Howling:Gangers and The Silence

So, if Amy turned out to be a Ganger in the final moments of the last epsiode, that must mean that the Silence were capable of creating Gangers, because the only moment Amy could've been swapped would be when they kidnapped her back in 1969. The Doctor also probably knew she was a Ganger as well, because in the Rebel Flesh when she asked him if he knew about Gangers he was very quiet. And if Amy was a Ganger this offers an explanation for the Doctor's death in 1969, what if that was the Doctor's Ganger, remember the Doctor told his Ganger it was possible for him to survive. Saxon 3 11:04, May 29, 2011 (UTC)

As has been pointed out elsewhere, Amy started seeing the "Eye Patch Lady" before she was kidnapped in the orphanage, though only just before. Those visions of the "Eye Patch Lady" look very much like Ganger-Amy picking up what real Amy is seeing. In that case, the switch has to have been made earlier. Also, if you watch Ganger-Amy's reactions, at the tail end of The Almost People, to real Amy's contractions, they look very similar to Amy's sudden abdominal pain in the warehouse in The Impossible Astronaut, when she, the Doctor, etc. begin running towards the sound of the little girl's voice. There's no apparent reason for the sudden pain on either occasion but, in The Almost People, we know that Ganger-Amy is picking up what real Amy is feeling. That moment in the warehouse in The Impossible Astronaut is the first occurrence of seemingly-inexplicable pain, so may well be soon after the switch was made. The Silence (we assume) have only very recently got hold of the real Amy and are doing something to her that causes abdominal pain, which is felt by Ganger-Amy.

Having reviewed the first 2 episodes after seeing The Almost People, I suspect (but don't know for sure) that the switch was made when Amy went to the Ladies in the White House. While she was there, the other woman (Joy) was killed by the Silence for no reason we are aware of. Amy herself pointed out the lack of a reason. If, unseen by us and forgotten by Amy and Ganger-Amy, that was when the switch was made, the reason for killing Joy was that she had witnessed it. She could be told to forget but an expert hypnotist or a telepath (like a Time Lord) could still retrieve the memory, or at least there'd be a real risk of that. 78.146.185.15 17:53, May 29, 2011 (UTC)


 * One more point of evidence for the switch happening during or before the first episode: they tell us twice during Confidential that Karen's been playing the flesh Amy since episode 1.


 * Given that, the only times for an Amy swap that seem to make sense are the Ladies room scene you suggest, 2011, or before the episode even started. At first, "before the episode" sounds kind of cheap, but if you think about it, that means the Doctor set up the whole trip to 2011 not to save himself, but to save Amy, which seems more in character for him.


 * As for what the Silence are doing that causes abdominal pain and nausea to Ganger-Amy, my guess is just that the Silence's power is affecting her link to the real Amy, so she's feeling the pregnancy. Of course that raises the question: why is River the only other person who has the same symptom? --99.33.24.89 20:03, May 29, 2011 (UTC)


 * If the switch did happen before the start of episode 1, as Confidential implied by showing Amy getting off the bus whilst talking about her having been a ganger all along, it's going to be what (very) old schoolboy slang termed a "swiz" and Moffatt will really need to come up with something extremely good to justify cheating the audience in that way. He'll also need to be very careful about when before the start of episode 1. Push it too far back and there'll be questions about whether or not Amy and Rory are really married. Was it the Flesh in that white dress?


 * As you say, the Doctor setting up the whole trip to save Amy fits his character and I'd have no problem with that. On its own, though, it still wouldn't justify an outright cheat on Moffatt's part. It would need to be combined with a very, very good structural reason for starting the first episode after several critical events in the story (the switch of Amy to Ganger-Amy, the Doctor learning of it, etc.). It can work to tell a story backwards. You start with where the characters ended up and then use flashbacks to explain how they got there. This series doesn't seem to have that structure, though.


 * Moffatt seems to have set himself up with a series that can only do one of two things: work brilliantly or fail catastrophically. I want it to be the former.


 * Still, nobody can accuse him of playing it safe. 78.146.185.15 22:01, May 29, 2011 (UTC)