The Doctor greets the real Cleaves, who is deeply shaken and worried for her team. He reveals that they've been unconscious for an hour, rather than a few minutes as Cleaves believed as well as explaining that something terrible can happen in that amount of time. Amy and Rory return to the harness room to find everyone awake. Jennifer is apparently in a state of shock, and Rory comforts her as Amy watches. The Doctor and Cleaves join them, and Cleaves says that the gangers should have returned to pure flesh, but is interrupted by someone playing Jimmy's record- the gangers are controlling themselves.

The group run to the dining hall, where they discover that everything has been searched. The Doctor explains that the gangers were searching for confirmation of their identities. The workers have trouble accepting the fact that they gave their identities away, and that all their possessions are equally the possessions of their gangers. Jennifer begins to feel ill and heads to the toilets, quickly followed by Rory.

In the toilets, Jennifer vomits up flesh while Rory is looking away. Suddenly terrified upon realising she is a ganger, she disappears into one of the cubicles. Rory steps in front of the mirror of the sink she vomited in. Jennifer's arm extends and punches through the door cubicle door, aiming for Rory but missing him. Her neck then extends through the hole in the cubicle door, and she tells Rory to "just let us live!" Rory runs out of the room.

In the dining hall, the Doctor heats up some food as Jimmy talks about arming themselves and the Doctor's odd calm behavior. The Doctor asks Jimmy if he's a violent man, to which Jimmy answers no. The Doctor then points out that if Jimmy is not violent, then there is no need to beleive that his Ganger is. The Doctor then he hands Cleaves a hot plate, but she doesn't feel it. He explains that her nerve endings aren't what they should be, though he reassures her that she'll stabilise. Cleaves turns away, and turns back with a flesh face, revealing herself as a ganger. She proclaims that "we are living!" and runs out. Amy remembers Rory and goes to search for him with Jimmy and the Doctor. They arrive at the toilets and realise that Jennifer is a ganger. The Doctor says that, though they aren't violent, they are scared, and that he needs to talk to them if he's going to fix it. He runs off to get the TARDIS, and Amy goes to look for Rory.

Rory finds Jennifer's ganger, who tells him a story of when she got lost as a little girl. She expresses that she is Jennifer Lucas, and does not feel like a mere factory part. She takes offence when Rory asks her where the real Jennifer is, and she takes on full human form while yelling that she is just as real as the "other" Jennifer.

The Doctor returns to the vat of flesh and scans it again before leaving. The tub fills with flesh again, and drains enough to reveal a mouth that says "Trust me." The Doctor returns to where he left the TARDIS to find only the top inches remaining above ground; he also realises the acid on the ground is melting his shoes, quickly abandoning what is left of them before he began to melt. Meanwhile, all the gangers except for Jennifer have gathered with the remaining acid suits.

While searching for Rory, Amy sees the Eye Patch Lady again. Rory and Ganger Jennifer find Amy, as do Buzzer and Dicken. Rory says that the ganger needs protection, and says that "no one touches her". The group return to the main room with Jimmy. The Doctor soon arrives with the rest of the gangers, in full human form. Before begnning his usual attempt at persuading them all to co-exist, the Doctor asks for replacement shoes - preferably size 10-wide. In the meantime, the real Jennifer has entered the room containing the vat of flesh, only to be scared away by a ganger uttering "Trust me" in a distorted voice. After getting new shoes, the Doctor explains that the gangers are now truly alive, and that can't be changed. The Ganger Jimmy confirms this as he explains what happened the day his son was born, shocking his real counterpart equally as it does him. The real Cleaves enters, refusing to work with the gangers, and electrocutes Ganger Buzzer with a battery. The Doctor is horrified and examines him, discovering he had truly become human as he had a human heart. The Gangers conclude that the humans can't be trusted and run out. Rory tackles Cleaves as she begins to aim the electrocution device at Ganger Jennifer, disconnecting the deadly device. Cleaves tells the humans that it's war. Ganger Jennifer tells the gangers the same thing when she regroups with them.

The humans go to take refuge in the Ganger-manufactory. Rory refuses to enter the chapel, and goes to search for Jennifer instead as the Gangers began to advance on them. Quickly blocking the door, the Doctor notices that there is another presence in the room and demands for whoever is there to step out of the shadows. When Amy tries to get the Doctor to focus on the situation at hand, the Doctor's voice comes from the shadows, berating her for understating the situation as well as saying that the situation well get better. An unfinished Ganger of the Doctor steps out of the shadows, adjusting his bowtie as he says "Trust me. I'm the Doctor."

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
 * Eye Patch Lady - Frances Barber

Earth Locations

 * Jimmy and Buzzer refer to an incident on the Isle of Sheppey, in which an electrical surge resulted in a Ganger animating and killing its former controller.

Foods and Beverages

 * The Doctor suggests dropping Amy and Rory off on Earth for fish and chips.

Story notes

 * Matthew Graham, who wrote this episode, is the co-creator of the series Life on Mars and its sequel series, Ashes to Ashes. Marshall Lancaster, who appears in this episode, plays the character of Chris Skelton on both of these shows.
 * By the conclusion of this episode, the entire active TARDIS crew has either had or been a duplicate of themselves, although this is not fully revealed until later (DW: The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang, The Almost People).
 * The scene involving the Doctor's investigation of an acid pipe outside the factory is reminiscent of the Doctor's investigation of tyre treads on Androzani Minor in DW: The Caves of Androzani.

Music

 * When Amy and Rory are playing darts, the music in the background is "Supermassive Black Hole" by Muse.
 * The song played by Buzzer on the turntable when the TARDIS crew arrives and later by the Gangers is Dusty Springfield's "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me", her version of the Italian song "Io che non vivo (senza te)".
 * The music playing in the background when the vat of The Flesh is first shown is "Flying" by Tomandandy.
 * The music that plays when the TARDIS crew is discovered, if listened to carefully, sounds like the first few seconds of the song "Flashback Coste" from the soundtrack Splinter Cell: Conviction Original Soundtrack.

Ratings

 * 7.35 million (34.1% market share)

Myths

 * The TARDIS will be cloned. Incorrect.

Filming locations
to be added

Production errors

 * The positions of the two cards on top of the card pyramid slightly alter between shots.

Continuity

 * The Doctor previously visited a monastery in his second incarnation. (DW: The Abominable Snowmen)
 * The Eye Patch Lady reappears. (DW: Day of the Moon, The Curse of the Black Spot)
 * The use of the original humans going into harnesses, eyes-closed, to help create a Ganger clone, is very similar to what Martha Jones does with her clone in DW: The Sontaran Stratagem.
 * The material from which the Gangers are created is referred to as "the flesh", the New humans were previously referred to as that in DW: New Earth.
 * The TARDIS is still confused as to whether Amy is pregnant. (DW: Day of the Moon)
 * Rory mentions that rule one with the Doctor is "Don't wander off". The Doctor himself said this in DW: The Girl in the Fireplace, DW: The Empty Child and DW: The Eleventh Hour.
 * The Doctor has previously encountered "doubles" of himself in DW: The Chase, The Massacre, The Enemy of the World, Meglos, Arc of Infinity, Journey's End, The Eleventh Hour, and The Big Bang.

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 Almost People and A Good Man Goes to War on 11th July 2011.